How can public place-making investments in infrastructure, culture, the environment, and history, help a visitor destination draw private investments?

Dr Robert Billington, President, Blackstone Valley Tourism Council Inc, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA The Blackstone River Valley played a ‘seminal role in transforming America, from a colonial landscape of farmlands and forests to one of riverside mills and urban factories’ (National Tourism Association, 2003). The region is regarded as the ‘birthplace of America’s industrial revolution’ (SMHS, 2002). Situated in New England, 200 miles north of New York City, the Valley rose to prominence in 1790, when English immigrant Samuel Slater built the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill in America (Slater Mill Historic Site, 2002).
Slater went on to become known as the father of American manufacturers, establishing several manufactories throughout Southern New England (Rivard, 1974). Hundreds of mills were built throughout the Blackstone Valley after Slater’s success, underpinning the United States’ progression to world economic leader. Immigrants flocked to the Blackstone’s textile industry from all over the world.