Mendon auto dealer buys Uxbridge's Bernat Mill site
Photo | Grant Welker
The former Bernat Mill in Uxbridge
Photo | Grant Welker
Photo | Grant Welker
Photo | Grant Welker
Photo | Grant Welker
Photo | Grant Welker
Kevin Meehan, the owner of the Imperial automotive chain and a Mendon businessman, has bought the site of the former Bernat Mill in Uxbridge that burned down in 2007.
Meehan bought the site in a $1.3-million deal including the eight-acre mill site at 19 Depot St., which has several remaining buildings, and a small vacant adjacent storefront at 15 Mendon St. that has previously hosted a gift shop and a vitamin supply store, and stands just on the other side of the Mumford River from the mill.
Meehan bought the sites from two businessmen who owned the site since before the fire: John Tweed III and Leonard Fournier. The deal closed Sept. 15.
The Bernat property, also known as the Capron mill, was almost entirely destroyed in a 2007 fire, with some brick walls remaining, including a soaring entrance way still holding the company's cursive logo. The rear of the structure still stands over a span of the Mumford River. The building had dozens of commercial tenants at the time of the fire.
The mill dates to 1820, according to a history by the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, and operated for the longest stretch — from 1910 to 1962 — as the Uxbridge Worsted Co. Dyes used during manufacturing were emptied into the river below after use. The company was sold to Emile Bernat and Sons Inc. in 1962, according to the heritage corridor.
A three-story red Colonial-style building stands next door, hosting a consignment shop and fitness center, and a smaller building hosting a spa. Both were part of Meehan's purchase. In total, the properties included in the sale were last assessed by the Town of Uxbridge at more than $2.2 million.
No plans have been filed for the site, which its in a zoning overlay district, said Michael Gallerani, the director of Uxbridge's Department of Economic Development and Community Planning. The town, he said, approaches new development as a team, with planning and zoning departments together with police, fire and other safety departments to better coordinate a permitting review process.
Meehan didn't immediately return a message seeking comment Monday.
The businessman went on a buying spree last year, including nearly 11 acres of commercial real estate on Main Street in Medway for $4.3 million, a 90,000-square-foot office building at 9 Industrial Road in Milford for $5 million, and a site of a planned 268-unit residential project called Brookview on East Main Street in Milford near the Holliston line for $3.4 million. He sold the Grand View wedding and event venue in Mendon for $4.1 million.
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It would be even nicer if he helped any of the 70 businesses some of which had no insurance and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and I’ve been struggling to even keep that business alive after that fire in 2007. Nobody has done anything for the people who are uninsured and lost everything they owned in that fire, they had a huge town meeting a few weeks after the fact, but because of the back-and-forth about what actually started the fire and false reports etc. the last thing on anybody’s mind was helping the uninsured businesses like my own that I spent five years constructing on my own and renovating drywall floors, ceilings, lighting , not to mention the 3000 vinyl records that are irreplaceable that melted with all of my other equipment in the recording studio. I think that should be a top priority is helping the people who got hurt the most by that fire financially because it wasn’t the owners of the building who were insured and got their money. It was the small businesses that were just starting out. They didn’t have insurance that lost everything .
It would be nice if he gave back to the communities in which he gets to monopolize. A turf field and lights at Nipmuc would be nice, it can say Imperial all up and down it. A Win Win.
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