New Hampshire-based developer Brady Sullivan Properties plans to renovate one of Pawtucket’s historic mills into 124 condominiums that city leaders hope will help lure more people downtown. The announcement comes as another nearby redevelopment, Union Wadding Lofts, is gearing up its condo-marketing campaign.
For an undisclosed price, Brady Sullivan has purchased the former Slater Cotton Mill, at 38 Church St., and will complete a $22 million renovation, likely finishing it within about seven months, owner and company President Shane Brady said last week.
The 164,175-square-foot Slater Cotton Mill will be converted to market-rate units, Brady said.
The new development, with other residential mill projects nearby, will align with the city’s push toward re-establishing downtown and Main Street as a cultural and commercial center, said Economic and Cultural Affairs Officer Herbert Weiss. One of the city’s goals is to increase density.
“Part of our economic strategy for the downtown, to make it work, is to bring more people to reside downtown,” Weiss said.
Mayor James Doyle agreed, saying, “This downtown population is exciting, because their dollars will support the growing commercial, retail and entertainment venues that are located downtown.”
The development will join downtown mill renovations Bayley Street Lofts, Riverfront Lofts and Union Wadding.
The Union Wadding 245-condo development is expected to be completed during 2010, but the first 89 units will be completed this spring, said Aurora Leigh, project manager with developer First National Development R.I.
For that first phase, the developer is looking for local buyers first, she said.
“Our marketing and sales team asked us to give them a few months of local marketing,” Leigh said. “Because they feel that they’ll get a lot of response from local clients, because we’re basically pricing them at entry-level.”
The first 89 units will range from 800 to 1,700 square feet and are priced from $125,000 to $285,000, she said.
During 2003, Truth Box Inc. completed the 25-unit Bayley Street Lofts, a renovation of the former Parkin Yarn Mill, said Principal Peter Gill Case.
That project’s mostly affordable units – sized from 1,000 to 1,800 square feet and mostly priced below $150,000 – sold out quickly, even though the real estate market was slow at that time, Case said.
“I think when our project was done – Riverfront Lofts were completed near the same time – it was widely felt that Pawtucket was going to keep moving forward,” Case said. “One or two projects followed … but the momentum just kind of stopped.”
The Brady Sullivan project, along with Union Wadding, could help the city regain that momentum, he said.
“The Union Wadding project is going to be a real test to see what the market is like in Pawtucket now,” Case continued.
Blackstone Exchange’s $20 million Riverfront Lofts is a 60-unit development completed during 2004.
Riverfront was geared toward the higher-end market. The lofts range from 1,000 to 5,000 square feet. Prices topped out at $800,000 but they sold out quickly, said owner Ranne Warner. About 12 of the units were purchased by Boston commuters, but the market has since changed, she said.
“A lot of people from Boston bought from us, but … prices have dropped in Boston,” she said.
During the last six months, Brady Sullivan has purchased more than 1 million square feet – including the former Grant Mill, in Providence, in October – in the Boston Metro area and Rhode Island. The purchases are part of a southward expansion for the company that now owns and manages more than 3 million square feet of office and residential space in and around Manchester, N.H., said Tim Sheldon, director of operations.
The developers are partnered with Starr Development, based in Lowell, Mass., on the Pawtucket project. Building permits are expected within a few weeks, said Brady.
The project will be applying for R.I. Historic Preservation Tax Credits, a program that Gov. Donald L. Carcieri proposed capping in his FY 2008 Supplemental Budget.
But the developers remain positive about receiving the credit. •
