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CONTENTS
NUMBER 2 VOLUME 45

ON THE COVER
10 DIGITAL MEDIA TAKES THE PRIZE Millions of pixels are helping to create thousands of jobs in a new high-growth sector of the economy. From feature films to video games, digital media is spreading its computer-generated wings and flying, from traditional locations like California, Massachusetts and New York to up and coming industry leaders Utah, Louisiana and Rhode Island.

FEATURES
20 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AWARDS Business Facilities is continuously adapting to meet the needs of our community. What better way to celebrate growth than with a gaggle of new Economic Development Awards? Our new standard of excellence crowns achievement in categories honoring the agencies and organizations who have established the best practices in our industry with measurable success. 52 A WEALTH OF EVERYTHING RESIDES IN NEW YORK From the City that Never Sleeps to the City of Good Neighbors, the City by the Sea to the City of Parks, anything can and does happen in New Yorkand the Empire State is always ready for action. 66 BREAKING GROUND FOR MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS The new Memphis Specialized Laboratory rising at the UT-Baptist Research Park in Tennessee will help speed the FDA approval process for new vaccines, orthopedics and drugs at one of the nations leading biomed hubs. 76 RHODE ISLAND IS BIG ON THE FUTURE Gov. Lincoln Chafee is positioning Rhode Island at the forefront of 21st century economic development by focusing on the building blocks of the new economy. Join us as the governor gives us the tour.

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SPECIAL REPORTS
38 THE SKY IS THE LIMIT From the ground up, find out how the aerospace industry contributes to our safety and economy and advances our way of life.

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68 AUTOMOTIVE SHIFTS INTO HIGH GEAR Learn why the automotive industry is roaring back to life and who is expected to come out on top.

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DESIGN BY MEGAN KNIGHT, GROUP C ART DIRECTOR

Business Facilities March/April 2012 Volume 45, Number 2, USPS 875-100 (ISSN 0746 0023) is published bi-monthly by Group C Media, Inc., 44 Apple Street, Suite 3, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724. Phone 732-842-7433. Fax 732-758-6634. Periodicals Postage Paid at Eatontown, NJ, and additional mailing offices. Paid subscription rate $52.00 per year. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Business Facilities, 44 Apple Street, Suite 3, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724

MARCH/APRIL 2012

COVER STORY
By Jenny Vickers

From Oscar-winning animated shorts to mind-blowing special effects in feature films and desktop video games, digital media is driving the culture and a growing sector of the economy. Here are the locations that are pioneering the new pixelated frontier.

he digital media sector is developing rapidly, creating thousands of jobs as millions of pixels are aligned in the unbelievable images its artists generate for the latest feature films and video games produced by the multi-billionDigital: Big and Getting Bigger
In 2011, the U.S. digital media market reached $445.7 billion, followed closely by Japan at $171.2 billion, and the combination of Germany, the United Kingdom and China at $70 billion. Of the various market segments, video games lead the growth at 10.6 percent. This is followed by increases in Internet advertising at 11.4 percent and film at 4.8 percent. The video game segment globally was estimated to be $60.4 billion in 2009; it is expected to grow to $70.1 billion in 2015. In 2010, the global media and entertainment market was estimated to be $1.4 trillion. With a projected growth rate of 5 percent annually the market size is expected to hit $1.7 trillion in 2014.
Source: UCAP

dollar entertainment industry. While most of the workforce still is centered in traditional locations like California, Massachusetts and New York, several states have aggressively introduced incentives that are geared to jump-starting new digital media clusters. Among the emerging leaders in this thriving new industry are Utah, Louisiana, Rhode Island and Oregon.
UTAH AIMS FOR DIGITAL PEAK In Utah, the digital media industry, which consists of businesses in animation, graphics, film and digital gaming, currently accounts for 1,500 jobs and $415 million in revenue for the state. But now, the goal is to double that by 2016. In November 2011, the Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership (UCAP) announced its strategy to double the number of digital media jobs and turn the industry into an $800 million contributor to Utahs economy by focusing on the states unique creative and technology strengths.

