CRANSTON WARWICK WEST GREENWICH EAST GREENWICH

Transcription

CRANSTON WARWICK WEST GREENWICH EAST GREENWICH
OUR TOWNS: WEST
CRANSTON, WARWICK, EAST GREENWICH, COVENTRY, WEST GREENWICH AND WEST WARWICK
CRANSTON
SMALL BUSINESSES
THAT SPAN GENERATIONS
WARWICK
BUSINESS OWNERS
OPTIMISTIC ABOUT
APPONAUG CIRCULATOR
EAST GREENWICH
THE THRIVING ODEUM IS
A MAIN STREET STIMULUS
COVENTRY
THE EXPANDED BIKE PATH
IS A LEISURE AND
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
WEST GREENWICH
THERE’S NO MAIN STREET,
BUT THE TOWN HAS FOUR
EXITS ON ROUTE 95
WEST WARWICK
TOWN WORKING
TO REVITALIZE
ARCTIC VILLAGE
March 20, 2016
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EAST GREENWICH
Greenwich Odeum brings top-shelf acts to town
By Channing Gray
Journal Arts Writer
|
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
EAST GREENWICH — This town of
Victorian homes and waterfront
restaurants has always been a
desirable place to settle down and
raise a family. The schools are good
and crime is not a problem.
But, unlike a lot of bedroom
communities, it’s also got an arts
center, in the form of the Greenwich
Odeum theater, at 59 Main St. The
410-seat theater, built 90 years
ago for vaudeville acts and silent
films, has gone through some rough
times, but lately is reporting soldout houses and growing community
support.
“We’ve never been better,” said
board member and past president
Kevin Muoio.
After more than a decade as a
nonprofit arts center, the theater
was forced to close because it did
not conform with stricter fire codes
enacted after the Station Nightclub
fire. During the next five years, the
seats were reupholstered with fireretardant materials and the building
was outfitted with fire alarms, paid
for by a $146,000 grant from the
Champlain Foundations.
The Odeum reopened in January of
2013. But it was spending more than
it was taking in, and four months
later, it found itself $40,000 in
the hole and again closed its doors,
creating a lot of credibility issues.
But Muoio said the tough times
seem to be behind the theater,
which in the past six months has
been awarded $600,000 in grants
to install handicapped restrooms,
expand the “very basic” concession
area, and purchase an assisted
listening system for patrons who
have hearing issues. For the past 25
years, the theater has been out of
handicapped compliance.
Muoio added that the theater
has been getting a steady stream of
national acts, such as Art Garfunkle,
Leon Russell and New-Age pianist
George Winston. Todd Rundgren,
“We’ve never been better,” says Greenwich Odeum board member and past president Kevin Muoio. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL FILE/SANDOR
BODO
East Greenwich
Population: 13,118
Median household income 2014: $92,727
Median house price 2015: $410,000
New business filings 2016: 14
College graduates: 59.7%
NOTES: New business filings are as of Feb. 28; college graduates is percentage of residents
25 or older who have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, R.I. Association of Realtors, R.I. secretary of state
whose advance sales are brisk, is
slated to perform at the Odeum
May 20, an act Muoio thought the
theater would not be able to land. He
said the theater has sold out half its
performances this season.
“We’re having a lot of success
getting the word out there,” said
Muoio, who just a little more than a
To our readers:
In our continuing effort to provide more
local news and local advertising, The
Providence Journal today launches the first
of several Our Towns sections.
Initially, the section will be published
quarterly. Today we focus on Cranston,
year ago said the theater’s on-againoff-again history did a lot of damage
to its reputation, and that people
were never sure if it was open.
The venue has also done well with
comedy, and just presented a soldout night with “Saturday Night Live”
alum Jim Breuer.
And on the administrative front,
Warwick, West Warwick, Coventry, East
Greenwich and West Greenwich. Only
readers in those towns will find Out Towns
inside the paper. All subscribers will have
access to the stories on providencejournal.
com and in the e-edition that replicates the
newspaper.
Cover photo: THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/GLENN OSMUNDSON
the theater has finally been able to
settle an ownership dispute between
the board and the family that once
owned the theater. The board was
able to buy out the 30-percent
interest from relatives of the Erinakis
family, so the theater is now owned
free and clear by the nonprofit
Odeum Corporation.
