To reuse or replace is the question.
When the Providence Plan Commission voted not to approve Feldco Development’s plan to demolish the seven mill buildings in the Eagle Square section of Providence last month, the project was put on hold. Proponents of the plan say the buildings are eyesores to the neighborhood and are in too poor condition to be reused, while opponents argue the buildings have historical value to the city, and should be preserved rather than allowing a strip mall to be built in their place.
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Providence City Councilwoman Josephine DiRuzzo believes in adaptive reuse, but for these buildings, it is not an option.
“I’m a very big supporter of preserving buildings,” she said. “This is not something I like doing, but for the sake of salvaging this neighborhood I would be crazy not to support Feldco coming in.”
“And please understand I’m not in favor of strip malls either,” she said.
Providence’s Director of the Department of Planning and Development John Palmieri said he currently has a task force assessing mill buildings for reuse, independent of the buildings in Eagle Square. Surprised at the number of mill buildings throughout the city, he estimated the number between 60 and 100.
“This is not to say they are abandoned or architecturally sound,” he said. “It varies on property, and some have been neglected for so long that they ought to be taken down.”
Raphael Lyon, spokesperson for the Providence Industrial Mill Building Association said although restoration is an expensive prospect, to not look into that option could be more costly.
“Mixed use redevelopment is a real shot in the arm for small business and local industry,” he said.
The awareness this issue has raised within the city can also be an asset, he said.
“If they can be proactive about mill buildings instead of reactive, we could get rid of this economic curve we’re about to hit,” he said.
Architect Stephen Durkee of the firm Durkee, Brown, Vivieros and Werenfels, said these seven buildings may be too far-gone, but it is the possibility of their preservation which is the most important part.
“There’s some serious questions about some of them,” he said, “but I think, in general, this building-type is very important to the city and it has to really be well-considered to tear them down.”
Durkee mentioned successful restoration projects in Virginia, Lowell, Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire.
Catherine A. Horsey, executive director of the Providence Preservation Society, had a testimony to deliver and a packet to present to the Plan Commission last month, but had no chance to speak. The packet included other examples of cities that successfully reuse old buildings, such as the Atwood Machine Factory in Stonington, Connecticut; Magnolia Station in Dallas, Texas; Savage Mills in Savage, Maryland; Atherton Mills in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Enterprise Mills in Augusta, Georgia.
Another area to reuse old mill space in recent years was the Windham Mills, in nearby Windham, Connecticut. The town purchased about one and a half million square feet of mills by eminent domain from a private developer in the mid-nineties.
According to Windham’s Director of Economic Development Dave Prendergast, the plan called for preservation of six buildings, totaling 500,000 square feet, where the buildings’ exteriors were made of locally mined granite, and about six brick buildings were destroyed.
“Mill buildings are very expensive buildings,” said Prendergast. “Depending on the amount of deterioration and environmental concern, but they are in many cases intricate parts of the community, and it’s very important to preserve whenever it’s feasible.”
He said 50,000 square feet are in the final stages of renovation, with 80 percent of the space committed to leases. The companies who fill the spots are mostly technology companies such as Statistical Integrating Measuring Systems.
Prendergast said he could understand developers’ points of view as well as preservationists.’
“One of the problems you see for older mill buildings is that a lot of the ways of doing business in this day and age are not the same as they were 50 to 100 years ago,” he said. “Parking is a much more necessary function, and in many cases you have to thin out the number of these buildings for that. We sacrificed the newer ones that didn’t have as much aesthetic appeal.”
Ken Fiola is executive vice president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, in a city that has in excess of four million square feet of mill space. Fiola said reuse is important to preserving an area’s historical character, and the only time is should be questioned is when they building is beyond repair.
“Fortunately in Fall River, we haven’t been faced with these problems,” he said. “The quality of these buildings is such that those buildings are as strong as they were 100 years ago.”
“Some companies cannot use mill buildings for their manufacturing,” he said, “but there are many businesses that can move into retrofitted buildings and be successful.”
