The company that is redeveloping the Royal Mills complex in West Warwick and Rising Sun Mills in Providence says it wants to turn the former U.S. Rubber Company Mill and Nicholson File Company Mill complexes in Providence into a $330 million mixed-use development.
Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. provided information about its plans to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation at a meeting Feb. 27 to support its application for a certificate of “economic concern,” a status that would expedite permitting for the project.
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Jannice Ashley, development director at Struever Bros., addressed the EDC but declined to provide more details in an interview, saying the project is “still in the planning stages.”
The mills involved, which Struever Bros. is still negotiating to buy, are off Valley Street, not far from Rising Sun or the former Providence Dyeing, Bleaching and Calendaring Mill, which the company is redeveloping with the nonprofit group PUENTE.
Materials provided to the EDC show that Struever Bros., based in Baltimore, plans to turn the U.S. Rubber and Nicholson sites, which together cover 29 acres, into a development with office, retail, residential and hotel space.
The project would combine the adaptive reuse of 26 historic buildings with more than 1.2 million square feet of new construction, according to the materials provided to the EDC. About 394,000 square feet would be designated for office space; 51,000 square feet for retail; 781,000 square feet for residential space; and 87,000 square feet for a hotel.
The site also would include more than 1,800 parking spaces. Struever is seeking approval from the city for a bond issue of about $41 million to finance two structured garages, infrastructure, bridges over the Woonasquatucket River and a greenway.
Struever will need permits from the R.I. Historic Preservation & Heritage Commission because the sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It will also need permits from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, because the sites are considered brownfields.
The $330 million project, which Struever is calling American Locomotive Works, has an expected capital investment of about $261 million. It is expected to create about 3,000 construction jobs and more than 48 project-specific permanent jobs, according to the EDC application.
Struever is applying for historic tax credits for both the U.S. Rubber Company, commonly called Alco, and the Nicholson File Company, said Richard Greenwood, project review coordinator at the historic preservation commission.
The U.S. Rubber site contains about 33 industrial buildings erected between the 1880s and 1960s, according to a commission news release.
Struever publicly announced its plans to redevelop the two historic industrial sites on March 8.
