Lowell – Lowell Community Charter Public School (LCCPS), a high-expectations charter public school serving 815 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the heart of downtown Lowell for the last 25 years, announced Wednesday it is receiving a generous donation of real estate from longstanding neighbors and partners, the Lichoulas family.
This gift allows financial and spatial flexibility that will empower the school to continue providing excellent education and support to the families of the Greater Lowell community.
The Lichoulas family will donate Mill No. 5, including all of the abutting land surrounding the building. The donation is a transformative milestone for the students and families of LCCPS and for the ‘Build to Learn’ campaign. As part of the campaign, LCCPS plans a new Athletic & Community Center, a Student Success Fund to foster programmatic growth, and a state-of-the-art Performance Arts Center.
“We are deeply grateful to the Lichoulas family for their extraordinary generosity,” said Executive Director, Nicholas Leonardos. “This once-in-a-lifetime donation will allow us to provide enhanced resources and expanded extracurricular opportunities for our students for years to come. This investment in our facilities—a place that so many of our students and faculty consider a second home—will have a lasting impact.”
“It is an honor to support the incredible work being done at this school,” said James Lichoulas Jr.. “We believe deeply in the power of education, and we are thrilled to contribute in a way that will help ensure the school’s continued success and growth for years to come.”
The school’s current plan to build a new gymnasium across the street on Middlesex Street, announced in September, will be put on hold in light of this donation. School leaders will now pivot to build the highly anticipated new gym and community center on the grounds of Mill No. 5. By incorporating the space and land at Mill No. 5 into their broader plan; the building project will align the school’s resources with the long-term needs of students, staff, and families.
“On behalf of LCCPS and our entire community, I extend our deepest gratitude to the Lichoulas family for their extraordinary generosity and vision. This remarkable gift not only provides a transformative opportunity for our school but also preserves the unique vision of a creative indoor streetscape in our historic mill building. We are thrilled to reimagine these spaces as classrooms, where 815 students will learn, grow, and be inspired every day,” said Robert Gignac, Chief Operating Officer. “This gift strengthens our mission to serve the Lowell community and shapes the future of education in our city. It has been an honor to work alongside the Lichoulas family to bring this shared vision to life.”
The School recognizes the impact this donation and transition will have on current building tenants and is working closely with the Lichoulas family and city officials to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Gignac tells InsideLowell LCCPS “will work with the city to provide alternative spaces over the next few months. Our goal is the fully occupy Mill No. 5 eventually and sell our space we own and occupy in Mill 6.”
City officials acknowledge they have already begun working proactively to identify space and size requirements for all the affected businesses, with vacant space on Merrimack, Middle and Market Streets being a prime target. They plan to begin outreach efforts with each owner in the coming weeks.
34 responses to “Mill No. 5 Gifted to Charter School”
This is such a loss for the city of Lowell. Mill Number 5 was a big reason why I decided to buy in Lowell. It provided a good affordable space for some really good vendors and now it’s all gone. All to make some charter school CEO happy. Shameful!
This is in response to ND’s comment. This is an amazing opportunity for the 2nd of only 2 amazing charter schools within the city. It makes complete sense to expand into Mill #5. Ive been a life long Lowellian and I’m nit going to miss Mill #5. If you truly value the businesses that are affected, please continue to support in a new home within Lowell. Otherwise, enjoy house hunting.
Charter schools are a total scam that hoover up tax money but get to offload “difficult”students to the public school system and keep their own numbers looking rosy. It is unconscionable that such an important cultural space is being destroyed to prop this one up.
Leave it to the charter school lobby to privatize public education while destroying local community
Wow, this is just wrong. I lived in Lowell for a decade and return frequently for Mill No 5. This will be a large blow to the art community of Lowell, as it is one of the only places in the city where they congregate. Sad to see it go, especially to a charter school and not the public schools who actually need resources.
This is a horrible loss for Lowell. Mill #5 has always been an incredible center of community in downtown and has so many wonderful local businesses that I am very sad to see go. As a student who went through one of those two charter schools MG, I will tell you ‘amazing’ is a very poor description of them, they provide extremely subpar education for the amount of money that goes into them. If the CEO’s goal was to “serve the Lowell community”, he wouldn’t be running a charter school to begin with, and he certainly wouldn’t have destroyed such a monument of Lowell’s community with so little thought. It’s saddening to see mill #5 close, and it is enraging that it was done in the name of corporate greed to save some money on building their gym. Shameless indeed.
