Generation Development and Rick Smith are moving forward with the first adaptive reuse project at the Silo City complex. The team is planning commercial uses and 158 apartments in the American Malting Company Malthouse on the site.

From the project application:

The former malthouse/flour mill will be converted into a mixed‐use structure with first floor commercial uses, and residential apartments on the upper floors, a mix of one and two bedroom units, totally 158. As the American Elevator Complex ( USN 0290.024125 ) is already listed Department of Interiors Standards for Historic Preservation will be followed as Historic Tax Credits will be pursued.

In short the design incorporates the vertical voids inherent from historic mill processes and machinery to create internal light wells, allowing for efficient utilization of vast floor plates for residential use with ample natural light and ventilation. Where feasible machinery, tanks and equipment will be left in place and highlighted, where infeasible or already missing design will incorporate interpretive details to remind patrons of the industrial lineage of the site. Due to internal lightwells, minimal alteration will be necessary to the facades allowing construction efforts to focus on stabilizing and preserving the elevations through masonry repointing and cleaning, reopening of original fenestration pattern, and replacement of windows with historically sensitive and thermally efficient units.

Sensitive integration of new programmatic elements to the complex extends to the site planning where the design proposes to mesh the contemporary parking lot into the existing industrial ruin landscape of Silo City. Berms are proposed along Silo City Row, the private drive entering the site from Ohio St., as a means of masking the parking lot and the cars so that the industrial essence of the space can be maintained as much as possible. Similar design details are intended throughout the site, as well as later phases, to ensure the visual experience of Silo City is minimally impacted by new programming. Additionally, landscaping for proposed parcels call for pollinator heavy plant materials mimicking and enhancing the organic uses already taking place on neighboring land.

Pending various approvals, work is expected to start next June and be completed by April 2022. Carmina Wood Morris is designing the $70 million first phase. The Planning Board will be reviewing the project at its Monday meeting.