Visions for Vacancies: The Chocolate Factory

Drive around Mansfield and you'll notice far too many empty storefronts, buildings and lots.

In this week's "Visions for Vacancies," we're looking at the Chocolate Factory, a building well known across Mansfield.

For over a century, the factory produced Lowney chocolate but building owners Archer Daniels Midlan announced in 2010 that the factory would be shut down gradually in 2011.

By the summer of 2011, the smell of chocolate that use to go though the nearby neighborhood was gone.

In the two years since the factory was closed, nothing has gone into the building.  At the 2013 town meeting, there was an article that would have allowed for the building to be used for apartment but the article was unable to obtain the two-thirds majority needed for a zoning change.

With apartments now looking unlikely, what should happen to the factory? Leave us a comment and tell us what you think!