NFF Invests in WaterFire Providence
On select evenings in Rhode Island’s capital, a series of urban campfires illuminate the city’s waterfront. Part art installations and part public events, WaterFire lightings attract an estimated one million visitors each year from home and abroad. Attendees enjoy performances, music, and the lighting of 85 floating torches on the urban rivers that run through Downtown Providence.
“Magic and wonder… reminds me how to see the world with the delight of a child’s eyes again. Thank you.”
WaterFire Providence, the organization behind these events, plans to expand its hugely popular programming by building a WaterFire Arts Center on a 1.3 acre site in the Valley/Olneyville neighborhood of Providence. The WaterFire Arts Center will bring many benefits to the organization. First, it will allow WaterFire to expand its educational programming and serve over 2,500 low-income youth in after-school, volunteer, boat building, and summer programming. Second, it will make it possible for WaterFire to consolidate its operations, leading to both financial and logistical efficiencies. And lastly, as WaterFire Providence celebrates over 20 years of successful creative placemaking in Providence, the Arts Center will help it to become a more visible and prominent presence in the community.
WaterFire is funding the $11 million project through a New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) structure, which includes Federal and State Historic Tax Credits, a State of Rhode Island Creative and Cultural Economy bond, and EPA Brownfield Remediation grant funds. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2017. NFF’s provision of a $1.2 million loan to bridge capital campaign pledges, as well as a $250,000 line of credit, will make it possible for WaterFire to transition to its new facility and realize its exciting plans for growth.
"Each year WaterFire activity creates $114 million in economic output for the local economy and supports 1,294 jobs for community residents,” said Peter A. Mello, Managing Director and Co-CEO of WaterFire Providence. “The WaterFire Arts Center is a critical component of a strategic plan that will sustain and increase our significant economic, cultural and community impacts long into the future. NFF has been an incredible partner every step of the way in making this project a reality."
Visit future.waterfire.org to check out all of the progress at the WaterFire Arts Center.