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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

General Dynamics Electric Boat Signs New 25-Year Lease To Expand Its Quonset, Rhode Island, Manufacturing Center

12/31/2013
General Dynamics Electric Boat and the Quonset Development Corporation reached a new 25-year lease agreement to extend and expand Electric Boat's footprint at Quonset Business Park, on Narragansett Bay in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

Electric Boat recently completed two major expansion projects at the business park: a $25 million coatings building that will support two-per-year Virginia construction, and a $7 million moored training ship building that will support construction of the Navy's next-generation ship trainers.

According to Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee’s Office, the expanded lease will give Electric Boat the flexibility it needs to construct new, specialized facilities for submarine programs. Terms of the agreement expand Electric Boat's footprint by about 42 acres, which includes more than 1 million square feet of building space.

Currently Electric Boat, which employs more than 2,500 people at Quonset, leases 100 acres at the business park, and owns an additional 33 acres. The company performs a variety of activities, including; manufacturing, hull fabrication, modular construction, coating and steel processing.

Governor Chafee said, "Quonset has become one of the premier business complexes in the northeast, and it includes Electric Boat's facility where modular construction of submarines was pioneered and continues to be perfected.”

The new lease includes an incentive package, which provides a discount depending on the length of the lease and an additional discount for job creation. The incentive program is the standard offered by the QDC to all future tenants.

"Since Electric Boat opened its Quonset fabrication plant 40 years ago, we have enjoyed an excellent relationship with the State of Rhode Island," said Electric Boat President Jeffrey S. Geiger. "This new agreement provides us with the room we need to meet the Navy's future shipbuilding needs, and these facilities, designed for efficient production, provide the U.S. Navy the most cost-effective approach."

"We are very pleased to have come to a long term agreement with Electric Boat, one of our longest standing tenants at the Business Park," said Steven J. King, PE, the Managing Director of the QDC. "The QDC is deeply committed to helping move Rhode Island forward and to continue to position the Park as an engine of economic growth."

Marcel Valois, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and Chairman of the QDC's Board of Directors, said, "Electric Boat is one of 175 great companies at Quonset Business Park helping to create more jobs and move the Rhode Island economy forward. The Board of Directors approved this lease because we are committed to helping bring more jobs to the state and to showing the world that Rhode Island is a place where companies can grow and succeed."

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