Gov. veto not likely to stop PRA

The death by veto of a bill empowering the Providence Redevelopment Agency to construct new buildings “is not going to stop us” from helping Brown University revive the former South Street Power Station, according to Providence Economic Development Director James Bennett.
In fact, Bennett said the PRA already has the authority the bill set out to give it, and the legislative action was merely intended to clarify some murky language dating back to the 1960s.
“We believe it can,” Bennett said about whether the PRA can build new buildings, as well as rehabilitate old ones, under state law. “This was meant to clarify issues, but we can still move forward.”
The bill emerged days after Brown and developer Commonwealth Ventures LLC announced plans to transform the abandoned former power station into an academic complex to share with a University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College advanced nursing school.
The suddenness of the plan’s release in June was due in part to the approaching end of the General Assembly session. The PRA bill was joined in the frantic crush of end-of-session legislating by another bill authorizing the state to negotiate a long-term lease in the new $206 million complex, which would include offices, shops and student apartments.
Both bills passed the General Assembly only for the PRA bill to be vetoed by Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee two weeks later.
Neither the city, nor Brown, spoke in favor of the PRA bill when it appeared in committee or in front of the House and Senate, but obliquely cited the power-station project as the driver behind the bill.
In addition to the main buildings, the power station plan includes a 600-space parking garage to be built on private land on the south side of Point Street that Commonwealth and Brown asked the city to build.
The state law that created municipal redevelopment agencies in each Rhode Island community says “nothing contained in this chapter authorizes an agency to construct any new buildings for residential, commercial, or industrial uses contemplated by the redevelopment plan.”
The PRA bill looked to counter that by adding that any redevelopment agency in a city with more than 100,000 residents “shall be permitted to construct new buildings.” Providence is the only municipality in the state with a population greater than 100,000. Chafee, who may face Providence Major Angel Taveras in a gubernatorial primary next year, said he vetoed the bill because development should be left to the private sector and he didn’t see a reason to treat Providence differently from the state’s other communities.
“When the General Assembly codified municipal redevelopment agencies, it specifically (and wisely) carved out of the statute the authority for these agencies to undertake new construction,” Chafee wrote in his veto message. “This limitation is critically important: the private sector, through careful risk-reward assessment and expertise, is better suited to engage in real estate development than the public sector, and I am opposed to asking the Rhode Island taxpayers to bear the potential costs should these projects fail.”
House Minority Leader Brian C. Newberry, R-North Smithfield, opposed the bill for the potential exposure to taxpayers and because it set up “the conditions for potential cronyism and insider dealing” even if that wasn’t its intent.
After a dormant period in the post-recession years, Taveras has re-energized the PRA, which takes control of distressed and vacant properties, such as the historic George C. Arnold Building on Washington Street, to facilitate their rehabilitation.
So how will the parking garage, estimated to cost $16 million, be paid for?
Bennett said a number of options are on the table, from the PRA or another city financing mechanism, to state or private funding.
“Whatever is the most efficient way to access capital,” Bennett said.
Commonwealth Ventures President Richard Galvin said the city’s ability to borrow at lower cost than a private entity was the reason for pursuing public garage financing. A public component would also guarantee that users other than the colleges could take advantage of the garage.
After the veto, Galvin said regardless of what financing method is used, the garage is too small a part of the larger project, around 8 percent of total estimated cost, to derail it. “The project is too important,” Galvin said “We will find a different strategy to finance the garage.”
Galvin said he was not familiar enough with the laws surrounding Rhode Island municipalities to know exactly what the city would be allowed to do without the PRA exemption, but that city financing of some form was still an option.
“Neither the city nor the Providence Redevelopment Agency has committed a specific amount of funds for this project, nor has a specific subsidy been requested at this point,” Taveras spokesman David Ortiz wrote in an email. “We are in the early stages of this conversation.”
To the dismay of many transit and smart-growth advocates, parking has become a central part of city and state development efforts in 2013.
Along with passing the PRA bill, the General Assembly this summer also commissioned a study of building a state parking garage at the Garrahy Courthouse complex that would serve developments on the former Interstate 195 lands.
And, despite the fact that Taveras has tried to limit the number of surface parking lots in the city, the state this summer purchased a vacant lot on Francis Street with plans to pave it for Statehouse parking.
Under Commonwealth Ventures’ power-station plan, the owner of the garage will generate revenue by leasing spaces to Brown and other users, but the fact that government funding is being discussed suggests it may not pay for itself.
Scott A. Gibbs, president of the Economic Development Foundation of Rhode Island, a private nonprofit that develops the Highland Industrial Park in Woonsocket, said it would make sense to have the city build the parking garage if you considered it public infrastructure that would stimulate broader economic growth.
“If you are looking at it as an infrastructure investment to enhance the environment for private investment, instead of a stand-alone-private investment, than it is a topic that can be publicly supported,” Gibbs said. “It means they are not looking at a profit motive.” •

No posts to display