The 113,000-square-foot complex at 50 Sims was once at risk of becoming an Amazon warehouse. It has instead been reshaped as a multipurpose hub for creative work, small businesses and job training — a model that could inform efforts to reuse vacant commercial space, including Boston’s underused lab buildings.

Among the businesses at 50 Sims is Shellf Life, founded by Rhode Island School of Design graduate Felicia Neuhof. The company turns discarded oyster and clam shells into materials for architectural surfaces, furniture, bowls and lighting. Elsewhere in the building, an artist was completing a ceramic tile mural for a Providence pocket park, while a nonprofit offered manufacturing and welding instruction.

The building also includes a Creative Reuse Center and artist studios. Ceramic artist David Allyn, who teaches at RISD, was its first tenant. The mix of activities puts production, training and arts work under one roof rather than relying on a single large commercial tenant.

Scout, which is involved in the project, is seeking community input on the future of The Shed, a 22,000-square-foot space at the complex. That process could help determine how an additional portion of the former factory serves the surrounding community.

For cities facing empty commercial buildings, 50 Sims illustrates one alternative to leaving large properties vacant or converting them to a single use. Its approach depends on filling the space with a range of tenants and programs; the available details do not establish whether the same arrangement would work for Boston’s lab properties, which may have different building requirements and costs.

The Providence project’s significance is local as well as regional: it has put a large former industrial site to use for creative businesses, public-facing art and workforce training. Its next test will be how the remaining space is developed and whether the community helps shape that future.