BESSEMER CITY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Historic mill buildings continue to age quietly in cities across the Carolinas. For some years, city and state leaders have brainstormed ideas to bring them back to life.
“The best way of moving into the future is to understand and hold on to your past,” architect Don Tise said.
For Bessemer City, its past is a building that takes up 50% of its downtown square footage.
“Right on Main Street. It’s huge,” Tise said.
The Osage Mill’s story starts back in the 1800s. In its prime, the 260,000-square-foot building employed upwards of 420 people. Around 2014, it was abandoned, left to wither and age.
“There is a lot of potential kinetic energy and potential energy built into these bricks, this wood, the labor, and it would be a shame to knock it all down and put it into a dump somewhere,” Tise said.
Eight years ago, the planning began. City, state, and development leaders crafted a vision to turn the abandoned building into a lively centerpiece for the small downtown.
“That is going to bring a lot more workers, with a lot more workers,” Bessemer City Mayor Becky Smith said. “There needs to be a lot more houses, and that’s what we are trying to stay up with.”
Within the next 24 months, WinnCompanies will transform the building into 139 apartments affordable apartments.
The Massachusetts-based developer has a long history of redeveloping historic buildings. The Osage Mill will be its first project in North Carolina.
The project is estimated to cost about $39 million.
“I think it has a large impact for two reasons. One, you are taking away a blighted space, so you are getting rid of a negative. At the same time, you are adding new vibrancy. A lot of these mill buildings were sites near water or train tracks because they were the center of everything. It is wonderful to now be able to bring that back,” WinnCompanies CEO Gilbert Winn said.