I’m with you, ND. Such a loss. I will support all the businesses and wish them well, but that beautiful community vibe that place had will be irreplaceable.
So… here is what confuses me (other than the remarkably crass timing)….
Mill No. 5 is a rather large building. The shops are on the 4th and 5th floors. The school has 815 students.
Is there some way the school can take up the bottom 3 floors (and basement as I presume there is one) and leave the shops in place?
This is awful news! Such a great spot to shop, relax, and enjoy an open space!! Coffee and Cotton is one of the best coffee shops I’ve ever been to in my whole life. Way to destroy such a bright spot in Lowell
Disappointed by this news and disgusted by the timing. And just because MG won’t miss Mill #5 doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value for other Lowellians. It is a special and unique space, and I was impressed by the effort and interest James Lichoulas, Jr. put into what had been a neglected property. What happened to his vision of creating a space for small businesses to survive and thrive? https://millno5.com/history-of-mill-no-5-part-2/
This is horrible. All these businesses losing their spaces for a charter school and a gym. Horrible to do this to hard working people. You should be ashamed. Why leave any culture is this city.
Shameful and disgusting. It’s time to destroy the rich.
WTF. Small cities like Lowell, Hartford, Springfield, etc struggle with the kind of big and bold ideas like Mill5 has represented over many years. This was a Mecca for creative design and a living room for a city that, like most small cities, struggles with unique indoor spaces capable of functioning as comfortable “third spaces” that even the big boy corporate behemoths like Starbucks have run away from. While I’m not surprised to hear things have been tough financially for the Mill (their insistence on being an insider’s secret with unpredictable hours made it hard to patronize them), but as so many others have said, it would have been wonderful if the city could have offered incentives to keep the space open or transferred to a commercial nonprofit committed to maintaining and expanding the unique spaces and ethos of the mill. There’s literally nothing like it anywhere in New England, nor will be again given the exponential rise in real estate prices over the last decade. This move materially damages the City of Lowell and makes it a significantly less appealing city to call alone.
Am I reading this correctly that the Charter School will be displacing hundreds of residents in the middle of a housing shortage as well? How is that legal: you bought a condo, you do have ownership rights, no?
Another nail in the coffin for local business and artistic expression in New England. Been saying it for years, the Music and Arts culture has been dead here for years and it will continue to die since they just do not appreciate it here.
Every other major city in the world has no problem fostering the arts and drives tourism and money, but New England will never beat the allegations it secretly hates anything that isn’t corporate and commercialized money. Region of the world run by out of touch boomers.
Terrible news. Mill no. 5 was my favorite place to visit in Lowell, especially Luna Theater. Sure, the businesses can relocate but the uniqueness and charm will be gone.
I love the Mill. I have been there 4 times over the last year, on Saturdays.
There was only a handful of patrons each time.
If you’re upset, take action. There’s a petition out there now proposing a potential educational partnership. Maybe we can still keep these beloved spaces open still: https://www.change.org/p/save-lowell-s-mill-no-5-unique-commercial-spaces
What a shitty way to be generous.
Not sure who wrote this piece but holy cow, not even a word for the incredible thriving community of small businesspeople, dedicated customers committed to supporting this bright light of an idea put into action? Mill No. 5 drew a LOT of people to come and spend time and money in Lowell and get to know it, but I guess Lowell has too much of all that and can’t make room for both it and a school.
What an enormous waste of goodwill, investment, and community. Good luck, Lowell. You clearly need it.
Way too much space for 800 students.
The city should stop funding the charter school and block this “donation”
But they will do nothing like they always do.
Prediction- luxury apartments in less than 5 years
If art is the handmaid of human good Lowell has none.
Mill No. 5 was a truly magical place. What a nightmare that it will be dissolved for a wretched charter school. It will be sorely missed.
Absolutely gutted to hear about this. The tenor of this article makes the loss of small businesses in support of privatized education sound like a good thing. What a joke. The beauty of Mill 5 is in its esoteric charm. Such a shame and a true blow to the community.
