Former Mall Slated to Become 120,000-SF Office Building

Adding fuel to an ongoing border war between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the Grossman Cos. is offering 120,000 sf of office space that officials hope will attract companies from the Ocean State’s business base. The project is a joint venture of SeP Associates, a partnership that includes the Grossman Cos.

“We feel that a lot of the interest is going to come from Rhode Island tenants,” says Grossman broker Aiden Murray, whose firm plans to convert a defunct Seekonk mall into a state-of-the-art office development. “There’s absolutely no space there, especially large contiguous blocks, so I think they will have to consider us as an option.”

If Grossman is successful, it would be a measure of revenge for Massachusetts, which has seen Rhode Island economic officials aggressively lobby Massachusetts firms in recent years. Besides luring Fidelity Investments with a sizeable tax break to a site in Smithfield, the state even recently established a Web site known as mass-exodus.com that touts the benefits of doing business across the border.