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Providence $Arm
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Boston $Arm + $Leg
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New York $Arm + $Leg+ $Other Leg + $Spleen
You want food trucks, coffee shops, outdoor movies and bocce games? Looking to choose from hundreds of continuing education courses? Want to rub elbows with smart, creative people? Of course you do! Funky, fun and affordable, downtown Providence is an amazing place to live and work. How can you get your company to move downtown? Start here.
Bring your company to life
Downtown Providence is a vibrant urban setting on a manageable scale. As Rhode Island’s capital city, Providence is the state’s center of finance, government and the arts, offering a mix of companies and services in a high-energy setting. See why 1,300 companies already call this area home, and why your employees would be happy to join them.
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“The energy of downtown Providence is electric—a great combination of arts, culture, and small and large businesses to make it the perfect creative space for our employees to work.”
Billy Lagor, Senior VP of US Marketing, Hasbro
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“The vibrancy of the downtown area, the ability to connect with high speed utilities and the abundance of an educated work force are the main reasons why we chose to be in the heart of the city.”
Frances McLeod, Co-Founder of Forensic Risk Alliance
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“Downtown Providence is a great place for growing companies. Headquartered in the heart of the city, Andera was able to expand from tech startup through multiple rounds of venture capital, eventually reaching 100 high-skill employees and a successful acquisition by a public company. And even under new ownership, the operation continues to call Providence home for all the same reasons we started it here.”
Charlie Kroll, Andera
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“I just enjoy Downcity—it’s not just the train station. There’s just a lot of things, PPAC, Lupo’s… all that. The team will be happier here.”
Nick Kishfy, Mojotech
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“Providence is a great place to live and work. Downtown has a lot of incredible restaurants, many of which are Swipely customers. The quality of talent here is amazing. The company leaders, across the board, are seasoned entrepreneurs who teach everyone how to actually elevate and accelerate their careers.”
Swipely Team, Swipely
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“Providence has a much more relaxed pace of life and lower overhead costs than many larger cities. But you can also hop on a train and be in Boston in 45 minutes or be in New York in 2 and a half hours.”
Jon Kletzien, Studio AMD
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“Providence has been incredibly rich for us for a couple of reasons. Mainly, there’s a strong arts community here. We’re very creatively focused, and we’re always looking for interesting creative people. I’ve traveled all over the world, and I’ve never been anywhere with this same sense of community and awareness. Also, a comparable office space would probably not be an option for us in New York or Boston, and that would mean a very different work environment.”
Alec Beckett, NAIL Communications
Quotes &
Testimonials
What’s
Downtown
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Packed with urban amenities on a walkable scale, and more than 80 restaurants, a dozen cultural venues, 9 hotels and 40 shops and galleries concentrated within a few blocks. The downtown neighborhood is compact, but with plenty of options for networking lunches, lectures, and happy hours, you'll feel like you’re in a much larger city.
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Downtown Providence is an intellectual hub. And each semester, 25,000 full-time (and 10,000 part-time) students enroll in the city’s seven colleges. Brown University, RISD, Johnson & Wales, Providence College, Roger Williams, URI Feinstein campus, and the Community College of RI all have a presence downtown. This gives us an enviable talent pool, an endless supply of interns and an amazing range of continuing education opportunities.
Local students and alums are a creative bunch—with popular majors such as Industrial Design and Graphic Design at RISD; Biomed, Business, Math & Statistics at Brown; and Business, Management and Marketing at JWU.
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- RI is #1 in the nation in broadband speed according to the NY Times
- Almost 40,000 employees already work within the downtown zip code, 02903. U.S. census
- 1,780 IT & digital companies are in Rhode Island, supporting 16,792 jobs. Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce & RI Science & Technology Advisory Council
- 1,311 design companies are in Rhode Island, supporting 8,123 jobs. Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce & RI Science & Technology Advisory Council
The Worst Kept
Secret in America?
Travel + Leisure readers ranked Providence as the #1 eating and drinking city in the US. Find out why our food trucks, lunch spots and high-end eateries leave visitors hungry for more. Standouts include a #1 ranking for burgers, #2 for pizza and ice cream, #3 for cafes and #4 for both coffee and street food/food trucks.
- BBC Travel ranked Providence as one of the top 21 ‘under the radar travel spots’ in the world.
- Forbes lists Providence as the #6 safest city and the #15 best city for singles.
- Travel + Leisure also named Providence one of the Top Ten Cities for Hipsters.
- Livability.com ranked Providence the #2 downtown in the country in 2014
- Real estate blog movoto.com listed Providence as the #1 most exciting mid-sized city!
Getting
Around
It’s easy to get here—and around—by car, train, bus or bike. Amtrak can get you to Boston in under an hour and to New York in three. MBTA commuter rail service takes passengers south to Wickford Junction and TF Green Airport and north to Boston and communities in between. Together, there are 35 round-trips between Providence and Boston each day.
Our compact size means that many people commute to downtown by bike or foot from the city’s varied historic neighborhoods: Federal Hill, West Broadway, Smith Hill, the Jewelry District, Fox Point and College Hill.
If you need easy access to a car, check out Zipcar. If you have your own car, we’ve got plenty of parking and a spot just for you.
Frequent flyers appreciate having TF Green Airport just 10 miles from downtown Providence. It’s a short 15-minute cab ride or RIPTA bus ride away!
- The average commute in Providence is just 20.2 minutes.Source: ZipAtlas.com
Business
Resources
There are plenty of dog-eat-dog, kill-or-be-killed, your-cliché-goes-here cities. Providence isn’t one of them. Creative, collaborative and welcoming, when you move or start your business here, you’ll immediately find yourself in a community that wants you to succeed.
Together, the Providence Downtown Improvement District and the Providence Foundation will connect you with resources.
To learn more about downtown Providence, visit downtownprovidence.com.
To find comprehensive information about doing business in Rhode Island, visit greaterri.com.
- Want to learn all about doing business in RI? Check out GreaterRI.com.
- Be wowed by one of the country’s top 15 tech incubators: Betaspring.
- Network with Providence’s unique blend of artists, geeks and suits at Providence Geeks meet-ups at AS220.
- Meet tons of other smart, interesting people! Check out presentations at monthly Pecha Kucha and Clambake get-togethers.
- Looking for more experience and inspiration? Participate in A Better World by Design and the annual Business Innovation Factory summit.
- Find a start-up space with assistance from the Founders’ League, a consortium that offers support and programming for entrepreneurs at all stages.
- Why is Providence being called the hottest start-up community in the Greater Boston region? Entrepreneur Providence can tell you.
- Check out the Providence Department of Economic Development and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation.
- Contact the active and innovative Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
