Pawtucket cuts red tape, rolls out the red carpet

When Madhouse Café opened its doors in Pawtucket the Monday after Thanksgiving, Herb Weiss said it was the first new, full-service restaurant to come to the city in 30 years. Now, Weiss, Pawtucket’s economic and cultural affairs officer, said he is expecting more will follow.

With Pawtucket undergoing what Weiss called its biggest economic boom in 40 years, city officials and leaders within the business community are heralding the progress as the result of communication between the two sides.

Regular meetings are held to discuss plans with prospective tenants. A 70-page manual, walking developers through every municipal process, was made earlier this year.

Everyone from the fire inspector to the mayor is ready to help businesses when the need arises.

- Advertisement -

A press release from the company that designed Madhouse’s location at the former Apex department store building even thanks the city for “clearing trees on the river bank that formerly obstructed water views.”

“We want to roll out the red carpet and make it easy for people to do business in our city,” Weiss said.

Harvey Goulet, Mayor James E. Doyle’s director of administration, points to the $15-million Riverfront Lofts condominium project and businesses such as Schetman, Halperin and Savage, a law firm that currently employs about 80 attorneys as evidence that Pawtucket is moving forward.

And much of this, he said, can be attributed to the city’s streamlining of processes that have held up developers in other cities.

“The developers once told us that time is money, and we recognize that,” Goulet said.
For example, the collaboration between city and business recently led to the creation of a special class of liquor licenses – one aimed at attracting restaurants.

Under the new class, BR, businesses do not actually own the license, which is instead tied to the location of the restaurant.

Pawtucket City Council President Donald R. Grebien said the idea for the licenses allows the council the opportunity to fast-track projects it thinks will benefit the city. That means, he said, cafes and upscale taverns – “no barrooms.”

Madhouse and a second establishment – LJ’s BBQ, slated to move from Providence to Pawtucket in February – are the first two restaurants to take advantage of the new class of licenses.

“We were looking at this from an economic development standpoint,” Grebien said. “It seems to be working.”

The initiative, which stemmed from conversations between city officials and businesses looking to locate in Pawtucket, will allow the city to circumvent caps on the number of permits per class in the city.

Because it is illegal for the holder of a liquor license to sell it directly, they became valuable items. License holders would exploit a loophole in the system, and package the license with the business. As a result, when an owner sold his or her establishment along with the license, the value of the permit would climb well above the current $1,500 fee.
Len Jackson – who partnered with Michael Maxon, owner of Crazy Burger in Narragansett, to start Madhouse Café – said the special license helped to expedite the process, avoiding what could’ve been a “long and drawn-out” cycle.

But beyond the license, Jackson said the city as a whole has been more than accommodating to the restaurant’s efforts, loaning the business $132,000 to get the project under way.

“To go through the same kind of process in another city would have taken us twice as long,” Jackson said.

Leonard Lavoie, a real estate broker and partner in the firm Rhode Island Commercial Industrial Realty, said other municipalities, including Providence, have not welcomed incoming businesses the way Pawtucket has. And a major part of the business-friendly environment stems from the meetings with city officials, he said.

Goulet, speaking for the mayor’s office, said the city is also in line to bring in other projects, including a mixed-use development on Main Street that is slated to include artist lofts, inventory areas, storefronts, restaurants and a rehabbed bowling alley serving as a sports lounge.

The city is also looking forward to other potential projects and areas to develop, such as taking ownership of a location previously used by electric and gas utilities.

“We’re going in all different ways. People want to come into Pawtucket,” Goulet said. “The tax rate is great, the government is good, [and] we’ve cut out the red tape. We’re moving along very well and that’s what we want to emphasize.”

Weiss talks like this is just the beginning of Pawtucket’s revitalization. The city will continue asserting itself to bring in positive economic development.

And if neighbor communities begin to roll out their red carpets like the city has, Weiss said the only thing Pawtucket can do is try harder.

“We will make our carpet thicker,” Weiss said. “It’s all about customer service, from economic development all the way down to the regulatory officials.”

No posts to display