In 2024, the local business world faced some changes and new growth.
From hundreds of layoffs at CVS to the Washington Bridge closure’s rapid impact on East Bay businesses to the opening of a new Amazon distribution center in Johnston, here are some of the year’s biggest economic development stories.
Providence Place Mall’s woes
Providence Place, the city mall that opened to much fanfare in 1999 as a triumphant return to downtown retail shopping, is on hold as its lead lender claims in court papers that the mall’s management company has a $259 million loan balance. , placed in receivership.
In receivership, a court appoints an independent “receiver” or receiver to oversee a troubled company’s operations, giving it significant discretion to secure outstanding balances from creditors, including the sale of assets. .
MORE: What does the future hold for Providence Place Mall? Here are the changes coming.
Hasbro considers moving to Massachusetts
Massachusetts’ efforts to woo Hasbro across state lines all began with an April 3 dinner.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cox met with Bay State Economic Development Administrator Yvonne Hao. They talked about the toys and games they had as kids and how many they still had at home.
But even before that meeting, Pawtucket-based Hasbro already had potential locations in mind for its new headquarters in the Boston metropolitan area, according to emails between the company and Massachusetts officials. It is suggested that it was placed in
After the July 22 meeting, Massachusetts officials sent Hasbro a summary of the incentives available to the company. That summary was not initially included in the email, but was subsequently sent and is available here.
But that’s not the only way Hasbro has made headlines. Speculation that Elon Musk might be interested in acquiring the company increased after Elon Musk posted a post asking X how much a deal would cost. The question of how much it would cost Musk to buy Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast, came after Musk tweeted that his artificial intelligence company xAI was planning to launch a video game studio. Ta. Hasbro owns and publishes Dungeons & Dragons.
More: Tax trading and late-night Scrabble: How MA tried to convince Hasbro to come to Boston
Mark Patinkin’s Opinion: An Open Letter to Hasbro – Forget Boston, Stay in RI. Here’s how:
Stop & Shop announces store closures
Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize announced in May that it would close unprofitable stores, including Eastside Marketplace in Providence.
Stop & Shop stores in Rhode Island have reduced prices on about 3,500 items each day at each store, new president Roger Wheeler, who has been in the job for about a week, told the Providence Journal in an exclusive interview in October.
“We don’t want to be known for always having the highest price,” Wheeler said.
Read more: Stop & Shop is trying to win back customers. This is their strategy.
Citizens Bank hints at withdrawal from RI
Effective Jan. 1, Massachusetts’ decision to join the ranks of states that calculate bank taxes based on a single factor (net income generated within the state) rather than multiple factors such as payroll and assets means that Citizens It was a factor in the bank considering a statewide transition. border.
Rhode Island taxes banks based on three factors, and residents say the company, which is headquartered in a sprawling back-office complex in Johnston and has many brick-and-mortar locations, will be penalized. He claimed that
Mike Knipper, Citizens’ executive vice president, said Rhode Island’s tax system seriously threatens the bank’s “long-standing commitment to the state” and that it “motivated us to move at least some operations to Massachusetts.” “It has become,” he wrote.
But in June, House Speaker K. announced an agreement to support financial companies with
Providence-based Citizens, which opened a sprawling $285 million office campus in Johnston in 2018, fits that description and is the only company to publicly lobby for the change.
Lifespan rebrands as Brown University Health
Lifespan, Rhode Island’s largest health system and the state’s largest employer, rebranded to Brown University Health this year.
Lifespan and Brown University’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine have had a long-standing partnership, sharing the teaching of medical students and the staff who work at Lifespan’s hospitals.
The rebranding is part of a series of collaboration agreements between Lifespan and Braun that include mutual financial investments, with both companies remaining independent and independent entities.
More information: Lifespan rebrands as Brown University Health as part of new deal
CVS announces layoffs
CVS Health announced in early December that it would cut an additional 796 jobs between the end of January and early February, which appears to be part of an announced plan to cut a total of 2,900 jobs.
The total of 796 layoffs represents 27% of the 2,900 unemployed. Erin Ridge, senior vice president for human resources, said in the letter that the “facility,” meaning the company’s corporate locations in Cumberland and Woonsocket, has 12 employees, with the remaining 784 jobs located in other states. said the people.
The total number of announced job cuts was 2,900, with 632 people “selected for redundancy” by December 2024, 153 of whom “work in facilities”.
In October, CVS replaced CEO Karen Lynch with David Joyner, who had been president of CVS Caremark, the company’s benefits manager.
Amazon fulfillment center opens in Johnston
Giant Amazon distribution facilities have begun delivering goods across the state.
However, the facility will not reach full operating capacity for some time as the company continues to hire to fill more roles. Once fully operational, the site will employ 1,500 people. That’s more than the entire full-time population of Block Island (estimated at 1,400 people).
There is a large parking lot in front of the building with 1,800 spaces, and a large space in the back with more than 60 semi-trailer docks and more than 200 spaces for trailers.
The minimum wage for Amazon workers is $17 an hour, but the average wage is $20.50 an hour. There are “hundreds” of job types.
Details: Amazon’s vast Johnston fulfillment center opens
We are looking for electric boats
Submarine builder General Dynamics Electric Boat said in February it plans to hire more than 5,000 people in 2024, including 1,900 at its Rhode Island shipyard at Quonset Point, as construction of its Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines ramps up. announced plans to do so.
The Columbia project currently rivals the amount of work being done on the electric boats of the Virginia-class attack submarines. Together, the two programs account for 80 percent of the submarine construction company’s work.
More information: Electric boats to increase jobs in RI. What’s behind the continued growth?
Chartners has given the go-ahead to build a giant greenhouse.
After years of shock, awe, opposition and, ultimately, cooperation, farmer Tim Schertner has received the necessary approval from Exeter city officials to resume construction on his massive 25-acre greenhouse. Approved.
The Town Planning Commission unanimously approved Schartner’s plan for an $80 million venture into the future of agriculture this fall, provided he meets the commission’s final few stipulations in the coming months. Approved.
These conditions include tweaking the interior design to accommodate fire safety concerns for employees working within the huge mall-sized space, and purchasing one of the three sites where the project will be located. (currently under agreement), and obtaining aviation permits for gas-fired power generators. Received an award from the state Department of Environmental Management.
MORE: ‘This is a big deal’: This giant shopping mall-sized greenhouse just got the green light for construction.
