TAYLORS MILL

Caleb Lewis has the perfect game plan for your next free Saturday.

“Come out for lunch, have a couple beers, walk the kids over to look at the model trains, and before you know it, it’s dinnertime,” he says.

He’s got dinner covered, too.

Lewis is the owner of Taylors Mill, a 700,000-plus square-foot facility originally established in 1924 as the home of Southern Bleachery and Print Works. Today the mill is home to nearly 100 diverse tenants – many of them creative studios – as part of Lewis’ vision to facilitate craft and commerce for a new generation. The Farehouse restaurant opened last year, serving inventive fare and cocktails from one end of the 100 foot long deck they share with long-time tenant 13 Stripes Brewery.

The Model Trains Station is a popular draw for young and old alike, encompassing 16,000 square feet with an ever increasing number of working train displays. This year Taylors Mill welcomed two new start-ups, CrossFit Taylors and Anthem Barber Company, so now visitors can feel even better about enjoying a cold beer after a good training session or a fresh cut.

Lewis is proud to say that many of his early tenants have outgrown their original footprint and built out larger spaces within the mill.

His own business, Carolina Recycling, is one such success story. Lewis and his wife, Natalie, started the company in 2012, to create plastics recycling programs for businesses across the Southeast.

With 300,000 square feet currently leased out, Lewis says Taylors Mill isn’t even halfway to capacity, and he has plans to build out a dozen or so more spaces this year. 2019 will also be dedicated to making improvements to a 12,000-square-foot space Lewis has earmarked for future retail space.

Taylors Mill is already a great place to spend the day, and with so much space still yet to develop Lewis, has a grand vision for the future.

“We want this to be the downtown of Taylors.”