UCAP is an innovative effort in which Utahs institutions of higher education become regional hubs of economic activity and the respective presidents become regional economic stewards. UCAP was started about three years ago, said Gary Harter, managing director for the Utah Governors Office of Economic Development (GOED), which includes the Utah Clusters Initiative. UCAP connects industry demands for skill sets today and skill sets necessary for the future. UCAPs Utah Digital Media Cluster Report was finalized in fall 2011 after a collaborative effort between Utah Valley University, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS), GOED and Grow Utah Ventures. The digital media industry is growing rapidly here in Utah, said T. Craig Bott, president and CEO of Grow Utah Ventures. The partnerships goal with the digital media cluster strategy is to make Utah a

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must connect to state for any business that hopes to succeed in the global digital media industry. We certainly have the talent and innovation here to make this happen. Many of the states colleges and universities are rapidly adding or expanding programs to meet the demand for educated workers in the industry. In Utah County, Brigham Young University has established a world-class digital media program that is sponsored by digital media giant Pixar. Through the program, BYU students have garnered numerous Student Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, as well as several Student Academy Awards from the Academy
BYU: Becoming a Digital Powerhouse
n March 2012, the Princeton Review, one of the nations best-known education services companies, gave the University of Utahs undergraduate Video Game studies program a No. 2 spot behind the University of Southern California, while the Entertainment Arts and Engineering graduate program took the No. 6 spot nationwide. In April 2011, DreamGiver, directed by BYU student Tyler Carter, won an animation student Emmy for telling a story that seamlessly incorporates computer animation and traditional animation. DreamGiver follows a winged, spindly-legged character as he delivers dreams to children in an orphanage. When one dream accidentally morphs into a nightmare, the short story bounces from a 3D film to a 2D film as the dream giver tries to fix his mistake. I wanted to create two different worlds in the film and I wanted there to be a distinct difference, said Carter in a BYU press release. So how do you show the difference between a dream world and a 3D world?

of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Meanwhile, the University of Utahs Entertainment Arts and Engineering video game development program, ranked second nationwide, represents one part of Utahs flourishing video game industry that employs 600 people and generates about $242 million in revenue annually. The University of Utahs game development program has been great for us, said Ben Bell, Executive Producer at Electronic Arts (EA) Salt Lake City. They have passionate faculty and we work closely with them on curriculum. Weve had great luck working with them. Its a really great asset that the state has with respect to the momentum of digital media.
You make it 2D. It was extremely difficult to do it but ended up looking really nice.

EA is one of the top producers of digital games in the world. Bell credits the states successful workforce as one of the reasons why the company chose to locate in Utah. In our industry we live and die by our talent, said Bell. We need great game creators and great business creators. Utah is home to an established talent pool. Essentially thats why we are there, the talent is there. Utahs success in digital gaming is showing. In addition to EA Games, the state is rife with blockbuster studios including The Walt Disney Co.s Disney Interactive Studios, Epic Games Inc.s ChAIR Entertainment Group, Silverlode Interactive and Smart Bomb Interactive.

The film resulted from collaboration across the College of Fine Arts, including work from animation students, illustration students, computer science students, illustration faculty and theatre and media arts faculty. As it turned out, every one of these resources was needed to turn the directors vision into a memorable digital presentation. We used flash, pencil/paper and every trick in the book to do the mixed shots with 2D and 3D, Carter said. Each one of the shots required a new solution that we had to come up with. It was extremely difficult but I believe the students who really pioneered the answers will get jobs out of it.

PHOTO CREDITS: CENTER FOR ANIMATION, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

The BYU Center animation team, above, celebrates its latest student Emmy winners, as Lance Montgomery (top) receives his award for best music composition.

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In 2010, EA expanded to a larger, state-of-the-art, custom-designed studio in downtown Salt Lake City where it has produced several top-selling games, including The Sims brand, one of the most successful video game series of all time, and Hasbros Monopoly, Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf. One of EAs latest successes is its release of RISK: Factions Game for Facebook. The EA adaptation of Hasbros popular RISK game represents a brand new dimension in social gaming and the first major Facebook game to be developed in Salt Lake City. Social gaming is an important part of growth thats happened in our industry, said Bell. With social games you need a blend of talent that includes creative, business and analytic skills. The great success story for us and I think for the state is that we were able to build a team that could deliver a competitive Facebook game and we did it in a market where we had never done it before. Another example of Utahs success is Avalanche Software, which is known for creating the recent video game for Pixars Cars 2 movie.

