Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 24, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 9 Homeownership. Community Development. Small Business Develop- ment. These are challenges that affect the day-to-day quality of life in Worcester. UniBank has a solution: It's a new savings account that lever- ages the money deposited to provide loans in Worcester at favorable terms for homeownership, community development, and to help small businesses prosper. It's called the Invest Worcester Account and it lets you become a partner in an effort to make Worcester a rewarding place to live, all while earning you a premium rate of interest. Put your money where your heart is. For more information, please visit us online at www.unibank.com/invest-worcester, stop by our Gold Star Branch or call us at 508.756.0807 today. Together we can build a better Worcester Connecting all offices: 1.800.578.4270 • www.unibank.com Equal Housing Lender • Member FDIC/Member DIF Together we can build a better Worcester WBJ Invest Worcester 1/2 page.qxp_Layout 1 6/28/17 4:43 PM Page 1 hood. Larry Curtis, the president and managing partner for WinnDevelopment, said the company often looks at historic developments to renovate into mixed-income develop- ments. The Yarn Works building fit that mold, and the company had experience work- ing in Fitchburg, having taken over the nearby Fitchburg Place, a 96-unit senior community on Pritchard Street. "Fitchburg is a great community to work in," Curtis said. "We hope we can do more in Fitchburg." Winn has already remade several other historical buildings in Central Massachusetts. Voke Lofts, at the former Worcester Technical High School in Lincoln Square, opened in 2014 with 84 apart- ment units. In Worcester's Canal District, Canal Lofts opened in the long-vacant former Chevalier Furniture building with 64 units, half of which are condominiums. Yarn Works, old and new The Yarn Works building has a long history in Fitchburg's manufacturing heyday. Built for Fitchburg Yarn Co. in just five months, the building once had 95,000 spindles making more than 3.5 million miles of yarn each week, according to the Fitchburg Historical Society. About 14 million pounds of raw material was used annually. In July of 1926, Fitchburg Yarn cre- ated the world's first rayon fiber, made from trees instead of cotton, according to a 1993 obituary for Fred Thoma, the company's president at the time. Fitchburg Yarn made it through the Great Depression while operating at full capacity and full employment thanks to its dedication to developing new products, said Susan Navarre, the executive director of the Fitchburg Historical Society. "At a time when many textile facto- ries were moving south from Massachusetts, the successful introduc- tion of rayon to the United States in 1926 kept the Fitchburg Yarn business strong for an additional five decades," Navarre said. "For over 70 years, Fitchburg Yarn was an important employer and center for generations of activity in its Fitchburg neighborhood." The new 190,000-square-foot Fitchburg development includes a gym and laundry area and onsite parking. Yarn Works includes 57 market-rate units and 39 affordable units, of which 29 will be reserved for those earning Stephen DiNatale, mayor, Fitchburg 60 percent or less of the area median income. Another 10 will be set aside for those earning 30 percent or less of the area median income. Market-rate units, with between one and three bedrooms, are listed at between $1,165 and $1,800 a month. Colantonio Inc. of Holliston was the general contractor. The Fitchburg Yarn mill soon after it was built in 1906 (above) and the interior in the 1960s (right). W P H O T O S / F I T C H B U R G H I S T O R I C A L S O C I E T Y

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