An incalculable loss for Lowell. We’re losing an incredible space for art, socializing, shopping, and live music in order to give it all to a scam organization that siphons money away from public schools. And what happens to the families who live in apartments on the other floors of Mill 5? Are they just out on the street during a housing crisis? Everyone involved in this should be ashamed to show their faces in public.
Our understanding is there are no residents affected. The Condos are in Mill No. 6
What a terrible deal for the city of Lowell. A great space with so many great businesses. The charter school business is beyond a racket and it completely screws over public school districts.
Donations to any Charter School is actually a slap at the local public school system. Charter schools are basically a way elitists can separate their kids from others in the community without having to pay for it. If you want your kids in private schools pay for it. The loss of Mill No 5 is a great setback to what has been somewhat of a revival for our city. I only see this as another loss.
I’ve started a petition to keep Mill no.5 as the small business haven it should be!
Please sign and share!
https://chng.it/ptt5Y7CHSx
EVERYONE:
please sign the petition, then
share it with at least one person.
Post it on local social media feeds & groups!
This travesty cannot stand!
Floor 4 of #5 could be a working laboratory where kids could volunteer to work, learn how to run a business, film theater,etc.
There MUST be a creative win-win solution where the floor 4 mall can be spared and somehow integrated into the goals of the school!
SIGN,SHARE, REPOST this Petition–
https://www.change.org/p/save-lowell-s-mill-no-5-unique-commercial-spaces
@Max, can we consolidate our efforts here? Time is limited and it would be wonderful to reach 1,000 members of the community who know and love Mill 5 help us show LCCPS’ leadership that there’s still a path forward here that meets the schools’ needs and keeps Lowell’s crown jewel alive: https://www.change.org/p/save-lowell-s-mill-no-5-unique-commercial-spaces
This goes against 96% of Lowell voters in 2016 who voted AGAINST charter school expansion. I am disgusted. You take only a select few out of the many children to help, on top of displacing hundreds of residents, small businesses and artists. Shame on the owner and shame on you. This is done around the holiday season, too. I hope there is a glimmer of caring left in your hearts to go back on this acceptance. Until then, I am beyond disgusted.
This is a huge loss for the City of Lowell !!! I can’t believe that this is happening. I get the owners think they are being kind and there are probably some huge tax advantages for doing this, but it is just so wrong! For those small business that invested not just their money, took out loans, took all the risks, toughed out the pandemic, invested their hearts & souls, as well as a huge part of their lives in their own little small shops, this is just an act of profound cruelty!
To tell people to just support these business at other locations, just adds insult to injury!!!
It will never be the same!!! Do you know how hard it is to set up another location??? How expensive it is??? How much the small business owners will have to endure???
Lowell Mill #5 is an amazing place with HUGE potential that has never fully been achieved!!!! This is a huge loss for the city!!! Expanding a school can’t even compare to what Lowell is losing!!!! Shame!!!
I’ve been going ever since it was just the Luna theater. I volunteered there for awhile while it was gaining ground. And I’ve been a patron of most of the shops since. I always liked going up that elevator as slow as it was to take me away from the streets below to a magical land on the 4th and 5th floor. I’ve thought about relocating because of the increasing street garbage/homeless problem/loud car radio volume, but this one sealed it for me. Can’t wait to not have to pay Lowell property taxes anymore. Anything for migrant families who are pregnant on purpose to stay here and less for the longtime residents of Lowell. Wonder what they’d say if I set up a tent and camped near the gate lol.
This is a huge loss for not only those visiting Lowell, but for the members of the Lowell Community. This is a space that encourages connection, whether to eat and drink, see a movie, enjoy the farmers market as well as to shop locally at the small businesses that are currently there. I actually bought in the area, and the hook for my purchase was the easy access to Mill #5.
I hope the parties involved will reconsider this decision, it’s the right thing to do especially at this time of year.
To HQL: correction – it was James T Lichoulas Sr who purchased the Appleton-Jackson mills from the city around 1975. He was the visionary and worked tirelessly to get people interested in the revival of the complex. He loved the mills and the city of Lowell. He developed plans for a mixed-use complex with a movie theater (different location than where ended up). He would be delighted that so many people love the mills.