At a press conference in Riverside Park Saturday afternoon, officials, renters discuss goals, demands

Renters in the Atlantic Mills announced that they are forming a commercial tenants union at a rally in Riverside Park on Dec. 21. This is the first commercial tenants union in Rhode Island, the group says — and few other examples exist throughout the country, as most tenants unions organize residential renters.

Organizers told PPS that roughly 90 people had signed on to the Atlantic Mills Tenant Union (AMTU), including tenants, subleasers, and flea market vendors. Flea market vendors pay a weekly fee to the lease-holder and market operator, Big Top Flea — which is owned by Howard and Eleanor Brynes LLC, the current owner of the Mill — for their booths. PPS does not know the total number of renters in the building at this time.

With few comparable examples, the bargaining and legal protections of such an association are currently unclear. The union recently held a meeting at the church inside the Mills, and additionally had an art-making session at the Olneyville Neighborhood Association’s (ONA) headquarters in preparation for Saturday’s rally.

AMTU’s demands include collective bargaining with current and future ownership and rent stabilization, according to Linsey Wallace, an artist and tenant on the union’s media committee.

“We demand a 99-year lease term that includes immediate rent stabilization in addition to an eviction moratorium that begins today and extends until a collectively bargained agreement can be reached. We require a response by Dec. 30,” reads a press release from the group.

The building’s current owner, Eleanor Brynes, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Atlantic Mills was put on the market after failed negotiations with the City last August. The Mills first appeared on the Providence Preservation Society’s Most Endangered Places list in 2009 and has been on and off the MEP list up to the present. The mixed-use space is currently home to multiple businesses, a popular weekend flea market, and artists’ studios.

For months, the complex has been pending sale to New York-based developer ​​Eric Edelman, who told PPS that he expects to close on the sale in early 2025. Edelman previously told PPS he plans to continue the operation of the Big Top Flea and “to keep all the current tenants in good standing and to rent out the vacant space,” which he affirmed Saturday afternoon after the rally.

“We’re planning to keep the building for commercial, commercial use, and we want to work with all tenants in good standing,” Edelman said to PPS when asked about the new union. “Every tenant situation is different, so I’m not sure I know how a tenants union works, but we’re committed to keeping Atlantic Mills as a hub for small businesses.”

“We’re keeping the flea market, which is sort of a super hub of small businesses itself,” he continued. “Obviously the building needs lots of investment and repairs and we’re committed to doing all that.” 

Edelman told PPS Saturday afternoon that the due diligence period is ongoing. “We’re just trying to figure out get our arms around the building right now,” he said. Current building ownership has brought in new property managers, he added.

“It doesn’t really matter who owns the building,” said Eloi Rodas, the new executive director for ONA, which currently rents space in Atlantic Mills. “We just want to be able to have a say, decide the terms and agreements on our leases, [and] how long we want those leases to be.” 

“We’re certainly not opposed to standard term commercial leases, which typically are one, three, five, and 10 years, depending on the tenants level of credit,” Edelman said when asked about granting longer leases to tenants. “The level of credit required for a 99 year lease is typically only reserved for governments and large institutions.”

“Edelman said there are no plans to change anything or really dramatically increase rent, and that’s fine, that’s what we’re asking for,” Wallace said. “But if they’re just saying that … that’s another thing. So the union is our insurance policy.”

Edelman emphasized that he wants to preserve the current uses of the building, and said that rent increases over time will be necessary to maintain the structure. “We planned to, over time, not immediately, work on gradual increases for folks to get them closer to market [rate],” he said. “We’re not trying to set new market highs with these existing tenants, but we do need to cover the cost of the buildings, expenses and repairs, and things like that. Part of keeping it a space available to people is investing in it and running it well.”

Wallace emphasized that the union is seeking concrete guarantees. “We need a hard contract with hard numbers and hard, hard projections of increases we need,” she said. “So assurances are all well and good, but we need a contractual document that is binding into this.”

Edelman also said that “over the course of the current ownership, many tenants decided to stop paying their full rent every month,” making it difficult to say what those incremental increases will look like at present. “It’s too hard to say, especially with a bunch of people not paying rent. The more people don’t pay rent, the more pressure it puts on the building.”

Wallace disputed this characterization, saying that “bills have not been issued, receipts have not been given. The management of the building is a mess right now.”

“We don’t know what’s being tracked…. and that’s why we are calling him to the negotiating table now,” Wallace continued.

Current ownership could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We want to bargain in good faith,” Rodas said. “A lot of people will demonize unions [saying you’re] trying to avoid paying rent, or you’re trying to get away with whatever you want… What we want is a decent place to work.”

Navigating a ‘Labyrinth’: A Union Months in the Making

Organizers said that the union originated after the Oct. 9 meeting of Atlantic Mills tenants. “This process has been a gift because it’s bringing the community together more, and then hopefully also we will be stabilizing our futures,” said Jenine Bressner, a longtime Mills tenant and organizer for the union.

Several people said that the organizing involved a lot of door-knocking and meeting neighbors that they hadn’t encountered before.

“The building is this labyrinth, and we had to search out so many tenants, and we’ve been doing it for about two months,” Wallace said.

Some tenants were (and others still remain) skeptical about the benefits and risks of forming a tenants union. “Most of it was anxiety, fear,” Cindy Miranda, board chair for ONA said, describing some tenants’ concerns of  “real, tough ramifications” from organizing.

“We’ve had people all our lives tell us, ‘You can’t do anything, nothing can be done,’” Miranda said. But after seeing the outpouring of interest and concern about the Mills at that first community meeting in the Olneyville Community Library, Miranda said she began to feel more hopeful.

