Stonington — In many Connecticut towns, old mill buildings pose major problems. Ill-suited for modern industrial uses, they stand vacant and begin to deteriorate. Targeted by vandals, more than a few end up being destroyed by fire.

Many of the 12 mills in this town, however, have been successfully rehabilitated, and town officials are considering proposals involving two more. If those projects proceed, just a few of the mills here would remain underused or vacant.

And that makes Stonington the envy of many eastern Connecticut towns.

Over the past decade, fires have destroyed mills in Sprague, Jewett City, Sterling, Plainfield and Norwich.

In Plainfield, the dilapidated Carvill Combing Mill is to be razed after plans to renovate it fell through. The adjacent Brunswick Mill had to be torn down after an arson fire. The InterRoyal Mill, also in Plainfield, has been damaged by fire and is scheduled to be demolished. Work to convert the long-vacant Hale Mill in Norwich into a hotel have stalled amid financial problems, and in Griswold, owners of the vacant Triangle Cable and Wire Plant owe the town $131,000 in back taxes.

With the exception of the massive Ponemah Mill, a mill-enhancement program in Norwich has had little positive effect.

Town officials and developers cite several reasons for Stonington's success stories. They say the mills in town are smaller and easier to rehabilitate than the massive complexes found in other towns. And, for the most part, those that have been rehabilitated are located amid thriving businesses or residential areas, developer James Coker of Stonington pointed out.

Developers are taken with the Stonington mills' proximity to the water or to scenic Mystic, and the mills' potential has been further enhanced by a new zoning designation that allows for them to be used for other than industrial applications. Just a month after the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the new Industrial Heritage Reuse District this summer, the town received proposals to rehabilitate two mills.

While most towns are looking for federal and state aid to fund studies and environmental cleanups of mill sites, almost all of the mill-rehabilitation work here has been funded by the private sector. The rare exception was Mystic Seaport's $12 million rehabilitation of the Rossie Mill in Mystic, which was partially funded by state and federal grants.

“I think we're doing much better than other communities in the region,” said Jason Vincent, Stonington's director of planning. “A lot of mill sites in other places have been abandoned, fallen apart or burned.”

Coker spent $2 million about six years ago to renovate the former Sirtex Mill in Old Mystic into 33,000 feet of space. Today, the space is filled by a chiropractor, a personal trainer and two firms that train people to work at nuclear power plants and develop sound-suppression systems. Coker said the site was attractive because of its location at the head of the Mystic River and bordering a nature preserve and a small village.

“And the bones of this building were very good,” he said. “It was well-built from the outset.”

The mill had remained in use until Coker's purchase of it and so had not deteriorated as many others have.

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The Mystic Packer Building, Acme Wire Co. and the former Lathrop Machine Co. mill in Mystic and the Old Mystic Mill feature a mix of manufacturing, commercial businesses and offices, while the Mystic Seaport has renovated one-third of the Rossie Velvet Mill into the Maritime Research and Education Center.

“Everyone who did these mills did a first-class job on them,” Coker said.

The former Monsanto mill in Stonington Harbor is being renovated into $30 million worth of luxury condominiums, homes and commercial space. The project, stalled by a July 2003 fire that destroyed the mill after work had begun, is scheduled for completion next year.

The 175,000-square-foot American Velvet Mill in Stonington Borough now contains 43 businesses, many of them artists. Other tenants include a steel fabricator, a snack food distributor and a woodworker, among others. The building had become vacant in 1999 when its owner moved to Virginia to take advantage of cheaper operating costs.

A Mystic man has proposed a $25 million luxury condominium project for the site of the now-defunct Mystic Color Lab. A New York developer has obtained one of the two zoning approvals he needs for a $15 million project to rehabilitate the northern end of the Thread Mill in Pawcatuck into condominiums and retail space. Both the color lab and Thread Mill projects are being pursued under the town's Industrial Heritage Reuse District designation, which allows developers to rehabilitate historic mills for uses other than industry.

