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Mill Art, Pawtucket Supplement for Providence Business News
“Providence has its PPAC, Trinity Rep Theater and Water Fire. Newport has its ocean and mansions,” says Herb Weiss, Pawtucket’s Economic & Cultural Affairs Officer. “The City of Pawtucket, the birthplace of America’s industrial revolution, has its mills.”
“These historic mills are our assets,” says Weiss, noting that many of the city’s mills are now popular places to operate from, for artists, designers and even technology-based businesses.
Open Spaces Enhance Creativity
In 2001, Gina DiSpirito made a decision that would push her advertising agency to the next level. DiSpirito, the founder and Creative Director of GLAD WORKS, relocated her growing company from her home into one of the first properties she looked at—one of our wonderful old mill spaces.
“We looked at traditional office space in commercial properties, but those spaces just didn’t feel inspiring enough to us. We wanted space that would lend to fostering a creative team environment,” says DiSpirito. Working in a wide-open space supports collaboration and the history and character of a renovated mill building provides the perfect setting for good creative work to take place at a full-service advertising agency. Ultimately, her colleagues would suggest that she visit 545 Pawtucket Avenue, the former Chernack Manufacturing Company mill, straddling the Pawtucket/Providence border. DiSpirito admits it was love at first sight and she made a quick decision to move her small business into the historic mill built in 1900. She was one of the first tenants to move into the third floor.
DiSpirito remembers her 3,200 sq. ft office was rough but with vision she knew that something special could be created from the space. Today, her clients experience a “wow” factor when they enter her 5,300 sq. ft. office (nearly doubling the size of her previous space), often times comparing it to a New York loft.
“I love the energy that comes from my studio’s open floor plan. The airy space encourages team spirit and collaboration, making it easier for creative exchange to take place,” adds DiSpirito.
Creating a Sense of Community
Len Lavoie, a partner at Rhode Island Commercial Industrial Realty, adds that mills are extremely popular for artists and design sector companies because “small spaces are available for a reasonable price, especially now that they are being built to fire and safety code.”
“Operating out of a mill gives my tenants a sense of community,” says Lavoie, a feeling that they will not find in more traditional office spaces. “Artists really appreciate being around other artists and creative driven companies. This allows them to collaborate on projects and have a sense of camaraderie when working closely together.”
Lavoie, who over the last 24 years has brought thousands of artists and designers into the mills he represents, sees the Pawtucket mills as having a very good mix of tenants, from artists to design companies, bakeries and coffee shops, to boxing gyms, and computer-related businesses, to theater companies and art galleries. “We will even have a historic diner open at one of the mills to service its tenants,” he says.
The clustering of companies is something many try to encourage, explains Aaron Hertzberg, executive director of the Pawtucket Foundation. “When people or companies are clustered in shared spaces they are more likely to interact, collaborate and share business opportunities. Innovative developers across the country are trying to intentionally design spaces to encourage what they call ’collisions’ of people and ideas.”
The concept has worked well for businesses in the City’s Amory Arts District. At the Design Exchange, owners LLB Architects lease space to other design related businesses including Lolita, Fusion Design, Hollester Interiors and Wozny/Barber & Associates. A block over, at 80 Fountain Street, Axion Media Lab, Focus Vision Media and They’re Using Tools work to communicate client messages, often feed off each other’s design, media, animation and video production talents.
For a list detailing Pawtucket mills available to lease, contact Herb Weiss, Pawtucket’s Economic and Cultural Affairs Officer