By Kevin Shalvey
PBN Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE – Seven businesses along Allens Avenue are directly responsible for about $294 million in annual sales and employ 372 workers with average annual salaries of about $55,000, according to an independent report released today by the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance.
The report – prepared for the group by FXM Associates of Mattapoisett, Mass. – details the annual economic impact of Promet Marine Services, Sprague Energy, Providence Steamboat, Narragansett Improvement, Walco Electric, Philip Services Corp. and J. Goodison Co.
In 2007, those seven businesses made more than $140 million in purchases from other Rhode Island businesses; paid property taxes of $716,371 to the city; and paid other local and state taxes totaling about $4.2 million, according to the report.
Its release coincides with the start today of the City of Providence’s planning charrettes for the waterfront district. As part of the Providence Tomorrow planning process, neighborhood residents and businesses will be meeting today through Thursday, at Johnson & Wales University’s Harborside Campus, to discuss potential zoning changes.
For the waterfront district, those proposed changes include mixed-use zoning. The PWWA was formed in September, when several industrial businesses on the Providence waterfront banded together to fight the city’s proposals. (READ MORE)
The 29-page report released today by the alliance concludes that “the most effective economic development results from directed and coordinated actions by municipal officials to support existing industrial and commercial uses,” rather than from attempts to attract new businesses, as in the city’s plans.
In a statement, Promet Vice President and PWWA Chairman Joel Cohen said the waterfront is an important economic engine for the state. “The City of Providence and state leaders need to help protect and grow these businesses and the high-paying blue-collar jobs they provide,” he said, “not work to replace them with condos, hotels, marinas and retail stores.
The Providence Working Waterfront Alliance, formed in September 2007, is a group of 14 water-dependent companies that oppose rezoning along the city’s industrial Allens Avenue corridor. For more information, visit www.ProvidenceWorkingWaterfront.org.
FXM Associates is a consulting firm, based in Mattapoisett, Mass., that specializes in economic planning and research for public- and private-sector clients. For more information, visit www.fxm.biz.
Additional information about the Providence Tomorrow development plan and charettes is available from the City of Providence’s Department of Planning and Development at www.providenceplanning.org.
