For years Providence has had a justly earned reputation as one of the most difficult cities in which to develop real estate. Between costs, bureaucratic friction and low rents, it often doesn’t make sense to invest here.
When the City Council approved a new administrative tax-stabilization agreement regime in 2015, developers received a reprieve from one of the biggest impediments to development – often lengthy and politically charged public negotiation for the incentives. The result has been an increase in development and redevelopment in the city.
Now there is a proposal in front of the City Council to expand the administrative TSA process to more projects, save the largest ones, and it is getting pushback.
Councilors accustomed to having a hand in directing development – and often playing politics with the process – are lining up against the proposal. Their public argument is that making the TSA approval administrative would remove an oversight role exercised by the council.
While that may be true, it is likely that the more important result would be greater development in Providence, activity that would not depend so much on regional factors as the attractiveness of Providence and its environs.
Not all legislation is perfect, and in the case of the proposed administrative approval process, it might make sense to lower the threshold for what constitutes a large project, so that public hearings take place for those developments that will have a significant impact.
But if Providence wants to make itself a place more hospitable to development – and investment – the City Council should approve significant changes to its tax incentive approach.