Needed help for firms displaced by growth

When Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline signed into law a measure to protect small businesses displaced by redevelopment, it was a welcome signal that the city is embracing the future without jettisoning its past. The legislation encourages developers who are renovating historic mills to give tenants at least 90 days notice of displacement and to reimburse them for relocation costs up to $10,000. Failure to do so could lead to the loss of city aid.

While supporters say the law is unique in the nation, it was not a terribly hard sell because city officials knew from experience that it could work. Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, the developer behind the $300 million renovation of American Locomotive Co., voluntarily offered displacement assistance to the 15 to 20 businesses that were uprooted by that project.

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With the help of a group called the Partnership for Creative Industrial Space – a nonprofit real estate development and advocacy group – and with a sense of corporate responsibility, the company spent upwards of $300,000 to ease the burden of relocation.

The new legislation provides a blueprint — and an incentive — for other developers to do the same. •