Mill's Future Still Uncertain | Owners float life sciences use for Uxbridge site
Photo/Matthew L. Brown
SLOW GOING: When the Bernat Mill burned three years ago, there was a promise to rebuild. Today, the site lies undeveloped.
It’s been nearly three years since the Bernat Mill in downtown Uxbridge burned to the ground in a devastating fire that drew the attention of local and regional officials.
Today, there’s been little movement on redeveloping the property, although there is a creative use being pitched by the owners.
Creative Reuse
Now, it appears as if the owner, Capron Corp., which is run by Jack Tweed and Leonard “Cappy” Fournier, would like to at least entertain the idea of a life sciences development at the site.
At an annual town meeting May 10, residents of Uxbridge approved amended zoning bylaws to specifically include life sciences and life sciences technology as acceptable uses in industrial and business zones.
Late last year, the town amended its Bernat Mill Historic Overlay District to include hospitals, medical institutions and medical office buildings as acceptable uses.
Fournier said rebuilding the 400,000-square-foot mill complex to house a variety of small businesses, as it did previously, simply isn’t financially viable.
“We can’t get the rent you need to build it,” he said.
Some officials in the area aren’t completely sold on the life sciences idea.
Jeannie Hebert, president and CEO of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the valley “has a lot more developable land than Worcester or other surrounding areas” and that the chamber has been looking into the Bernat site as a potential college campus.
She said Tweed and Fournier are “trying to cover all their bases.”
A health care or life sciences use “is one of the industries that is very vibrant,” Hebert said. Fournier agreed. “There’s a lot of excitement about that, and a lot of money out there.”
But it also carries significant risk.
Competitive Market
Francis Saba, CEO of Milford Regional Medical Center, which operates the Blackstone Valley Family Physicians group at the former Whitinsville Hospital, said the valley’s health care needs are already well met and that now is a risky time to take on development or expansion projects, especially projects that require ground-up development.
Uxbridge is also home to UMass Memorial Health Care’s Tri-River Family Health Center. Milford Regional also has family practices in several surrounding towns.
“We look at our market, and where our patients are coming from, and we’ve established physician offices in those towns,” Saba said.
Milford Regional built a cancer center and owns the Whitinsville Hospital property, but leases all of its other locations.
“I’d be much more concerned about big building plans given all the focus on health care, health care coverage and the economy. We are very cautious,” Saba said.
Still, Fournier said he was in discussions with UMass Memorial about expanding to into about 70,000 square feet at the Bernat site before the economy went south and “everybody dried up.”
In addition to the excitement and anticipation surrounding life sciences and health care, the industry could also provide Fournier with large tenants and allow Capron to build out the Bernat site to suit.
“These are large users,” Fournier said. And ideally, Bernat would be home to two or three medical or medical-related tenants and perhaps a few smaller tenants, he said.
At its height, some 300-500 people worked at the mill. Former tenants have mixed feelings about its redevelopment and whether they’d move back in the event that it is rebuilt.
Tweed and Fournier were very well-liked and respected by tenants at the mill. It was from them that the place got some of its charm, according to former tenants.
Phil Michaelson, president of Foam Concepts, a Styrofoam products manufacturer that once called the Bernat Mill home, said he’s heard nothing about what might be going on at the mill. He also said that while the mill had its charm — an eclectic group of tenants, lots of old mill character — it was difficult to see from the road, confusing to access and posed problems for visitors looking to park there.
“I’m not hearing anything at all about what they’re doing,” said Tony Brookhouse, of Koopman Lumber, which has a store just a couple of blocks from the mill site. “It hasn’t changed since they cleared it after the fire.”
Corinna Taylor, owner of Bernat Mill Antiques, has moved her store to the Linwood Mill in Whitinsville, but said, “If they were to redevelop it, I would go back in a second.
That’s how much I love that site and the people who own it.”
Fournier is counting on that same charm now to attract larger tenants.
“I’ve been out banging on doors, most in Boston. the Life Sciences Center has been wonderful, very encouraging. They are doers. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as these people.”
Havig language specific to the life sciences included in the town’s zoning bylaws makes the industry more comfortable when considering a site, Fournier said.
Now, Fournier is “working on the marketing piece so I can blast the life sciences and biotech community with my spiel.”
Ideally, Fournier would like to build about 300,000 square feet to suit at the site with parking for as many as 600 vehicles.
Construction costs, he said could be anywhere between $300 and $400 per square foot.
Christina Valentin-Macias had run Enlightened Hands Massage & Bodyworks in the mill for exactly a year when it burned.
After the fire, she rented space on West Hartford Ave. in Uxbridge and recently bought the building.
“Before, I said I would go back. Now, that’s highly unlikely,” Valentin-Macias said.
She characterized Bernat Mill as “a blessing and a curse at the same time.” She said she loved it and its ownership. Unfortunately, she and other former tenants found their property insurance companies would not cover them for the loss after the fire.
“...There was a very unique group [at the mill], and that will never happen again. They will never come back together again. The same kind of charm won’t be there,” she said.
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