Five Questions With: Amanda DeGrace

Amanda DeGrace has served as the director of real estate at the Providence Department of Planning and Development since March 2021. DeGrace, who in 2019 received a master’s degree in urban planning and community development from University of Massachusetts Boston, was previously a project manager at Greystone Management Solutions, a real estate advisory firm for public agencies, including the Mass. Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. Before that, she worked for a nonprofit in her hometown of New Bedford focused on the restoration of historic properties into mixed-use developments, creative venues and affordable housing.

PBN: What kind of issues and challenges did you face during your first year working in city government as the director of real estate for the Providence Department of Planning and Development?

DEGRACE: I started with the city and the Providence Redevelopment Agency in the midst of the pandemic, which brought about unimaginable challenges for industries everywhere. Collectively, we need to be able to adapt to unprecedented and unexpected disruptions to our norms, and intelligently build with tomorrow’s challenges in mind.

Rightfully, the Department of Planning and Development is tasked with considering both the needs of now and the needs of tomorrow, and thus we must consider how what we build today will impact future generations. These specific considerations are challenging but will always be my favorite part of the work.

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PBN: Part of your job is dealing with the city’s blighted properties. How big of a problem is Providence facing with blighted properties and how much potential do you think there is economically for the city to turn these sites around?

DEGRACE: Like every other city, it might only take one stakeholder to contribute to blight but then requires many more to remove it. A property can have multiple layers of ownership and interest that require consideration before a site can be properly assessed for use and then rehabbed or redeveloped.

Everything we preserve or redevelop has some impact, large or small. We need to address blight, but we also need to help foster new uses that ensure space for original stakeholders who often have contributed to the city in significant and meaningful ways.

PBN: What initiatives have you been involved in this year on behalf of the city and what can you tell us about them?

DEGRACE: I am tasked to work on all projects related to the PRA. We aim to foster a mindful approach that balances neighborhood progress and private investment. Our team assesses some of the most underutilized or blighted sites in the city, helping to bring them back online for commercial, community or housing purposes.

This summer, I look forward to the opening of the Roger Williams Park Gateway on Broad Street in partnership with the Providence Parks Department. This site transforms blighted, vacant lots into a vibrant visitor center, which will serve as a new and improved entry point to the park for our Broad Street community members.

PBN: Part of your work involves finding out the “ground truth” of a development site for the city. What do you mean by “ground truth”?

DEGRACE: Determining “ground truth” is a priority for every project. You and I could be walking down a blighted corridor of businesses, we both could have wildly different ideas about what could be done to improve the corridor, and we could also both be wrong.

I believe we should prioritize remedying the greatest hindrances that are identified by neighborhood residents whenever possible, identifying the “ground truth” and making decisions informed by it.

PBN: What are the most important aspects to the city’s efforts to support more affordable housing developments, and how are you helping to move these efforts forward?

DEGRACE: This summer the PRA will launch the Providence Affordable Housing Trust Fund to provide gap financing for developers, large and small, committed to building more affordable housing units within the city.

We believe this is a crucial period to increase the affordability of housing stock citywide. There are varied inter-departmental efforts that touch on affordable housing. I highly recommend reviewing our Providence Anti-Displacement and Comprehensive Housing Strategy at www.providenceri.gov/planning/comprehensive-housing-strategy.

Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.