Newport
The hearing will continue on May 30.
Ron DeCola, a managing member of the mill’s new owner, 169 Sunapee Street LLC, gave a slide presentation on the project, highlighting some of the planned improvements to the 28-acre property.
DeCola said he has worked with the real estate developers Brady Sullivan of Manchester on a dozen similar mill redevelopments in New England, including Waumbec Mills in Manchester and former mill buildings in Maine and Rhode Island.
The Lofts at Newport Mills proposes 59 two-bedroom apartments, with five or six of those having lofts, and seven one bedroom apartments.
When asked what “market rate” meant, DeCola said they would see what the market bears.
He envisions most of the renters will be professionals with some working out of their apartment.
Planned amenities will include a gym, theater, game room and kitchen.
The building, constructed in 1905 as the Dexter Richards and Sons Woolen Mill, was named to the National Historic Register by the U.S. Secretary of Interior and DeCola said that will allow them to apply for historic tax credits for the project. Those tax credits have strict requirements when rehabilitating a historic building, DeCola said, so developers won’t be making major structural changes.
Also at the meeting was engineer John Rokeh, of Rokeh Consulting in Chichester, N.H., who showed some of the planned changes around the mill, including green spaces, outdoor recreation areas with picnic tables and improvement to the bank along the Sugar River.
Having worked on mill redevelopment for a long time, both DeCola and Rokeh said this building is in terrific shape, perhaps the best they have seen.
“It is the nicest I have ever been in at the onset of a project,” Rokeh said.
Board members had several questions but no objections were raised.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
