Under a stairwell, behind a locked door, and up a steel industrial ladder in the depths of the Providence Place Mall parking garage, there’s still evidence of the crime.
Shattered glass from a china hutch and concrete debris from cinder blocks hauled in by the culprits are scattered across the floor. A broken lamp is tossed aside in one corner, and there’s some rope tied to a cement column along the wall.
Oh, and there’s a Subway bag with napkins still inside but no sandwich to be found.
“That’s not us,” exclaimed Michael Townsend, referring to the fast food litter inside this 750-square-foot room that he and a group of artists transformed into a fully furnished apartment between 2003 and 2007, when Townsend was finally caught and banned from the mall for life.
Until now.
Townsend is the star of “Secret Mall Apartment,” a documentary about the entire experience produced by Jeremy Workman and executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg that will open in theaters across the country — including Providence Place — beginning Friday. The film has already made its rounds on the festival circuit, and Eisenberg kept the hype up with an interview on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon.
A week ago, the 54-year-old Townsend, wearing a black zip-up hoodie, brown pants rolled up his knees, and black work boots and socks, returned to the actual secret apartment for the first time since he was arrested.
He allowed a team from the Globe, a security guard, a maintenance supervisor, and yes, the court-appointed receiver of the financially distressed mall to tag along for the trip down memory lane. All of us were required to sign waivers promising not to sue the mall if we injured ourselves in the apartment.
“This is all super disorienting,” Townsend said.
The couch, the television, and the PlayStation are long gone, but he said the “pull of potential” rushed right to the top of his mind when he saw the emptiness of the space. Townsend, a renowned tape artist, has always seen opportunities where the average person sees walls, gates, or no trespassing signs.
“Even having spent so much time in this space, I still have that gut reaction where I’m like, ‘Oh, we are a few furniture pieces away from making this nice again,’ ” Townsend said.
The documentary shows Townsend and the other artists methodically — and often hilariously — building out the apartment, transferring cinder blocks from their cars into the space, and even hoisting a couch up that narrow ladder.
They tricked security guards, discovered doors that were unlocked, sneaked through a vent in a bathroom, and crawled between walls to enter the apartment. The best part is they filmed a lot of the experience.
Workman spent more than five years directing the film, which presents Providence at a moment in the late 1990s and early 2000s when artists were being displaced from mill buildings to make way for luxury apartments and the mall. Building the apartment in the mall was the artists’ way of punching back against gentrification.
“Our grievance was never necessarily with the mall specifically,” Townsend said. “You can never blame the middle domino. It’s a big domino, but it’s not the first one.”
As part of his punishment, Townsend agreed to never step foot in the mall again. Surprisingly, he honored the deal, and claims he never once tried to sneak back in.
“I like to follow rules,” he said cheekily.
Now Townsend has essentially been granted a pardon by John Dorsey, one of the receivers who took over the 1.4 million-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown earlier this year because Brookfield Properties, the former owner, was unable to pay its debts.
Dorsey, who said he didn’t know the ins and outs of the apartment before he took control of the mall, was the first person to climb the ladder and enter the space on the recent Thursday.
“Michael’s story is part of the mall’s history, and his history can be part of our future,” Dorsey said.
Besides, “I told you I’d try anything” to get people to the mall, he said.
With the film opening, Dorsey and other members of mall leadership have allowed Townsend to install tape art — which is exactly what it sounds like — all over the facility. You can find a full display on the door at what used to be Tiffany & Co. before it moved out earlier this year.
Indeed, the mall has changed dramatically since the last time Townsend was allowed inside. The Thomas Kinkade gallery, Bed, Bath & Beyond, JCPenney, and Nordstrom have disappeared.
But everywhere he looks, Townsend can’t help but see an opportunity to better feature Providence’s talented artists and provide better services for residents across the city. He said he’d like to see the mall take on the feel of a lifestyle center, with more educational offerings and potentially a health center.
Townsend said he understands that the ultimate goal for Dorsey — and whoever ends buying the mall — is to drive traffic to the building and convince people to shop, but Townsend thinks tapping into the energy of Providence’s creative community would attract visitors.
“They can walk away a little more enlightened, a little bit more healthy, a little more educated,” he said. “And in a best scenario, people will actually live here.”
Legally, he means.
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