Home News Story Atlantic Mills has new owner

Atlantic Mills has new owner

By

Katie Castellani

-

06/17/2025

Atlantic Mills — THE HISTORIC Atlantic Mills officially has a new owner. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE TAX ASSESSOR

PROVIDENCE – The historic Atlantic Mills officially has a new owner. The sale of the 350,000-square-foot brick mill complex located in the Olneyville neighborhood closed Tuesday for $4 million, said Eric Edelman, a representative for the building’s new ownership group, Atlantic Mills RI LLC. The building has been owned by the Byrnes family for more

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PROVIDENCE – The historic Atlantic Mills officially has a new owner. The sale of the 350,000-square-foot brick mill complex located in the Olneyville neighborhood closed Tuesday for $4 million, said Eric Edelman, a representative for the building’s new ownership group, Atlantic Mills RI LLC. The building has been owned by the Byrnes family for more than 70 years. Before then, Atlantic Mills served as the headquarters of the Atlantic Delaine factory in the mid-1800s. Then A.D. Julliard took over the property in 1904 and was the last to use it as a textile mill. More recently, the site has been home to a mix of artists and businesses, including a prominent flea market, furniture retailers and a restaurant supply company. The sale comes after the city spent years trying to preserve the property, which was built in 1872 along the Woonasquatucket River. Its distinctive twin domed towers can be seen by passing motorists on Route 6. In September 2022, the Providence Redevelopment Agency entered into a purchase and sales contract with the owners. Then in August 2023, the agency issued a request for information for interested firms to join in rehabilitating the property. However, the owner declined to extend the purchase and sales contract “after PRA sponsored an environmental investigation through the R.I. Department of Environmental Management,” Josh Estrella, spokesperson for Mayor Brett P. Smiley, told Providence Business News last year. The city learned in late July 2024 that the owners were not extending the agreement. By August, the property was listed for sale for $5 million. Just a few weeks later, on Aug. 27, a group of buyers, including Edelman, entered into a purchase agreement with the owners. However, the building’s tenants formed the state's first commercial tenant union in December, as tensions have been brewing between them and their future landlord. The union came months after tenants expressed concerns about the pending sale of the building. Opponents of the sale note that the buyers have a connection to the Lauderdale building, a five-story office building that sits across the street from the “Superman” building in downtown Providence. Edelman, along with his father-in-law, Jeffrey Mendel, and two others purchased the property in 2023 for $2.35 million, with plans to convert it to market-rate apartments and renovate retail spaces. Edelman has said the owners are planning improvements to the building that will make it a “great place to operate a business and innovate for the next 150 years.” “There is a Remedial Action Work Plan that we'll be following to remediate the environmental issues," Edelman told Providence Business News on Tuesday. "We'll be working with all tenants and prospects directly on renewals and new leases.” DEM and a representative for the union did not immediately respond to PBN inquiries. The mill was recently listed on the Providence Preservation Society’s 2025 list of most endangered places. In June 2024, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management completed a site investigation – which the Providence Redevelopment Agency applied for when considering purchasing the property. The investigation showed that there were polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, along with metals and total petroleum hydrocarbons, or TPHs, in site soils, as well as vinyl chloride in the groundwater. The investigation also found bromoform in soil gas above the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection standard. DEM’s contractor, Fuss & O’Neill, was set to have an action plan completed by October 2024. Details on the plan were not immediately clear Tuesday. Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.