Worcester Business Journal

ing thanks to a $3-million state grant. Bohart said mill renovations have spurred a broader look at properties in that stretch of the city. "People thought, 'Wow, maybe I should invest in my building,'" she said. "e momentum has really started to move in the right direction." Opportunities exist in the neighbor- hood for new construction, too. Across from the old Iver Johnson mills, a site stands vacant where the Valley West Shopping Center was destroyed in a fire in 2015. e 2.6-acre site, once home to Beemers Pub and others, is now listed for sale for $1.25 million. wbjournal.com | April 30, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 11 W getting more confident that projects are going to do well in this economy." $10M toy company site redevelopment Redevelopment of the Sanitoy Mill, named for a plastic toy company once based there, has been in the making for the better part of two decades. e plan was first for residential use, and the Fitchburg Planning Board gave its first approvals in 2001. e vision later switched to office and light industrial use. Last year, site owner Francesco Colangelo decided to move ahead on the nearly $10-million project. e site posed a challenge, with too little parking or open space. So a four-story, 50,000-square-foot middle portion of the building was knocked down in order to make the rest of it feasible for reuse. e remaining portions have been spruced up inside and out. Land along the Nashua River is being opened up for passive use that wouldn't have been pos- sible during the site's industrial period. "is was not an easy project," Colan- gelo said during a tour of the site. e Sanitoy Mill will host the Mon- tachusett Opportunity Council and the state Division of Capital Asset Man- agement and Maintenance and other state offices, which are now scattered elsewhere in Fitchburg. Looking beyond mill buildings e city has high hopes for the River Street corridor, which was repaved with bike lanes and new sidewalks and light- The Yarn Works apartments (top left) opened last summer. The Anwelt Apartments (top right) opened in 2008 and Riverside Commons (above) opened in 2013. The former Iver Johnson mill (below) is under tentative agreement to be purchased and awaits potential reuse. PHOTO/GRANT WELKER PHOTO/GRANT WELKER PHOTO/GRANT WELKER PHOTO/COURTESY

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