Making room for growth at Quonset Business Park - by Steven J. King

At Quonset Business Park, our mission of driving economic development is not complete when a company opens its doors here. In many ways, that is when the real work begins.

Our goal is to create an environment where Rhode Island businesses can create good jobs and succeed for the long term. That means maintaining world-class infrastructure, responding to the changing needs of our tenants and, when a company is ready to expand, finding ways to help make that growth possible.

General Dynamics Electric Boat’s latest planned expansion at Quonset is a great example.

The QDC Board recently gave unanimous approval to two lease amendments that will provide Electric Boat with the additional space it needs to continue expanding its operations at the Business Park, and ultimately, deliver the nuclear submarines the U.S. Navy needs to maintain our nation’s undersea advantage. 

One change adds approximately 43 acres along Davisville Rd., where Electric Boat anticipates constructing two buildings totaling more than 540,000 s/f for ship manufacturing and fabrication. 

A second change exchanges approximately seven acres currently leased by Electric Boat for a larger, 10.3-acre parcel along Ocean State Dr. The new property will provide space for warehousing, storage and material handling. 

But making room for an expansion of this magnitude is more complicated than drawing new lines on a map.

QDC will coordinate several significant infrastructure and tenant-relocation projects to assemble the property Electric Boat needs, including relocating Davisville Rd., constructing Sanford Rd. and developing a new cargo laydown area for North Atlantic Distribution. 

That coordination is an important part of what QDC brings to the table. Quonset is home to more than 260 companies with a wide variety of needs. As the Business Park continues to grow, our team is constantly looking ahead: How can we use our available land more efficiently? How can infrastructure investments unlock new opportunities? And how can we accommodate one company’s expansion while continuing to support its neighbors?

Those questions matter because when our companies grow, Rhode Island benefits.

Electric Boat is one of Rhode Island’s largest employers, and its continued investment at Quonset represents another opportunity to bolster our state’s manufacturing and defense economy. For us at Quonset, the project demonstrates the value of supporting businesses at every stage of their development.

Our job at QDC is to make it as easy as possible for companies to invest, expand and create jobs. Sometimes that means building a road. Sometimes it means reconfiguring property or coordinating among multiple tenant companies. Often, it means doing all of those things at once.

When we make room for our businesses to grow, we make room for Rhode Island’s economy to grow with them.

Steven J. King, P.E. is the managing director of the Quonset Development Corp., North Kingstown, R.I.