Developer tells Newington that former industrial property could become a hub for people to 'shop, dine, drink, work and congregate'

The owner of the former Keeney Manufacturing complex is proposing a renovation to potentially attract a brewery/tap room, restaurant, coffee shop hair salon to the heart of Newington center.

Roy Stillman’s Omni Broussard Two LLC bought the property for $3.1 million at the end of 2021.

Unlike many of New England’s sprawling ex-factories and mills from the Industrial Era, the almost 7-acre Keeney property is right in the center of town. Omni Broussard contends that’s a key reason why Newington should approve its rezoning request to allow more than just industrial and office uses at the complex, which has about 110,000 square feet of space between three buildings.

“1170 Main Street, once renovated, will become an attractive multi-use property and hub in the center of Newington for residents and visitors to shop, dine, drink, work and congregate,” the company said in its application to the town plan and zoning commission.

Omni Broussard has already leased nearly 43,000 square feet of the complex for warehousing, but said it will renovate the rest of the space for retail or commercial use if the zone change goes through. The commission heard the request in December and is expected to discuss it this month.

Acting Town Planner Erik Hinckley told commissioners that Omni Broussard’s plan offers value to Newington.

“The applicant is proposing to ‘peel off’ the newer exterior of the existing building and bring back its more original art deco appearance and remove the ‘factory’ look of the building,” Hinckley wrote in a memo. “The art deco look will certainly be more appealing and inviting in the downtown area and make the building more viable for future tenants.”

Keeney produced plumbing supplies at the complex for many decades, and maintained its corporate offices there. But it had been scaling back production and stopped altogether when an Ohio company took over its operations in 2019.

Omni Broussard bought the complex and quickly leased one building, a 42,500-sqare-foot ware house with high bays, to Newington-based Data Mail Inc.

The owner’s vision for the rest of the complex involves mixed uses.

“Working with the existing building and pinpointing certain key renovations, (the) owner looks to create retail spaces along Main Street in the former Keeney executive office spaces,” the company said in a written description of its plan.

“Besides creating inviting spaces for retail tenants which uses may include a brewery/tap room, restaurant, coffee shop or hair salon to name a few, owner intends on creating green spaces in the Main Street front yard and north alley near Market Square for use by the patrons,” it said.

The lower level of 1170 Main St. is at parking lot level and could be used for showroom space for a company using other space for manufacturing, the company said.

“A good example would be a kitchen cabinet manufacturer who produces in the rear of their space but welcomes customers into the front showroom of the store. There are upper-level and lower-level spaces that have delivery access and would make sense to rent out as industrial, light manufacturing or start-up company space,” Omni Broussard wrote.

The facade renovation might be the component most noticeable to people in the town center.

“We saw that the building had undergone various changes to the facade over time,” Stillman told the commission last month.

“It was very interesting to us to find the way that the building existed when it was in the 1920s. What was really striking to us was that in the early time, the building had a design in an art-deco style, showing the bands of brick, the curved cornice, and we took that as a jumping off point, as a way to enhance the building,” Stillman said.

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