Jef Nickerson
Image from Google Street View
Channel 10 is reporting that Hasbro will announce today their expansion to 15 LaSalle Square in Providence. The property was vacated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island when they move to their new headquarters are Waterplace.
A 3pm news conference with the Mayor of Providence, the Governor, and representatives from Hasbro is said to be scheduled at LaSalle Square.
Hasbro announced several months ago the expansion into Providence as the company set to move workers from Massachusetts and add more workers to the division settling in the capital city. They had made no official announcement of where in Providence they planned to settle, though rumors were pretty heavy about the LaSalle Square location.
The new location at the end of Empire Street creates a mini-Gaming District in Providence with Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios being located in another former BCBS RI building down a block away.
Hasbro will maintain its corporate headquarters in Pawtucket.
Greater City Providence
Great news! I’d love to see them do something fun with the sidewalk around the building.
Press Release from the Mayor’s Office
That explains why I saw them cleaning it all up this morning.
Pity though, I was kind of hoping the company I work for would relocate us over there. I could walk to work.
Watch, we’ll end up in the now decrepit Fogarty building.
I hope that this endeavor, along with the proposed redesign of the LaSalle Square/Empire/Fountain/Sabin/Broadway mess of an intersection will spark renewed interest in the former police and fire headquarters site….
I am vaguely remembering the “Empire at Broadway” project coined by the Procacccianti Group back in 2007.
Anyways – this is exciting news for the city!
Indeed great news. New high-paying jobs to the city will certainly help the vibrancy of the city and especially that entire area. More potential mass-transit users more, more breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, more people on these streets so to say, etc. This is on the proposed street-car line as well, yes?
The streetcar would be a block away at Washington & Empire. The Green Line trolley and Broadway buses as well as a couple others that get on the highway come through this area. It is well served by transit.
I’ve heard that Foo(d) at AS220 and Trinity Brewhouse have already seen upticks in their lunch crowds due to 38 Studios moving in.
Also on Empire, the city has begun moving offices into the 3rd BCBS Building at 444 Westminster and I’ve heard the office across the street that Planning vacated is already leased. So, a couple years after BCBS decamped from the area, we’re getting a nice refilling of the workforce here. Good news indeed for ancillary businesses in the area.
It would be great if Hasbro added a small retail store at this new location. Something to get people to visit – like a store that carried limited edition toys. Or even some kind of destination for kids to go to when visiting our city. A little waterpark (like millennium in Chicago) or a transformers playground. Wonder if they’re planning anything…
That would all be awesome. I just want them to put some LED signs on the building, because it is UGLY and LEDs would cover it up, and because I want LaSalle Square to become a mini-Times Square.
Great about this new emerging district for games .Who’s next to join in?
PBN reports that Hasbro has officially signed a 12-year lease on the space, work has also begun on renovations at the building.