On the other hand, the theater has
not staged many plays, something
it would like to correct. “It’s a hole
in our calendar and an area for
growth,” said Muoio.
“We’re really going strong since we
opened two years ago,” he said. “We’re
running as professionally as possible
and getting as big names as we can get.”
cgray@providencejournal.com.
(401) 277-7492
On Twitter: @Channing_Gray
Future sections will focus on and be
delivered to readers in other communities.
Our hope is to grow the size and frequency
of the sections.
Dave Butler
Executive Editor PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
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Businesses optimistic about Apponaug road project
Warwick
WARWICK — A few people
waited in line at the People’s
Liquor Warehouse in
Apponaug on a Sunday night
in February. Construction on
the road did not stop the
customers from crossing the
lines of traffic and pulling
into the small plaza.
“People are still coming
in,” said Bob Willis, an
assistant at the store.
With the R.I. Department
of Transportation’s
Apponaug circulator project
in full swing, the village is
dotted with neon-orangeand-white traffic barrels and
"road work ahead" signs.
The plan is to turn
almost all the one-way
streets that wrap around
the village into two-way
streets, in the hopes of
reducing traffic, bringing
out more customers and
attracting more economic
development. The project, which began
in 2014, should wrap up by
late summer in 2017, with
landscaping added to spruce
up the area.
Construction has not
caused too many troubles
for business owners, who
are hopeful the new traffic
patterns will make it easier
for their customers. Willis said, “I just want it
done as soon as possible.”
There’s good news on that
front. The $29.9 million
project is on budget, and
about a month ahead of
schedule, since the mild
winter allowed construction
to continue, said RIDOT
spokesman Charles St.
Martin.
There’s some concerns
about learning to navigate
through the five new
roundabouts at intersections
in the village, but St. Martin
said more roundabouts are
being added around the
Ocean State, in part for
safety reasons. Roundabouts
can reduce fatalities by as
much as 90 percent, St.
Martin said.
With roundabouts, he said,
“the types of crashes that
Population: 82,065
Median household
income 2014: $62,803
Median house price
2015: $177,350
New business filings
2016: 234
College graduates:
30.3%
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
Journal Staff Writer
|
By Carol Kozma
NOTES: New business filings
are as of Feb. 28; college
graduates is percentage of
residents 25 or older who
have a bachelor’s degree or
higher.
SOURCES: U.S. Census
Bureau, R.I. Association of
Realtors, R.I. secretary of
state
you may get are angle crashes
side by side, as opposed to
head-on.”
The circulator project
is about 40 years in the
making, said Mayor Scott
Avedisian, adding that it has
taken this long to get under
way because of a lack of
funding. Richard Crenca, the
city’s principal planner,
and Avedisian sat in the
mayor’s office, a poster
board in front of them with a
map of Apponaug and what
it will soon look like. Part of Post Road in front
of City Hall will remain
a one-way street, but
parking will be added so
people can more easily stop
into local stores. Veteran’s
Memorial Drive and its
extension will become
two two-lane roads, going
in opposite directions,
so drivers can reach the
Post Road Extension and
Centerville Road more
directly. The project is expected to
reduce the 29,000 or so cars
per day on Post Road in front
of City Hall to about 5,000
cars, Crenca said. Crenca said the city has
heard from a few businesses
that have struggled
during the construction.
A restaurant owner has
Sunday, March 20, 2016 |
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WARWICK
Spencer Moore, the manager at Apponaug Color & Hobby Shop, stands under some of the model airplanes that are
displayed in the shop, which has been a fixture in Apponaug since 1950. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/SANDOR BODO
said he had some trouble
attracting the lunch crowd,
for example, Crenca
said, but added that overall,
complaints have been
minimal.
Over at Apponaug Color
& Hobby Shop, a store that
sells model trains, airplanes,
art supplies and other goods,
the construction has even
helped business.
“We’ve had a lot of
construction people coming
in, [they] ogle at everything,”
said Spencer Moore, who
works at the store.
And regulars continue to
come in, he added. ckozma@providencejournal.
com
(401) 277-7067
On Twitter: @CarolKozma
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PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
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CRANSTON
| Sunday, March 20, 2016
Pride, passion fuel these small businesses
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
|
Cranston — Here’s the thing
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
about individually owned
and family-owned businesses: It’s not life on Easy
Street, as some people might
imagine.
“It’s a lot of hard work. It
never leaves you,” said Kathleen A. Giorgi, owner of Frank
DeClemente’s home appliance
store, a fixture on Reservoir
Avenue in Cranston. “My
phone is with me all the time.”
She adds, “I’m the one
who takes the grief and the
complaints.”
On the east side of Cranston, the story is the same at the
venerable Durfee Hardware.
“For the number of hours I
put in here, I could be working
two state jobs,” quipped Paul
Durfee, 62, majority owner of
the store.
At Rick’s Auto Body, in Pawtuxet Village, which straddles
the Cranston-Warwick line,
minority owner and lead
employee Ronald D. Piscione,
47, said he does not take sick
days or personal days.
“The employees don’t care
about your business the way
that you do,” he said. Piscione,
who stands to inherit the
business, makes a point of
inspecting every completed
job.
And here’s the other thing:
They take pleasure in it.
“I love the business.
Neither of my brothers [and
co-owners], I think, would
love to do this,” said Paul
Durfee, who oversees store
operations but is gradually
ceding command to his eldest
child, Ryan, 30. “I enjoy
being out on the floor and
helping people.”
Said Giorgi, “This is my passion. I love this business.”
Thirty years an elementary
school teacher in Cranston,
Giorgi began working parttime at Frank DeClemente’s
and then committed to it fulltime when her father, founder
Francis C. DeClemente, died
suddenly in 2004.
Big corporations get a lot
of attention — Hasbro, CVS,
Cranston
Population: 80,680
Median household
income 2014: $58,684
Median house price
2015: $195,000
New business filings
2016: 64
College graduates:
29.6%
NOTES: New business filings
are as of Feb. 28; college
graduates is percentage of
residents 25 or older who
have a bachelor’s degree or
higher.
SOURCES: U.S. Census
Bureau, R.I. Association of
Realtors, R.I. secretary of
state
Textron. But Edward M.
Mazze, distinguished professor
of business administration at
the University of Rhode Island
and a business management
consultant, said individually
and family-owned businesses
are the backbone of the Rhode
Island economy.
Nearly 90 percent of Rhode
Island businesses are individually or family-owned,
according to Mazze, and they
tend to offer a service or sell
retail.
“We’re the ones that keep
it going,” Giorgi said. “The
money is staying here in Rhode
Island.” Frank DeClemente’s,
for example, employs six
people, and Rick’s Auto Body,
12.
Few of the individually and
family-owned enterprises
last beyond the third or fourth
generation of ownership,
though, because the commitment wanes as the generations
pass, Mazze said. Even that is a
triumph, because, Mazze said,
the mortality rate for small
businesses is so high: Most last
one to four years.
Durfee, founded in 1930,
and Rick’s, in 1961, are in
their third generation. Frank
DeClemente’s, founded in the
early 1960s, is in its second.
Regardless of ownership
Kathleen A. Giorgi, owner of Frank DeClemente’s appliance store, in Cranston, and her dog, Jackie. Giorgi’s
father, Francis C. DeClemente, founded the store in the 1960s. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/SANDOR BODO
Kevin Kairnes is at the cash register at Durfee Hardware, a family-owned business in Cranston since 1930. THE
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/SANDOR BODO
structure, shared input is not
unusual. Giorgi’s husband,
an architect, advises her. At
Durfee, the three brothers who
own the business — Paul, Peter
and David — meet monthly to
take stock. Peter, a certified
public accountant, and David,
who owns a computer design
business, have secondary
management roles.
If family members’ work
ethic, pride and reputation
are factors in the success of a
business, then keeping it in the
family can be a competitive
advantage, Mazze said.
Said Piscione, of Rick’s, “I
repair every car as if it was my
own car.”
gsmith@providencejournal.
com
(401) 277-7334
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
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TIME LAPSE
Historic Our Town
|
The Polish
Falcon
Girls march
through Royal
Square, in
West Warwick’s Arctic
Village, in an
Armistice Day
parade on
Nov. 13, 1928.
