EDITORIAL: Elorza Just Posted a Sign — Closed to Business

EDITORIAL: Elorza Just Posted a Sign — Closed to Business

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza has made it loud and clear. Providence does not want outside investment.

After the Providence City Council overrode Elorza's veto of the zoning change for Jason Fane's proposed 46 story tower, the Mayor lashed out. 

In a fit of frustration, Elorza insulted New York developer Fane and sent the message that private investments will be ridiculed. Sadly, it was not an emotional verbal utterance, it was a prepared statement.

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"As a city, we will not bend to the wishes of multi-millionaires who seek to change the rules for their own benefit, who seek to take advantage of every subsidy and benefit they can grab and yet who fail to consider the interests of the local community,” said Elorza in his statement after the council overrode the veto and moved the project forward.

Starting in December 2016, Fane — a man of tremendous personal wealth and an experienced developer  — arrived in Providence and announced that he wanted to build a significant residential development.

To date, the Mayor has bungled, delayed, and now insulted the project and the developer.

The Mayor’s words might have some credibility if he did not suck-up local developer donations like a vacuum.

As GoLocal reported in October, “One of Providence’s biggest developers and major Elorza donor Buff Chace is leading the charge against the Fane project. Some say Chace does not want competition for the high rent tenants. The Chace family has donated more than $33,000 to Elorza and members of Chace’s firm Cornish Associates have donated thousands more. Chace's company owns many of the apartment complexes on Westminster Street and those projects have received tens of millions in taxpayer subsidies ranging from federal and state tax credits to tax stabilization agreements.”

Maybe Elorza’s objection is not with millionaires that want to change the rules for their own benefits, but how much they funnel to his coffers along the way.

To date, Fane and his sister have combined only donated $1,000 to Elorza — a mere pittance compared to the Chace’s heap of money and not including Chace’s lawyers and other agents.

Everyone knows that the development now taking place in the city has derived from Commerce RI -- not the City of Providence. Moreover, let us be realistic -- some hotels and apartment building is the norm and hardly a boom. Most of those projects are nearing completion, so what is next?

Regardless, developers in New York and Boston have heard the message clearly — keep your vision, your investments, and our jobs — we don’t want them. Heck, we have giving meters.