Miranda said she found solace in taking action. “I feel like this has been a very empowering time,” Miranda. “We shouldn’t be afraid. We should be vocal. We should be out there trying to make things change because we have power.”

Miranda stressed that ONA, which is headquartered in the Mills, benefits from the affordable and accessible space, adding that they would like to remain there as long as possible. “There’s so much at stake, and I would feel so guilty if we didn’t do anything,” Miranda explained.

Rodas also wants the Mills to “remain an accessible space for working people,” and said he was excited to start at a transitional time in organizing.

Miranda and Bressner noted confusion among flea market vendors, many of whom may not have email or receive regular communication on the status of Atlantic Mills. 

Miranda said some residents thought the sale was executed and that market operations had shut down. “Some people thought that the flea market was closed, so fewer people go to the market,” Miranda said. 

Brynes did not respond to a request comment when asked about the Flea and communications with vendors.

The tenants and vendors at the Mills represent “a full cross-section of the city,” remarked Emily Harrington, another artist and organizer. She said studio tenants have connected more with business owners and the flea market vendors throughout the organizing process. This diversity is what “makes Providence so special.”

“We’ll be able to say we’re doing something, we’re gonna protect the Mills, and we have a plan,” Harrington said.

The group started up an Instagram account called We Are Atlantic Mills to bring visibility to the various tenants inside the building.

Little Legal Precedent

“We’re making history by creating the first commercial tenants union in the state of Rhode Island. It’s unprecedented,” Bressner said. “The dream for so many people would be long-term stability and feeling more of a sense of power within our spaces.”

The tenants have received guidance from Reclaim RI, a housing justice association. But as a tenants union for commercial renters, the Atlantic Mills Tenants Union is in uncharted territory.

“The artist spaces and majority-Latino small businesses of Atlantic Mills reflect what makes Providence the beautiful city that it is. The tenants of Atlantic Mills, with huge support from the people of Providence, formed a union to make sure that the Mills [do] not turn into chain stores and corporate offices. These are our spaces, not a speculative investment for Manhattan developers,” said Shana Crandell, Executive Director of Reclaim RI in a press release from the association.

Earlier this year, Cranston residents on Broad Street formed a residential tenants union, which organizers said was the first majority tenants union in the state outside of public housing. Critics of the residential tenants union have said that the many existing protections for renters render a union unnecessary.

“There’s even fewer legal protections for commercial tenants” compared to residential tenants, Harrington said. “It’s just less clear what commercial tenant rights are, so we’re testing those waters.”

Harrington said she has been in touch with an organizer from the San Francisco Bay Area who advised on demands and tactics. “It’s a nationwide movement, so we’re joining this incredible network of people who are sticking out for their spaces and their neighborhoods and their neighbors.”

While state recognition and legal protection for a commercial tenants association is currently limited, Wallace noted that there still may be strength in numbers.

With nearly 100 members, “we’re a loud voice, so we don’t necessarily need government backing or affiliation,” she said. “Certainly, we would like that to be an option in the future, but we already have support from government officials.”

Looking Ahead for the Atlantic Mills Tenant Association

“We’re creating this structure with each other, but we all believe in the preservation of community,” Wallace said. “People were willing to step up and organize and put in a lot of personal time to help build this.”

Several artists mentioned the importance of affordable studio space for the creation of culture in Providence and beyond. “We all choose to be in this place, not in Boston, not in New York, and it is because of a confluence of really special conditions that this is able to be my favorite place in the whole world,” Bressner said. “So when we look at Providence, [which] touts itself as the Creative Capital, being proud of the people who have come through, like Shepard Fairey and Kara Walker, I don’t think those artists would have been able to become their current selves without having benefited from having studio space in the Atlantic Mills.”

Director of Communications for Economic Development for the City of Providence Michaela Antunes emphasized Mayor Brett Smiley’s support for the arts and his embrace of the Creative Capital moniker.

“Beyond a tagline, it is also a guiding principle, and we back that up with tremendous investments in the arts each year,” Antunes wrote to PPS. “The Smiley Administration has allocated more than $5 million in ARPA funding to artists and cultural programs in addition to providing ongoing direct support to working artists each year through various City programs.” 

District 9 Representative Enrique Sanchez attended the initial community meeting in early October. “My family’s been around in Providence for over 30 years,” Sanchez said. “I’ve always been around Atlantic Mills, and seen how the building hasn’t changed too much.

“It’s been a landmark for the community there, for working people,” Sanchez added, emphasizing how flea market vendors have relied on the space to do their business. “A lot of folks have started their small businesses and depend on the local economy there.”

“I do think it [would] contribute to the high cost of living, displacement, gentrification, [in Olneyville?] if there were to be big changes in that building.”

Miranda said that while nearby community members may not be as familiar with the studio spaces in the mills, residents have been worried about the ripple effects of new development. “If they buy this building, is my rent gonna go up because the landlord’s property taxes are going up?” she said.

“We also want to set an example, because… a lot of organizations are going to try to do rent stabilization, rent control campaigns in Olneyville and other low-income neighborhoods,” Rodas said, saying he hopes AMTU “can be a model and a hub for those people.”

After the rally, Wallace said she felt excited about the next steps for AMTU. “It was an amazing display of community. I truly felt, solidarity within the city. This is such a valuable resource to so many communities,” she said. “If Edelman is going to be part of this equation, he needs to give a little also. So he needs to show us that he is willing to become part of this community.”

Posted on Dec. 21 at 2:00 pm // Last updated on Dec. 21 at 5:37 pm.

By Katy Pickens / Planning & Preservation Writer / kpickens@ppsri.org