Starting Monday, College Hill residents will notice increased activity on Thayer Street as construction crews begin repairing sidewalks, stamping fresh crosswalks and landscaping the area. These changes and repairs will be the first tangible results of a four-year effort by the Thayer Street District Management Authority to improve and revitalize one of the East Side's main shopping boulevards.
The University, the City of Providence and Thayer's 10 largest property owners banded together nearly four years ago to create the TSDMA, hoping to fund redevelopment and maintenance of the street and surrounding area through voluntary donations.
"The whole idea of improving Thayer was going to be based on voluntary contributions. Over time, it became clear that to make it really succeed, a (district management authority) petition would be necessary," Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations, told The Herald in February.
A district management authority - known as a business improvement district in many other states - is provided with special powers normally reserved for government bodies, such as the power to tax, maintain public utilities, construct public infrastructure and perform landscaping.
On Jan. 5, the City Council approved the DMA, allowing commercial property owners to levy a tax of up to 5 percent on themselves to renovate and maintain Thayer Street. The DMA board is responsible for setting the exact level of the extra tax, allocating funds and managing individual projects, in addition to creating an overall plan for revitalizing Thayer Street.
Nine months later, local merchants seem generally optimistic about the changes.
According to Hillary Monahan, owner of La Femme Boutique and Thayer Street merchants' representative on the DMA, sidewalk repairs and crosswalk stamping will begin Sept. 25 and be completed by November. Landscaping and the replacement of waste receptacles will wait until spring, she said.
One store owner, who asked not to be named, said he had been told the blocks surrounding Thayer would also be repaired in the next few months.
"My main concern is that all summer long, when there's not as much business, no work is being done, but as students return, and come Christmas, when we're really busy, they'll be ripping up sidewalks," said Ann Dusseault, owner of Pie in the Sky, a novelty and gift shop located at 225 Thayer St.
According to Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services and one of the University's two representatives on the DMA's board, funds will also be allocated for security, litter removal, improvement to retailers' facades and other general maintenance.
"Overall, the look is going to be different. I think it will be much nicer," said Nick Makris, manager of Andreas, a restaurant located at 268 Thayer St.
In addition to the tax revenue on its commercial properties, the University originally contributed $350,000 to the DMA, and the city contributed $400,000 in bond revenues, according to Chapman.
The donations from the University and the city will fund the initial capital improvements. The DMA's tax revenues will pay for maintenance of those improvements - an annual cost of $60,000, Chapman said.
Several merchants said they were pleased with the University's desire to clean up Thayer Street, both by funding capital improvements and playing a key role in establishing the DMA.
Monahan said the DMA, which meets the second Tuesday of every month, had to revise its plans to accommodate the available budget.
"Our one regret is that we won't be able to afford putting utilities underground along all of Thayer," said Andrew Mitrelis, founder of Andreas and owner of the properties occupied by Spats, at 184 Angell St., and Paragon, at 234 Thayer St.
"It's been going slower than we wanted," Makris said.
According to Monahan, the DMA has hired a construction company and is simply waiting for the city to release the funds. The funds are in place, she said, but have to be paid out.
Makris was familiar with the DMA's plans for the area and said, as a merchant, he believed he was being listened to. But Dusseault said she hasn't heard much in the past year about any plans beyond redoing sidewalks.
"We had a couple of merchants' meetings. Urban planners and the architect showed up to ask for feedback and explain what they wanted to do. Unfortunately, turnout was not very good," Monahan said. University administrators had taken responsibility for organizing those meetings, she said.
"Ultimately, the stakeholders who are paying the special tax assessment for these services will vote as to whether they think the DMA is effective or not. According to (Rhode Island) law, in three years the DMA has to renew its 'charter,'" Rider wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "If in three years' time these owners feel that they have not received good value for the money, it will be difficult to obtain such resounding support again."
Rider said 60 percent of the commercial property owners along Thayer Street had to support the DMA for it to receive the City Council's approval. Ultimately, 70 percent approved the DMA.
In addition to physical improvements, the DMA plans to survey owners, merchants, shoppers and neighbors of Thayer Street stores to evaluate how their perception of Thayer Street is changing, Rider said.
One of the main concerns when the 5-percent tax was first authorized was that rising rents would put a crunch on storeowners along Thayer Street. But it remains unclear to what extent the extra expense is being passed from landlords to tenants.
"I would guess many people are in the middle of their lease, so they aren't feeling the change yet," Monahan said.
Makris said he doesn't think his rent has gone up in response to the new tax.
"Every time the taxes go up, it eventually gets put on (merchants)," said Dusseault, "but right now rent is continuing to rise at a set percentage."
Mitrelis said he tries to be very careful about not raising rent for his tenants more than the inflation rate.
Mitrelis first opened a restaurant on Thayer Street in 1966 and has been a business and property owner there ever since. "I've been here 40 years, so I don't know if I'll notice the changes. We've had a lot of changes, and I don't always notice the surprises anymore," he said. "Everything takes time."
"I hope these changes do bring in more people, but issues like parking are always going to be more important than sidewalks. If people can't park, it's going to keep them off the street," Monahan said.
"The district management authority is not set up to solve the parking problems on Thayer Street. So we plan to go ahead with capital improvements regardless of the parking situation," Chapman told The Herald Tuesday. "But the University realizes that parking is going to remain a large issue for us to solve over the next few years."
Mitrelis said, though, that he considers updating Thayer essential. "We cannot afford to become complacent. We have to keep re-inventing ourselves."
