Pontiac Mills project to receive $5M in historical preservation tax credits

A PROPOSED conversion of the historic Pontiac Mills into residential and commercial space will receive $5 million in state historical preservation tax credits, the state announced Tuesday.  / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
A PROPOSED conversion of the historic Pontiac Mills into residential and commercial space will receive $5 million in state historical preservation tax credits, the state announced Tuesday. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

WARWICK – A proposed conversion of the historic Pontiac Mills into residential and commercial space will receive $5 million in state historical preservation tax credits, the state announced Tuesday.
The multi-phased project will rehabilitate 22 of 28 buildings in the sprawling complex over four years, according to a timeline. The work also will include restoration of a water tower, as well as the bell tower at the center of one of the main structures. The four phases total $25 million in planned construction and are expected to begin this spring.
In an announcement Tuesday, the state Division of Taxation reported the project has been approved for $5 million in tax credits. The property is now owned by the Newport-based Union Mill LLC, a subsidiary of the Baltimore-based Union Box Co., which has renovated historic properties in that city.
Union Mill President Larry Silverstein said in an interview in February that the separate buildings of the mill lend themselves to a phased project, and would allow him to respond to changes in the market, including demand for more commercial space.
An architect hired for preliminary plans, Cordtsen Design Architecture of Newport, prepared a phasing schedule that indicates six buildings would be in the first phase, at a cost of $8 million. They include what is referred to as Building 3, a three-story structure which dates to 1870 and features an ornately bracketed eave and entrance tower.
The Pontiac Mills dates to the mid-1800s, and some of the buildings that will be saved were constructed in the 1870s, according to the project summary. The mill structures, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, have sustained significant water and environmental damage in the past decade, as they were unoccupied and not maintained, according to an historical assessment report prepared for the tax credit request. Much of the original wood flooring in the buildings, for example, is not salvageable, according to the report.
The mill complex, located near Warwick Mall, was the original site of the Fruit of the Loom textile company, which produced garments for soldiers in the U.S. Civil War.

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