Rhode Islanders are mourning the loss of a leading manufacturer, Hasbro, which yesterday announced its departure from Pawtucket to Boston. Hasbro will share space in an ugly building (see photograph above), owned by WS Development, typical of Beantown’s Seaport District, which has nothing to do with the sea or with ports. The new address will be 400 Summer St, The building’s owner is WS Development, which also owns the Newport Ceamery in Cranston’s Garden City. The long-anticipated move, costing some 700 jobs, will elicit a massive groan from those counting on the strategy used to keep the toymaker – founded in Pawtucket a century ago – in the Bucket. It was the usual assemblage of state tax credit packages, or basically no strategy at all.
The silver lining in the dark cloud of Hasbro’s move is a warning: to wit, Rhode Island’s refusal to promote an attractive environment. Hasbro’s departure should refocus our attention on the pitiful architecture available for corporate relocation and redevelopment. Rhode Island is a state whose historical legacy was for decades supported by its historical architecture, which at the same time cemented its legacy as a beautiful place. That is, until the advent of modern architecture. Buildings that reflect the state’s historical legacy, which those do not, are not hard to erect. Rhode Island need only exert a piddling force of will and they will come. This corner has been a constant fount of advice urging such a strategy, which would pair the Ocean State’s leading features – its beauty and its history. Historical beauty is our brand!
The first icon to go was the PawSox. Now Hasbro. Last one out please turn out the lights. What’s next, CVS? It is headquartered in Woonsocket. No hint yet of its ignominious departure (the definition of absquatulation in the headline above).
Architecture Here and There 
Why would a company like Hasbro choose to move to a highly traffic
congested place like Boston? All I can figure is that they need to be
near those big sketchy Universities which are funded to study how
to invent technologies to turn humans into robots. The future of
Hasbro is probably to develop toys to help children become robots
like their parents.
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Amateur hour, the Gong show, Politicians lacking the professional skill or experience to make deals…..Someone send them the book called “The Art of the Deal”
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from the picture, not only ugly building but ugly surroundings.
I note taxpayers of both RI and MA are the losers as we raid each others businesses with bribes aka tax giveaways, aka corporate blackmail (MA is said to offer $14 million, and think Citizens Bank, Fidelity, 38 Studios, Pawsox, CVS…) to do relocations that do nothing to increase regional wealth
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