Avalanche was founded by four lead programmers from Sculptured Software in 1995. The company has developed for every console platform since the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES days and has grown to a staff of over 100 since its inception. The company is headed up by Vice President and General Manager John Blackburn. I started in the industry in 1992 as a programmer working on Super Nintendo games, said Blackburn. After a few years of programming, I co-founded Avalanche with a few friends. We mainly did conversions of coin-operated arcade games to the home systems initially, and then started to make our own original games after 2000. Since 2001, the company, which works primarily on kids and family titles, became a well-known developer of games such as Tak and the Power of Juju games for THQ (Toy Head Quarters) and Nickelodeon and Chicken Little for Disney. In 2005, Disney Interactive Studios, the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company, announced its plans to expand its focus into the video gaming industry. The Walt Disney Company acquired Avalanche and created the Fall Line Studio in Salt Lake City. The working relationship with Disney was good and they wanted to acquire developers to lock down talent in the industry, so it was a good match, said Blackburn. Working for Disney has been a great learning experience because we have been exposed to working with some of the most talented entertainment creators of our generation. Sometimes it is truly surreal. In addition to a healthy talent base, Blackburn says that Utahs

quality of life and location are attractive to digital media companies. We are close to the west coast and most of the major publishers, but the cost of living is cheaper and quality of life is higher in many ways, said Blackburn. We have really good universities with excellent programs in computer science and computer arts that allow us to grow local talent. Although Utahs digital media industry has a long way to go to reach the critical mass of entertainment capitals like California and New York, the state is certainly well on its way. Utah is now focusing quite a bit on workforce, said GOEDs Gary Harter. Through the UCAP initiative, we are making sure we are going toward where an industry needs to be. We want to meet their demands today but be forward-looking and meet their demands for the future.
LOUISIANA DIGITAL IS RED HOT Louisianas rich culture in creativity, film, music and television has been a natural fit for the development of an emerging digital media and technology industry. The state first began cultivating video game development in 2005 when it passed the digital media tax credit program, attracting major game developer EA Games to the state. In 2009, Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) office decided to shift its focus to the whole space of digital media, expanding the programs definition of digital interactive media and making the program more effective for all digital companies. The program, which is now available to any type of software development for commercial sale, including national

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PHOTO CREDIT: AVALANCHE SOFTWARE

security and IT applications, offers a bottom-line savings in the form of a 25 percent tax credit for expenditures and a 35 percent tax credit for Louisiana labor. The LED also has implemented strong incentives for technology and film growth through its Technology Commercialization Tax Credit and the Louisiana Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit, as well as bestin-nation workforce and job training incentives through its FastStart and Quality Jobs Programs. These incentives have helped to create thousands of new jobs in the state and catapult the region to the forefront of a rapidly growing digital media industry. Between 2001 and 2007, employment at Louisiana digital media firmswhich include Smartphone App and video game designers, software developers and moregrew 9 percent, according to a 2009 report by the firm Economics Research Associates. Digital media and software development is at the top of our targeted growth industries, said Stephen Moret, Secretary of LED. Weve been working hard to cultivate it, its a great fit for Louisiana and we are experiencing a lot of success right now. Louisianas digital media industry is one of the fastest growing in the nation, growing at a rate of more than 100 percent, according to Moret. The state has almost 19,000 skilled software developers and more than 100,000 professionals with a skill set conducive to digital media or software development. In addition, its information sector, including software publishing and telecommunications, has experienced the second fastest growth rate in the country since June 2009.
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Whats really exciting is that its happening all over the state, said Moret. Essentially weve got significant digital media and software development and telecommunications activity in roughly five cities: Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Monroe and Lafayette.
BATON ROUGECREATIVE CAPITAL OF THE SOUTH Known as the Creative Capital of the South, Baton Rouge has attracted development studios such as Electronic Arts, Firebrand Games, Crawfish Games, Nerjyzed Entertainment, BitRaider MMO. Now, the city will soon be home to a new international Academy Award-winning visual effects studio, Pixomondo. In February 2012, Pixomondo announced it is investing $1.2 million to open shop in Baton Rouges Celtic Media Centre, a state-of-theart movie studio. Pixomondo won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects (VFX) at the 84th Academy Awards for Martin Scorseses 3D epic-adventure, Hugo. The film, which is based on Brian Selznicks novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, is about a boy who lives alone in a Paris railway station and the enigmatic owner of a toy shop there. The company completed more than 800 shots as the primary visual effects vendor on the film. Opening in May, the Pixomondo Baton Rouge studio will be the German companys 12th international location. Annual salaries will average more than $65,000, plus benefits, and Pixomondo will hire 50 people in its first year, expanding to 75 by the end of its second year. The project will result in the creation of 49

