Refurbished Denton Mills Hat Factory Should Reopen by End of Year
A PROMINENT inner-city factory – designed by architect William Pitt, who also conceived the Regent Theatre – has been boarded up, and will reopen later this year as a boutique mixed-use warehouse conversion.
The former Denton Mills hat factory, at the T-intersection of Langridge and Nicholson streets in Abbotsford, will make way for 61 apartments, six offices and a cafe, under plans by owner the Burbank Group of Companies.
Burbank paid about $5 million for the 114-year old 3-level brick factory in 2004, sources say. Part of the redevelopment includes restoring the building’s facade, and intricate brickwork around more than 100 small windows.
Burbank is now selling six strata titled ground floor office suites within the complex. CB Richard Ellis associate director Paul O’Connell said the offices are for sale individually, or could be amalgamated.
Other major tenants in the immediate area include Fosters, and television personality Rove McManus, whose offices across the road from Denton Mills, caught fire in 2004.
Nearby, at the corner of Nicholson and Victoria streets, developer A Genser and Associates is building Hive, a $50 million shopping centre, and apartment project, on a 5,000 square metre block, formerly used as a Kevin Dennis Motors service and sales delivery centre.