JOHNSTON – Citizens Bank unveiled its new corporate campus Tuesday as several hundred employees and supporters – many wearing company green T-shirts – cheered a ceremony led by Citizens Chairman and CEO Bruce Van Saun and Rhode Island’s top elected officials.
Built on a 123-acre site in the woods off Interstate 295 for about $285 million, Van Saun referred to the Johnston office complex as the largest construction project in Rhode Island in more than a decade.
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“This gives us a new foundation for greater collaboration and efficiency,” Van Saun told a standing room-only crowd for an official opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This reaffirms that our decision to stay right here in Rhode Island” was the right decision.
Providence-based Citizens, Rhode Island’s largest bank based on in-state deposits, will relocate more than 3,000 employees to the Johnston campus this summer and fall. The site features four main buildings and a multi-level parking garage.
Van Saun said the project was completed “on schedule and almost on budget.” The $285 million cost – the most recent figure provided by the company – was up by a few million dollars over earlier estimates.
Public officials praised the facility and the company.
“This is an awesome sight,” said Gov. Gina M. Raimondo “I’m so glad to have Citizens in Rhode Island where it belongs.”
“This is a special day for our town and our state,” said Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena.
“Citizens is not just a bank – it is Rhode Island,” said U.S. Sen. Jack F Reed, D-R.I.
“There’s something about Citizens that connects with Rhode Island,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
“Citizens has a presence in many states, but they chose to double-down on Rhode Island,” said U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin, D-R.I.
“They’ve renewed their commitment to our state in a very big way,” said U.S. Rep. David N. Cicilline, D-R.I.
Citizens, which employs about 5,300 in Rhode Island, bused in many employees for the ceremony, stationing some in green shirts along the complex’s entrance road to greet guests. The Johnston High School marching band also played during the event.
During a news conference after the ribbon-cutting, Van Saun indicated that Citizens was focused on building the facility in Rhode Island without seeking tax abatements or other government incentives.
“We weren’t playing Rhode Island off of any other states,” he said with the governor at his side. “We weren’t looking for handouts.”
Van Saun said Tuesday’s official opening was one of the most important days for the company in recent years, along with the company’s 2014 initial public stock offering that turned into the biggest IPO for a commercial bank in United States history.
“I’d put today right up there with that,” he added.
The campus features about 424,000 square feet of office and meeting space, a call center, and an amenities building with a cafeteria and fitness and wellness centers. In the offices, work stations were designed to foster teamwork while maximizing natural light.
Most of the employees who will work at the campus are coming from Cranston, where the bank is vacating leased offices.
Outdoors, there are ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, and trails. The project was designed to preserve more than 60 acres of trees and wetlands on the site.
Also as part of the project, Citizens cleaned up a decades-old landfill and created a storm water system for protection of wetlands and a rainwater collection system to help irrigate the site.
The project included infrastructure improvements along nearby Greenville Avenue, including the extension of sewer lines into the area by the Narragansett Bay Commission, and the construction of an interchange at Interstate 295 near the site, with Citizens and the state roughly splitting that cost.
In addition, Van Saun said, Citizens and the town of Johnston agreed to a 25-year tax stabilization agreement for the site.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@pbn.com.
