Business
Business Roundup
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, March 17, 2007
WARREN — The Planning Board has wrapped up two months of hearings on the proposed redevelopment of the American Tourister complex with a decision to approve a master plan for what could be the largest residential project in the East Bay. The unanimous vote represents a significant and long-awaited step forward for the 350-condominium project, which has been tied up in meetings with the Planning Board since January. The approval, however, does not mean construction on the 16-acre property that fronts the Warren River can now start. Meredith Management Corp., the project developer, must still go back before the board for approval of a preliminary plan. And after that, the company would still require approval of its final plan. It must also receive variances from the Zoning Board, including one to put up three residential buildings on the southern end of the site that would exceed the town’s 35-foot height limit for new construction. Moreover, the decision is dependent on 26 conditions that must be met by Meredith Management. They range from standard stipulations, such as acquiring all necessary state and local approvals and putting together adequate water, sewer and drainage plans, to more detailed requirements, such as eliminating proposed garages on the site and considering adding more green space.
SWANSEA — A motorcycle business has gotten several residents of a Route 6 neighborhood revved up. They told the Board of Selectmen this week there is excessive noise emanating from Adrenaline Cycle on G.A.R. Highway, glare from lights and customers and employees who allegedly ride motorcycles at speeds well beyond the posted limit. The owner said he’s tried to accommodate neighbors’ concerns, admitting to some problems but describing some as of a lesser scale than some neighbors portrayed. The selectmen decided to have the police step up patrols, keeping a lookout for riders who speed or spin wheels to burn rubber. But selectmen also seized on the spirit of one neighbor’s offer to show the owner how to install soundproofing for about $2,000 to dampen a loud shop device. Selectmen chairman Joseph “Butch” Senna said he saw room for owner Justin Torres to cooperate with the neighborhood but also said neighbor Susan Travers had apparently been the only one to approach Torres. Senna urged everyone to “try to come to a solution together.” The selectmen made clear that if there was evidence of future problems, then there could be a more serious next step.
NARRAGANSETT — Last August, the Town Council said no when a local car dealership wanted to expand onto land that was earmarked as open space, citing concerns about traffic and the dealership’s unilateral decision to cut down trees on the open land. For that action, Flood Ford, at 21 Woodruff Ave., faces an ordinance violation charge in Municipal Court. But the dealership has not given up on its quest to expand. Next Tuesday, the Planning Board will consider a new proposal, one that town officials and Flood’s lawyer agree is similar to the one the council rejected. The key difference is in the plantings. Last year, the dealership planned to plant 18 deciduous trees, 12 evergreen trees and 50 winterberry bushes in the open space area between its expanded lot and Route 1. This year, it is proposing three deciduous trees and 44 arborvitae bushes, which would create a denser barrier. “We heard some things the last time around, that they didn’t want to see the parking lot from Route 1,” said Donald Packer, Flood’s lawyer. “So we went back to the drawing board.”
CHARLESTOWN — In an effort to prevent the proposed sale of 50 pristine acres near Watchaug Pond in Charlestown, Governor Carcieri has asked the state Department of Environmental Management to consider other “surplus land” the state could sell to come up with $3.4 million. Carcieri is proposing the sale amidst a series of cost-cutting initiatives to balance next fiscal year’s budget that has a projected $360-million deficit, said Jeff Neal, Carcieri’s spokesman. The land in question, once part of the Burlingame State Park, is administered by the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation & Hospitals as part of the Pastore Leisure Center. The land was purchased in 1934 through condemnation by the Metropolitan Parks Commission (predecessor of the DEM) to be preserved as open space. Neal said at the time that the budget proposal was made, the governor was unaware that the land in question “had originally been acquired for the purposes of open space.”
WARWICK — The attorney general’s office has given the Rhode Island Airport Corporation 45 days to comply with a law that requires it to install air monitors in and around the airport by Jan. 1 of this year. If temporary monitors are not installed by the deadline, the office says it will take legal action against the corporation. The air- monitor law was passed in 2004, and the independent state agency was given 2½ years to install permanent air monitors capable of screening for a variety of air pollutants. When the attorney general’s office learned last month that RIAC was ignoring the law, it demanded prompt compliance. When that didn’t happen, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch sent a letter to airport lawyers this week, imposing the new deadline. Patti Goldstein, the airport corporation’s spokeswoman and vice president of air service marketing, confirmed that the agency is aware of the order said it respects the attorney general’s opinion. “It was never a question of whether we would comply with the legislation, it was always a question of when and we will certainly abide by the attorney general’s directive,” Goldstein said.
