Warwick officials are moving forward with a proposal to tax owners of vacant and visibly abandoned commercial properties, an effort aimed at pressuring landlords to fix up, lease or sell buildings that have sat empty for years. The idea has been floated before, but city leaders say a newly drafted ordinance is now taking real shape, with specific exemptions, enforcement steps and an appeals process attached to it.
City Council President Anthony Sinapi, who is sponsoring the measure, told the Warwick Beacon that most property owners should not be worried, since they already keep up their buildings. According to the Beacon, Sinapi said the point of the tax is not to raise money for the city because compliance with the ordinance is not particularly difficult. He has pointed to a long-vacant gas station at the northeast corner of Main Avenue and Greenwich Avenue as an example of the kind of blight the ordinance is meant to address, noting that some vacant properties are well maintained while others become neighborhood blights that detract from the areas around them.
The property most often cited in discussions of the ordinance is the Remington House Inn, a former restaurant on Post Road in Warwick's Apponaug Historic District that closed in 2018 and has sat empty ever since, per the Beacon's reporting. Sinapi has said he hopes the tax will push owners to restore or clean up properties like it rather than let them continue to decay.
What the Ordinance Would Actually Cover
Under the version described by Warwick Post, the ordinance would cover only commercial buildings left vacant for a full year, along with vacant lots that are littered with trash and clearly abandoned. The goal, Warwick Post reported, is to push owners of long-vacant commercial buildings to fix them up, lease them or sell them rather than let them linger. The Beacon similarly describes the measure as targeting vacant or clearly abandoned commercial properties, with the city's building department responsible for determining which properties qualify.
Warwick Post reported that the proposed rate would be $10 per $100 of assessed value, or 10% a year, starting in 2027.
The measure is intended to encourage owners to fill vacant buildings or clean up empty lots for potential redevelopment.
Exemptions, Liens and Appeals
Under the proposal described by Warwick Post, unpaid vacant-property tax would become a lien that must be paid off before the property could be sold. Buyers who take on a vacant property with an approved, funded redevelopment plan would be exempt from the tax.
Per the Beacon, the proposed ordinance would require the city's building department to notify property owners in writing once a property has been deemed vacant or abandoned, with notice sent immediately to the tax assessor and the designation filed with the recorder of deeds. The tax assessor would be empowered to abate the tax if it was imposed in error, and the Board of Assessment Review would hear appeals of the tax, according to the Beacon. A draft ordinance obtained from the City of Warwick lists a January 1, 2027 imposition date and includes sections on exemptions, abatement and appeals, though the full procedures were not available for review. City records show the ordinance, labeled PCO-8-26, was held by the council on October 5.
Providence's Earlier Tax
Warwick would not be the first Rhode Island city to try this approach. Providence adopted its own 10% non-utilization tax on qualifying vacant and abandoned properties back in 2018, according to the City of Providence.
Rhode Island law separately empowers Pawtucket to impose its own tax on the privilege of utilizing property as vacant and abandoned, a provision that has applied each year since 1997, according to the Rhode Island General Assembly. Whether Warwick's own ordinance will ultimately mirror Pawtucket's statute, land closer to Providence's now-shelved model, or chart its own course remains to be seen as the council continues its review.
