The Rhode Island Senate voted Monday night to confirm Gov. Lincoln Chafee's '75 P'14 nominees to the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission. Real estate developer Colin Kane will serve as chair of the committee, which will include Barrett Bready '99 MD'03, Barbara Hunger, Diana Johnson MA'71, John Kelly, Mark Ryan and Michael Van Leesten.
The committee is charged with the task of allocating the land made available by the relocation of I-195. The University has expressed interest in developing the land.
Bready, an adjunct professor at Alpert Medical School and president and CEO of the biotechnology company NABsys Inc., stressed the commission's potential. "It's not what we are," he told state senators. "It's what we can be."
The new land could put the state "on the verge of technological boom," he added, suggesting that the development focus on encouraging research in the life sciences. The state's political leaders have pointed to the land — more than 40 acres in Providence's Jewelry District — as an engine for much-needed economic growth.
