Nothing on our Calendar...then were probably at one of the events
at the: Progressive RI website calendar http://progressiveri.org/

29 Oct 2003

We are pleased to report to you that we have taken a significant first step in changing "business as usual" in the City of Providence.

Last night, the Finance Committee passed the Rising Sun Mills tax break with significant concessions on affordable housing, the creation of good jobs, the use of minority and women contractors and the hiring of Providence workers.

However, the gap between the needs of Providence families and Providence city policy certainly has not closed as much as it needs to.

Although the gap remains large, we are making progress together. And, last night, we made clear that when we come together and demand more, we win more.

Through the combined strength of community/labor pressure, we are winning concrete changes and demonstrating that economic development is not just bricks and mortar, but it is the creation of good jobs with apprenticeship programs, it is the hiring of our neighborhood residents, it is the support of our local and minority contractors and it is the construction of housing that our families can afford.

Together, we held community meetings, we wrote letters, we wrote emails, we testified to the City Council, we went door-to-door, we researched policy, we met with the developers, we met with City officials, we distributed flyers, we held rallies and protests and we made a difference. We have made loud and clear what are the community expectations for developers asking for public money.

We applaud the Finance Committee and in particular, Councilmen Jackson, Aponte, and Luna, for their ongoing committment to close the gap between what we need and what we are getting from tax breaks and for their ongoing work with the community.

We call on Mayor Cicilline's administration to take a more aggressive approach in demanding more for our families. While the glitter and dazzle of downtown is appealing, real economic development means creating good jobs, supporting Providence small businesses and building affordable housing. Our neighborhoods must come first.

We urge you to join our ongoing Providence WORKS! campaign because our work has just begun. We will begin focusing on the citywide policy of tax stabilizations in the City, on policies regarding all development by the City, on the construction of a first-source hiring program for unemployed residents of Providence, on developing more support programs for minority and women contractors, and on the implementation of a real affordable housing program for the City. Please call 454-4766 or email Providenceworks@cox.net for more information.

By now, many of you have received the slick email from the public relations firm hired by the developer of Rising Sun Mills. Unfortunately, they are still shying away from speaking with the community directly about the details of the tax break and have paid a company to do that for them. We encourage them to learn from this experience and to view the community as a potential partner and not as an adversary that needs to be appeased.

Details of the tax break are below from a Providence Journal article.

Yours,
the Providence WORKS! team

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Mill Developers Agree to Concessions

The companies overseeing the $56-million Rising Sun Mills project will contribute money for affordable housing and attempt to hire local people in exchange for tax breaks.

BY GREGORY SMITH Journal Staff Writer Wednesday, October 29th
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/HdqRdJ6101_C/ PROVIDENCE -- In order to win a city tax break, the developers of a large-scale mill-rehabilitation project in the Valley neighborhood have agreed to hire some local people for construction jobs and contribute money to build affordable housing.

The promises were made during weeks of behind-the-scenes wrangling between the developers and city officials, as a coalition of social-action groups, labor unions, minority contractors and others pressed the developers for more far-reaching concessions.

The $56-million project, called Rising Sun Mills, would entail the construction of 142 loft apartments renting for generally mid-market prices and 125,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space at 166 Valley St.

At stake is a real-estate tax break worth at least $5 million over nine years to the developers, Armory Revival Co., of Providence, and Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, of Baltimore.

The deal was publicly sealed last night at City Hall when the City Council Finance Committee approved an ordinance that would authorize the tax break, with a series of conditions. The committee sent it on for what is expected to be the approval of the full council and Mayor David N. Cicilline.

When the project was announced last winter, Armory Revival and Struever Bros. said it would be part of a $100 million plan to invigorate a forlorn stretch of Valley Street, including the rehabilitation of part of a second mill complex.

They offered to help sponsor affordable housing and a community-improvement program in the Valley and Olneyville neighborhoods and to try to hire local people.

As a result of what were sometimes tense negotiations, the tax-break ordinance now has provisions regarding local hiring and subcontracting and investment in affordable housing that are more specific and more demanding on the developers than they expected.

The developers will:

Spend $300,000 to acquire land or cover preliminary costs for the development of low-income housing in Valley and Olneyville. If they become partners with Olneyville Housing Corporation or a similar entity that builds affordable housing, they can make the expenditure a loan.

Contribute $165,000 over nine years to a land trust to be administered by the Providence Redevelopment Agency for affordable housing.

Require their subcontractors to give notice of construction-job openings at Rising Sun Mills and to interview candidates presented by the developers' community hiring staff.

The goal would be to make at least 30 "community hires." The developers would provide training and/or apprenticeships for those hires, with those programs subject to city review.

