Additional Massachusetts state tax credits have been awarded for the largest brownfields mill redevelopment project in New England. The award will help advance a project to build housing in part of a sprawling former textile mill in Ludlow.
The Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office awarded a $300,000 tax credit this month for a project to build senior housing in the former Ludlow Mills. It comes from program to promote reuse of historic buildings in Massachusetts.
The Boston-based WinnDevelopment company plans to build 83 independent living apartments in building 10 of the Ludlow Mills at a total cost of $24.5 million, according to company president Lawrence Curtis.
Massachusetts has now awarded a total of $1.9 million in historic tax credits for the housing project. WinnDevelopment will also apply for federal historic tax credits. The company expects to begin construction by the end of 2014.
The housing development is part of plan to convert 60 brick buildings set on 170 acres along the Chicopee River into a mix of residential, commercial and light industrial uses. It is likely to be a 20- year redevelopment effort, according to Ken Delude, president of Westmass Area Development Corporation, a non-profit that is overseeing the Ludlow Mills project.
The redevelopment could create or retain an estimated 2000 jobs and stimulate up to $300 million in private investment.
HealthSouth completed construction this month on a $27 million 53- bed rehabilitation hospital on part of the Ludlow Mills complex.
Grants from the state, totaling more than $5 million, have been used over the last two years to help pay to clean up pollution and upgrade the infrastructure including extending a natural gas line to the former mill property.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $500,000 last summer to the Ludlow Mills redevelopment project. The director of the New England region of the EPA, Curt Spalding said $400,000 would pay to remove asbestos from two former warehouse buildings and $100,000 would be used to assess future cleanup needs.
Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal said no private economic development would occur at places like Ludlow Mills without the federal government paying to rid it of contaminates.
The Ludlow Mills opened in 1907 and employed 4,000 people at its manufacturing peak following World War II. The complex has been largely unused for manufacturing since the 1960s.
