If you build more housing and retail amenities in the I-195 Redevelopment District, will the employers come?
Before COVID-19, it was increasingly a question being asked around Providence about the future mix of development in the 40-acre district, where most active projects and proposals have centered on residential and retail projects.
Now, amid a pandemic, it may be the short-term best hope for creating significant jobs through the redevelopment of the former highway land.
Due to a softening market for office space, Wexford Science & Technology LLC recently announced it will push back by two years its deadline for purchasing additional land in the district. Wexford has already built an office building and innovation center in the district that’s yet to reach capacity.
Its next phase of development was to include laboratory and research space for the type of high-paying jobs city and business leaders have long watched spur the Greater Boston economy.
Wexford’s cautious approach makes perfect sense for the company, and it remains interested in additional development in the district and city.
But the commission charged with redeveloping the district’s 19 acres of buildable land must now more seriously consider the possibility that the district’s biggest contribution to new jobs in the next few years may be indirect.
Now more than ever, the commission must follow the market and hope new housing and park space, along with amenities such as the Providence Pedestrian Bridge, will help attract new employers to the city once the economy rebounds.
