Business leaders express optimism at economic outlook breakfast

MORE THAN 300 bankers, business leaders and officials attended the Santander Bank and Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce 2015 Economic Outlook Breakfast at the Omni Providence Hotel on Tuesday. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN
MORE THAN 300 bankers, business leaders and officials attended the Santander Bank and Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce 2015 Economic Outlook Breakfast at the Omni Providence Hotel on Tuesday. / PBN PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN

PROVIDENCE – There appears to be some growing optimism among leaders of the business community who participated in a real-time survey on Tuesday looking at Rhode Island’s economy over the next 12 months.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza joined more than 300 bankers and business owners along with several other public and private leaders for the Santander Bank and Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce 2015 Economic Outlook Breakfast at the Omni Providence Hotel.
Michael A. Lee, executive vice president of Santander commercial real estate, kicked the event off telling the crowd that his Boston-based bank sees great opportunity in the Ocean State. To prove it, he pointed to 90 new employees the bank has added to the Rhode Island market during the last six months.
“I have the opportunity to spend a lot of time in many cities and states and although I may be biased, I believe – as a lifelong resident of Rhode Island – that we live in a great state with great potential,” Lee said.
The sentiment of “potential” appears to have resonated with those in attendance, as a real-time survey revealed that 53 percent of participants believe Rhode Island’s economy will be in better shape in the next year, representing a 24 percentage point increase from the same survey taken at the event last year. Thirty-nine percent said the economy will remain about the same and 8 percent believe it will worsen.
The survey also revealed a slight uptick in how participants feel about their own businesses. Sixty-nine percent of participants said their business would be in better shape in the next year, representing a 7 percentage point increase over last year.
Participants said government regulation/uncertainty, sourcing talent/engaging employees and labor costs are the three leading economic concerns in Rhode Island, according to survey results.
Raimondo – who spoke before the survey was taken – detailed a few of her proposed initiatives for fiscal 2016, which she hopes will create a less onerous climate for existing and potential businesses. Her highlights included her proposed jobs plan, a real estate incentives package for the I-195 land in Providence and her idea to revamp and cut from Medicaid.
She stressed the need to tap into the state’s graduating high school and college students to help attract companies, saying “companies want to be near talent.”
“We have a lot of wood to chuck to get from here to there, but there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t get there,” Raimondo said.
Fifty-seven percent of survey participants said they would be hiring in the next 12 months, marking an 11 percentage point increase from last year’s survey. Just 6 percent said they would reduce employees.
Elorza, who spoke following the governor, said his economic outlook for Providence is “very optimistic,” but that the capital city has its own share of challenges. The first-term mayor recounted a story he’d heard about a business owner who was in the final stages of a purchase-sales agreement when he got stuck trying to get the necessary permits from the city.
Elorza said it took a city secretary telling a fire inspector that the business owner was her cousin to get the process moving and subsequently the matter was resolved within a couple of days.
This doesn’t sit well with the new mayor.
“This drives me nuts,” Elorza said. “The city is here to support you – not to stand in your way.”
Other tidbits to come out of the economic survey include a question asking whether participants would be any more likely to attend a baseball game if the Pawtucket Red Sox AAA team moved its stadium to Providence, which is what its new ownership group has proposed.
Forty-seven percent said they would be more likely to take in a game, 14 percent said they would be less likely and 39 percent said it would make no difference.
Stefan Pryor, the governor’s newly appointed commerce secretary, wrapped up the morning saying he feels an “emerging optimism” in the region and state and he says it’s a sentiment that he considers “well founded.”

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