Last week the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission revealed that the developer of a $60 million student-housing project in the district had walked away from the deal.
It is not clear why the Dallas developer pulled out, but the recently passed tax-stabilization ordinance in Providence was not enough to entice the firm to invest here.
Only time will tell whether the new TSA plan will help the city (and in turn the region) attract outside capital. But recently published statistics make clear just how important changing the investment climate is.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released gross domestic product values for the 381 metropolitan statistical areas in the United States, and the Providence-Warwick metro did not fare well.
While the U.S. saw 2.32 percent GDP growth in its metropolitan areas from 2013 to 2014 (with the effects of inflation removed), the Providence region saw 1.52 percent. More striking was how much the region has lagged the nation for the last decade.
Whereas the nation saw a compound average growth rate for GDP of 1.08 percent from 2005 to 2014, the Providence region saw 0.28 percent.
By comparison, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-N.H., region saw year-over-year growth of 2.6 percent and average decadelong growth of 1.51 percent.
To be fair, Providence had the fourth-highest year-over-year growth rate among the 15 New England metros listed by the BEA and eighth-highest for the decade. So Providence is not alone in needing a recalibration of its economic policies. Somehow, though, that doesn't make it feel any better. •