UPDATE: What happened to the Cranston Chamber of Commerce?

February 8, 2020/RINewsToday

As we were doing research on a Chamber of Commerce focus of all the chambers in Rhode Island, we stopped at the recent closing of the Cranston Chamber of Commerce.

On February 5^th, we ran a story – What happened to the Cranston Chamber of Commerce, with an overview of some of the information we had learned. https://rinewstoday.com/what-happened-to-the-cranston-chamber-of-commerce/. This is an update to that story…

Response from Cranston Mayor’s office:

From Daniel Parrillo, Director of Administration for the City of Cranston:

Parrillo acknowledged that the closure of the Cranston Chamber was not something the mayor’s office or Cranston administration was aware of. The new website recently unveiled for the City of Cranston devoted a full-page description to the Cranston Chamber as a resource for local businesses, with a listing of services and events. Yesterday, Parrillo told RINewsToday that “the page has been taken down until further notice”, until they learn that the Chamber is back in business, if that is what happens.

The City notes there are 2,921 businesses based in Cranston. The Central Chamber had previously stated they have 300 members with Cranston addresses.

Michael Farina, President of the Cranston City Council:

Farina responded, “I was unaware that the Cranston Chamber of Commerce had closed until seeing recent report. I think a Chamber of Commerce is important for small business and hope that a presence returns to Cranston. [It] was all news to me when I read [the] article. I was pretty shocked to say the least.”

The RI Secretary of State

The RI Secretary of State’s office read a list of charter revokes and reinstatements for both the Cranston Chamber of Commerce, the Cranston Chamber Foundation, and the Greater Cranston Chamber of Commerce, starting in 2015, with a reinstatement in 2016, another revocation in 2018, then a name change in 2018, and finally ending with both a reinstatement and then another revocation within 30 days of each other, as recent as January of 2020. Revocation occurs with failure to file the state’s legal requirement of an annual report.

IRS

Organizations whose federal tax-exempt status has been automatically revoked have not filed a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years. Both the Foundation and the parent “Chamber” tax exempt status was revoked in 2013. The type of exemption the group had prior to that was a 501 (c) (6), a special designation for “Business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, etc.”.

Landlord

According to the Garden City Center management office, owners of the building where the Chamber was, the Chamber had “decided not to renew its lease” and left no forwarding address. It was their assumption that the Chamber has closed down.

The website for the Cranston Chamber still has, at its opening screen, this quote by Herman Melville:

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

This is the 2005 newsletter of the Cranston Chamber of Commerce, multi-pages filled with activities and community news for businesses based in Cranston and doing business with the city: