Tourister pitched as mixed use

Shane Brady describes himself and Chris Starr as “mill guys.”
Principals of Brady Sullivan Properties and Starr Development respectively, Brady and Starr have made a career of preserving and transforming the old red-brick factories that helped build New England cities.
In Rhode Island, they’ve teamed up to redevelop properties like the Slater Cotton Mill in Pawtucket, Grant Mill in Providence, Pocasset Mill in Johnston and Anthony Mill in Coventry.
So it comes as no surprise that when Brady and Starr found out that the former American Tourister factory in Warren would hit the auction block after an earlier condominium-conversion project collapsed, they jumped at the opportunity. In February they acquired the 14-acre Tourister property with a winning auction bid of $2.6 million.
“We love doing mill conversions and the location for this one is the best around,” said Brady from his offices in Manchester, N.H. “Our vision is to create a great place to live or hang out and do some shopping. We have been successful with others throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and I think this is just superior location.”
After several months putting together their plans, Brady Sullivan and Starr Development are now advancing plans to redevelop the old Tourister factory in a similar style to their other mill projects.
Their plans presented to the Warren Planning Board last month call for more than 200 apartments and 85,000 square feet of commercial space in the three-story, red-brick buildings on the banks of the Warren River.
The new plan is similar enough to the 2007 project abandoned by former owner Meredith Management Corp. that it will fit within the approved master plan for that project.
Brady and Starr are now working with town planners on some modifications to the master plan and hope to wrap permitting up before winter.
After watching the property decline over the past decade, Warren leaders have every reason to welcome investment in the Main Street complex.
Constructed starting at the end of the 19th century for Warren Mfg. Co., the Tourister building was used by the eponymous Rhode Island luggage maker for years until it was acquired by the owner of the Samsonite brand. Blue Samsonite signs still adorn the building, which is the most visible landmark for those arriving in Warren’s central business district from Route 114 in Barrington or the popular East Bay Bike Path.
A priority for the town that Brady-Starr has kept from the Meredith project is the creation of a public river-walk helping to connect the northern end of town with the restaurants and activity along Water Street.
To transform the old factory into a modern, mixed-use complex, Brady and Starr intend to gut the interior and create a new floor layout. The building will get new windows, a new roof and new elevators.
The 200-plus units in the Brady-Starr plan are more modest than the Meredith plan, which included 350 condominium units, about 150 of them in new townhouse buildings on the site. (Meredith fought with the town over the height and density of their project before it was abandoned.)
Brady and Starr are putting all apartments within the existing brick Tourister structures and are including roughly double the amount of commercial space as the Meredith plan.
In addition to apartments, Brady and Starr are putting 147 parking spaces for tenants on the ground floor of the mill building that will be added to more than 550 surface spaces outside.
Starr said the apartments in the Tourister building will have high-end finishes and be affordable for tenants priced out of some of the super-high-end buildings in Providence or Newport.
“What we hope to create is something that is high quality, yet reasonably priced,” Starr said, putting the price point at between $1,200 and $1,300 for a 1,000-square-foot apartment.
Brady said the project should draw from an area that includes not just Providence and the East Bay but well into Massachusetts.
A handful of commercial tenants still work in the Tourister Building, including a Samsonite retail outlet, but it is unclear whether any of them will wait out the renovations to return once it’s done. •

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