PROVIDENCE — The R.I. Commerce Corp. authorized up to $15 million in public incentives Monday to facilitate development of an innovation building in the I-195 Redevelopment District, the first step in what officials described as a long-term effort to re-position the state’s economy.
The project is the first building in the $105 million first phase of the Wexford Science & Technology LLC development, planned for parcels 22 and 25. The funds would come through the Rebuild Rhode Island tax credit program.
At a future date, the Commerce board is expected to consider additional incentives through creation of a Tax Increment Financing district that would redirect taxes generated by a hotel that is to be built next to the innovation building.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, who presides as the head of the Commerce board, said the establishment of an innovation district will begin to change the economic standing of the state, by ushering in high-paying jobs and innovative companies.
“It’s almost hard to believe this is actually happening,” she said, of the innovation district. “We have a top-tier investor behind it. We have brand names coming in.”
The innovation building has a design capacity of 191,000 square feet, and will include space for the Brown University School of Professional Studies, the Cambridge Innovation Center, a restaurant, an innovation-related tenant and a 5,500-square-foot District Hall, modeled after the facility in Boston’s innovation district.
If the Providence district can capture even a portion of the tech-related activity that has transformed Cambridge and Boston, Raimondo said, it will redirect the state’s economy.
“We’re trying to rebuild our economy here. This is it,” she said. “This is the whole game for Rhode Island. We are trying to move our whole economy away from a low-wage, low-skill, industrial economy into the 21st century. This is the whole plan of what we’re after.”
The Aloft-brand hotel, which also would become a part of the first phase of the development, is to have 170 rooms.
In a brief overview, Jim Berens, president and CEO of Wexford Science & Technology, said the innovation center should be under construction by the coming summer. He said the first step, the innovation center, will help the district capitalize on existing activities at Brown University and other research-related facilities nearby.
The decision to direct public incentives to the project will combine with earlier pledges, for a total of up to $34.5 million to date.
In December 2016, the Wexford project received an earmark of $19.5 million in state incentives through funds controlled by the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission. That funding included $1 million for a renovation of One Ship St., adjoining the district.
The Commerce board also authorized up to $8.4 million in tax credits through the Rebuild Rhode Island program for development of a mixed-use building to include 175 apartments at Eddy and Point streets, just outside the I-195 district. That $62 million project, called River House, is intended to provide housing for graduate and nursing students who will attend the combined University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College nursing education center at South Street Landing, which is under construction. It is a project of CV Properties LLC, of Boston, and Wexford Science & Technology, headquartered in Baltimore.
The residential buildings will be constructed over the parking area. Berens said he planned to have the residential component under construction by fall.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN.
