Washington Trust became a player in the redevelopment of historic downtown Providence in 2002 when we provided a commercial mortgage for Alice Group, LLC, owner of The Alice Building at 236-250 Westminster Street. Located just a few blocks from our Providence branch, the renovated building is now comprised of 38 loft-style apartments on its upper floors and retail space at street level. As financier for this project, Washington Trust joins a group of public and private entities that have invested a total of more than  $1 billion to rejuvenate this historically significant section of Rhode Island’s  capital city. Already one of the leading  commercial lenders in Washington County, Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut, our expansion into central Rhode Island helped establish us as a statewide business bank. ey to unlocking growth opportunities in all aspects of business banking was our acquisition of First Bank and Trust and resulting expansion into the Providence  and Cranston market areas. Those markets, together with the Kent County market we  will serve through our new Warwick branch, means that Washington Trust is geographically positioned to draw from a pool of 21,000 potential new business banking customers. Our Commercial Lending area is suc- ceeding in attracting new clients in this part of the state by providing multi-million dollar financing to some well-known businesses. The department’s major accounts represent a cross-section of the state’s major industries, ranging from real estate and hospitality to manufacturing and biomedical technology. four Business Banking