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
PROVIDENCE
JOURNAL FILES
A ragman in
Cranston in the
1930s. An early
recycler, he
collected scraps
from residents
and sold them to
manufacturers
for reuse. PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
FILES
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West Warwick’s Arctic Village in more prosperous times, on Feb. 26, 1927. PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
FILES
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COVENTRY
| Sunday, March 20, 2016
New Trestle Trail is biking — and business — opportunity
By Mark Reynolds
Journal Staff Writer
|
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
COVENTRY — The Trestle Trail
Greenway melds into the terrain so effortlessly, following
an old railroad line, that many
people don’t even know that
the $7.8-million bike path is
here, rolling quietly through a
forest of pine trees just behind
the Out in Nowhere Creamery.
Alicia Carlos, a chatty bartender who works next door
to the creamery, learned about
the 18-month-old bike path in
mid-February:
A youngish couple had
popped into Pond & Pub
Pizza as if they had come from,
well, nowhere. So Carlos
inquired and they told her the
nearby bike path had brought
them to this far-flung spot in
Rhode Island, him on a skateboard and her on a bicycle.
Now the bartender has
joined the many hundreds, if
not thousands, of people who
have acquainted themselves
with the Trestle Trail since
it opened in the fall of 2014.
Word is getting out.
The project added five miles
of uninterrupted riding to the
Coventry Greenway, a 4-mile
stretch of pavement that
connected the eastern parts
of town to the Washington
Secondary Bike Path, in West
Warwick.
The latest extension to the
path, the Trestle Trail has knitted together most of Coventry,
making it possible to walk, run
or bicycle from villages like
Anthony, on the eastern side
of town, through Washington
and all the way to Greene and
Summit, within five miles of
the Connecticut border.
The bike path runs where
locomotives of the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill
Railroad once hauled freight,
offering a direct, often scenic,
westward route, with none of
SEE COVENTRY, 13
Parts of the new Trestle Trail Greenway, in Coventry, pass through scenic areas. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/
SANDOR BODO
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Sunday, March 20, 2016 |
the zigzags and red lights that
confront motorists.
Carlos’ talk with the two
visitors, and the experience
of the Summit General Store,
a few miles up the road, show
that the bike path has already
had an economic effect, which
is what the Central Rhode
Island Chamber of Commerce
expected.
Every year, the chamber
convenes a group of residents,
business people, municipal
leaders and others to talk
about health and wellness and
ways to generally improve the
community.
“Bike paths have come up
every year for the past five
years,” says the chamber’s
president, Lauren Slocum.
Bike paths, says Slocum,
do two important things for a
community: they give residents, prospective residents
and visitors a “sense of place,”
and they improve the quality
of life, providing an activity for
people of all ages.
On the trail near the
Coventry
Population: 34,992
Median household
income 2014: $69,050
Median house price
2015: $210,000
New business filings
2016: 15
College graduates:
25.2%
NOTES: New business filings
are as of Feb. 28; college
graduates is percentage of
residents 25 or older who have
a bachelor’s degree or higher.
SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau,
R.I. Association of Realtors,
R.I. secretary of state
Anthony Mill complex,
3-year-old Declan Hayle
jumps on his tiny BMX and
pedals furiously as his father
walks briskly behind, occasionally telling his son to stop
and wait for him to catch up.
“To get the kids out here
after they’ve been in the house
all day is a huge bonus,” says
Geraghty Hayle, 40, of Coventry, who back in the days
|
From Page 12
A stretch of the new Trestle Trail Greenway passes near the Anthony Mill complex, in Coventry. THE PROVIDENCE
JOURNAL/SANDOR BODO
before the pavement, once
rode his mountain bike along
the old railroad route right into
Connecticut.
From Moosup, Connecticut,
the path links into a network
of trails that could someday
provide paved riding all the
way across the Nutmeg State:
through Hartford, down to
New Haven and west to New
York.
Rhode Island’s Statewide
Planning Council is reviewing
a proposed $5-million project to pave all the way to
Connecticut and another
$3-million project for bridge
work at Bucks Horn Brook and
the Moosup River, said Charles
St. Martin, a spokesman for
the Rhode Island Department
of Transportation.
For now, the paved bike path
ends about five miles from
Connecticut, near the Summit
General Store, which proclaims itself “Rhode Island’s
Only Real General Store.” It’s
open 365 days a year and offers
everything from hay and grain
to sandwiches and ice cream.
The store’s manager, Brian
Ucci, says people tell him they
never knew about the store —
but once they’ve been, they
promise they’ll come back.
mreynolds@providence
journal.com
(401) 277-7490 On Twitter: @
mrkrynlds
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
COVENTRY
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Historic Our Town
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p
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PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
A worker wrestles with beer kegs on the loading dock of the Narragansett Brewery, in Cranston, in this mid-1960s photo. PROVIDENCE JOURNAL FILES.
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No Main Street, no problem: Take a walk on the wild side
West Greenwich
WEST GREENWICH — Dan’s
Place restaurant and bar
is so popular that there’s
often a wait to get in, which
wouldn’t be unusual for a
Providence, Warwick or
Newport dining establishment, but West Greenwich is
mostly woods.
Nearly half of the town’s
51 square miles are devoted
to nature, and there are only
about 6,000 residents.
The town has no Main
Street, no central business
district, not even a post
office. Town Administrator Kevin A. Breene likes to
say it has one blinking light
and its own ZIP code. And
it also has four exits along
Route 95.
Dan’s Place, in a stylized barn off exit 5B, draws
people from Connecticut
and all over Rhode Island,
said Breene and two others
who happened to be in the
town administrator’s office
one recent Tuesday.
The man behind Dan’s
Place is Dan Hebert, 44. He
grew up in Coventry, served
in the Marines and launched
his entrepreneurial career
in 1996. He opened West
Greenwich Town Pizza in a
shopping plaza on Route 102
(Victory Highway) just north
of the truck stop, now called
TA West Greenwich.
By 2009, Hebert had built
and opened Dan’s Place,
which the sign says offers
“Pizza, Pasta, Steak & Ale,”
but it actually offers an
extensive menu, full bar and
live music on weekends.
Now he’s adding a second
location, on Route 108 in
South Kingstown.
When Hebert looks
around, he sees opportunities. Near his restaurant is a
former gravel operation that
he hopes someone will buy
and develop as an outdoor
recreation park with, perhaps, courses for dirt bikes
Population: 6,118
Median household
income 2014: $80,987
Median house price
2015: $275,250
New business filings
2016: 5
College graduates:
34.7%
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
Journal Staff Writer
|
By Donita Naylor
NOTES: New business filings
are as of Feb. 28; college
graduates is percentage of
residents 25 or older who
have a bachelor’s degree or
higher.
SOURCES: U.S. Census
Bureau, R.I. Association of
Realtors, R.I. secretary of
state
and go-karts.
With 47 percent of
the town preserved as
open space, West Greenwich abounds in hiking trails.
Trail systems can be found
in the management areas
of Wickaboxet, Tillinghast
Pond, Big River and Arcadia,
as well as on the University
of Rhode Island’s Alton Jones
Campus and in the Fry Pond
Conservation Area, behind
Town Hall.
In the Big River Management Area, which the state
acquired by condemning
properties for a planned
reservoir that was never
built, the trails include
some for mountain biking.
Between exits 6A and 7,
there’s a place to fly remotecontrolled miniature planes,
and, after a good snow, the
sand dunes are popular for
sledding.
Partly because it has so
much Route 95 frontage,
West Greenwich can count
motels, gas stations and
industries in its tax base. At
exit 7, most of the Centre of
New England is in Coventry,
but the businesses that line
the interstate are in West
Greenwich. Sunday, March 20, 2016 |
WEST GREENWICH
Dan’s Place is a popular restaurant and bar in rural West Greenwich where you might find a line, even on a weeknight. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/KRIS CRAIG
Dan Hebert,
44, is the
owner of
the popular
Dan’s Place.
Hebert says
that when
he looks
around
West
Greenwich,
he sees
plenty of
opportunity. THE
PROVIDENCE
JOURNAL/
KRIS CRAIG
Breene said the town has
so many motels open yearround that for the southern
part of the state, it ranks
second in collecting the
state’s hotel occupancy
taxes.
Industries include Conneaut, which makes yarns
and fibers for industrial
applications, and Amgen,
which makes prescription
drugs such as the arthritis and psoriasis treatment
Enbrel. From three large
warehouse distribution
centers, Centrex supplies
alcohol and other beverages
to retail outlets, Roch’s Fresh
Foods delivers produce, and
Coast to Coast Fulfillment
ships out orders for clients,
some of whom never touch
their own products.
The Coast to Coast website says it is the largest U.S.
Postal Service customer in
Rhode Island and that it has a
Postal Service facility on site.
