Jagger Mill renovation project will bring 86 apartments to Sanford

PHOTO / TINA FISCHER The 105-year-old Jagger Mill in Springvale is poised to be renovated into apartments by Chinburg Properties.

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By Tina Fischer

The redevelopment of the historic Jagger Mill in Sanford’s Springvale district, from a yarn spinning operation to apartments, is about to get underway, “any day now” according to Sanford town planner Erin Moriarty.

Newmarket, N.H.-based Chinburg Properties purchased the 105-year old brick building for $1.3 million in April 2024 from Jagger Bros. LLC and plans to build out 86 apartments in the four-story building. The Sanford Planning Board approved final details of the project in December.

Chinburg Properties, owned by Eric Chinburg, has repurposed numerous mill buildings in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont. The company most recently renovated of the Eleven in the Pepperell Mill campus in Biddeford into 76 market-rate apartments.

Moriarty said plans for the 68,000-square-foot Jagger Mill call for 39 studio apartments, 37 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom units. Moriarity said Chinburg has not filed for any of the units to be classified as income-restricted housing and she expects the units to be market-rate.

Sitting on close to three acres at 5 Water St., the building is a commanding presence. Formerly a weaving operation owned by Goodall-Sanford Mills, the Jagger family purchased it in 1956. In the late 1980s David Jagger transitioned operations into spinning yarn, and in addition to producing for private label, the mill created and sold its own line under the Jagger Spun label.

By 2024 the operation had been running with a small staff, and by the time of the sale of the building, had curtailed much of its yarn production. The mill’s on-site retail shop, Stash, had for the past few months been liquidating inventory and closed for good in December.

While the close of the mill means customers have lost one of the few remaining spinning operations in the state, David Jagger told Mainebiz last spring, “I’m so pleased it’s going to become housing. I couldn’t be happier.”

Chinburg was equally enthusiastic about the project. “We are very excited about the opportunity to create another special project at Jagger Mill. It is an excellent example of why we love saving historic buildings: its brick and beam construction, large factory style windows and high ceilings simply cannot be replicated with new construction.”