Fitchburg, Massachusetts was first settled in 1730, and is the third largest city in Worcester County, with a population of abot 40,000. The city is home to Fitchburg State University.
Like many New England cities, Fitchburg has a wealth of empty mills. Some places see them as a plague blocking their revitalization. Smart communities see them as the ingredients of revitalization…as restorable assets (as originally described in The Restoration Economy).
Fitchburg is one of the smart ones. On December 21, 2017, they broke ground on their third mill renovation/reuse project, which they hope will revitalize the River Street area of town.
“It’s helping us make that incremental progress we need to get us toward the big picture,” said Tom Skwierawski, Fitchburg’s executive director of community development.
The $8 million project will break the former Sanitoy Mill into two buildings, providing over 90,000-square-feet of office space. Demolition of a four-story structure connecting the two ends of the building allows the city to add both green space and parking to the two revitalized buildings.
This project comes only a few months after another mill renovation, which created the Yarn Works Apartments. Those 96 mixed-income apartments will likely make their own addition to revitalization momentum, as there’s no more powerful downtown regenerator than residents.
An even earlier nearby mill renovation created the Riverside Commons Apartments, so Fitchburg is definitely on the right track.
See article by Elizabeth Dobbins in the Sentinel & Enterprise News.