Cranston Business Base Takes a Big Hit

Cranston Business Base Takes a Big Hit

The City of Cranston is in flux. Two major restaurant anchors at Chapel View are out, and Citizens Bank announced this week that its new corporate campus will be moving to Johnston — and it will be taking the currently 2,600 jobs in the city along with it. 

Both Ted’s Montana Grill and Bonefish Grill announced their departures last month from Chapel View, which is owned by The Carpionato Group, following the closure of Tea and Javas at the complex earlier in the year. 

“Ted’s and Bonefish were new to the Rhode Island market, and you know how competitive the Rhode Island restaurant industry is,” said Gregg Perry for The Carpionato Group. “Sometimes you can have a great product and it doesn’t take hold, which is what we thought happened with both of those. Bonefish closed fourteen other locations. And Bonefish’s parent company has a long-term lease [at Chapel View], so they have to get someone in.”

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On Wednesday, Citizens Bank — owned as well by Carpionato at their headquarters in Cranston — announced that they will be moving to Johnston when the Cranston lease is up in 2018. 

"Cranston is proud to have been home to the Citizens Bank operations facility in our city for many years.  We did try to work with Citizens to bring more of their employees into the city, but unfortunately we simply could not offer the space and setting that they were seeking," said Cranston Mayor Allan Fung.

"Their new facility is planned to be located just over the city line, only minutes from the heart of Cranston and all of the stores, services and restaurants we have to offer.  With thousands more employees located so close by, this move may have a long-term economic benefit for Cranston," said Fung. "Also, hundreds of Cranston residents work for Citizens Bank and we are pleased that they will remain very close to home.  We also welcome employees who will be relocated from Warwick and East Providence to move into Cranston and enjoy the great quality of life that our city has to offer."

Mixed Reaction

Democratic Mayoral candidate Michael Sepe, who is running against incumbent Republican Mayor Fung this year, took aim at the city’s chief executive, however. 

“Allan Fung was at all the grand openings Where is he now, now that they're all moving out?” asked Sepe. “We just lost 2600 jobs to Johnston.”

“It shouldn’t be Mayors taking the credit for the businesses at Chapel View, or Garden City, who's been around a lot longer than we have,” said Sepe.  “But I do think a lot of places are feeling the effect of the [state] police report.  I hear people say we won't drive through Cranston, I don’t want to get a ticket, that type of thing.”

Steve Boyle with the Cranston Chamber of Commerce said that he just heard on Friday of a new development slated to come to Chapel View — and said he is bullish on the city’s ability to rebound. 

“Obviously, we would have liked Citizens to stay, but these are corporate decisions,  and I know the city worked hard to keep them here, but there just wasn’t a property in Cranston to meet their needs,” said Boyle.   

“Same thing goes for Ted Montana’s and Bonefish, who had said sales were down 5.4%, and I believe that they’re closing multiple locations,” said Boyle. “Look, we learned this with Linens and Things and Circuit City [leaving Garden City]. Every door that closes, another one opens.  I’m hearing a fitness place is going in at Chapel View.  And I just heard today, in fact, that Bank Newport is opening a 2700 feet facility next to the location where Panera is here.”

“Carpionato’s phenomenal, I’m not concerned with anything staying vacant for long,” said Boyle. "You need to take a longer term view — some things are out of control.”

Democratic City Councilman Paul Archetto said Friday that he thought that the city “could have tried harder” to keep Citizens — and the 2,600 jobs. 

“I don't know if Johnson had some special enterprise zone or tax Incentives. I'm sure they dangled a carrot," said Archetto. "Mayor [Fung] and the administration should have prior to the sale [of the new Citizens campus in Johnston] should have tried to give Citizens a better deal somewhere in Cranston.  I think he dropped the ball."

Sepe said he had concerns for the economic impact of the loss of Citizens, contrary to Fung's assessment.

"I heard Polisena said $250,000 is coming into the town there. We could lose $250,000 to $300,000 in economic impact just by losing those folks," said Sepe. "2018 is not that far away, we're already in 2016, then after the election you're in 2017.  Johnston is a building town, and has a good image, and I don't think Cranston does right now."