Opening Fall 2026 · East Hartford, Connecticut · Founding member applications open
The Mill Runs Again.
Connecticut's first privately operated AI coworking space — inside a restored 1887 mill on the Hockanum River.
A 19th-century mill. A 21st-century machine shop.
The Burnside Mill complex was built in 1887 along the Hockanum River — part of Connecticut's network of industrial waterways that powered the state's manufacturing economy for over a century. Its brick walls held looms, lathes, and ambition.
Those same walls will soon house the dedicated infra to support Connecticut's technology boom. Burnside AI Labs will initially occupy 6,000 square feet of preserved mill space — exposed brick, original timber, fourteen-foot windows — outfitted with dedicated fiber, room to work, and education for members and their community.
“Connecticut built its industrial identity on water power and precision manufacturing. We think the next chapter reads the same way — just with different kinds of mills.”
Bring us the problem. Keep the solution.
Not every business needs a machine learning team — most need a working system with someone who can explain it on a technological level and interpret its value in accomplishing your business goals. Our consulting practice helps organizations big and small adopt AI on their own terms: we assess what's actually worth automating, build a pilot you can judge with your own eyes, and deploy it on hardware and accounts you control. Have a certain preference or limitation? We tailor our consulting engagements to fit your vision, your preferences, and your infrastructure.
When the engagement ends, the system, the documentation, and the know-how stay with you.
Start a Conversation- 01Readiness assessment — what's worth doing, what isn't
- 02Pilot build — a working system on your real workflows
- 03Deployment & training — on infrastructure you own
- 04Ongoing support — as much or as little as you want
Serious infrastructure inside serious architecture.
We didn't want a standard co-work with a “maker space” corner. We're building a working floor with fast internet, real desks, and people who know this technology, to fuel the community's next big projects.
Partner Office Hour Night
One night a week, our team is on the floor to work through your problem. Members get priority scheduling.
Dedicated Fiber
Gigabit fiber to the floor, low-latency peering, private VLAN for members.
Collaboration Lounge + Hot Desks
Open co-working space, open lounge for networking, and dedicated team worktables (coming soon).
Seminar + Workshop Rooms
Three bookable rooms with AV, whiteboards, and standing capacity for demos.
On-Site Food and Drink
In-house coffee and tea bar with local Connecticut coffee makers. Neighbor food & drink tenants just a few doors down from The Mill.
Secure Entry
Member keycard entry, remote-lock private offices, CCTV coverage throughout.
One membership. One price.
No tiers to decode and nothing held back for a higher plan. Day passes and team rooms come later.
One rate, one membership, everything on the floor. Founding rates are locked for your first year — no long-term commitment required.
Reserve My Spot- Floor accessThe open working floor, lounge, and common areas, with member keycard entry.
- Dedicated fiberGigabit fiber to every desk, with a private VLAN for members.
- Partner Office Hour NightA standing weekly session with our team. Members get priority scheduling for a slot.
- Coffee and snack barIn-house coffee and tea from local Connecticut roasters, stocked all day.
- Community event accessWorkshops, demo nights, and the speaker series — included, not upsold.
Private offices and team rooms are on the roadmap. Tell us your headcount now and we'll size the floor plan around the people who showed up early.
Membership is month-to-month and subject to availability. Founding rates are locked for twelve months from your start date.
AI-curious to AI-pro. Solo to enterprise.
A desk, a fast connection, and a room full of people building the same future you are.
AI-curious to AI-pro.
If you've shipped models to production, you'll find peers. If you've only shipped prompts to a chatbot, you'll find patient ones. Nobody here checks your credentials at the door.
Solo to enterprise.
Independent builders, startup teams, and reps from big, medium, and small businesses working the same problem: making this technology actually useful.
Industry agnostic.
Manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, law, food, farming, and all of the above.
The people restarting the mill.
Alex spent the first stretch of his career inside Hartford's institutions — investment audit at The Hartford, valuation at Nassau Re — learning how the companies that anchor this region actually run. More recently he's worked in digital assets and federal technology programs, where his job has included putting private, local AI to work in places that take data seriously.
Burnside AI is the place he wished existed here all along: real workspace, real computing, and a community for the people building Connecticut's next chapter. He holds an M.S. in Finance from Fairfield University and lives in the river valley with his family. Most days you'll find him at the mill with Mike and Dave.
Michael Beaudry is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience across commercial real estate, retail, and hospitality. He is a partner and operator of Burnside Co Mill, the 70,000 SF East Hartford landmark that Burnside AI Labs calls home — and that holds hydroelectric rights to the Hockanum River.
Through the labs' consulting practice, he helps businesses deploy custom AI agents, automate operations, and optimize facilities.
Dave started on an Apple IIe, writing ASCII graphics in BASIC and dialing into BBSs at 2400 bps — an early fascination with how people connect over systems. He studied fine arts first, drawn to the challenge of seeing things differently, then took that same creative instinct back to computers, where the problems were just as open-ended and the pay was better.
His career runs from a pre-IPO startup wiring Fortune 500 networks worldwide, through firewall and security work, into a long specialization in radiology informatics and clinical systems. Whether it's a clinical workflow or an AI-powered tool, he treats every system as a chance for an elegant solution — the right balance of complexity and function.
At Burnside he runs community: membership, the workshop calendar, and the speaker series. His measure of success isn't occupancy — it's how many projects started because two members happened to be in the building on the same afternoon.
Where exactly is Burnside AI Labs?
We're located inside the historic Burnside Mill complex on the Hockanum River in East Hartford, Connecticut — just minutes from downtown Hartford and accessible from I-84 and I-91. Detailed address and parking info will be shared with waitlist members.
When does the space open?
We're targeting a Fall 2026 opening, with a public open house on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. Founding member applications are open now and site tours start before that.
Is there on-site compute?
Locally hosted compute is on our roadmap, not in our opening-day pricing. At launch, members get their own dedicated VPS and priority scheduling at Partner Office Hour Night, where we help you stand up models on hardware or accounts you already control. When on-site hosting arrives, founding members hear about it first.
Do I need to be working on AI to join?
No. We welcome founders, researchers, engineers, writers, and anyone doing serious knowledge work. The consulting hours and workshops are there whether you use them for AI or not.
Is parking available?
Yes. The mill complex has a dedicated surface lot with ample parking.
What are founding member benefits?
Founding members lock in the $300 rate for their first year, receive a permanent name on our member acknowledgment wall, get priority access to workshop enrollment, and are invited to a private opening event before public launch.
Are there workshops and events?
Yes — we plan to run weekly hands-on AI workshops, monthly speaker series (researchers, founders, engineers), and occasional open-house events. The seminar rooms will also be available for member-run sessions.
Is this affiliated with a university or corporation?
Burnside AI Labs is independently owned and operated. We have relationships with Connecticut-area universities and institutions but are not a subsidiary of any of them.
Curious to be a partner?
A project like this doesn't happen alone. If your organization wants a stake in what gets built here, tell us about yourself.
Put your name on the workshops, the events, or the coffee bar, while your people engage in the room where the region's AI talent works.
Are you a model lab, tooling company, meetup group, or an open-source project? Host events here, run office hours, meet your users in person.
Student residencies, applied research collaborations, and a place where coursework meets someone's actual problem.
Get on the list before there's a line.
Waitlist members get founding pricing, first pick of site tours, and a seat at the public open house on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
- $300/month founding rate, locked for your first year
- No payment required to reserve your spot
- First access to private offices and team rooms when they open
We'll be in touch with founding-member details and an invitation to the open house on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.