Zoning in on development where it’s needed most

PLACE ?SETTING: Central Falls Planning Director Stephen Larrick says the Coats & Clark mill complex on Pine Street, pictured above, conveys a strong sense of place. / PBN PHOTO/ ?MICHAEL SALERNO
PLACE ?SETTING: Central Falls Planning Director Stephen Larrick says the Coats & Clark mill complex on Pine Street, pictured above, conveys a strong sense of place. / PBN PHOTO/ ?MICHAEL SALERNO

The Coats & Clark mill lost its last commercial tenant almost nine years ago, leaving a vast campus of industrial buildings built from the 1860s to the 1970s.

The complex of 20 buildings, located on the Pawtucket-Central Falls line, once was one of the country’s largest manufacturers of thread. Now it’s an argument that targeted tax incentives are needed to revive empty buildings in depressed communities.

State lawmakers who represent some of the poorest areas of Rhode Island have reintroduced a bill this year that would create community “micro zones” to encourage redevelopment of vacant buildings. The state and local tax breaks could include reimbursement of sales tax for materials to improve a structure, or outfit a new business, as well as income tax waivers for owners of reoccupied buildings.

Introduced late last session, the bill didn’t get a formal vote in the Senate Finance Committee. But in an initial hearing, some lawmakers who were critical said the proposal would not benefit all communities if it targeted only distressed areas, according to sponsors.

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Proponents who will try again this year argue that micro zones aren’t needed in wealthier communities. And although tight state finances will almost certainly be a factor in its review, sponsors say they feel more optimistic about its chances.

The old saying “You have to spend money to make money” applies, said Sen. Elizabeth Crowley, D-Central Falls.

“The goal of the Assembly is to create jobs,” Crowley said. “We need to find ways to get people back to work.”

Sen. Harold Metts, D-Providence, a lead sponsor for the legislation, represents parts of South Providence and the West Side, an area that includes many vacated mill properties and high levels of unemployment.

The bill would encourage investment in neighborhoods that need it, he argued. In South Providence, the rehabilitation of the once-vacant Federated Lithographers building on Prairie Avenue, into a new site for the Providence Community Health Centers, triggered more commercial development in the area, he said.

Although the Federated Lithographers project didn’t use the same kinds of incentives proposed in the micro-zone legislation, the experience made him realize that targeted tax breaks could help the most challenged business areas of cities. The micro-zone legislation would allow cities or towns to designate the zones, defining them as narrowly as a specific building, or as large as several blocks. The R.I. Commerce Corporation would then certify which buildings qualify for incentives within that zone.

The amount of square footage or acreage allowed in a micro zone would depend on the size of the community. For communities with fewer than 125,000 people, the maximum is 20 acres and 500,000 square feet for buildings. For larger cities, the land area is capped at 40 acres and the building area at 1 million square feet.

The incentives in the legislation include a waiver of building-permit fees and a reimbursement of sales tax spent on personal property to outfit a business occupying a building, or on materials spent by the owner in rehabilitating a building.

In Pawtucket and Central Falls, advocates for the bill say it presents an opportunity to attract investment in the Coats & Clark buildings, among other locations. The mill complex is within walking distance of a long-proposed expansion of commuter rail in Pawtucket, said Central Falls Planning Director Stephen Larrick. The buildings are intact and convey a strong sense of place. “Walking through it is like walking through the history of industrial development,” he said.

The proposed micro zones will not replace existing economic-development tools, such as more broadly defined enterprise zones, but will complement them, say sponsors, by specifically targeting empty buildings as opposed to new construction. In West Warwick, empty buildings are the issue, according to another sponsor, Sen. Adam Satchell, D-West Warwick.

“This will allow easier access to these targeted incentives,” he said. •

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