Town officials and the Pawcatuck Revitalization Organization hope to use the zone to interest developers in remaining mill sites in Pawcatuck, including the sprawling Harris Graphics property along Mechanic Street. The site is about 60 percent occupied by businesses such as Cottrell Brewing Co. that have taken advantage of relatively inexpensive leases. Much of the space is used for warehousing.

A large portion of the adjacent Yardney mill is being used for industrial purposes but sections of it could be rehabilitated.

The other remaining sites are the Campbell Grain building that looms over Coggswell Street in downtown Pawcatuck and contains several businesses and the vacant Connecticut Casting Mill on Stillman Avenue, which is in the worst shape of all the town's mills. Its contamination problems and small size could make it unprofitable to renovate.

The Pawcatuck Revitalization Organization is working with an architectural group from Yale University to design a master plan for the mills and the downtown area, and town officials hope the millions of dollars they will soon pour into downtown Pawcatuck for streetscape improvements also will attract developers.

A New York City consulting firm's draft report on the mills says Pawcatuck's industrial mill sites “are more suited to eclectic uses that contribute to the town's quality of life and tourism sectors.

“A wide variety of spaces are available — ranging from lofts to sheds to office buildings. This variety not only invites different uses, it also invites mixed uses on the same sites,” says the report, which also recommends the town could use the mills to meet its demand for moderately priced housing.

Vincent, the town planning director, said rehabilitating the mills is an example of “smart growth” because it involves reusing existing buildings to bolster the town's grand list of taxable property without increasing sprawl and depleting open space.

“Some people are concerned we're taking away space for industrial or commercial growth but the value derived from adaptive reuse could easily surpass the industrial value (of the mills),” he said.

Vincent said the Industrial Heritage Reuse District, which requires developers to submit a master plan for approval before submitting a final site-plan application, has made the rehabilitation process more neighborhood-friendly because developers must work with residents to determine the type of project that would benefit their neighborhood.

“The community is deciding what it wants,” he said.

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Bob Granato, the former Planning and Zoning Commission chairman and current Pawcatuck Revitalization Organization project manager, is the champion of the Stonington mills.

A former counselor at Thames Valley Community College, he placed many workers at the Harris Graphics plant before it closed in 1990, putting 450 people out of work. In recent years, Granato has researched mills across the state and is writing a book about them called “Monuments to Misery.”

He said it was a mill fire in Sterling that set him to thinking about the fate of mills. The fire at the Monsanto property last year only highlighted the urgency that surrounds the renovation of them, he said.

“With a mill, sooner or later you get the historic end result –– collapsing roofs, vandalism and finally fire,” Granato said one recent afternoon while touring the Pawcatuck mill sites.

“For 15 years, I was saying, ‘Let's keep these mills for industry,'” he said. “God only made so much land. But we've got to recognize these sites are no longer conducive to modern industry.”

Indeed, industry demands close proximity to highways and airports, and locations where the cost of doing business is relatively low. The need for certain interior configurations and the cost involved in converting mills also scare off manufacturers, who often find it less expensive to erect new buildings.

But the large windows, high ceilings, brick facades and waterfront locations associated with mills make them attractive for conversion to apartments, condominiums, offices and shops.

With its jumble of modern steel structures and historic brick buildings, the 19-acre Harris property poses the biggest challenge for the Pawcatuck Revitalization Organization and the town. Granato envisions the overgrown, trash-strewn parking lots and an undeveloped area along the river being used for housing and a park while the main plant could contain an indoor athletic complex with a plaza and restaurant in the area between Harris Graphics and Yardney.

The New York consulting firm has said other possibilities include housing or an arts center similar to one located in a historic downtown mill complex in North Adams, Mass. Such a project would be the crown jewel of the revitalization effort.

While some businesses currently operate in sections of the Harris building, Granato said the old structure is underused. A renovated building would generate far more tax revenue.

Granato also envisions the entire area around the Campbell Grain Co. being rehabilitated and tied in with the Riverwalk project, the planned footbridge into Westerly, and improvements to Coggswell Street. He likens the effort to what was accomplished along the river in downtown Providence.

“Communities across the country have made rivers the center of their communities with art colonies and theaters that bring in people to support the local economy,” he said.