NEWS

WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — A hotel slated to be built where an empty building currently stands on Jefferson Boulevard would hold 120 rooms and provide a direct connection to T.F. Green airport, Mayor Scott Avedisian said. The mayor announced the plan for a new Hyatt Place Hotel at his inauguration Tuesday night, and provided more details to Eyewitness News in an interview on Wednesday. He said 145 people would be hired for the construction of the hotel, and 40 permanent jobs would be created once it’s built. The property where the hotel will be built at 800 Jefferson Boulevard is owned by D’Ambra Construction, and the vacant building there will be demolished. “Whenever you can take an old asphalt and concrete plant and turn it around, and turn it into something income producing and really doing well, I think it’s good for us,” Mayor Avedisian said. The city needed more hotel rooms, according to the mayor. Last summer, the hotel occupancy rate was 96% on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. D’Ambra is slated to receive $1.3 million in tax incentives from the state’s Commerce Corporation, according to Gov. Gina Raimondo. “The hotel wouldn’t have been possible without that,” Raimondo said. “So for a million dollars we’ll have a new hotel, hundreds of jobs, vibrancy in Warwick.” Mayor Avedisian pointed out that the taxes accrued from the hotel to the city of Warwick will total $2.3 million over a period of 15 years, much more than the $800,000 the city would have brought in from the vacant building over that same period. “Unlike other agreements, it’s not no taxes–there are taxes every year,” Avedisian said. “We thought that was important, to show to the existing business community that we’re not just going to say ‘no taxes, come on in’.” A ground breaking for the hotel is expected later this month. http://wpri.com/2017/01/04/city-state-make-deal-to-bring-120-room-hotel-to-warwick/