‘Doubling down’ on RI

Posted 3/15/16

Rhode Island may have fallen short in the General Electric sweepstakes, but the state notched a clear win last week as Citizens Bank announced plans for a new corporate campus in …

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‘Doubling down’ on RI

Posted

Rhode Island may have fallen short in the General Electric sweepstakes, but the state notched a clear win last week as Citizens Bank announced plans for a new corporate campus in Johnston.

Citizens will keep its downtown Providence headquarters, and never seriously considered moving operations out of the Ocean State, according to Chairman and CEO Bruce Van Saun. Facing the impending expiration of a lease for offices on Sockanosset Cross Road in Cranston, however, the company did conduct what Van Saun described as an “exhaustive search” to find a new home for much of its roughly 5,000-employee Rhode Island operation.

The plans unveiled last week call for a new Citizens corporate campus on more than 100 acres off Greenville Avenue, near Route 295 and the Smithfield line. Company officials said the 420,000-square-foot facility would ultimately house approximately 3,200 employees – moving from offices in Cranston, Warwick, and East Providence – and include a range of amenities.

Of course, Johnston’s gain – described as a “gamer changer” by Mayor Joseph Polisena – comes at the expense of the communities that will lose Citizens employees. The news is particularly disappointing for Cranston, which currently hosts 2,500 members of the bank’s workforce and had made a push to house the new corporate campus. Efforts to revitalize Providence’s iconic “Superman” building, which the bank reportedly considered in its search, are also being dealt a blow.

There are other issues, and some remaining questions, particularly in light of an aggressive timeline that calls for ground to be broken on the new campus later this year ahead of a 2018 opening.

Citizens has yet to formally acquire the Johnston property on which it intends to build. A 20-year tax agreement with Johnston still requires Town Council approval.

While Citizens officials note that no direct economic aid or incentive was requested through the state, Rhode Island taxpayers and utility customers will end up contributing to the final product. Plans call for the construction of a new ramp off 295, with the Department of Transportation to pick up $3 million of the $6 million overall cost and the bank to pay the rest. The Narragansett Bay Commission will expedite a sewer-line extension to the area of the planned campus, using a capital fund financed by ratepayers. The cost of the extension is not yet known.

What benefits will Rhode Islanders see as a result of those investments, particularly when it seems Citizens had committed from the outset to remain in state? The economic boost will likely be modest, at best. Dollars will flow and jobs will be created during construction, and the sewer and highway improvements could spur future development. The impact of transferring jobs across municipal lines will play out on the local level. Citizens does plan to incorporate some public recreational space, including fields and hiking trails, as part of the campus.

As with General Electric, which earlier this year chose Boston over Providence as a new corporate home, but made a point to publicly praise Rhode Island and its leadership, the importance of Citizens’ announcement may be largely symbolic at this point. But that does not mean it should not be welcomed and celebrated.

Citizens has deep roots in Rhode Island, dating back to the early 19th century. Nearly a third of its overall workforce is based in the Ocean State. Having become an independent, publicly traded company under the Citizens Financial Group banner in 2015, it serves customers in 11 states and boasts roughly $138 billion in assets.

Gov. Gina Raimondo during last week’s announcement thanked Citizens for “doubling down on Rhode Island,” and said the bank is “part of who we are.” U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin similarly called Citizens “part of our fabric here…part of our community.”

We agree with these sentiments, and thank Citizens for continuing to call Rhode Island home. We hope the bank’s show of confidence leaders other businesses to consider what our state has to offer.

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  • ddavejb

    So, while we are already drowning under a huge load of empty buildings and commercial space that blights our environment at every turn, and some of which could be used for enterprises like this quite successfully, we are going to cheer the tearing up of an obscene amount of(increasingly scarce) land for yet another resource hog such as this 'campus'? We really do have our priorities screwed up, don't we? Color me not impressed....

    Monday, March 21, 2016 Report this