[wxjay]

Growing up in East Providence, I am very excited by all of these projects going on in Providence. During the late 80s to the early-90s, Providence was a place you didn't want to be. The downtown area was trash, businessed were closing down, and nothing was really drawing people there. However, the entire "Renaissance" of the city over the last 10-12 years has been remarkable. The best thing (honestly) was the addition of the Providence Place Mall. It added the retail and restaurants that was so desperately needed for that city. Many people thought the project would fail becsuse of high-end stores like Nordstrom and paying for parking, but it is going stronger than ever.

I love the new designs for the skyline, including the W Hotel & Residences. My one concern, though, is if the business infrastructure is there to support these high end condos. The opening of G Tech has helped a lot, but we need more companies to move operations and headquarters into Providence and Rhode Island. Otherwise, these high-end residential units will go nowhere.