Tenants lining up for retail space in renovated Triad mill building

Potential tenants are showing interest in the latest renovation project in an area already boosted by two recently completed similar projects.

Construction is underway on Phase 2 of Revolution Mill, the renovation of Mill House off Yanceyville Street, just northeast of downtown Greensboro. Nick Piornack of developer Self-Help and general manager of Revolution Mill, told Triad Business Journal that he has four letters of intent from prospective retail and/or restaurant tenants for the four, first floor retail spaces.

Delivery on the building is expected in May or June 2022.

C.T. Wilson of Durham and Greensboro is the general contractor on the $36 million renovation of the five floor, 167,000-square-foot building into a mixed-use facility. The closest building on the campus to Yanceyville Street, Mill House is planned to have two restaurants, retail and office spaces, and 33 apartments.

The plans for Mill House call for a 5,800 SF restaurant anchoring the first floor with a patio over the banks of North Buffalo Creek, which runs along the back of Mill House, separating Mill House from Revolution Mill Apartments. Piornack said he's negotiating for that premier restaurant space with a local tenant.

A $525,000 grant will be used to dredge and widen the creek and build a stronger bank that will allow better access while combating flooding. Big rocks and boulders will be added for cosmetic purposes.

"It will be turned from a liability into an asset," Piornack said of the creek.

An 1,800-square-foot atrium with a skylight is a central feature of the building's interior.

Piornack said two current Revolution Mill tenants have expressed interest in moving to Mill House, taking up to a floor apiece on the three top levels.

The second floor will have office spaces of 7,000 SF and 2,800 SF, plus apartments. The third, fourth and fifth floors will include about 12,600 SF of office space and apartments. Total office space will measure about 60,000 SF.

"There's going to be some really cool architectural features," Piornack said.

Subtracting the atrium and common space, Piornack said Mill House will have about 120,000 SF of rentable space. Revolution Mill and Mill House are managed by Kane Realty of Raleigh.

Mill House won't be the final phase at Revolution Mill, said Piornack, who pointed to the 13 or 14 acres south of the creek, a mostly open space along Yanceyville with a 13,000 SF industrial building at the west end, as the next phase, once Mill House is up and rolling. Self-Help refers to the next phase as the "Olympic" tract. Development there will be mostly new construction, a contrast from earlier phases.

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Self-Help on track to start $35 million Phase 2 of Revolution Mill in early 2021

The first phase of Revolution Mill, the $91 million mixed-use development in northeast Greensboro, is an unqualified success with 95% occupancy of its 150 loft apartments, three restaurants and more than 100 commercial tenants.

Now Self-Help Credit Union, the owner and developer of Revolution Mill, is now ready to move forward with a $35 million Phase 2 that it hopes to have completed in 2022.

By a vote of 8-0 Monday night, the Greensboro Zoning Commission approved rezoning 3.5 acres to light mixed industrial at 2005 Yanceyville St., clearing the way for a 145,000-square-foot mixed-use development in the Mill House, a five-story building that sits at the front entrance of Revolution Mill.

No one spoke in opposition to the rezoning proposal and no neighbors came forward with any grievances at a public meeting Self-Help organized. Hugh Holston, chairman of the zoning commission, summed up the lack of resistance and the unanimous vote in favor of the rezoning request.

“Revolution Mill has been an outstanding project for Greensboro,” Holston said.

Emma Haney, project manager of the Self-Help real estate team, called the Phase 2 of the project a “mixed-use microcosm” that has been greatly influenced by the success of Phase 1, which was completed in 2019.

“One of the most compelling parts from an underwriter’s perspective and from a real estate developer’s perspective is it’s just a little more of everything we’ve already seen have success in Phase 1,” Haney said. “That’s really informed the thinking for redevelopment of the Mill House.”

Plans call for 33 apartment units, 55,000 square feet of Class A office space, 10,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space and a co-working space. Eighteen of the apartments will be one-bedroom and 15 will be two-bedroom units.

The ground floor of the Mill House features 19-foot-high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, and plans call for apartments, a co-working space with a mezzanine level and three retail spaces ranging from 1,300 square feet to 5,800 square feet. The largest retail space offers a deck overlooking Buffalo Creek and is seen as potential space for a restaurant. 

“The retail spaces can still be informed by the tenants,” said Haney, who said the campus could support another one to two restaurants. She also suggested a boutique fitness option is another possibility. 

The second through fifth floors will all be a mix of apartments and commercial space, and an atrium in the center of building will extend from the floor to the roof.“The market is at a place that it can comfortably support what we’re bringing online,” Haney said. “When we started Revolution Mill, there wasn’t an apartment market in this area. We’ve created a sub-market.”

Haney termed the area on Yanceyville Street as the Mill District, with Revolution Mill complemented by the 217 units at Printworks Mill Apartments that opened two blocks away earlier this year.

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Revolution Mill execs dig out opportunity at old self-storage building

No treasure chests. 

No long-lost works by Renoir or Rembrandt.

No rare, multimillion dollar finds a la the History Channel's "Storage Wars" unfolded as Revolution Mill General Manager Nick Piornack and company cleared out the old self-storage facility in the Mill House building of Greensboro's Revolution Mill.

Piornack said there are no concrete plans for a tenant – or tenants, potentially – for the 167,000 square feet inside the old relic. It's too soon to discuss costs, timelines, even occupancy, he said. 

"The main thing is we’ve started clearing the building and we’ll also start working on the exterior windows here in the next several months," he said. "You know, get the building good and solid and clean and dry."

Belk Architects, the firm that has done the bulk of the work on the Revolution Mill project, is in the early stages of analyzing the building. None of the other construction or trade work has been contracted yet, he said. 

The good news is the building is empty. Crews are clearing out old storage lockers, but so far they haven't uncovered anything of substantial monetary or historical value, Piornack said.

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