Brown's Jewlery District expansion

[brick]

The PILOT works as follows: years 1-5 pay 100% of assessed value. years 6-10 pay 67% of assessed value, years 11-15 pay 33% of assessed value. Year 16 it comes off the rolls.

[Cotuit]

Right, but they still make a "voluntary" contribution to the city even after it comes off the official rolls, don't they? That's my understanding. Maybe their voluntary contribution isn't broken down by building, but one would assume it will increase as the size of the school increases.

[Recchia]

I can agree that without the colleges Providence would be New Bedford. This isn't really an insult to Providence either, anyone who's actually been to downtown New Bedford will know that it contains some of the same great architecture and vibrancy that downtown Providence exhibits. It pretty much lacks any well known educational facilities though except for the little downtown campus that UMASS Dartmouth has.

[Jerry2]

There are many intangible benefits the colleges give to the city as well. Brown Police provides the areas around it's institution with free police service. They respond to incidents that are not related to the University and the PPD actually understaffs the College Hill knowing that Brown and RISD are there to patrol. This allows resources to go to other parts of the city. Brown also hires and pays for a police detail on Thayer Street on weekends, and Brown and Johnson & Wales have both built and maintain substations for PPD. As Brown moves more people to the JD, Brown PD will increase patrols in that area which will benefit everyone in the neighborhood at no cost to the city.

[runawayjim]

Does this extra police detail that they pay at no cost compensate for the extra police detail that the PPD has to do @ all the bars and clubs from rowdy college crowds on weekends? Or residential areas like Oakland St. in Smith Hill when the PC students riot in the streets?

If there is a creation of start-up businesses and techology industries that flock to Providence because our talent pool will tremendously increase, I won't be as skeptical. The business and tax climate has to change here for this to be a successful venture. Fidelity is constructing their monolith headquarters in RI only because of the tax incentives we threw at them...and even that...is being done at the easiest physical access point in RI to the Boston metro area. Fidelity could've moved to Providence or Quonset, anywhere in the state but they knew they were going to have to rely on the Boston talent pool to staff this location. With all the start-ups along the 495 corridor and the abundance of technology sector jobs in and around the Boston area, I think Brown will eventually foster Mass. economic initiatives rather than helping RI....of course...unless things change.

[Cotuit]

Does this extra police detail that they pay at no cost compensate for the extra police detail that the PPD has to do @ all the bars and clubs from rowdy college crowds on weekends? Or residential areas like Oakland St. in Smith Hill when the PC students riot in the streets?

[eltron]

as for startups, i know of at least one person (who is actually an active UP-er) that works for a startup that chose providence. i also know of at least one startup that came out of brown that has yet to put a product on the market, but is actively working on one.

[matt]

If there is a creation of start-up businesses and techology industries that flock to Providence because our talent pool will tremendously increase, I won't be as skeptical.

[Jerry2]

I work for a successful start-up that not only located to Providence, but 3 employees of my business purchased homes in Providence after previously living in MA. Also, 3 of us are URI grads. ... and our company is looking to grow.

[runawayjim]

That's great....encouraging.....My concern is: Are the amount of jobs that are created from Brown's increasing presence going to surpass the potential loss of tax revenue? That is debateable.

Jim, the point is....it doesn't matter what college kids are rowdy and require police detail. I know you said you work for PC and for whatever reason you have to jump to their defense. However, Oakland Avenue on the weekend is constantly bombarded by rowdy college kids and parties. Bradley's on Admiral Street has been busted by PPD a few times for underage drinking. The Prime Time on Douglas, now shut down, was bombarded by police all the time and now Danny's has re-opened on Douglas as well....another big college spot. That's all mostly PC. That doesn't include all the other college bars that dot the city outside of Brown's sphere of influence and police detail.

[Garris]

That's great....encouraging.....My concern is: Are the amount of jobs that are created from Brown's increasing presence going to surpass the potential loss of tax revenue? That is debateable.

