GoLocal Editorial: Taveras Makes a Great Investment in Bennett
Monday, August 15, 2011
The appointment of Jim Bennett as Providence’s economic director is smart business and a good indication that Mayor Angel Taveras is developing the skills as a smart CEO. Bennett is a former GOP candidate for Governor who has an extensive and successful track record as a business builder and job creator.
Bennett is the youngest of the well-known hockey-playing brothers who grew up in Cranston. He graduated from Brown, played pro hockey, had success in financial services and then created a series of successful companies in Rhode Island – each creating high-paying jobs.
The appointment of Bennett is bold and it breaks the mold. He is a Republican, lives in Narragansett, is pro-business and may be the anti-bureaucrat.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBennett is known for his salesmanship and self-deprecation and has proven to be effective in building teams and momentum in business. He can be the salesman to go to Boston, New York and beyond to attract business to the city.
Moreover, he will bring a business acumen to the administration’s inner sanctum and give the Mayor a balanced approach to governance. Providence suffers from one of the most dire unemployment rates in the country, a tax rate for businesses that is the highest in the state and a financial district in need of new vision.
It has been decades since the city had a pure economic development director, and the assets that can be harnessed are nearly limitless. With the arrival of 38 Studios and Hasbro, there is real opportunity to build on a creative, technology-driven momentum.
With the freeing of the 195-corridor land, Providence and the state have the opportunity to create a game-changing vision for the region. This is a vision that should create thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue. If you need reference points, take a look at Draper Labs project in Cambridge or the sphere of spin-off next to MIT. These are economic, taxable job creating springboards for the Boston metro area.
Even the financial district, with its depressed rents due to vacancies, is an opportunity to transform the embarrassing vacant lot adjacent to the Turks Head building and the equally embarrassing shuttered Arcade into a center for commerce. Smart companies with exploding worker needs can be attracted, but not by accident—it will take leadership and strategy.
Parking continues to be a plague to attracting businesses downtown and while Providence’s need for revenue is desperate, the lack of municipal parking options coupled with the new draconian parking policy are barriers to growth. Bennett, no doubt, will bring a fresh perspective to this conflict.
{image_4}Lastly, Bennett will have no patience for Providence's arcane regulatory process. The process today requires developers to go to a range of departments and suffer through a nonsensical plethora of regulatory steps. It's become a process that puts Providence decades behind the cities it competes with. Expect Bennett to clean this up and streamline in favor of attracting investment and tenancy.
GoLocal lauds Mayor Taveras for the Bennett appointment. Bennett will be a good mix of hockey scrappiness; entrepreneurial spirit; and buoyant salesmanship. All three look to serve the city of Providence well.
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