indirect jobs, the LED estimates, for a total of more than 120 jobs. Pixomondo already operates a dozen VFX studios worldwide and they could have chosen anywhere to create a new studio, Gov. Jindal said in a press release. Their decision speaks volumes about how far Louisiana has come when it comes to improving our business climate and providing competitive incentives. Founded by CEO Thilo Kuther in 2001, Pixomondo offers 24/7 visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, 3-D animation and pre-visualization for the feature film, television and commercial industries. The company has created visual effects for more than 30 feature films, including Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Red Tails, Sucker Punch, Super 8, Fast Five, Percy Jackson, The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, 2012 and Hugo. The company is currently in production on VFX for Snow White and the Huntsman, The Amazing Spiderman and TV series that include Game of Thrones, Terra Nova, Hawaii Five-O and Grimm. The state began working with Pixomondo six months ago to gauge the companys interest in establishing a visual effects studio that could partner with major movie and TV productions in Baton Rouge and Louisiana. The company was drawn to Louisiana due to its rapidly growing film industry, as well as generous LED incentives including digital media and film production tax credits, FastStart and the Quality Jobs Program. Opening an office in Baton Rouge fits perfectly with our overall company vision, said CEO Kuther. Louisiana offers a very generous production tax credit that we can

pass on to our clients to bolster our project load as well as growing teams in Los Angeles, London and Germanynot to mention China and Canada. Baton Rouge is a beautiful city with a wealth of resources. Weve already connected with the Louisiana State University computer science department to help set up remote render farms and virtualization with our other studios.
DIGITAL MARCHES INTO NOLA New Orleans is undergoing an economic renaissanceand digital media is playing an integral role. Companies drawn to New Orleans include Firebrand Games, a critically acclaimed video game development

company currently working on titles for the Nintendo DS and Wii, and Fortune 500 company CenturyLink, the third-largest telecommunications company in the U.S. At the same time, the city has attracted GE Capitals new technology office, adding hundreds of jobs to the local workforce. After examining hundreds of locations for its new project, the company announced it is choosing New Orleans. When selecting a location for a center of this importance, we considered many attractive options across the country, said Brackett Denniston, GE Senior vice president and general counsel. Louisiana rose to the top of our list because of the

advantages it offers in terms of talent, infrastructure, location and environment. Gov. Jindal and the Louisiana delegation presented a compelling case for locating in Louisiana. Denniston said cooperation between the state and the company helped make the project a reality. We are thrilled to be part of what is rightly called the renaissance of New Orleans said Denniston. This is one of Americas signature cities, and we wanted to be a part of that. The state began cultivating ITrelated economic development opportunities with GE in late 2010, and those efforts intensified in collaboration with local partners Greater New Orleans (GNO) Inc., the New

2012 Louisiana Economic Development

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for business
The numbers are in, and Louisiana has landed a Top 10 state business climate ranking by Business Facilities, Area Development and Site Selection magazines. Key factors: lower taxes, ethics reform, tailored incentives and LED FastStart the nations No. 1 workforce training program, two years in a row. Discover the Louisiana advantage at OpportunityLouisiana.com.

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An Oscar for Shreveport

oonbot, an animation and visual effects studio, has helped put its hometown of Shreveport, LA on the global digital media

map. At the 84th Academy Awards, Moonbot won an Oscar for

The company was in the middle of production on Mr. Lessmore when Apple announced the new iPad. Moonbot used FastStart to help quickly train their programmers to learn the new technology in order to turn the childrens tale into an iPad App. Within weeks after they released the App, Mr. Lessmore soared to the top tier of Apples most popular apps for iPad. The app for Morris Lessmore came about almost by accident, well into production on the short film and book, when the iPad was introduced, and filled a previously unarticulated void, said Oldenburg. It wasn't a book and it wasn't a movieit was something in between. We had been wanting that, but not knowing what that was. The filmmakers found it to be a fitting way to stretch the multimedia potential of Morris Lessmore. Moonbot is currently housed in the BioSpace 1 building in Shreveports InterTech Science Park, home to several of the areas newest high-tech companies. The studios latest project is The Numberlys featuring a black and white aesthetic inspired by Fritz Langs silent film, Metropolis. The interactive storybook app offers a unique cinematic experience and innovative game play to engage users in an imaginative, interactive story about the origin of the alphabet. We envision the future of storytelling is a whole new class of interactive content that transcends traditional boundaries between traditional film and written text, said Enoch. Our vision is to transform the art of story-telling into a multimedia experience. Working on so many versions of the same story at once may sound a little nuts, but the multi-platform approach has been the key to becoming a viable company. When asked what they would tell other digital media companies about Louisiana, Oldenburg and Enoch both echoed the same sentiment: Come on down! We feel like the more the merrier, said Oldenburg. We have already collaborated with several local companies which has led to some amazing results. You wont find a more supportive state and the Louisiana Economic Development department is phenomenally proactive.
Digital artist (bottom right) at the Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, LA puts the finishing touches on a frame of the shops Oscar-winning animated short.

