The Port of Providence is an example of an intermodal facility already in service for many years. It stands as the best example of commercial/industrial port activity in the state. Adjoining businesses include ProMet Marine, one of the two remaining active, full-service commercial shipyards in Rhode Island (the other is the Blount Shipyard, in Warren). ProMet serves the shipping and fishing industries with high-tonnage facilities for repair and maintenance of vessels. A number of other port-dependent businesses also adjoin the facility, including tanker off-loading docks, fuel-tank farms and truck distribution facilities, a tug and barge base, and others.

However, expansion of maritime industry at the Port of Providence is limited by a number of factors.

First, although acreage available is adequate for present tenants and enterprises and space remains for a limited amount of further development, intensive development will be limited by available space.

Second, while the happy coincidence of a complex shoreline to the south of the Port has enabled development of the former Fields Point shipyard as a Johnson & Wales University center, together with the new Save the Bay education and research center, this juxtaposition of uses will not work as easily to the north or directly to the west of the Port. Non-industrial redevelopment of Conley’s Wharf and adjacent property is thus not appropriate; another use for that site should be sought. Appropriate uses might include fabrication of wind turbines, or development of a cruise-ship terminal.

Future development of the Port of Providence, together with the proposed “Knowledge District,” badly needs a buffer zone between them. One desirable way to integrate a buffer zone with current proposals would be to establish a green strip where light rail cars would connect the port, knowledge sector enterprises, human services and residential areas of the city.

Keeping commerce at the Port of Providence

To the Editor:

As Co-Chair of the Joint Legislative Port Commission, I want to offer my statewide perspective on waterfront development and redevelopment, especially as it relates to the ordinance amendments before the Providence Ordinance Committee. My statewide perspective has been developed during the past year and a half of meetings and tours conducted by the legislative Port Commission that included the waterfront of Providence and ProvPort. While I appreciate the city’s vision for a vibrant and mixed use waterfront zone, I am concerned that some of the permitted uses within these zones may conflict with the region’s energy infrastructure as well as existing businesses located in the area to be re-zoned.

The legislative Port Commission has heard extensive testimony regarding the limited amount of property still available for development or redevelopment of water-dependent businesses. In fact a recent study conducted by the URI Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant found that there are as little as four parcels statewide totaling 41 acres that are available for development in areas that have Type 6 waters, which are permitted for commercial and industrial water dependent uses. Providence is host to some of the most important infrastructure in the region that supplies critical energy resources to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. In addition, many existing businesses along Allens Avenue have expressed serious concerns about how new permitted uses within the proposed zones could negatively impact their ability to operate as often and as late as is sometimes required by their business.

The decisions the City Ordinance Committee members make will have a long-lasting impact on the state’s and the region’s ability to compete in the marketplace for industrial and commercial enterprises that rely on access to deepwater channels. I caution the Committee to carefully consider the potential zoning changes that are proposed and how those changes may change the landscape of the working waterfront for generations to come. It is critical that Providence continues to provide the vital services to the state and the region that its residents and businesses rely on and not jeopardize the ability of those services to be delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner. As the Department of Energy noted in its letter to Governor Carcieri dated Nov. 10, 2009, “Rezoning may result in future restrictions on terminal operations to accommodate residential preferences that could endanger the economic viability of the terminals given the differing nature of the established and proposed uses of the areas in question. This could eventually result in the loss of petroleum storage capacity for the region.”

I appreciate the city’s continued communication with the legislative Port Commission on these and other important issues. I will continue to provide leadership for port-related activities and encourage decision-makers to not only maintain current water-dependent uses but expand these uses wherever possible statewide.

