I-195 commission OKs $1 sale offer for Hasbro HQ. They haven’t talked to the company yet.
A rendering shows what a new 10-story Hasbro headquarters could look like in the I-195 Redevelopment District in Providence. (Courtesy of Utile)
Rhode Island leaders have been accused of dropping the ball on efforts to keep Hasbro Inc. from moving to Massachusetts.
On Wednesday night, a state panel took matters into its own hands, approving a legally binding offering the toymaker exclusive rights to buy a 1-acre plot of land southeast of downtown Providence for $1. The only problem? They haven't talked to Hasbro yet.
"We wanted to show them how committed and serious we are," Marc Crisafulli, chairman of the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission, said during the meeting.
The commission unanimously approved the agreement, which gives Hasbro up to six months — with two additional six-month extensions — to buy the empty land adjacent to the downtown pedestrian bridge.
None of the company's executives attended the meeting. Andrea Snyder, a spokesperson for Hasbro Inc., declined to comment specifically on the proposal.
"It's early and we continue to explore options," Snyder said in an email Thursday.
Hasbro executives have been in talks with Massachusetts officials since at least April over a potential move across state lines into Boston, as first reported by the Boston Business Journal on Sept. 16. Company CEO Chris Cocks has indicated in a series of internal emails that the company's Pawtucket headquarters is outdated, expressing desire for "modern" and "collaborative" space with accessible public transit. Ahead of a relocation decision — expected in early 2025 — Rhode Island officials have scrambled to come up with a way to keep the century-old company, and one of the top employers, rooted in the Ocean State.
The former state highway land, home to an explosion of commercial and residential development, quickly emerged as a top alternative.
The I-195 commission's vote specifically offers up the 1-acre site known as Parcel 42. Originally slated to host a controversial, luxury residential skyscraper, the land remains empty after the "Fane Tower" developers pulled out of the project in March 2023.
But, if Hasbro has its eyes on other available space within the district, the commission is open to that too, Crisafulli said.
Mock designs presented by Utile, a Boston-based design consultant, show a 10-story, 286,000-square-foot building, complete with designated manufacturing space, a museum and a two-level underground parking garage with 150 spaces.
Tim Love, founding principal of Utile, said the renderings were not intended as a final design or concept but merely a "test run" to see if the site could fit Hasbro's needs.
The company's existing, circa-1900 industrial space on Newport Avenue is 300,000 square feet. Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien's office has previously indicated his desire to keep Hasbro in Pawtucket.
Grace Voll, a spokesperson for Grebien, said the city is "in the process of finalizing" its own pitch to Hasbro.
"Despite the vote in Providence yesterday, we still remain confident that Pawtucket is a viable option for Hasbro, and we look forward to presenting them with their options in the City that they have resided in for the last 60+ years," Voll said in an email Thursday.
Hasbro was founded in 1923 in Providence as a family-owned pencil-box maker, relocating its headquarters to Pawtucket in 1968. Now a publicly traded, multinational company with 5,000 employees — at least 1,000 of whom work out of Rhode Island — the game and toy empire generated $223 million in profits for the three months that ended Sept. 29, its most recent financial report.
