Providence’s Jewelry District has a proud past as a national manufacturing hub and may one day be the innovation and design center city marketers dream of.
What it undeniably is today, however, is the unofficial second campus of Brown University, which owns 39 properties in the roughly 100-acre area located about a half-mile from its College Hill base. And the university expansion in the district that began in the 1990s is ongoing, with plans for a new life sciences building.
As this week’s cover story reports, most neighborhood and city leaders are all in on Brown’s growing role as a district anchor and hoped-for life sciences magnet. But this year may test that symbiotic relationship as the new mayor, Brett Smiley, begins negotiating with Brown and other nonprofits on new tax deals.
Brown’s expansion in the city has been greatly aided by expiring deals that allow payments in lieu of taxes for noncommercial properties.
In the university’s case, it generates jobs, research and academic training that hopefully spark business clusters. In exchange, it pays far less in taxes for much of its $1.3 billion in assessed city property.
Mayor Smiley will be looking for more from Brown and other colleges but also sees the promise of the former’s growing presence in the Jewelry District.
The bet here is both sides recognize they have too much at stake to antagonize the other and work out a new deal they both can live with. Brown can and should pay more but the potential payoff in the Jewelry District is the real prize for both.