Senator William A. Walaska
Warwick

Over recent decades, much of the commercial shipbuilding and other marine trade activity has been lost in Rhode Island. To grow the Ocean State’s marine industry, Stokes advocates that we invest in the remaining three large shipyards in Providence Harbor, Quonset Bay and Portsmouth’s Melville area where mega - yachts are currently fitted out and serviced. We also need to ensure local zoning continues to support this type of business activity. Stokes advocated for Quonset’s port utilization as a Short Sea Destination. Large container ships can offload in Newark, New York, or Boston. Trains and/or small container ships would bring goods to Rhode Island port saving shippers significantly versus using traditional 18-wheeler trucking.

In June 2000, then-Mayor Vincent Cianci Jr. held an event to unveil his grand “New Cities” urban renewal plan for future development in Providence. Rolled out to great fanfare, the plan envisioned a new “Narragansett Landing” neighborhood along Allens Avenue’s historically industrial harbor front. The plan included beautiful drawings of waterfront promenades, residences, hotels, and marinas. Completely absent however, was any depiction of the area’s existing oil tanks, barges, cargo tankers or industrial businesses.

Indeed, these industrial businesses were explicitly not part of the plan and were to be wiped off of the face of the waterfront. As The Journal reported at the time, “he [Mayor Cianci] . . . said he hopes to sweep away a boatyard, an asphalt plant, oil and gas storage tanks and industrial docks to make room for hundreds of apartments with their own boat slips, 3 hotels, 12 office buildings, and a 40-acre marina with space for 500 boats.”

Ironically, almost 10 years after the unveiling of the Narragansett Landing plan, it is the city’s mixed-use vision that has failed, not the gritty industrial businesses located along Allens Avenue’s working waterfront in the Port of Providence. The area’s only announced mixed-use project, the proposed $300 million Providence Piers condo, hotel, and marina development, is now in foreclosure and the subject of ongoing litigation.

In stark contrast, despite facing the threat of condemnation, eminent domain, and being zoned out of existence, the area’s water-dependent and industrial businesses are not only still stubbornly on the avenue, they are thriving. According to the June 2008 economic impact study, just seven water-dependent, water-enhanced industrial businesses along Allens Avenue are responsible for $294 million in annual business sales, employ 372 workers with an average compensation of approximately $60,000 per year, and have a total annual economic impact of $324 million.

With a 40-foot, federally dredged channel, a strategic location between Boston and New York City, and excellent rail and highway access, the Allens Avenue corridor is poised for continued success. With the proper zoning in place and a commitment to promote this unique industrial asset, Providence’s working waterfront is sure to grow and create new good paying jobs.

Hotels can be built anywhere. We need a waterfront that works.

This year marks Chris Beauchamp’s 32nd anniversary working for Narragansett Improvement Co. on Allens Avenue in Providence. During his three-decade career, Beauchamp married, bought a house, raised two children and rose to superintendent with an annual pay close to $100,000. But Beauchamp worries that his job could be gone and his bills will remain if the city proceeds on a path to rezone the area and allow new uses. . .

Local businesses say the area already is an important economic driver for the state. Based on information provided by the business group the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance and Providence Business News research, the approximately 37 businesses along the one-mile strip of road employ more than 2,150 people, including 953 workers at the associated companies that comprise the city-owned Port of Providence.

Other large employers include the adult-entertainment industry, which employs more than 250 workers, and the Narragansett Bay Commission, which employs 200 people at the sewage-treatment plant. The five businesses north of the waterfront protection zone that are completely water dependent employ 112 people.

Narragansett Improvement Co. employs about 70 people during the height of the construction season.

“My livelihood obviously is Narragansett Improvement,” Beauchamp, 50, said. “If they’re telling us we have to move our asphalt plant, who’s going to take us?”

Down the street, Paul Baker, general manager at Promet Marine Services Corp., said his job supports countless others in the area. The ship-repair company sends electrical components for repair to Walco two blocks away. Then for lunch, Baker and his co-workers frequent the Seaplane Diner a few hundred feet away.

“It’s all interrelated,” Baker said.

The Lady Frances from Point Judith being hoisted out of the water for repairs by Promet’s 400 metric ton marine travelift.

 Fishing vessels in for repair.