Remake of URI Bay Campus - $178 Million

[ramster]

Excerpts from the Boston Globe Article.


The university is trying to get $100 million worth of voter-approved funding and up to $78 million in federal funding to fix up and reshape the bedraggled Bay Campus as a blue economy hub.


There are two main pots of money they’re trying to get to improve the work that’s already going on at the Bay Campus.

One: Rhode Island voters in November will decide whether the state should borrow $100 million to fund initiatives there. Among other projects, the money would fund a new “Ocean Frontiers Building” to replace the leaky Horn Laboratory. It would also fund a new Ocean Engineering Education and Research Center, which would have research labs, classrooms and offices to replace 1970s-era buildings that were supposed to be temporary. And it would help bring in new ocean engineering instruments, like a wave and tow tank twice the size of the current 30-meter one. (In a wave and tow tank, researchers can test, for example, the effect of waves on wind turbines.)

Two: The URI Research Foundation is leading a grant application before the federal government to fund a blue economy technology cluster. (The blue economy is generally defined as industries that touch the coast and waters, like shipping, defense, renewable energy like wind power, and aquaculture.) The application is one of 60 national finalists for a grant from an agency within the Commerce Department, which is run by Rhode Island’s former governor, Gina Raimondo.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/25/ ... ay_Results

[ATPTourFan]

Sure hope this passes!

[RhowdyRam02]

URI officially kicked of the Vote Yes on 1 campaign yesterday

https://www.uri.edu/news/2022/09/univer ... -campaign/

https://uriyeson1.com/

[RAMFAN]

reminder

[ramster]

Approved!

57.5% Approved

[RhowdyRam02]

Yet again we get the least support of the ballot questions, but a win is a win

[4Diffs]

Approved!

57.5% Approved

0835B6FE-F117-41E2-A3B8-6E0E95842027.jpeg

Best news of the night!! Have to give it to Governor McKee. He was on campus several times promoting this bond and saying how important it was to invest in the University. He was on at halftime of the Maine game promoting the passage of this and it was very refreshing for a sitting governor to promote the University like this. I think it benefitted McKee greatly as well as he won by the largest margin in over twenty years and I know several people that voted for him based solely on his support of this ballot question and the University in general (plus it was cool that he was at the press conference introducing Archie). And this may have been the largest margin, 58-42, of any URI bond that has passed so both benefitted from this support from the Governor.

And many thanks to Marc Palange and the committee behind the marketing efforts on passing question 1. The advertising message was spot on.

Thank you Rhode Islanders for voting to invest in your state university!!

[RhowdyRam02]

Rejected by Burrillville, Coventry, Foster, Glocester, Hopkinton, North Smithfield, Richmond, Scituate, Smithfield, and West Greenwich. All ten of those towns approved the other two bonds, so this wasn't about fiscal conservatism, they just don't value URI

[RF1]

While the 2022 URI Bond Question of $100M for the Bay Campus was approved with 57.5%, it followed the past general trend of lagging most all other bond items on the ballot. The bonds for school buildings (73.2%) and Green Economy (66.8%) did far better in getting approved.

The ten (out of 39) communities of Burrillville, Coventry, Foster, Glocester, Hopkinton, N Smithfield, Richmoond, Scituate, Smithfield, and W Greenwich rejected the URI bond while generally easily approving the two other revenue bonds. This follows past patterns whereby nearly all of the western towns in the state (except for Westerly) are hostile toward any college bonds. Furthermore, college bonds typically historically under perform (versus the state) in some other notable places such as Woonsocket, Johnston, West Warwick, and Exeter.