Council Majority Leader Luis A. Aponte said those hired would be Providence residents, preferably from Olneyville and Valley.

Strive to award 25 percent of the total dollar value of the construction to so-called Minority Business Enterprises and Women Business Enterprises.

Have their prime contractor,"where possible," break up the work into sufficiently small subcontracts so that small local businesses could qualify more readily for subcontracts.

Use their "best efforts" to hire contractors and subcontractors based in Providence and to buy materials from Providence businesses.

The affordable-housing contributions, unlike most of the hiring, subcontracting and purchasing provisions, would be mandatory rather than a goal.

The hiring, subcontracting and purchasing provisions must be made goals rather than mandates in order to avoid constitutional problems due to court rulings against affirmative-action quotas, according to Aponte.

The ordinance represents a "very good resolution" of the pertinent issues, said David E. Preston, a spokesman for the developers.

Andrew Cortes (Green Party member), a member of the coalition of social-action groups and others, called Providence Works!, commented, "There have been remarkable steps forward" in redefining how the city grants tax breaks.

"Substantial improvement has been made, but I don't think the gap has been entirely closed" between what tax-break beneficiaries receive and what the city realizes as a return on what it invests in tax breaks, he said.

Armory Revival and Struever Bros. stand to benefit from perhaps the most generous tax-break program the city offers. It goes to those who preserve and rehabilitate listed "landmark buildings," especially mills and buildings with particular historical or architectural appeal.

Tax Assessor John J. Gelati last week sharply increased his estimate of the value of the real-estate tax break to the developers over the nine years in which it would be in effect. That estimate now stands at $5 million.

The projection compares what the developers would pay with the tax break to what they likely would pay without it.

It does not take into account future tax-rate increases or changes in assessed value that would occur in citywide real-estate revaluations because those cannot be known, Gelati explained.

Under the program for landmark buildings, the developers also would receive a break on the tangible taxes on their equipment, furnishings and fixtures, which would be very modest compared to the real-estate tax break.

Armory Revival and Struever Bros. say they have lined up a commercial tenant with 200 employees to lease the office space.

The unidentified company, which wants room to expand, plans to hire an additional 80 to 100 employees in the next several years, according to B.J. Dupre, a partner in Armory Revival.

The commercial tenants, too, qualify for a break on their tangible taxes under the same program. Asst. City Solicitor Frederick Stolle said the tenants would have to apply separately to the city.

In recent weeks, as Providence Works! gained traction with the council and the Cicilline administration, the developers countered by hiring Preston, a veteran political operative who runs a public relations and advertising company called Trion, to lobby city officials.

Dupre said last week that the developers had been busy with Rising Sun Mills and had failed to sufficiently answer critics who he said were spreading "misinformation" about the project. He did not identify the critics.

At one point in the Providence Works! campaign to pressure the developers, the campaigners assembled about 75 protestors in front of Armory Revival's offices in the West End and displayed an inflatable 12-foot-tall rat that was tethered to a truck. Armory Revival locked its front doors.

A reporter asked Preston last night if the developers are now giving more than they intended when they announced their $100 million neighborhood plan and their ambitions for affordable housing, local hiring and community improvement.

Preston said the negotiations "certainly broadened everyone's horizons on what was possible."

A belated petition was submitted just after the Finance Committee meeting, signed by 97 people who Councilwoman Josephine DiRuzzo said are representative of the neighborhood that would be affected by Rising Sun Mills.

The petition urged the committee to approve the tax break and allow the project to proceed.

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Matthew Jerzyk
Director
RI Jobs with Justice
270 Westminster St. 2nd Floor
Providence, RI 02903
Phone: 401.454.4766
Cell: 401.556.7412
Fax: 401.421.9495
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/H7qRdJ6101A1/

Fact: In 2001, 842,000 people were homeless in a given week and 3.5 million became homeless over the course of a year.

Fact: Almost 1/3 of all RI families earn less than $25,000/year, and 3,000 RI children have lost health care coverage as a result of inability to pay the premium.

Fact: More than one out of every five RI adults going to a food pantry is working.

Fact: Just 10% of the US military budget would be enough to provide the essentials of life to everyone in the world.

Join students and concerned citizens in a peaceful demand for economic justice.

When: Thursday, Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving) to evening of Friday, Nov.28. On Friday will be collaborating with Buy Nothing Day in the coat exchange and distribution of informative leaflets.

Where: Providence Statehouse lawn (the side facing the mall)

Why: Homelessness, hunger, and poverty do not come out of thin air. Please join us to emphasize the connections between the breakdown of the federal budget--specifically, the irrational extent of military expenditure--and the criminal social circumstances within this richest nation on earth.

We welcome any contribution of time, (or coats for the coat exchange, or food for the Food not Bombs table) that you can give.