Mill Store Complex Sold, Housing May Be on Horizon

After much talk and even some sympathetic legislative action, a
Franklin landmark, 305 Union Street, colloquially known as the Mill
Store building, after its most visible tenant, has changed hands in a
transaction reportedly valued at $1.5 million.

Constructed between
the mainline train tracks that once led to Connecticut and New York,
and the branch line to Milford, that now leads to the Forge Park MBTA
station, the structures on the site, initially created for the
textile industry, date from the late Gilded Age up to the Roaring
Twenties.

The five-acre site
includes nearly 100,000 square feet of floor area. The site’s was
rezoned by the Town Council last month to commercial, which potentially allows
residential usage.

The iconic Mill Store itself is
expected to continue in operation. Rick Kaplan, one of the key
figures involved in the project is also the developer turning the
former Clark Cutler & McDermott facility into Factory Square on
West Central Street at Hayward Street.