Quonset Business Park’s latest tenant: renters who already work there

For the first time in more than 50 years, a former U.S. Navy base turned industrial park in North Kingstown will feature housing under a lease agreement between Quonset Development Corporation and Moran Properties.

The 60-year ground lease announced Wednesday authorizes a 140-unit workforce housing project on a roughly 7-acre property at the business park entrance on Gate Road off Route 1. 

The agreement marks the first residential component within the peninsula overlooking Narragansett Bay since the U.S. Naval Air Station was decommissioned and shut down in the mid-1970s, displacing the military members and their families who lived there. The land was repurposed in 2004 as an industrial park, managed by the quasi-public Quonset Development Corporation, and now boasts more than 260 companies with a combined 15,000 workers.

The residential development was the result of a competitive solicitation process meant to alleviate the state housing shortage, while providing a convenient and affordable option for business park employees and their families to live, said Steven King, Quonset managing director.

“With the high levels of need, the Park’s projected growth, and the influx of funding available to construct housing that is affordable for Rhode Island’s workforce, now is the time to consider the development of rental workforce housing within the Quonset Business Park,” King wrote in a December 2022 letter to the North Kingstown Planning Commission.

The 6.8-acre property sits across from a grocery store and other retail shops, with convenient access to public transportation via the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, according to Quonset. 

While Quonset’s appointed board of directors has sole authority over commercial and industrial lease agreements and development in the business park, housing is not expressly listed as a permitted use — meaning that adding residential development requires a variance approved by both the board of directors and the town Planning Commission. The latter gave its blessing to the broad strokes of a residential plan in April 2023, following a series of four public hearings, according to meeting minutes published on the town website. It wasn’t until July 9, 2026, that Quonset’s board finalized the term sheet with the developer, following a complicated solicitation process in which a separate company submitted, then rescinded, its development proposal.

Steven Moran, president of Moran Properties, was not available for comment on Friday.

The final lease agreement requires that at least 40% of the one and two-bedroom units be designated as workforce housing, reserved for renters who earn no more than 120% of area median income — $96,120 for one-person, or $137,160 for a family of four, based on fiscal 2025 federal limits. And, those renters will pay more than 30% of their income on rent.

Another 10% of units will be designated as “low and moderate income housing,” reserved for renters who earn no more than 80% of area median income, as defined by state law.

Preference will be given to people who work in the business park or a 25-mile radius; federal, state or local government employees; and healthcare workers.

Town officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. 

It all comes back to sludge 

North Kingstown has historically maintained a strong relationship with the Quonset agency, receiving economic benefits including revenue from the industrial park’s development. But tensions emerged this spring amid allegations of lack of transparency by Quonset’s governing board, and concerns about how heavy industrial projects were affecting the health and safety of nearby residents.

A preliminary lease agreement allowing a renewable energy developer to build a sludge processing plant in the West Davisville section of the park, less than one mile from homes and schools, became a top point of contention between residents, town officials, and Quonset leaders, spawning a pair of lawsuits and a series of policy protections by the Rhode Island General Assembly. The lease remains on hold, awaiting results of a joint legislative study commission in June 2027 on the broader shortage of sewage treatment options in Rhode Island, but public trust remains shaky.

Jim Sheehan, a Democratic candidate for Rhode Island’s open House District 31 seat whose campaign centers on reforming Quonset’s operations and relationship to its host community, worried that the new workforce housing project would again present problems of health and safety for renters living near heavy industrial operations.

“I think it’s a good idea in concept, but I’m not certain it’s suitable unless they tend to the environmental needs, and health and welfare of the people who would be residents,” Sheehan, a former state senator, said in an interview Friday. “There’s such a need for affordable housing, that you might not want to live in proximity to emissions and other potential health hazards, but you might not have much of a choice.”

Neighborhood impacts, including pollutants, are one of the considerations the town considered in reviewing and approving the variance required to allow residential development in Quonset Business Park. The proposed development site also sits next to a hotel, in a section known as the “Gateway District” which was “intentionally and thoughtfully planned and zoned” to blend with the commercial areas along Post Road, said Chelsea Siefert, Quonset’s chief operating officer. 

“We do not have concerns about this location,” Siefert said in an email Friday. “Housing is a logical next step to building out this section of the Business Park and helps us deliver affordable housing opportunities to Rhode Islanders.”

The lease includes the options for three, 10-year-apiece extensions and one, nine-year extension, with a $150,000 annual rent, though payment is deferred under a separate, sublease agreement for the building itself. There is also a sub-sublease for a management agency to oversee daily operations of the housing project, with rent paid upon the first certificate of occupancy for the first building.

The total project cost has not been determined, nor has the expected completion date.

Construction is expected to begin in late 2027, pending approval by Quonset’s technical review committee and state permitting regulators. Once finished, the project is expected to generate another $270,000 in revenue for the town under a payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement.