Way up on the third floor of the old Warren Manufacturing Co. mill, rusty reminders of the mill’s industrial past remain.

“Those are the belt drives,” says Warren Building Official Gareth Eames, pointing up at the large gear and pulley assemblies bolted to the ceiling 14 feet above. “This whole area would have been filled with sewing stations; those drives were fitted with leather belts and they supplied the power to every one.”

The belts, weaving stations and thousands of workers who once worked for Warren’s largest employer are long gone. But contractors for Brady Sullivan, who bought the 19th century mill for $2.6 million several years ago and are now beginning the bulk of their renovation work, will keep them as a nod to the complex’s hard-working past.

“They’re all staying,” adds Chris Reynolds, who is serving as superintendent of the job that will eventually see the mill turned into nearly 300 apartments and tens of thousands of square feet of commercial space.

Mr. Eames has issued two significant building permits for the apartment and commercial redevelopment in recent months. The first, to install 714 enormous windows throughout the complex, is complete. The next phase, framing in walls and corridors for the 190 apartments that will fill much of the main mill building, is now underway. Though the mill is still relatively quiet as workers install the main building’s sprinkler system, Mr. Reynolds said the main portion of the construction work should start in a month or two. From there, he said, it’ll be “all hands on deck” until Phase I of the two-phase project is complete. He expects the first phase to take about a year and a half in total.

“It’s really going to be trucking by the summer,” he said Friday morning, walking through the enormous main building.

The transformation from mostly deserted mill to bustling residential and commercial center is an enormous task. But Brady Sullivan has plenty of experience; the New Hampshire-based firm has been rehabilitating mills in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for years. The ‘Tourister’ Mill will be its largest development in Rhode Island, but Mr. Reynolds said planning out construction won’t be too difficult.

“Each one (of the 190 units in the main building) is going to be pretty much the same,” he said. By the time (framers) get to the end they’re going to know the measurements by heart, Mr. Eames added. Ordering supplies, scheduling workers, moving things around and scheduling various subcontracts will be straightforward, he said, regardless of the project’s massive scale.

“The hard ones” are the mills that have oddly shaped buildings, non-uniform buildable areas and footprints that do not lend themselves to mass-production of similar apartment units, Mr. Reynolds said. “That’s not the case here.”

With the walls not yet up, the mill’s main building seems massive. It is nearly 450 feet long from north to south and rises 14 feet to ceilings held up with massive 18” by 12” beams. Up on the third floor there is a water view from nearly every window. There’s the Warren River to the south and west, the Barrington River across from Striper Marina, and the Palmer River and Belcher’s Cove to the north and northeast. The views are majestic and will be even more so for those who rent the 18 penthouse units that will be built atop the roof.

Construction of the main mill building will work like this: Residential apartment units around 1,100 square feet each will fill the first and second floors. The penthouses will be built atop the roof. And commercial spaces, parking and the leasing office will be housed on the first floor.

Though the mill is being completely reworked, it will ironically look more like it did in its working heyday than it has in recent years. Outside, paint that covers bricks on the first floor will be stripped to re-expose the original bare brick. Structures built along the outside of the building over the years, including a transformer shed and loading docks, will be removed. And other signs of modernization will also come down; it’s all in keeping with state laws that require Brady Sullivan to maintain the mill’s historic integrity, inside and out, in return for the historic tax credits of which the property is taking advantage. Though the state has inspectors that regularly visit construction sites that employ historic tax credits, Mr. Reynolds said he and his fellow Brady Sullivan employees are on top of what the state needs. Having built done eight similar projects in Rhode Island, “we know what they (the state) want.”

“We work with them as closely as possible, keep them informed and we’ve always had a good relationship,” he said.

Along the mill’s Warren River frontage, a new public boardwalk will be installed, and several outbuildings that lie close to the water’s edge will also be rebuilt this summer. Mr. Reynolds says they’ll be perfect for restaurants and shops.

“It’ll be a really nice place to come,” he said.

Mr. Reynolds said Brady Sullivan officials still have a lot of unanswered questions. They haven’t come up with price points for the units, and there is no word yet on exactly which businesses will move in. He expects more answers to come in the coming months, as work progresses and the marketing of the property begins.

“It’s going to be a vibrant place,” he said.

One recent morning, the wind was howling through the upper floors even though most of the windows were blocking it. Someone remarked about the cold, but Mr. Reynolds laughed:

“This isn’t cold, he said. Cold is when it’s 10 degrees and there are no windows in. This is fine; by the summer it’ll be nice and warm in here.”