In August 2005, the U.S. subsidiary of Montreal-based jeweler Henry Birks & Sons announced it would join forces with Florida-based Mayors Jewelers in opening a new jewelry manufacturing and product development center in Woonsocket, R.I., just south of the Massachusetts border. The 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-ft.) facility in the Woonsocket Highland Corporate Park will be in the same exact development as a Tiffany & Co. manufacturing plant.
      "This initiative supports our group strategy to internally develop, manufacture and distribute product to both Birks and Mayors," said John Orrico, group vice president of supply chain operations for both companies. "In addition, with greater control of our supply chain, we will enhance product quality and consistency while expanding retail margins."
      Investment on an exponentially larger physical scale was happening simultaneously in the Rhode Island state capital. Southeastern New England Shipbuilding Corp. (SENESCO Marine), a double-hulled petroleum barge manufacturer and ship repair company based in Providence, had grown to 250 people in its brief five years of existence. In November 2004, it was positioned to grow to around 560 people in just one year. All that stood in the way was a $48-million statewide referendum bond issue to improve infrastructure in the 3,000-acre (1,214-hectare) state-owned Quonset Davisville Port and Commerce Park it calls home.
      State officials said the measure's approval would result in 10,000 new jobs at the park, whose tenants currently employ around 6,000 people. By a vote of 57 percent to 43 percent, the measure passed.
      Even before that, though, SENESCO had agreed to a 20-year land lease with the state, as well as leasing another former Navy warehouse on the property. In addition to paying approximately $587,000 annually in rent, the company is splitting with the state some $1.9 million worth of property improvements.
     
      In a related development, a proposed LNG terminal from KeySpan in Providence — a project whose customers could potentially also be SENESCO customers — has been opposed by Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline and others who object to such a risk-inherent project being sited in a metro area. In April 2005, however, as part of compromise reached in the federal energy bill under debate in D.C., federal lawmakers agreed that, because of the potential importance of LNG to the nation's energy needs, siting authority for such facilities would rest with federal, not local, government. The full bill continues to be debated in Congress.