government services. Prominent companies headquartered in Providence include
Fortune 500 Textron and United Natural Foods, Fortune 1000 Nortek Incorporated,
privately held engineering firm Gilbane, and GTECH Corporation, who recently
moved their world headquarters to downtown Providence. Citizens Bank, the
15th-largest bank in the country, is also headquartered in Providence. Another
company whose origins were in the city is Fleet Bank. Once Rhode Island's
largest bank, it moved its headquarters to Boston, Massachusetts, after
acquiring Shawmut Bank in 1995. Before its acquisition by Bank of America,
Fleet merged with BankBoston to become New England's largest commercial bank.
The city is home to the Rhode Island
Convention Center, which opened in December 1993. Along with a hotel, the
convention center is connected to the Providence Place Mall, a major retail
center, through a skywalk. The Port of Providence, the second-largest deepwater
seaport in New England, handles cargo such as cement, chemicals, heavy
machinery, petroleum, and scrap metal