So West Greenwich does
have a post office — just not
one that the public can use.
dnaylor@providencejournal.
com / (401) 277-7411
On Twitter: @donita22
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WEST WARWICK
| Sunday, March 20, 2016
Town seeks businesses, housing to revive Arctic
By Alex Kuffner
Journal Staff Writer
|
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL | providencejournal.com
WEST WARWICK — Town
officials are considering options for revitalizing
downtown Arctic Village.
The town issued a request
for proposals from developers
last year and started accepting plans in December. The
Arctic Village Redevelopment
Agency, the municipal group
charged with assessing the
applications, has met with
developers but has yet to make
any decisions.
“We’ve had two individuals
come in proposing mixed-use
buildings,” said Town Planner
Mark Carruolo. “Those are in
the very formative stages right
now.”
Arctic has long been the civic
and commercial hub of West
Warwick, with Town Hall and
the police station located here
as well as a row of storefronts
on either side of Main Street.
But the area has been in decline
for years as buildings have
fallen into disrepair or lost
tenants.
In 2012, the town commissioned a study by the Cecil
Group, a Boston-based planning firm, that aimed to set
out a path for redeveloping the
village. The study led to the
creation of the Arctic Village
Redevelopment District and
the redevelopment agency,
which held its first meeting in
2014.
Under the strategy that
resulted from the study, the
town would consider a range
of financial incentives, including tax treaties and phased-in
tax rates, to attract developers. The town is also allowed
by state law to implement sales
tax incentives for businesses in
the area.
“Like many other New
England communities, the
Town’s center has been
subject to long-term shifts in
manufacturing and employment patterns, transportation
networks, retailing and housing preferences that cannot
be reversed,” the strategy
says. “Instead, the Town
must actively find opportunities to redefine Arctic Village
West Warwick
Population: 28,960
Median household income
2014: $50,138
Median house price 2015:
$159,950
New business filings 2016: 8
College graduates: 21.5%
NOTES: New business filings
are as of Feb. 28; college
graduates is percentage of
residents 25 or older who
have a bachelor’s degree or
higher.
SOURCES: U.S. Census
Bureau, R.I. Association of
Realtors, R.I. secretary of
state
and establish new roles for its
center. Significant reinvestment must be attracted to
reverse years of deterioration
and change both the perceptions and realities of the
district.”
The town is looking for a
mixture of restaurants, offices,
retail space and residential
development, as well as the
establishment of arts and
entertainment activities that
could take advantage of places
such as the gazebo park in
the village. The strategy also
highlights the proximity of
the West Warwick Greenway
bicycle path and the Pawtuxet
River.
Proposals for new buildings
are being sought, but the historic structures in the village
would also be reused — they
include Arctic Mill, Centreville Mill and the old post office
building.
So far, the redevelopment
agency has heard presentations
on plans for two new buildings on Washington Street that
would include business space
and condominiums, and the
expansion and renovation of
Centreville Bank’s offices on
Main Street.
“Nothing’s set in stone yet,”
said Town Council member
Angelo A. Padula Jr. “We’re
hoping for some more information in the next month or
two.”
State Sen. Adam Satchell,
The Arctic Village Redevelopment Agency has heard a proposal to expand and renovate the Centreville Bank’s
offices on Main Street. THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/KRIS CRAIG
The West Warwick Center, at 145 Washington St., is in the proposed Arctic Village redevelopment area. THE
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/KRIS CRAIG
who is planning to cosponsor
legislation that could allow
additional tax credits for renovations of existing properties in
Arctic and other distressed
areas of the state, said the town
is looking forward to getting the
first project under way as part
of the redevelopment strategy.
“We need that and then
you'll see the domino effect,”
the West Warwick Democrat
said.
There has been progress
on some fronts in the village recently. CVS is moving
forward with a longstanding
plan for a new building on
Washington Street. Thundermist Health Center, which
has a medical clinic on Providence Street, has expanded
into rental space on Main
Street.
A local theater group, the
Arctic Playhouse, is thriving
and may look for new space
too, said Carruolo. And there is
also talk of developing residential lofts that could bring new
life to the village.
“If all the puzzle pieces fall
into place, you’ll see Arctic
turn around,” Carruolo said.
akuffner@providencejournal.
com
(401) 277-7457
On Twitter: @KuffnerAlex
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