Landscaping Business Valuation Multiples 2025
Landscaping businesses command 2.5x–4.5x SDE in today's market. PE consolidation is accelerating. Here's what your landscaping company is worth and what drives the multiple.
Read Article →Valuation BenchmarksMay 2025 · 5 min read
Landscaping Business Valuation in Rhode Island: Providence & Newport Market Data 2025
Rhode Island landscaping businesses benefit from Newport's Gilded Age estate grounds, Brown University campus grounds, and Providence's dense commercial and healthcare campus market. Rhode Island's 5.99% income tax is New England's lowest.
JT
Jason Taken
HedgeStone Business Advisors
Rhode Island is America's smallest state by area but hosts one of the Northeast's most concentrated premium landscaping markets — Newport's historic Gilded Age estates, Brown University's Ivy League campus, and Providence's dense commercial district create landscaping demand far exceeding what the state's size would suggest. Rhode Island's 5.99% income tax is the lowest in New England.
Rhode Island Landscaping Multiples
Rhode Island landscaping businesses sell for 2.5x–4.5x SDE. Providence (Providence County) dominates — Brown University's historic campus grounds, Rhode Island School of Design's urban campus, Johnson & Wales University, Lifespan's hospital campus grounds, and Providence's Blackstone Boulevard estate neighborhood generate institutional and premium residential landscaping accounts. Newport (Newport County) adds the Gilded Age mansion estate grounds — The Breakers, Marble House, Rosecliff, and Belcourt Castle (all now managed by the Newport Preservation Society) require specialized historic estate grounds maintenance. The private Newport estates — hundreds of turn-of-the-century summer cottages (many actually large mansions) on Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive — add premium residential accounts.
Newport Gilded Age Estate Grounds
Newport's Bellevue Avenue corridor hosts the greatest concentration of Gilded Age estate grounds in the U.S. The Breakers (Vanderbilt, 13 acres), Marble House (Vanderbilt, 10 acres), Rosecliff (Hermann Oelrichs, 5 acres), and the dozens of surviving private Newport estate grounds require expert historic landscape maintenance: period-appropriate plant selection, Olmsted Brothers landscape design restoration, boxwood parterre maintenance, formal lawn management for croquet and garden party events, and seasonal flower display programs faithful to the estates' Victorian-era horticultural traditions. Grounds maintenance contracts for Newport's major Preservation Society estates generate $40,000–$200,000+ per year. Private Newport estate grounds on Bellevue Avenue add comparable billing.
Brown University and Academic Campus Grounds
Brown University's College Hill campus — one of the most beautiful Ivy League campuses in New England — requires expert historic campus grounds management for its 146-acre core campus and adjacent Pembroke campus. Brown's campus features mature elm, oak, and beech canopy, historic Victorian-era plantings, and the Quiet Green at the heart of campus requiring turf management standards matching Brown's architectural prestige. Brown's grounds maintenance contract is one of the most coveted institutional landscaping accounts in Rhode Island — typically multi-year, with high professional standards and premium billing rates. Roger Williams University, URI's Providence campus, and RISD's urban campus add additional academic institutional accounts.
Rhode Island at 5.99% — New England's Most Favorable Landscaping Exit
Rhode Island's 5.99% flat income tax rate is the lowest in New England — favorably positioned against Connecticut (6.99%), Maine (7.15%), Massachusetts (5.0% but with millionaire surcharge), and Vermont (8.75%). On a $1.5M landscaping exit, Rhode Island sellers pay $89,850 in state income taxes — versus $104,850 in Connecticut or $131,250 in Vermont. Total effective rate is approximately 28–30%. Rhode Island landscaping business owners with Newport Preservation Society estate grounds contracts, Brown University campus grounds maintenance, or Lifespan hospital campus grounds should engage a broker experienced in the New England premium landscaping market.
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Read Article →HVAC Business Valuation in Rhode Island: Providence & Newport Market Data 2025
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