CRANSTON – Swarovski North America Ltd. announced that it is building a 22,000-square-foot addition to its headquarters here. Swarovski is a leading manufacturer of full-cut crystal for the giftware, fashion jewelry and lighting industries. Its manufacturing headquarters is based in Wattens, Austria. The expansion here is expected to be completed this summer. Swarovski North America’s headquarters is located in the Howard Industrial Park where it currently employs 600 people. The company employs another 250 people elsewhere in other locations in Cranston. The expansion project is eventually expected to lead to another 50 jobs and is part of Swarovski’s comprehensive plan to add another 40,000 to 50,000 square feet that will house an expanded distribution operation, the company announced.
Picerne wins 50-year
Army contract
WARWICK – Picerne Real Estate Group has won a 50-year contract with the Army worth a reported $50 billion to build or rebuild government housing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the company reported. The contract calls for Picerne’s subsidiary, Picerne Military Housing LLC to build 3,000 single family houses, renovate 2,500 houses on the base and restore about 230 historic base houses. Picerne was chosen by the Army over competitors from Australia, Lend Lease Actus, and Chicago, Equity Residential Properties. In 2000 Picerne won its first contract from the Army to privatize family housing at Fort George Gordon Meade in Maryland. Picerne said it planned to begin construction at Fort Bragg next spring. Fort Bragg is the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army Special Operations Command, which, combined, serve as the country’s contingency corps, a strategic crisis response force.
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Marshalls, Ocean
State to open at Lincoln Mall
PROVIDENCE – Marshalls retail store and Ocean State Job Lot will be joining the lineup at the Lincoln Mall, Churchill & Banks LTD, real estate developers announced. Marshalls, which will lease 30,000 square feet at the eastern end of the mall, expects to open in late October or early November. Construction started in May. Marshalls is one of the many TJMX Inc. stores. Job Lot will lease about 25,000 feet of space formerly occupied by Almacs.
People’s Credit
Union reports growth
MIDDLETOWN – People’s Credit Union shareholders at their 80 annual meeting recently heard of the organization’s 3.1 percent growth in the last year. Ellen N. Ford, president and chief executive officer of the credit union reported that its total assets had grown by $7,462,000 to $255,678,000 in the last year. Officers elected by the board of directors are: Edward F. Lavallee, chairman, Joseph E. Rosa, vice chairman, Robert A. Gibson, secretary, and Edward P. Gosling III, treasurer. The members also reelected four members to the board of directors, Esther T. Dozier, Robert A. Gibson, Victor A. Cinotti, and Louis G. Murphy. Edward T. Lopes was elected to a three-year term on the supervisory committee, and Elizabeth F. McGrath was elected to a one-year term on that committee.
Belo’s April newspaper
revenues drop
DALLAS – Belo Corp., the owner of The Providence Journal, reported a revenue drop for its newspaper group of 5 percent in April after adjusting for an extra Sunday in the period a year ago. The Dallas-based company’s television revenues increased 0.3 percent to $54.7 million from $54.6 million.
At The Providence Journal, total full-run advertising linage, including preprints and supplements, decreased 23.6 percent, while total full-run ROP decreased 11.1 percent. Retail, general and classified volumes, including preprints, decreased 26.9 percent, 21.2 percent and 12.5 percent.
The Dallas Morning News total full-run advertising linage, including preprints and supplements, was down 10.2 percent versus last year.
Ballard says he
found Kennedy’s WWII patrol boat
KINGSTON – Robert Ballard, the U.S. oceanographer who located the Titanic, found the wreck of the World War II patrol boat commanded by John F. Kennedy, AP and Reuters cited him as saying in a radio interview with Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp.
Last month, Ballard announced he will join the faculty of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography to establish an institute for deep-sea archeology, an appointment which will take effect on July 1.
Kennedy and 10 survivors swam 15 hours to the nearest island after the wooden boat was hit by a Japanese destroyer in August 1943. He towed an injured crew member to safety by swimming with a strap from the man’s lifejacket in his teeth, earning the future U.S. president, then 26, honors as a war hero.
Ballard, who began the search earlier this month, said in 1999 the PT-109 was "not lost, just misplaced,’’ the Associated Press reported. He used remote-controlled cameras to find the wreck of the 80-foot craft near Gizo, about 235 miles (380 kilometers) northwest of the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara.
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
