Mark Herz: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. After nearly 10 years, an indoor streetscape in Lowell is shutting down next month, and it’s going to be handed over to a charter school. GBH’s Paris Alston takes us to the close-knit community to see how the news is impacting the small business owners who call it home.
Paris Alston: Let’s take a walk down the block. For today, we’re inside Mill No. 5 in Lowell. It’s not your typical block, but it sure does look like one: It’s a stretch of wooden floorboards reaching almost a mile, lined with colorful storefronts, plus a soda fountain café and record store.
Rick Stec: It’s an old mill building. It’s been here since the late 1800s. And the Lichoulas family, which had it in their family for quite some time --- this was Jim’s like, passion project, and he gathered up all these old things and retrofitted them to create this indoor streetscape. It was gorgeous.
Alston: That’s Rick Stec, who owns Red Antler Apothecary with his wife, Rachel Chandler. They were among the first tenants in Mill No. 5.
Rick Stec: When everyone started moving in, like when the record store moved in, there was no coffee shop. There was no movie theater. There was nothing. And so this was all naked walls. And there were a couple of spots. Over the years, we’ve built it up into what you’re seeing here.
Alston: The building’s owner, Jim Lichoulas, opened Mill No. 5 in 2013. He says he wanted it to resemble a typical New England town, anchored by a movie theater with individual shops. As he puts it, think Main Street at Disney World, but less plastic. The collection of shops was profitable for several years until the pandemic hit, forcing many stores to temporarily close. It’s been hard for them to rebound ever since, and now Lichoulas has decided to sell the building to a charter school for less than market value.
Rick Stec: I’m none too happy about it because I love this place. I’ve been here when my beard was darker. Now that we’re leaving, we’ve got to find production space, retail space, you know, office space.
Alston: Adam O’Donnell will have to find new space, too. He’s the owner of A Damn Shame Records, which just opened in July. He says he’ll miss the close-knit community here.
Adam O’Donnell: The big draw to me was just always the people. A lot of us are just kind of outsiders, a bit of just strange weirdos in a lot of ways. Not the kind of people you would expect to try to run their own business. We’re like the consider ourselves a home for anybody that is looking for just a place to escape.
Alston: He and many other tenants say they were disappointed to learn of the mill’s closure with such short notice. But O’Donnell says he gives the building’s owner credit for doing everything possible to keep it open. Shoppers have just a few weeks to check it out before Mill No. 5 Closes at the end of January. Rachel Chandler, who owns Red Antler Apothecary with her husband Rick Stec, is making a big final push to customers.
Rachel Chandler: Don’t miss it. Get over here. Bring your family and bring your friends. And we are jumping from the fourth floor to the sidewalk. Any money that is spent here in the building goes directly into fueling our capacities to land on our feet.
Alston: And just as this old mill transformed into a streetscape, it will be shaped into something new once again. In Lowell, I’m Paris Alston, GBH News. 89.7.
Herz: This story was edited by Karen Marshall. You’re listening to GBH.
Let’s take a walk down the block.
Today, we’re inside Mill No. 5 in Lowell. It’s not your typical block, but it sure does look like one: It’s a stretch of wooden floorboards reaching almost a mile, lined with colorful storefronts, plus a soda fountain café and record store.
“It’s an old mill building. It’s been here since the late 1800s,” said Rick Stec, who co-owns a business in the mill, Red Antler Apothecary, with his wife Rachel Chandler. “The Lichoulas family, which had it in their family for quite some time — this was Jim’s like, passion project, and he gathered up all these old things and retrofitted them to create this indoor streetscape. It was gorgeous.”
Stec and Chandler were among the first tenants in Mill No. 5. Now, after nearly 10 years, the indoor streetscape is shutting down next month, and it’s going to be handed over to a charter school.
“When everyone started moving in … there was no coffee shop. There was no movie theater. There was nothing,” Stec said. “This was all naked walls and there were a couple of spots. Over the years, we’ve built it up into what you’re seeing here.”
The building’s owner, Jim Lichoulas, opened Mill No. 5 in 2013. He says he wanted it to resemble a typical New England town, anchored by a movie theater with individual shops. As he puts it, think Main Street at Disney World, but less plastic.
The collection of shops was profitable for several years until the pandemic hit, forcing many stores to temporarily close. It’s been hard for them to rebound, and now Lichoulas has decided to sell the building to a charter school for less than market value.
“I’m none too happy about it because I love this place,” Stec said. “I’ve been here when my beard was darker. Now that we’re leaving, we’ve got to find production space, retail space, you know, office space.”
Adam O’Donnell will have to find new space, too. He’s the owner of A Damn Shame Records, which just opened in July. He said he’ll miss the close-knit community here.
“The big draw to me was just always the people,” O’Donnell said. “A lot of us are just kind of outsiders, a bit of just strange weirdos in a lot of ways. Not the kind of people you would expect to try to run their own business. We’d like to consider ourselves a home for anybody that is looking for just a place to escape.”
He and many other tenants said they were disappointed to learn of the mill’s closure with such short notice.
But O’Donnell says he gives the building’s owner credit for doing everything possible to keep it open. Shoppers have just a few weeks to check it out before Mill No. 5 closes at the end of January. Chandler, of Red Antler Apothecary, said she is making a big final push to customers.
“Don’t miss it,” Chandler said. “Get over here. Bring your family and bring your friends. And we are jumping from the fourth floor to the sidewalk. Any money that is spent here in the building goes directly into fueling our capacities to land on our feet.”
And just as this old mill was transformed into a streetscape, it will be shaped into something new once again.
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