The buyer of the 19th-century Hill Mill in Lewiston envisions a variety of potential uses in its available space, ranging from 500-square-foot studios to 60,000-square-foot light manufacturing.

In an off-market deal, Eric Chinburg, president of Chinburg Properties in Newmarket, N.H., bought the 460,000-square-foot mill, located on 6.21 acres at 41 Chestnut St. and 70-76 Cedar St., from Roy Hill Corp. for an undisclosed price. Cheri Bonawitz and Karen Rich of Malone Commercial Brokers brokered the transaction, which closed Dec. 18.

The seller had owned the mill since the 1960s, said Bonawitz.

More than half the space is leased to tenants that include distributors, textile and leather manufacturers, a gym, cabinet and musical instrument makers, professional services, and a maker of edible insect products.

Last June, Chinburg also bought the 560,000-square-foot Continental Mill, a few blocks down from Hill Mill, from the same seller, for redevelopment as a mixed-use project of residential, retail, light industrial, commercial and office tenants.

Steady income stream

Hill Mill was one of many textile mills in Lewiston-Auburn. Local industrialist Thomas J. Hill, owner of Hill Manufacturing Co., started construction on it in 1850, according to mainememory.net. The mill was operational for over a century, closing in 1971, having been absorbed into the Bates Manufacturing Co.

Hill Mill’s selling points included existing tenants that provide a steady income stream, available space for additional tenants, 40,000 square feet of parking space, location along the Androscoggin River and Upper Canal, and inclusion in the city of Lewiston’s Riverfront Master Plan, which seeks to revitalize industrial properties.

Space ranging from 500 to 60,000 square feet is available for industrial, light manufacturing, maker space, artists and more, according to Malone Commercial Brokers’ marketing materials.

Buzzing property

“It’s a buzzing property,” said Chinbug. “Our plan is to work with and continue to provide a great place for existing tenants to grow their businesses, and to make improvements and get other commercial users into the vacant spaces.”

The structure is in excellent shape, he noted.

Chinburg is an experienced developer of historic mills in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In addition to acquiring Continental Mill last year, he bought the historic Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook in 2018.

In 2014, he bought a 237,600-square-foot mill on Saco Island and redeveloped it as a mixed-used property called Saco Mill No. 4.

At least a third of Hill Mill is available to lease, he said. He said he’s eyeing the potential for smaller uses such as studios and maker spaces.

“We have three people now interested in the mill for spaces that are 2,000 to 5,000 square feet,” he said. “We’ve had good success in other large commercial mills, taking these massive expanses of empty space” and partitioning them.

Chinburg bought the mill using a combination of a bank loan and owner equity. He said he’s working with his lender, NBT Bank, to have financing available to create spaces as needed by tenants. NBT Bank is headquartered in Norwich, N.Y., and has a location in Portland.

“We’re finding there’s a lot of big users out there, but a lot of companies want 500 to 2,500 square feet, so you need to break big spaces into smaller ones,” he added.

Investment for creating the spaces would be based on demand, starting initially with perhaps $100,000, he said.

Hill Mill became a prospect after he bought the Continental Mill, he said.

“We knew the family that we bought the Continental Mill from was also operating the Hill Mill and would consider selling it,” he said. “We didn’t lump the two together. But after we got settled in at the Continental Mill, we had further conversations and made a deal.”

Image Courtesy / Malone Commercial Brokers The partially tenanted Hill Mill in Lewiston provides an income stream plus available space to build out as desired by new tenants.

With regard to the Continental Mill, plans are still in the works, he said.

“A couple of months ago, we were successful in getting the zoning changed to allow for multiple uses,” he said. “Now we’re doing our early visioning on what to do.”

Initial construction in the Continental Mill could begin this year, he said.