CUMBERLAND — Riverside Village, an apartment building for the elderly and disabled, is undergoing a $2.5-million renovation of all its living quarters – the first significant interior work on the 28-year-old complex – that its new owners say will not interfere with residents’ daily activities. When it is completed, the 10-month project will bring the building up to state fire-code standards and give it “less of an institutional feel,” all without raising rents, according to Peter Bouchard, executive director of the Cumberland Housing Authority and Valley Affordable Housing. The housing authority, a federally financed agency that also owns One Mendon Rd., sold the 88-unit Riverside building on Jan. 30 for $4.42 million to Valley, a nonprofit organization that owns Jenks Woods Apartments (located behind Riverside) and renovated mill housing developments in the village of Berkeley and Valley Falls. Valley Affordable Housing was created by Bouchard and members of the housing authority board of directors in 1995 as the federal government was moving away from producing housing developments in favor of awarding grants to nonprofit organizations to do that work, said Joseph A. Lamagna, chairman of the organization’s board of directors and a member of the Housing Authority board.
The Kent County Water Authority is asking its customers to restrict outside water use and conserve water in their homes and businesses while maintenance is being done on a key water tank in West Greenwich through June. “It’s beginning to fail on the inside, and on the outside you can see the metal,” said the agency’s general manager, Timothy J. Brown. “By recoating it, we’ll be giving it another 20 years [of service].” Crews from Rockwood Corp., in Lyons Falls, N.Y., have begun erecting scaffolding around the storage tank, in Technology Park, which is home to Amgen Inc., Brown said. Over the next few weeks, crews will begin sandblasting the old paint from the tank. Once the tank is down to bare metal, Brown said, the entire outside and the interior pedestal of the tank will be painted again. Already the tank has been drained to keep water from condensing on the surface and hindering the painting, Brown said. The water has been transferred to another tank and the 5,000 customers throughout the region who normally rely on the Technology Park tank will now be served by only that tank.
HOPKINTON — Out with the old and in with the new. That was the approach members of the ad hoc rezoning committee reviewing the use table for Route 95’s Exit 1 took this week as they considered proposals to bar some uses in the new development zone and assign special permit requirements in others. Sawmills may have been a way of life in the old Hopkinton — the town even named a road after them — but in the new high tech-minded Hopkinton vying for high-paying jobs, sawmills are just a way of the past, better seen elsewhere than in the town’s prime Exit 1 area. “The vision that I have in my head is not lumber yard,” Town Planner Ashley V. Hahn said. That was one of the permitted uses in an earlier draft the panel assembled. The committee envisions four new zones: tech-campus, office mixed-use, village mixed-use and residential, and is working on assigning uses to those proposed zones. Its final package of proposals will be submitted first to the Planning Board and later to the Town Council.
JAMESTOWN — An improved bond rating has put Jamestown in a select group of Rhode Island communities that can claim high grades from Moody’s Investors Service, one of the major rating agencies for municipal bonds. The upgrade from A1 to Aa3 makes Jamestown one of just nine communities to carry a “double A” rating from Moody’s, and it means that the town will pay less interest on the money it is borrowing to build a new Town Hall, Town Administrator Bruce Keiser says. In a $3.3-million bond sale to pay for the Town Hall project, the town obtained a 3.99-percent interest rate — better than the 4.5 percent Keiser predicted earlier this week. With the lower rate, the town will save about $15,000 a year over the life of the 20-year loan, he said. Keiser attributed the upgrade to several factors: good fiscal management, conservative budgets, high property values, new home construction, investments in existing structures, and the town’s healthy reserve fund. At $3.2 million, the fund equals about 18 percent of the budget, he said. The Aa3 rating is fourth-highest in Moody’s 21-point system. Five other Rhode Island communities have it, according to a statewide list: Lincoln, Middletown, Newport, North Kingstown and Scituate. Three communities are a grade higher, at Aa2: Barrington, East Greenwich and South Kingstown. The “double A” ratings are considered to be high grade, while the A1 rating that Jamestown had is considered upper medium grade.
 | The best cup of coffee: It's all about the roast |
 | Sweeping views and luxurious lifestyle at The Tower at Carnegie Abbey in Portsmouth |
 | Riding the rails of the Providence and Worcester Railroad |
|
More business stories
R.I.’s small-batch coffee roasters doing well despite recession
Most Viewed Yesterday
Senate commission to study marijuana decriminalization
Jury awards Roger Williams hospital patient $3.9 million
Supporters of state name change poised to woo voters’ support
Most active surveys
Why do you think Sarah Palin is prematurely stepping down as Alaska's governor?
How is this weather affecting you?
Should marijuana be decriminalized and taxed?
If the election for governor was held today, who would you vote for?
Most e-mailed in the last 24 hours
Reader Reaction
You must be logged in to contribute. Log in | Register Now!
You are logged in as screenname | Log Out
You are logged in, but do not have a "screen" name. Create a Screen Name