Photo: Shari Small/WBZ NewsRadio
LOWELL, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — What was once a unique and vibrant marketplace is now a ghost town.
Mill No. 5, a popular market inside an old mill in Lowell, closed at the end of January after the owners of the building sold it off.
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"We got the notice the evening before Thanksgiving," said Rachel Chandler, owner of Red Antlers Apothecary, which had a storefront in Mill No. 5 for eleven years. "It was pretty devastating."
The announcement that the market would close sent Chandler and about a dozen other mom-and-pop retailers scrambling to relocate.
"It’s dark for some of [the business owners]," Chandler told WBZ NewsRadio Wednesday. "We have to move as quick as we can before their funds run out."
Chandler is now the co-founder of the Hive Public Market, a collection of many of Mill No. 5's small businesses. The group is currently in lease negotiations and fundraising to transform the former Saint Jean Baptiste Church building on Merrimack Street into a shopping center and public gathering space.
"We’re aiming to raise 100,000 dollars. That goes directly to construction costs," Chandler said.
WBZ's Shari Small reports.
