LEAD STORY
Positive Outlook for Rhode Island Economy
When officials at TD Bank N.A., which operates in 12 states and Washington D.C., and is based in Portland, Maine, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, announced plans more than a year ago to enter the Rhode Island market, there was plenty of fodder for pessimists. After all, many existing banking players had been firmly established in a state with only a million people. Unemployment was at an all-time high.
It hardly seemed the ideal place for a bank to expand.
But the $140 billion bank, one of the nation’s largest, had found success in every other New England state, as well as New York and New Jersey. In January of 2010, Fred Graziano, head of retail banking at TD Bank, called Rhode Island “a natural extension of our existing footprint.” He said the Ocean State provided “great opportunities to grow our franchise.”
Graziano and his colleagues at TD Bank were right.
A year later, it appears that in seeing the proverbial glass as half-full, TD Bank has made a sound investment in Rhode Island. In the coming weeks, in fact, the bank will further expand its imprint here. Following the success the bank has had with its initial store on County Road in Barrington, new TD Bank stores are scheduled to open in early 2011.
Robert Kolb, of South Kingstown, is Rhode Island market president for TD Bank. Kolb said TD Bank has found in the Rhode Island market, a perfect fit.
“We saw an opportunity here,” he said.
What they saw specifically, said Kolb, was a market where people would respond to the bank’s calling card, customer service. Rhode Islanders, they correctly figured, like the personal touch. And so the long retail banking hours, free Penny Arcade coin-counting machines and treats for kids and dogs, have worked.
“The response has been just incredible,” said Kolb. “With our customer service…we’re a little over the top. But people are tired and they are looking to feel good when they walk into their bank.”
‘A great place to do business’
That TD Bank has enjoyed a successful entry into the Rhode Island market comes as no surprise to Ray Thomas, associate director of the John H. Chafee Center for International Business/Rhode Island Export Assistance Center at Bryant University.
“This state has a lot of strengths in a lot of different areas,” said Thomas.
For Thomas, that’s not just rhetoric.
“I remember Ray Fogarty (the center’s long-time director) and I sitting down and talking about the positive things Rhode Island had going for it,” he said.
They were tired of hearing people accentuating the negative. Fogarty suggested they write down 10 things about which Rhode Island’s business community could boast. It didn’t take them long. That list turned to 20 – and then 25. It then became a full-blown project, resulting in a thick document called “Rhode Island Ranks High.” It is a detailed, carefully sourced study that examines a wide range of economic categories, including: business climate; economic incentives and policies; technology and energy environment; health and safety; higher education; and lifestyle and entertainment.
Its findings detail a state that on many levels ranks closer to the top of national rankings than most people may think. Among the study’s highlights:
Rhode Island has the highest research and development tax credit – 22.5 percent – in the country.
Rhode Island ranks #11 in the U.S. in “new economy” index, based on statistics such as creating and keeping high wage jobs.
Rhode Island ranked in the top 10 in retail growth in 2010.
“This state has a lot of strengths in a lot of different areas,” said Thomas. “It is a great place to live, and a great place to do business, as well. A big factor in doing business is having people happy about where they live.”
Thomas points to the Quonset Point Business Park, where job numbers have steadily risen. In fact, the park has seen 2,700 new jobs created over the past five years. Today, some 168 companies employ nearly 9,000 people there.
Porsche finds efficiency at Quonset
Among the new players at Quonset is Porsche Cars of North America. In the fall of 2010, the exclusive importer of Porsche vehicles for the United States moved its operations to the Port of Davisville from the Port of Baltimore. Every year, approximately 11,000 Porsches will arrive at Davisville before being shipped to dealerships throughout the Northeast.
“The Port of Davisville represents one of the country’s top facilities,” said Justin Newell, the company’s manager of vehicle logistics, in a press release. “From an efficiency standpoint, it is perhaps one of the best roll-on-roll-off ports in the industry, and exclusively handles automobile shipments.”
The Quonset Business Park has attracted the attention of newly elected Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who is promising to make it a centerpiece of his job creation efforts.
“The millions of dollars of private sector investment at Quonset means that the market is endorsing what they’re doing there,” Chafee said after touring the park earlier this year. “I’ll work with the Quonset Development Corporation to build on their success, particularly with the possibility of attracting jobs related to the fast growing ‘green economy.’
Bryant’s Thomas said the “Rhode Island Ranks High” study also reiterated some of those attributes that have been traditionally identified as economic high points.
“We’ve got a great airport, a great transportation hub,” he said. “And our health care…”
Thomas said the Export Assistance Center will continue to produce and update the “Rhode Island Ranks High” study. What may be most encouraging, he said, is the state’s potential to build on recent accomplishments.
“We can do better – and we are doing better,” he said.
A knowledge-based economy
Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce echoes the themes trumpeted by Thomas and Fogarty at the Export Assistance Center. She too, sees positive signs on the Rhode Island job front. For example, she said, the state has emerged as a leader in terms of promoting a knowledge-based economy.
Historically, said White, our economy was a maritime economy that capitalized on its natural resources. Rhode Island then reinvented itself as a leader in the Industrial Revolution. And today, Rhode Island is again at the forefront of economic change.
“There is a focus on the knowledge-based economy and that is a move that plays to our strengths. Now it is about taking information and making something of it. We have so many great institutions of higher learning. We have such a rich base upon which to draw.”
Moving forward, said White, it is critical that the state continues to create a climate attractive to the young talent it is producing. She points to U.S. Census statistics that show employment growth is most prominent in new companies. The recipe for success, it would seem, is in place. Now it is about adding ingredients.
That work has started. Bryant’s Thomas referenced significant changes coming out of the General Assembly during the last session, as did White. Personal Income Tax guidelines have become competitive – and the accounting community has been at the forefront of successful lobbying efforts.
“A lot of stellar work was done,” said White. “And the accountancy community has been an important cog in that wheel. They’ve put in long hours, getting up to the General Assembly to testify. It is a difficult task and it is time consuming. But it has been so very important.”
