A group of commercial property owners on Thayer Street petitioned the city of Providence Oct. 13 to create a Thayer Street Management District and a district management authority. If approved by the City Council, the management district - known as a Business Improvement District or BID in most other states - will oversee $750,000 in initial capital improvements to Thayer Street and collect funds from owners of 37 commercial properties through special tax assessments to maintain those improvements in the future.
The improvements will include new lighting, sidewalk replacement and repair, drainage remediation, additional trees, litter pick-up, graffiti removal and other aesthetic initiatives, according to a press release. If approved, the TSMD will serve a purpose nearly identical to that of the Downtown Improvement District, which has generated positive feedback after the city implemented it in 2004.
The petition contains signatures from owners of 71.3 percent of commercial property in the proposed district, which spans from Waterman Street to Bowen Street and includes properties on and near Thayer Street. The petition will first be addressed at the City Council docket meeting Oct. 20, after which it must be referred to the council's Ordinance Committee and withstand a 30-day comment period before it can be approved, according to Eunice Stetson, second deputy clerk at the city clerk's office.
After the petition is approved, work on Thayer Street could begin next spring, continuing through the summer to have a "big visual impact by the time students come back next fall," said Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations.
The $750,000 for these improvements was originally secured in the spring of 2003, when a coalition including the University, the city of Providence and the 10 largest Thayer Street property owners established the Thayer Street Improvement District. Brown promised $350,000 and the city promised a $400,000 street improvement bond for the Improvement District's "ambitious plan to revitalize Thayer Street," according to a May 2003 press release announcing its formation.
The TSID formed after more than a year of research, needs assessment and the development of a potential management program for Thayer Street by a New York redevelopment firm. In July 2004, the TSID contracted Gates, Leighton and Associates, an East Providence landscape architecture firm, to revise plans for improvements and create new ones. The original plans included not only capital improvements, but also an increased security and police force, a commercial parking provider to help increase parking capacity and aesthetic touches such as a "common news box program" and "more attractive trash cans," according to the May press release.
In addition to the promised contributions from the Univer-sity and the city, the TSID initially counted on Thayer Street property owners to contribute a voluntary fee to the capital improvement plan based on the square footage of their property. These voluntary contributions were intended to ensure the maintenance of the capital improvements, a condition the University and the city demanded be met before the improvement plan could proceed.
A "meaningful" portion of Thayer Street property owners - including Brown - have contributed their suggested capital improvement fees for the last two years, said Stephen Lewinstein, TSID chairman. Lewinstein has owned property on Thayer Street for 12 years, since he constructed the building that currently houses Oop in 1993.
Funds contributed by property owners in the last two years were focused primarily on hiring a private security firm to coordinate patrol efforts on Thayer Street with the University and Providence police departments. They also paid to hire the consulting and landscape firms and for some graffiti removal and street cleaning services. But some property owners contributed nothing.
"We were not getting as strong a participation as we would have liked - it just wasn't working to the extent that we felt it had to in order to make this successful," Lewinstein said. "Brown made it clear from the outset that they wanted to make a commitment to satisfy the budget that would keep these improvements in place, and they weren't willing to release those funds until we had that commitment (from all parties)," he said.
Looking ahead
If the petition is passed by the City Council, commercial property owners will be obligated by law to contribute money to the upkeep of Thayer Street. The tax imposed on property owners will be no more than 5 percent of the real estate tax required by the city and specifically allocated to the management district.
The fact that the capital improvement plan is not underway even though the TSID was created two and a half years ago is not surprising, according to Chapman.
"In terms of the normal amount of time it takes to get something like this done, three years is not very long," he said. "It takes a long time to get everybody organized. It's generally easier to get things done if you have a structure to do (them) in."
Lewinstein, however, said he believes the long delay could have been avoided had property owners been more willing to participate. He added that he wanted to avoid the formation of a district management authority and would have preferred if the process had proceeded on a voluntary basis.
"In my opinion, it's always better if you can do it voluntarily, rather than through regulation or statute or (legislation)," Lewinstein said. "We were trying to see if (the TSID) could work without a legislative process - we were giving it every chance to succeed and giving everybody a chance to participate."
"Business improvement districts around the country are having a lot of success," said Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services. "Everyone knows Thayer Street has been under some pressure because of changes in retail industry - it's changed what the neighborhood really needs to be in order to be successful. The real issue for Thayer Street is to define what's different about it from the (Providence Place Mall)," she said.
The potential Thayer Street Management District would make decisions based on input from the University, the city of Providence, property owners and one merchant representative.
"(Merchants) will have a lot of influence in terms of communicating to us about what the street needs (in order) to become a better shopping district," Lewinstein said.
For some merchants, this potential to influence the Thayer Street improvement process is not compensation enough for the increases in rent they may face as a result of property owners' new additional tax.
"They're raising rents so much that nobody can make money, and meanwhile Brown owns half of Providence and barely pays any taxes," said Steven Beattie of Pie in the Sky. "We're paying for it."
Beattie was skeptical about how much the TSMD can accomplish. "They say they're doing it but nothing ever happens," he said. "We just ignore it now because nothing's changed."
He said there are certain concerns that should come before aesthetic improvements, including parking, traffic flow and a proliferation of street vendors.
"Am I concerned about the sidewalks?" he asked. "I don't know. What's wrong with them? Direct the flow of traffic around here. There's no parking."