2022 RI General Election Question 1 Unofficial Results
Barrington 65.7%
Bristol 55.1%
Burrillville 41.9%
Central Falls 71.7%
Charlestown 60.7%
Coventry 44.7%
Cranston 55.7%
Cumberland 53%
E Greenwich 63.3%
E Providence 59.1%
Exeter 52.3%
Foster 42.8%
Glocester 41.6%
Hopkinton 46.0%
Jamestown 71.0%
Johnston 51.7%
Lincoln 55.8%
Little Compton 59.1%
Middletown 62.2%
Narragansett 69.5%
New Shoreham 75.1%
Newport 71.1%
N Kingstown 64.0%
N Providence 57.4%
N Smithfield 44.5%
Pawtucket 63.0%
Portsmouth 55.4%
Providence 75.2%
Richmond 49.0%
Scituate 45.1%
Smithfield 48.5%
S Kingstown 67.5%
Tiverton 50.2%
Warren 56.1%
Warwick 52.2%
W Greenwich 47.9%
W Warwick 51.3%
Westerly 57.7%
Woonsocket 50.2%


The results of yesterday's election should concern URI. Its bonds generally perform much behind all others nearly every election cycle. The 2004 question for athletic facilities was the last URI bond to fail getting rejected by 65.5% of the vote. As URI officials ponder future bonds, including a talked about athletics bond for an estimated tens of million, the poor support in some RI communities should raise alarms.



Rhode Island Question 10, Meade Stadium Bonds (2004)
https://ballotpedia.org/Rhode_Island_Qu ... nds_(2004)

2004 Question 10 - 65.5% voted NO
"Approval of this question will authorize the State of Rhode Island to issue general obligation bonds, refunding bonds, and temporary notes in an amount not to exceed $6,700,000 to construct an Athletic Performance Center at the University of Rhode Island and renovate existing facilities at Meade Stadium and Keaney Gymnasium at the University of Rhode Island."

[RhowdyRam02]

I don't see a path for the athletics bond to pass, which raises two questions. 1. What is the plan if the bond gets shot down? 2. Is it worth putting up a bond that probably won't pass and waste an election cycle when you could put up something that would probably pass instead?

[RF1]

I don't see a path for the athletics bond to pass, which raises two questions. 1. What is the plan if the bond gets shot down? 2. Is it worth putting up a bond that probably won't pass and waste an election cycle when you could put up something that would probably pass instead?

I agree. It would seem a daunting prospect to get a future proposed athletics bond for tens of millions approved when a much smaller bond for just $6.7M was resoundingly rejected by 65.5% of the vote back in 2004. That is why I brought it up in this thread.

The proposed future athletics bond has its own thread that can be reached via this link:

URI athletic bonds? (Mar-2022)
https://keaneyblue.com/viewtopic.php?t=9229

[RhowdyRam02]

I don't see a path for the athletics bond to pass, which raises two questions. 1. What is the plan if the bond gets shot down? 2. Is it worth putting up a bond that probably won't pass and waste an election cycle when you could put up something that would probably pass instead?

I agree. It would seem a daunting prospect to get a future proposed athletics bond for tens of millions approved when a much smaller bond for just $6.7M was resoundingly rejected by 65.5% of the vote back in 2004. That is why I brought it up in this thread.

The proposed future athletics bond has its own thread that can be reached via this link:

URI athletic bonds? (Mar-2022)
https://keaneyblue.com/viewtopic.php?t=9229

So in the 2024 election we're doing the $82.3 million bond for the Meade Grandstands, Slade Track, Beck, softball, soccer, and pool repairs. We're also doing a $76.65 million life sciences building if we can't get ARPA funds to build that.

In 2026 we're doing $96.3 million to renovate Edwards, East, Washburn, and Morrill.

In 2028 we're doing $107.9 million to renovate the interior of Roosevelt, Quinn, and Davis.

Frankly, all of those outside of the potential life sciences building seem like tough sells, with the athletics one probably dead on arrival

[OBRAM]

I like when the State spends money on URI facilities, but I think this Bonding process is flawed.
Rates have shot up, and the total cost is going up very fast. The State Budget in 20 years has gone from $3 Billion to $13 Billion. Where is all this money going? How much State bonding is still being paid for? I think the financing cost is going to crush the State.
Just do this with cash, not with bonding.

If you look at Providence, you only see building that has happened with Government money, The Dunk, The new Roof, the pedestrian Bridge, Nursing Building at the old power plant, and soon the Superman Building and the soccer stadium. All the old buildings downtown were built years ago by private investors whether it was Banks, insurance companies, or manufacturers, now it's all government.