While other Olneyville mills are being sold for residential redevelopments, Duke Lossini, owner of 91 Hartford Ave., where he runs Eli Group, a manufacturer of metal lockets and cases, wouldn’t want his building to be used for anything but an industrial use. The reason is partly sentimental – he has owned it since 1956 – but also driven by an opportunity he sees to fill a niche.
With the manufacturing business shifting toward imports, he’s now renovating portions of his 108-year-old, 127,000-square-foot mill for smaller industrial-use tenants.
“Everybody is redeveloping their mills with condos and rentals,” said the 87-year-old Lossini, chomping on a cigar that he no longer lights. “There’s no place left here for manufacturing … We’re the only guys offering that. Look around at all these mills. Nobody offers anything for small businesses.”
The eight first-floor units are now almost completed – with mostly final painting and wiring left. The units are between 1,212 and 3,922 square feet in size and will lease for between $707 and $2,287 a month, said Leonard Lavoie, of R.I. Commercial Industrial Realty. That floor should be leasing within a month.
And if the units lease quickly, Lossini will be able to begin similar renovations – or built-to-suit designs – for the second floor.
Lossini’s Eli Group still operates on the third floor. “The locket business for us has always been great,” said Laura Grimes, the general manager and Lossini’s daughter. “There’s a particular kind of locket we make and, right now I’m shipping an order to Japan for a company [there].”
The fourth floor, where much of Eli Group’s metal plating had been done, will be renovated for industrial units by about 2012, Lossini said.
So far, Lossini has spent more than $600,000 on the renovations, but, he said, the changing industry left him no choice. While he once had 400 employees and thousands of metal foot-presses filling up the four floors at 91 Hartford Ave., he now has just 15 employees working on one floor.
“As the industry died, there was no other use for the first and second floor, where we had made jewelry findings and such. So we gave it up and decided we were going to start rentals,” he said.
Lavoie said the Eli Group mill will be a haven for manufacturers that don’t want to leave Olneyville. “What’s going to happen to small manufacturers that get displaced by the developments?” he asked.
Renovations on the $2.5 million building started during 2003, but were temporarily halted because Rhode Island’s fire code changed while they were applying for permits, he said. The initial plans were completed and submitted for final approval before the changes, but “once those were submitted to the fire marshal, they were held until February 2004. They were never looked at, they were never reviewed,” Lavoie said.
So the redevelopment was put under the new fire code, which is more stringent, said Grimes. Under those regulations, the newly-purchased $37,000 fire alarm system had to be replaced with a $157,000 system, she said.
Being under the new code also slowed the certificates of occupancy, which Lavoie said they still don’t have. He had started the marketing process early – as soon as Lossini approached him – and had signed leases before the setback. “I’ve rented downstairs twice over,” he said, “and we’ve had to give the deposits back because we weren’t able to get the permits to get the people in on time.”
But Lavoie is confident that he’ll see the same demand for the units this time around. Grimes said the renovation of the second floor could take between six and nine months.
While there have been offers from residential developers, Lossini hasn’t considered a single one, he said.
“The building is for sale,” he joked. “I didn’t tell you the punch-line, though: It’s for sale in 2050. In 2050, you can buy it and do whatever you want with it.” •
