Redevelopment of former woolen mill in Lindenwald could start this fall

“It’s nothing $29 million won’t fix,” said Ken Schon, partner at Bloomfield/Schon, about this company’s “fixer upper.”

Schon and his team recently unveiled their redevelopment plans for the former woolen mill in the heart of Lindenwald. However, he said while they have a large investment into the project, it’s not the only thing that needs to happen to get Lindenwald’s heart beating.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

“This is a big piece of the heart of the community and we’ll help breathe new life into that part of Lindenwald,” he said.

The plan will take anywhere from 18 to 21 months to complete, but the start doesn’t have a firm date on the calendar, though Schon expects it will start later this fall.

This project at the corner of Pleasant and Williams avenues, which is less than two miles from downtown Hamilton, will convert the onetime mill into a mixed use development complete with 127 apartments (which no two should be alike) with commercial and retail space.

Apartments would range widely in price points, from as little as $600 a month for a 400-square-foot unit to something in the 2,000 square feet range for around $2,700 a month. That range includes one one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, lofts, and four two-story apartments that would be similar to a townhome.

There would also be a 150-spot surface parking lot with additional garage spaces for rent. They’d also like the city to close part of Williams Avenue to accommodate the parking lot and a park-like green space in front of the building.

The developer’s goal is to ensure the former woolen mill is no longer “an anchor weighing this section of Lindenwald down.” But it’s not the sole answer to revitalization, specifically with some of the vacant buildings across Pleasant Avenue.

“Hopefully, if you have 127 apartments here and 150 or 160 new people, that will help reinvigorate some of this across the street,” he said. “That’s the hope.”

Hamilton Economic Development Manager Jody Gunderson said he and his team have taken developers to some of those buildings, but they all have the same first question: “When is that going to start?”

“They’ll be interested in pushing forward once they begin to see that building get started,” he said of the Shuler and Benninghofen building. “I think things will come back pretty rapidly in this area once that starts.”