Governor McKee Announce Sites Readiness Awards in 11 Communities

PROVIDENCE, RI – Joined by state and local officials, Governor Dan McKee today announced over $600,000 in site readiness awards to 16 projects in 11 communities across Rhode Island. The awards will fund municipal technical assistance and site-specific planning improvements to catalyze economic development projects in these communities.

“The investments announced today will help to stimulate the construction of housing, increase economic development in advanced industries, and revamp infrastructure throughout Rhode Island,” said Governor McKee. “We are pleased to be partnering with municipalities on this important work and excited to see the results of these projects.”

“In the context of the region and nation, Rhode Island’s economic recovery has been strong to date,” said Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor. “This site readiness program will help to sustain and advance it. The initiative will do so by helping prepare needed sites for development across 11 cities and towns in our state. We thank our municipal partners and the Commerce team for working collaboratively to get these important investments under way.”

The Site Readiness program partners Rhode Island Commerce with municipalities and/or private parties to spur development activity throughout the state. Site-readiness awards were made in two categories: site specific improvements and municipal assistance.

Site specific improvements included site planning and pre-development activities and project improvements. Projects intended to catalyze growth in advanced industry clusters, regardless of project size, were also be prioritized.

Municipal Assistance awards are for the development of projects that will spur development and growth in support of the municipality’s development goals. Funding can be used to streamline current land-use development and permitting processes; training/education for planning/zoning board members, building officials and inspectors; assistance with writing zoning ordinances, updating comprehensive plans; strategic planning support, marketing support, and for matching funds/support for federal grants.

“Central Falls is thrilled to receive these critical dollars towards increasing affordable housing in our city,” said Mayor Maria Rivera. “Small communities desperately need these upfront funds in order to acquire and prepare housing sites and, because of these funds, we are hopeful to have more than 40 units of affordable housing in Central Falls built on these sites!”

Town of Burrillville – $13,250 to assist the Town of Burrillville with planning to extend sewer and water infrastructure to service two industrially zoned parcels owned by the Town.

City of Central Falls – $30,000 to help make site-ready land donated to a developer for the construction of at least 20 units of housing. Funding would help make the site ready for development through survey, engineering, and design services.

City of Central Falls – $30,000 for the city to develop affordable housing on a newly acquired a parcel of land. The city will donate this land to a developer who will construct at least six units of affordable housing. Funding would help make the site ready for development through survey, engineering, and design services.

City of Central Falls – $30,000 to the Broad Street Economic Development Revitalization Plan to identify specific land use and programmatic strategies to spur the revitalization of Broad Street in Central Falls. Funding would go toward hiring a consultant to develop this plan, as well as how the land is currently being used, local economic trends, and an analysis of zoning ordinances.

Town of Glocester – $40,000 for a Public Water Feasibility Study for the Village of Chepachet to assess ways to bring potable water to the Village that currently does not have access to a reliable potable public source of drinking water.

Town of Middletown – $35,000 for Middletown to proceed with a redevelopment investigation and supplement matching private funding for evaluating site conditions, utilities, and traffic for a proposed mixed-use, mixed-income town center.

Providence Redevelopment Agency – $50,000 would assist in the design and engineering for the redevelopment of the Former Textile Machinery Finishing Company at 50 Sims Ave. in Providence. When completed, the space will be used as a creative hub for makers and small businesses.

Town of South Kingstown – $30,000 to organize a community process to update zoning and planning documents around two regions in the Town. Specifically, updates would include developing specific density standard, establish design criteria and performance standards for new construction, create regulations that will activate street frontage, increase walkability, and update permitting and encourage mixed-use development.

Town of Tiverton – $30,000 for a market assessment for their Business Park, to do water and sewer assessments, evaluate how to improve traffic flows, and provide recommendations and a plan to move the business park and Tiverton forward.

City of Woonsocket – $50,000 to purchase and install a 150KW backup generator and install commercial facade improvements to the Commercial Block Building on Woonsocket’s historic Main Street. A higher education facility will be located in the building and help drive traffic to downtown Woonsocket.

The Coletta Group, LLC – $50,000 to help purchase two parcels of land on Swan Street and Sayles Street in South Providence and to support the buildout of two new commercial buildings.

Heritage Place, LLC – $47,000 to conduct architectural and engineering predevelopment work, drive-thru updates, and retrofits, building preparations for new tenants, and fire code updates.

The Incred-A-Bowl Food Company – $10,000 for the build out of their building at 1075 South Broadway in East Providence which they purchased in November 2021. The building was a former meat market that they are looking to turn into a restaurant.

Research Instruments Corporation – $75,000 to enable the rapid expansion of their Optical/X-ray R&D Laboratories at One Richmond Square, where the company can accelerate engineering work involving their X-ray generation technology. Funds would enable build out of lab space.

Sterling Heritage Farms – $23,000 to finish perimeter surveys of their Portsmouth location, finalize engineering plans for the physical alteration permit for the farm entrance, create engineering plans and permit electrical and communication line upgrades, and construction of those upgrades.

TriSalus Life Sciences, Inc – $75,000 to help renovate and build out their lab buildings in Cranston, to efficiently start to build, and ultimately develop TriSalus infrastructure in the state so their offices, experts, and staff can be in close proximity.