When it comes to available industrial sites in Rhode Island, the list is rather short.
State commerce officials say the vacancy rate is running at about 2% for properties ready for industrial uses, ranging from warehousing to manufacturing.
In response, the state has launched Rhode Island Ready, a $40 million economic development initiative designed to help property owners prepare sites to host new industrial companies or expand existing sites, with the ultimate goal of bringing more jobs and tax revenue.
The program, unveiled in January, builds upon a similar site-readiness initiative at the Quonset Business Park that officials there have credited with helping to create more than 3,500 jobs and sparked about $682 million in private investment over the last decade.
With that success in mind, R.I. Commerce Corp. has tasked the Quonset Development Corp. to oversee the Rhode Island Ready program, which has already received 22 applications from property owners looking for assistance in getting industrial sites pad-ready or expanding sites that are already operating.
“There has been a steady stream of interest from all over the state,” said Chelsea Siefert, Quonset Development Corp.’s director of planning and development and Rhode Island Ready program manager. “Our funding can bridge some funding gaps.”
Rhode Island Ready is being funded through a bond issue approved by voters statewide in March 2021.
So far, five properties have already been cleared by the QDC to receive up to $200,000 each in technical assistance, which could include full-site engineering and environmental reviews needed to receive permits to make improvements.
Those sites include a 13-acre industrial parcel at 1307 Hartford Ave. in Johnston, which is currently the location of a demolition and wrecking business. The applicants, Valentino Tirocchi and Winfield Realty Inc., are looking to get the site pad-ready for another industrial use, although Siefert said there is no potential tenant yet.
Another recent approval: a project at 1 Moshassuck St. in Pawtucket that would convert the former Microfibres Inc. factory into a modern distribution center.
Siefert says the goal of Rhode Island Ready is to “activate” unused or underused properties so they are creating jobs and tax revenue.
“That’s what we’re hoping to get from the program,” she said.
So far, Rhode Island Ready applicants include a cluster of five properties around Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, four at Quonset Point in North Kingstown, and three each in Pawtucket, East Providence and Cranston.
Not every applicant can qualify.
A qualified site for the initiative must be at least 10 acres or have the capacity to support a 100,000-square-foot building, and must already be zoned for industrial or support offshore wind development. It must also lie within a mile of a state highway. Applicants are also required to provide a letter of support from the local municipality and submit a zoning certificate and pay a $1,500 application fee.
Siefert says one of the 22 applicants has been rejected, a proposal related to a self-storage business in the Olneyville section of Providence. The application was not tied to an industrial use and had limited economic benefit.
While applicants can initially seek up to $200,000 in technical assistance, those who receive approval can then seek capital investment from Rhode Island Ready for site improvements.
None of the applicants have reached the stage of applying for capital investment, but Siefert says it has been estimated that Rhode Island Ready will expend about $10 million on administration and technical assistance and another $30 million on capital investment.
Assessments on the economic benefits of each project will be conducted before funding is distributed, and there will be guarantees in place to ensure the properties will be dedicated to industrial uses.
“We want to make sure we’re investing appropriately to activate these sites,” Siefert said.
Executives at Edesia Inc. in North Kingstown saw an opportunity to apply for the Rhode Island Ready assistance, as they planned an expansion.
Edesia, a maker of food products for customers such as UNICEF that ship goods overseas to feed malnourished children, is looking to construct a 100,000-square-foot addition to its 83,000-square-foot, high-tech manufacturing facility at the Quonset Business Park.
The company is also looking to add a rail spur that would allow some raw materials to be delivered to the factory by train instead of truck, cutting transportation costs and the operation’s carbon footprint.
The Quonset Development Corp. board has already approved the facility for the Rhode Island Ready program and up to $200,000 will be available to help pay for the permitting process.
“It could not have come at a better time,” said Thomas Stehl, deputy director at Edesia. “We had been exploring an expansion and Rhode Island Ready has primed the pump.”
Aside from the economic development benefits of additional jobs and tax revenue, Stehl said the expansion is needed on a humanitarian level, allowing Edesia to feed an additional 25 million at-risk children globally over the next decade.
“The help offered by Rhode Island Ready to Edesia Nutrition will allow millions of people to avoid starvation and to regain their health,” he said. “We work with nongovernmental agencies ... to deliver to 60 countries around the world.”
