Water Rower to buy Warren's Parker Mills for $3 million

No plans to change tenants, but improvements are on the way, WaterRower CEO says

By Ted Hayes
Posted 8/7/18

WaterRower officials have signed a purchase and sale agreement to purchase the sprawling Parker Mills on Metacom Avenue for $3 million.

WaterRower CEO Peter King confirmed the signing Tuesday …

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Water Rower to buy Warren's Parker Mills for $3 million

No plans to change tenants, but improvements are on the way, WaterRower CEO says

Posted

WaterRower officials have signed a purchase and sale agreement to purchase the sprawling Parker Mills on Metacom Avenue for $3 million.

WaterRower CEO Peter King confirmed the signing Tuesday morning, saying he’s looking forward to completing the closing process and getting to work.

“There’s a lot to do,” he said. “We want to renovate, bring it back to life and improve that part of Metacom Avenue much as we’ve done” at the WaterRower campus further south on Metacom.

Mr. King said purchasing the mill made sense for WaterRower, which for rented 60,000 square feet of space there for some time. Knowing WaterRower will need large amounts of space in the future, officials looked into the cost of building a separate warehouse building, but costs didn’t make as much sense as those for buying the mill outright.

Purchasing the mill will afford WaterRower the space it needs. He said tenants that are currently there, including 426 Fitness and other small manufacturing operators, will all stay. Mr. King said he hopes to improve the tenant rolls as well; about 40,000 square feet of the mill is currently unoccupied.

“We’re going to keep the facilities as is and put some money into remediating it,” he said. “The mill dates to 1898; it’s old but it’s in very good condition actually. But we are going to do some improvements here and there.”

“It was a good opportunity for us,” Mr. King added. “We already rent space there and we are probably one of (Mr. Lombari’s) biggest tenants. In essence, it made sense for us to buy it.”

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