[Cotuit]

It will mean that a national chemical company that only sends a rep or a tech to Providence from Boston once a week may now open up a full fledged branch office here to handle the business and customer support. It means those employees will be taking more people out to lunch at local restaurants. The research being done will pull more patients here from elsewhere for trials, and those patients will need places to stay, eat, park, etc, etc, etc. The impact can be huge.

[brick]

On a more intangible side, I think expansion of the universities gives Providence more of a sense of "place."

As many who take the time to read through my drivel know, one of my biggest concerns about Providence's future is becoming a bedroom community for Boston. Having the universities prosper relieves some of that fear. And, I do think Brown is the most important on this point because of the gravitas that comes with being an Ivy League school (although the Ivy leagues are falling behind some other competitors).

[Cotuit]

And, I do think Brown is the most important on this point because of the gravitas that comes with being an Ivy League school (although the Ivy leagues are falling behind some other competitors).

[runawayjim]

And RISD is often called the "Harvard of Art Schools" and J&W is highly respected (even if their students tend to be on the annoying side), and the Providence campuses are the headquarters of a school with campuses across the country, and PC is nothing to sniff at, it's a pretty damn good school. Not only do we have a lot of schools, but we have a lot of highly respected (deservedly or not) schools.

[jencoleslaw]

PC was actually ranked #1 or #2 in it's class of schools in US news and world reports (however they classify schools).

[runawayjim]

# 1 in "Number of students who pee in their neighbors' yards" or was it #2 in the category of "Furniture out on the porch."

[brick]

#2 master's level college in the north region (#1 is villanova, PC is tied with loyola in maryland).

and regarding how ivy league schools are losing rank to regular schools... #1,2,3 national universities.. princeton, harvard, yale. penn is #7, columbia and dartmouth #9, cornell #12, and brown #15.

[Garris]

An excellent marketing tool.

Brown is supposedly considered an "in" college right now.

Princeton Review recently did a poll of students' "dream colleges" and here were the top 10:

"For 3,890 high school students surveyed:

1) New York University

2) Harvard

3) Princeton

4) Stanford

5) Yale

6) Brown

7) Columbia

8) Duke

9) Cornell

10) University of California-Los Angeles.

Yet another poll of questionable anything, but interesting nevertheless.

- Garris

[Garris]

The sudden game of musical chairs in the Jewelry District continues as more institutions start to sit down as the music is just beginning to play...

"Rhode Island Hospital Memorandum

To: Rhode Island Hospital Employees

Fr: Joseph F. Amaral, MD

Re: Purchase of 55 Claverick Street Building

Date: October 26, 2006

I’m writing to share some exciting news. Today Rhode Island Hospital signed a purchase and sales agreement to purchase the 55 Claverick Street building. As you know, this building is of tremendous strategic importance to RIH as it houses a considerable amount of our research including the liver and diabetes research programs in the Jewelry District. Currently Rhode Island Hospital occupies 90 percent of the building and our lease is set to expire in two years.

The purchase of the Claverick Street building is an important next step as we continue to grow our research enterprise."

Great stuff!

- Garris

[runawayjim]

The sudden game of musical chairs in the Jewelry District continues as more institutions start to sit down as the music is just beginning to play...

"Rhode Island Hospital Memorandum

To: Rhode Island Hospital Employees

Fr: Joseph F. Amaral, MD

Re: Purchase of 55 Claverick Street Building

Date: October 26, 2006

I

[KRC]

# 1 in "Number of students who pee in their neighbors' yards" or was it #2 in the category of "Furniture out on the porch."

[mental757]

I've heard that while not widely known across the country, Roger Williams University is a respectable school as well.

[dgreco]

I've heard that while not widely known across the country, Roger Williams University is a respectable school as well.

[dgreco]

I asked in the other forum, but it seemed like it died...

...Does brown own any of the houses around thayer and the east side, not for university use, but the ones people live in? or are they independent owners who rent to brown students?