An electroplating firm might seem like an unlikely developer of live/work space for artists. But the option made sense for Providence Metallizing Co. in Pawtucket.
When competition from overseas caused the company to downsize, that left three of its mill buildings vacant, said Richard Sugerman, president of Providence Metallizing. The 53-year-old electroplating company had to decide whether to sell the properties or find another use.
That was around 2000, when Pawtucket began revving up its arts initiative, recalled Herb Weiss, the city’s economic and cultural affairs officer. At Pawtucket’s request, the General Assembly had passed legislation creating a 307-acre arts and entertainment district downtown, with special tax benefits for artists who worked and sold their work there.
The result was the development of the city’s mills into lofts that artists began to use as live and work space.
“We saw the arts were an avenue to use our mills,” said Paul Audette, senior staff manager at Providence Metallizing, who coordinates the loft project. “With the city’s arts initiative, those buildings became valuable.”
So the company started conversations with the city, he said, and hired an architect (who is also the general contractor) and tradesmen to renovate the three buildings – one 30,000 square feet, one 10,000 square feet and one 3,000 square feet.
Located behind Lorraine Mills, the buildings had been used for light manufacturing back in Providence Metallizing Co.’s jewelry days.
Then, on Feb. 20, 2003, The Station burned down, and that “put the brakes on everything,” Audette said.
Fire codes once seen “in black and white and shades of gray were now black and white – and rightfully so,” Weiss said. But it made things more difficult for developers.
Floor plans once deemed passable were re-evaluated, Audette said. Some had to be changed.
“You couldn’t get anyone to sign off on anything,” he said. “It crippled the progress.”
But since the city recently developed a protocol to guide developers through the codes, or at least make sure everyone understands the codes in the same way, Audette said, it’s been easier to get back on track. Attending monthly meetings with the city’s planning and zoning staff has helped “hasten progress,” he said.
Audette said the company expects to receive a certificate of occupancy for four live/work units within days. It hopes to have 12 more units ready within the next year.
Four tenants already have signed leases, Audette said, including Mihail Simeonov, a well-known Bulgarian sculptor.
The units range from 800 square feet to 1,200 square feet, Audette said. The average rent for a 1,000-square-foot live/work unit is $1,000 per month.
“This project is probably the only project I know of in Pawtucket that looks to lease lofts to artists at an affordable rate,” Weiss said. “Most of the mills coming online are condos.”
Weiss said Ranne Warner, developer of the Riverfront Lofts, has sold all but about four of her 60 live/work lofts. And nearly all the 25 artist lofts at Bayley Lofts have sold, as well. Urban Smart Growth will add more to the mix, with its redevelopment of the 650,000-square-foot Hope Webbing mill building.
Weiss said he knows of two more developers who are in the early stages of approval with plans to renovate mill buildings into a total of 300 artist live/work condos downtown.
“There is a need for affordable leased lofts in Pawtucket,” Weiss said. Though Providence Metallizing’s 16 live/work units are a drop in the bucket, compared with the wave of lofts for sale, he added, they target a niche that’s not otherwise being served.
But Providence Metallizing isn’t renovating its excess mills just to meet the needs of artists, or for the revenue it will generate. “It’s more about increasing the property value,” Sugerman said.
Five years ago, Audette said, the company would have been lucky to get $1.50 per square foot for those buildings (or $125 a month for what is now a 1,000-square-foot loft). “The company chose to stabilize itself in this market by doing something useful and viable with the excess property,” he said.
Sugerman noted that Providence Metallizing is no novice to stabilizing itself in the marketplace. When the company lost a significant portion of its business to offshore electroplaters, it had to find niche markets in electronics and medical equipment. It also had to downsize, from 600 employees to 130.
“It’s one of the only ways you can survive in manufacturing,” Sugerman said. “We had to reinvent ourselves.”
Now, the company specializes in plating metal onto plastic buttons for cell phones, among other applications, he said. It used to electroplate jewelry, trophies and lamp parts.
Another reason the company chose to develop the excess space, Sugerman added, is that “we don’t like to see buildings standing empty. It’s a waste.”
