Quonset is finally becoming the economic engine many hoped it would be after Quonset Air Naval Station was decommissioned in 1973. After decades of costly environmental cleanup and infrastructure improvements, the business park houses 200 companies, now with 11,000 employees.

“Quonset is a great success,” said the state’s governor, Gina M. Raimondo.

Not only do the companies there provide jobs, she said, but many of them are well-paying jobs, which Rhode Island needs.

These businesses include large companies like Electric Boat, the nuclear submarine division of General Dynamics based in Connecticut. Others are smaller companies employing a dozen or so people.

More than 1,000 acres at the business park have been leased or sold, and 38 parcels totaling 275 acres remain available. The remaining land at the site has been set aside for open space and recreation, including a golf course, and for infrastructure.

A recent report by the Brookings Institution about Rhode Island’s underperforming economy recommends that the state try to replicate Quonset’s success now that the park is nearing capacity. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, lacks sufficient developable land to attract medium-size and large companies, and should strive to assemble large parcels for development, the report said.

The report’s recommendation, Ms. Raimondo said, is “certainly something we’re going to look at.”

During World War II, Quonset Point was a military city of some 20,000, many of whom lived and worked in the metal Quonset huts that were invented there. It was also home to the Seabees, the Navy’s engineering and construction battalions, which were stationed at an adjacent base. That base was decommissioned in 1994.