In Providence, Rhode Island, a team of young developers are breathing new life into an old factory complex. But it's not your typical condo conversion.
The team is re-working the facility into a newer industrial center, where people can learn and hone craft trades.
"Instead of a business plan, the founders-Clay Rockefeller, a 32-year-old Brown graduate and the great-great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, and Nick Bauta, a 34-year-old RISD graduate and the grandson of the Canadian food magnate W. Garfield Weston-started in 2001 with some big ideas and enough money to acquire the $1.4 million, three-acre Providence Steel & Iron complex at 27 Sims Avenue. 'We wanted to approach the question of what to do with a historically industrial property in light of the changes to the area,' Rockefeller says. 'I was particularly interested in what the next successful model for industry would look like, and if it could be sustainable in a scaled-down way that focused on local markets.'"
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