They’re competitors, all looking to bring development to Warwick, but at last Wednesday’s City Council meeting, developers Joseph Piscopio, Michael D’Ambra and Michael Integlia were as chummy as friends at a class reunion.

All see council action to expand City Centre Warwick’s intermodal zone from 95 to 111 acres as a positive. Also, for each it puts additional parcels of their property within the zone and conceivably, depending on how things play out at the state level and with the mayor and council, eligible for tax credits.

“This could mean a lot to Warwick,” Ward 9 Councilman Steve Merolla said of the Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credit legislation advocated by Gov. Gina Raimondo and approved by the General Assembly. Merolla believes the legislation’s tax stabilization agreements [TSA], which would set taxes on qualifying developments for an established period, would give City Centre “a jump start.”

Mayor Scott Avedisian likewise sees the state legislation as a jump starter.

“I think it is one of those tools,” he said yesterday, “something to take advantage of and hopefully pushes them [developers] along.”

In an email response to questions, the mayor said the city is now awaiting CommerceRI to promulgate regulations. He said he favors one of two approaches to TSAs – either a five-year program that would be analyzed before being reauthorized, or a first five projects program. Under that program, the first five projects approved for the program would be the only ones eligible for tax stabilization.

“I thank the governor for her leadership on this issue,” he said. “And I believe that Councilman Merolla will be asking for a study.”

He said he would look for sponsors of legislation based on the two programs he favors.

Merolla said he would introduce legislation to enable tax stabilization agreements in the intermodal zone that is between the airport terminal and Jefferson Boulevard and now west of Jefferson Boulevard.

“I’m anxious to get the project up and running,” Merolla said.

But it’s hard to say whether the legislative package of incentives targeting development of Route 195 land in Providence could kickstart Warwick growth as well. Efforts going back more than a decade to assemble parcels within the zone never coalesced, and even with completion of the Interlink, new development was not forthcoming, although there have been many plans and eye-catching architect renderings of a Warwick centre with a mix of office space, residential and retail development.

The council unanimously approved expanding the intermodal zone with the incorporation of four parcels that logically fit within City Centre following a presentation by City Planner William DePasquale and principal planner Daniel Geagan.

Neither D’Ambra, Integlia nor Piscopio spoke during the public hearing, but in letters that were part of a packet given council members, all endorsed the rezoning of their properties.

D’Ambra gained city approvals several years ago to transform the site of his construction company and former asphalt plant between Amtrak and Jefferson Boulevard into a combination office and hotel complex that would tie into the Sundlun Terminal at Green Airport via the Interlink. Integlia bought the former 80-acre Leviton Manufacturing site, subdividing it and razing what was the Elizabeth Mill building built in the late 1800s across from the Interlink. That site would now be a part of the Intermodal.

With the expansion of the zone, Piscopio, who built the Hilton Garden Inn and the Iron Works Tavern, would see the rezoning of land north of the hotel, where he is reportedly proposing another development.

The fourth parcel to be rezoned is an L-shaped piece of land abutting the railroad and bordered by Honey Dew Donuts to the south and St. Francis Church to the north. Attorney Thomas Bruzzese, who represented the owners, spoke in favor of the zone change.

Reached after the council vote, Integlia and Piscopio agreed anything like a tax stabilization agreement that could lower costs would help bring development. Realtor Donald Morash likewise thought a TSA would help, as did attorney Rep. K. Joseph Shekarchi, who represents many petitioners coming before the zoning board of review.

So far, however, the particulars of the Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credit haven’t been defined. The program would offer real estate incentives, tax increment financing where capital is provided by rebating new state tax revenue generated and the TSA.

The TSA, which would require local approvals, would give qualified businesses creating 50 jobs or more within the intermodal zone to lock in taxes for a period of 12 years. This is not a freeze on taxes, but an incremental application of taxes at a fixed amount.

The advantage to a developer is that it establishes tax costs up-front, removing some of the guesswork and enhancing their ability to come up with an attractive deal.

DePasquale sees it as helping “close the gap” so that businesses can accurately project costs.