Best Animated Short for its digital interactive storybook for children, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Moonbot was founded in Shreveport in 2009 by William Joyce, a Shreveport-native who has worked for Disney/Pixar; Brandon Oldenburg of Reel; FX Studios, an award-winning design, visual effects, animation and entertainment studio; and Lampton Enoch of GWave Productions, a company which produced a slate of television movies for the Disney Channel and ABC Family. In 2009, after bouncing back and forth between two coasts for work, Joyce decided hed spent enough time on the road and was determined to find a way to base his work in his native Shreveport. It was then that he started Moonbot with Enoch and Oldenburg and Mr. Morris Lessmore was born. The idea for the story started with longtime childrens books publisher William Morris, Joyces mentor at HarperCollins, said Enoch. Joyce wrote this little story about a guy who gives his life to books on a flight en route to visit Morris. He read it to him when he went to see him and then Morris died just a few days after that. That story became the film, and it was also inspired in equal measures by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz,and a love for books. The company credits the states FastStart workforce training program and digital media incentives for helping get their story off of the shelves and onto the screen. Much of what has allowed Moonbot to flourish creatively can be attributed to the companys strong local support, including LEDs FastStart program, said Oldenburg. We cant emphasize enough how much the support of LED and the Shreveport community has helped to get Moonbot where it is in such a short time. With the support of State incentives and workforce training programs, weve been able to build a strong team of talented artists and storytellers and have far exceeded our expectations for what we could accomplish in our first months of business.

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PHOTO CREDITS: MOONBOT STUDIOS

Orleans Business Alliance and the New Orleans Mayors Office in 2011 as GE Capital was conducting a nationwide search for its new IT Center of Excellence. The center, which is expected to open by midyear, will focus on developing software, processes and technology for the GE Capital financial services arm of the company. New Orleans also attracted Parisbased Gameloft, one of the worlds largest publishers of digital and social games, to establish a major new game development studio in New Orleans, creating 146 new high-paying jobs over the next decade. Gameloft credits the LEDs FastStart as one of the major reasons it decided to locate in New Orleans. Over the last 10 years, weve sold over 200 million titles, said David Hague, Studio Manager of Gameloft, on LEDs website. Weve calculated that we sell three games every second. What FastStart does is make sure we have the people that will help us create a great game. FastStart comes in and says I understand how you recruit and the type of person that you are looking for, your corporate culture, and tailors that perfectly. According to Hague, New Orleans emerged as the front-runner among many other sites not only because of the states strong digital media and workforce incentives, but also because it offers a quality of life and lower cost of living and doing business, which is important in a globally competitive market. Throughout the search process, we went through a lot of the gaming technology hubs of the U.S., said Hague on the LEDs website. Last on our list was New Orleans. After being here for just under 24 hours I quickly realized

that this was a city where we would be able to pull a workforce to have a great cost of living and a very fun lifestyle when people arent at work.

Gameloft was worried that they couldnt attract the same number of applicants to their studios compared to New York and California, said

Louisiana, thr gh its hrough t h creative industries incentives, r e ncentives n has quickly become a leader in o ead lm and digital media production produc pr du tio
outside of the traditional Calif rnia and lifornia d f i New York corridors. Our com pa ny, m pan Moonbot Studios, has been able to ble o attract and train a highly tal ent e d alent nt t workforce utilizing Louisiana Economic n ic c Development programs and incentives. n n n es. From the creation of our rst animated r anim d a ma lm to the completion of our rst iPad u rst iPad r interactive book, Moonbot has be eted as ben ted b from the economic opportunities weve n e v found in North Louisiana.

MOONBOT STUDIOS William Joyce,

Shreveport, Louisiana

Partner

Congratulations to Moonbot Studios for their Oscar Winning Short Film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Photo Courtesy: AMPSA

SMART. CONNECTED. COMPETITIVE.

North Louisiana: Ready to Work for You.

web: www.nlep.org | phone: 318.677.2536 | contact: Kurt Foreman | kforeman@nlep.org Funded in part by Louisiana Economic Development.
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Moret. Yes, we are smaller, but what we lack in size we make up for in exceptional targeted resources for recruitment and training. It turned out that they had the same quality and number of applicants for their New Orleans studio as they did in NYC and NYC is a vastly bigger pool. According to Hague, the states customized solutions got the company running in half the time. Were really starting to create a hub that can really grow to become one of the meccas that you see in some of the other large cities in the U.S., said Hague. These jobs are here and theyre here to stay.
RHODE ISLANDS WINNING PITCH In 2004 and 2007, pitching ace Curt Schilling helped the Red Sox win the World Series. He is now taking aim at the video game industry and has picked Providence, Rhode Island as the home for his hot new video game studio, 38 Studios. The staff at 38 Studios is incredibly excited about our relocation to Providence and we expect to be the first of many relocating knowledgeeconomy companies that will take advantage of the opportunities Rhode Island provides, said Jen MacLean, chief executive officer of 38 Studios, in a press release. Providence has some of the best students in the nation, a vibrant arts community and a dynamic urban environment with easy access to public transportation. In February 2012, 38 Studios released its first game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which became the No. 4 best-selling video game and the only new franchise to crack the top ten, according to consumer market research group NPD. The company is located in down18 MARCH/APRIL 2012

town Providences Knowledge Districtan area with a strong creative and arts culture and in close proximity to internationally recognized schools such as the Rhode Island School of Design, The University of Rhode Island and the New England Institute of Technology. The gaming company also has a second studio in Maryland for its Big Huge Games subsidiary. The state was able to lure 38 Studios to the state thanks to Rhode Islands Job Creation Guaranty Program, which authorizes the RIEDC to use up to $125 million in loan guarantees to facilitate critical economic development projects. 38 Studios is receiving $75 million through the loan guarantee program and in turn will employ 450 people in the state by late 2013. The program is one piece of a state strategy to build Rhode Island into a leader of innovation, into a world-class incubator for 21st cen-

tury growth industries, said KeithStokes, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Council (RIEDC). The addition of 38 Studios to Rhode Islands growing knowledge economy is a critical step in further developing the states digital media sector, Stokes said. As an anchor tenant, 38 Studios will be a magnet for other related businesses that will set up shop here and generate thousands of additional jobs in our state, he said. Another anchor tenant to set up in downtowns Knowledge District is Hasbro, a top-selling toymaker turned digital media conglomerate. In July 2011, Hasbro announced it is expanding into a 136,000 square-foot facility in downtown Providence. The $24 million project will bring at least 284 full-time jobs within the first three years with annual wages averaging $80,290. The RIEDC conferred Project
38 Studios visionaries: R. A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, Curt Schilling.

PHOTO CREDIT: 38 STUDIOS

Status on Hasbro, making the company eligible for a sales tax exemption on the purchase of construction materials and equipment and other items such as furniture and computers related to its expansion in Providence. As Hasbro continues to grow and evolve, we are excited about expanding our presence not only in Rhode Island but in the Capital City of Providence as well, said Brian Goldner, CEO of Hasbro, in a press release. Rhode Island has been our home since 1923 and we look forward to remaining an active and important part of this community. Hasbros expansion is part of the companys continued emergence as

a branded play company. No longer just a toy and game company, Hasbro is creating global experiences for its consumers with its brands like Transformers, Littlest Pet Shop, Nerf, Monopoly and G.I. Joe into a wide range of areas including film, digital gaming, licensing and television. Hasbro has transformed itself for the 21st century as a branded play and multi-platform entertainment company, Stokes said in a press release. So too will the larger Knowledge District area in Providence with the addition of another powerful anchor institution acting as a magnet for the strong digital media and IT cluster already in place.

Rhode Island is Brimming with Digital Media Opportunities:

Connectivity and proximity to the Northeasts robust network of ITDMrelated industries. Access to a network of students and alumni that produce innovative research in areas such as applied mathematics, artificial intelligence, robotics, cognitive science and engineering. An innovation investment tax credit of up to 50 percent ($100,000 max credit). The Slater Technology Fund, which provides seed funding for qualified local technology-based ventures and provides the network of partnerships entrepreneurs need to raise capital.

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