at Quonset Point/Davisville.
EDC wants tenants
to improve ‘curb appeal’
The Quonset Davisville Management Corporation, a subsidiary of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, is trying to clean up its 3,000-acre park as it looks to attract and retain business tenants.
The state plans to aggressively enforce existing lease clauses requiring landlords to clean their properties, something that hasn’t exactly happened on some sites.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
“We definitely want to upgrade the curb appeal of Quonset and will have detailed discussion to make them feel better about the location and about what we expect from them,” said Michael McMahon, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. “My primary concern is to clean up the junk around their buildings and clean up the parks.”
Improving the curb appeal is part of a bigger initiative to follow through on promises the EDC made to existing tenants by increasing the communication with them. Tenants and the new state administration have been critical of the way the property was managed in the past.
“In most of our leases we have clauses which require tenants or the owners to maintain visual standards,” he said. “You can’t make the place look like a dump.”
McMahon did not say what, if any, clauses that the companies at Quonset needed to adhere to. He referred specific questions to the EDC’s law firm, Adler, Pollock and Sheehan in Providence. The firm, however, did not supply the lease information in time for publication.
There is a separate initiative by Gov. Don Carcieri and his task force focused on the physical appearance of the park and attracting new tenants as well.
“They are looking at what types of companies we want there,” McMahon said. “What are the right amenities and infrastructure that we want?”
If all goes well, the state plans to include an “improved and enlarged marina facility, executive conference center, and a new and improved golf course.
“It’s a great facility with a lot of potential…,” McMahon said.
Jim Rose, chief executive officer at Sane Solutions LLC, a software company located at Quonset, said the state should worry about keeping its existing companies happy before worrying about bringing in additional businesses.
Rose and his staff, he says, tend not to listen to what the EDC and the state have said about improvements in the past because the state has not done a good job at keeping its initial promises.
Sane Solutions, which has 32 employees and has made Quonset its home for nearly seven years, for example, has gone without heat for several days and has had worries about parking restrictions for some time.
“You think they’d worry about the welfare of the people working in the park before getting a biotech company to move in,” Rose said. Rose said he is all for economic growth in the area, but he said the state needs to shape up its efforts in accommodating existing businesses in the park.
“I absolutely agree with it,” McMahon said. “We’ve organized staff down at Quonset and one primary focus is the emphasis on focusing on existing tenants.”
Also, McMahon said he has been frustrated with a lack of methodology for deciding on price per acre but his group is hoping to change that.
“I didn’t find any consistent criteria (in deciding price per acre),” he said. “{We want} to have consistent methodology to establish what type of company do we want and what’s the price.”
With an attractive location and increased curb appeal, McMahon believes he can bring the price per acre up to $200,000. The EDC has tabulated potential cost per acre by taking the lease rate and equating it to a sales price.
The executive also compared Quonset to Pease International Tradeport, a former Air Force base in Portsmouth, N.H., which is getting more than $200,000 per acre.
“I have also visited Fort Devens in Ayer, Mass. and they are more inline with $100,000 per acre,” he said.
Regardless of the price paid “at the end of the day, it’s good for the state and good to grow business in Rhode Island,” said John Conforti, chief financial officer at Ocean State Job Lot, a Quonset-based company that recently announced it plans to build a 1.2-million-square-foot facility near its existing building.
“They’ve always been asking us to clean up our area. And our problem has always been the good problem of growing the business.” Job Lot has a “crowded look” because of the number of cars and trucks parked in the company’s lot.
Still, Job Lot’s CFO agrees that image and aesthetics play a big role in the success of Quonset and the retailer believes their plans for a new corporate headquarters and distribution center is “above and beyond” what the EDC is looking for.
“Any new businesses coming into the park will have to deal with standards
of the EDC,” Conforti said.
For the complete current issue, visit our subscription Web site, or call (401) 273-2201, ext. 227 or 234.
