Underwear Factory reborn: Historic site to have apartments, businesses

A hundred years ago, the three-story brick building that stands on 8 N. Cherry St. in the City of Poughkeepsie was world-renowned for making underwear.

That was before the 22,0000-square-foot Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory fell into disrepair in recent decades, leaving little evidence of what once was, beyond an arching, steel sign bearing its name.

But soon, the building will again become a place where people make things — like coffee, food and art — and a place where some will find a home.

Hudson River Housing is spearheading a nearly $7 million project to rejuvenate the once-prominent property.

The organization is transforming the factory into what it hopes will be a community hub, with three commercial spaces intended for small business use and 15 apartment units, 11 of which will be reserved for occupants who meet income restrictions. The project, one of several revitalization ventures throughout the city, is scheduled to be finished at the end of March.

DATELINE: History of Underwear Factory

TRANSFORMATION: Construction begins on Dutton project

DEVELOPMENT: New apartments rise along city waterfront

The 143-year-old building’s place on the National Registry of Historic Places helped make the renovation possible, enabling Hudson River Housing to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from federal and state tax credits, but also placed limitations on how far the rehabilitated building could stray from its original appearance.

The name Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory will remain, and the site's history is evident in design choices made inside the building. The original wood flooring is being used as paneling on walls, and a freight elevator built in the 1920s remains intact.

Hudson River Housing hopes for the building to have a communal atmosphere that encourages creativity and economic growth in the city’s middle Main Street corridor.

“There’s a lot of negativity around downtown Poughkeepsie. This sense of emptiness. But our experience is the opposite of that,” said Elizabeth Druback-Celaya, director of organizational & community development at Hudson River Housing. “There’s a lot of richness here in terms of diversity, in terms of the arts, and this building can help us really show a different side of Poughkeepsie.”

Several other large-scale projects are also underway in the city.

Work is in progress at the former Dutton Lumber Co., where the first structures of a 300-unit residential and 13,800-square-foot commercial project are under construction.

In the fall, the Bonura family opened a 136-unit apartment complex at the corner of Rinaldi Boulevard and Pine Street, and they are planning another residential and commercial complex at the riverfront site of the former DeLaval Separator Co.

And at the corner of Main and South Bridge streets, a developer has plans for a retail and affordable housing project on a vacant parcel long known as the "Poughkeepsie Sculpture Park."

A place for local business 

You won’t see a chain store or retailer in the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory when its 7,000-square-feet of business space is scheduled to officially open on March 30, according to Mary Linge, Hudson River Housing’s director of real estate development. A conscious effort was made to bring companies and groups into the building that will build upon the neighborhood’s existing assets — art and food.

North River Roasters, a coffee business, will be on the building’s ground floor. The company roasts a variety of beans, which can be purchased by local coffee lovers and businesses around the city.

But owner Feza Oktay is ready to expand. Druback-Celaya said while the bean company has been working in temporary location, the ambition was always to have it be an integral asset to the factory project.

“They’ve been involved since the planning stages, and we’re going to operate the coffee house jointly, so it’s going to be a social enterprise,” she said. “Our mission is to have a community space here in this part of Poughkeepsie, where there’s no community gathering spaces.”

Moving out of a shared kitchen space and into a space of their own, Oktay said North River Roasters will be growing the "roasting side of the operation" by "roasting whenever we need to." The company will now also have a permanent retail space to sell cups of coffees and teas, along with breakfast foods, and host tastings and samplings.

"We’re not strictly a business looking to make money, we're focused on people, planet, sustainable," Oktay said, adding that he hopes the business will be a community hub and provide employment to the "traditionally hard to employ," including the homeless and those who were recently incarcerated.

Adjacent to the coffee shop will be a communal kitchen, which can be rented at an hourly rate. Fifteen small local businesses have already shown interest in using the kitchen to produce their items, according to Druback-Celaya.

The building’s basement was excavated and expanded in order to create storage and refrigeration areas for the cooks coming in.

“Our mission is to help these small businesses grow and as much as we can focus locally and create opportunities,” Druback-Celaya said.

The second floor will house the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, which serves as both a cultural and community center that underscores the diversity of the Hudson Valley through lectures and art events, according to its website. The floor will include six artist work spaces and a print-making workshop, which will be used for classes and open studio time.

On the third floor, visitors will find local art organizations Street Loft and Spark Media Project, which will be merging and utilize the space. The groups hold workshops, programs, and projects that teach and encourage media skills in local youth, according to the Spark Media Website. That space, in close proximity to city schools, will be used for activities and after school programs.

Living in a factory 

Six one-bedroom apartments and nine studio apartments divide the 14,000 square feet of the former factory’s residential space, which is slated to open April 1.

According to Linge, 11 of the units are income-restricted due to the County HOME funds. Residents of those units must have an annual household income of under 60-percent of the area’s median income. For Dutchess County, that is $36,600 for a household size of one and $41,820 for a household of two, she said.

“We will give preference to artists who would want to use the space as a live/work, but other than that we aren’t targeting any specific population or income bracket,” Linge said.

The cost per month of a studio apartment is in the $800-range, Druback-Celaya said, while the one-bedroom units will be around $900 per month, plus utilities.

Though the building’s exposed brick was not kept in the residential units, aside from hallways and stairwells, reclaimed wood from the original floors was used in each living space, Linge said. Original wood columns were also saved and are found throughout the apartments.

“It’s that important — the history of the building. We think it’s a really cool feature,” she said.

Restoring history

Keeping the building’s original features — all 168 windows, the original mortar that binds the brick — was more than just an aesthetic choice. It was mandatory.

Built in 1874, the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory manufactured more than underwear in its earliest days. It was once a barrel-making factory and manufactured leather goods.

Around 1900, The Poughkeepsie Underwear Company began operating out of the building, which soon became known as the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory.

“They got awards for their products, they shipped all over the world. As it made its way into the local lexicon, it was ‘The Underwear Factory,’” Druback-Celaya said.

After several decades, the company stopped producing underwear. The building was used as a print factory, and then as a warehouse. Then, it became vacant.

“There was a local developer who had plans for the building, did a lot of structural remediation work, and then when the recession hit he was unable to follow through with that project,” Druback-Celaya said. “It went into foreclosure, and we were able to save it from what was probably likely demolition.”

As an integral piece of the undergarment industry through the 20th century, the factory was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1982.

Of the $6,669,470 total in funding Hudson River Housing had for the project, $1,111,579 came from federal historic tax credits, and $752,632 was provided by state historic tax credits, according to Linge. Empire State Development funded $850,000 of the project, while Dutchess County HOME Funds provided $541,756.

But because of the significance of the building's history, the National Park Service had to approve Hudson River Housing’s plans and placed limitations on construction.

When Siegrist Construction began working on the project in April in 2016, it was not like any other previous historical project it's encountered, according to owner George Siegrist.

"There were a lot of unforeseen things we've had to overcome,” he said, noting the basement excavation and structural repairs required due to deterioration. "A typical job is straightforward with a set of blueprints, where everything is in front of you. This is a lot of things where you have to make decisions with involvement from many parties to figure out issues that arise along the way."

For instance, restrictions kept developers from adding venting on the side of each residential unit, as is common in modern construction, Linge said.

“Everything has to vent up through the roof,” Linge said. “There are 15 whole vent systems for bathroom and kitchen vents that go all through the attic and comes out through one penetration to the roof.

“It’s a lot of extra work and expense, but in the end, this building is just going to look so beautiful on the outside because it’s not going to have any of those penetrations that you’re going to find on any other construction.”

The walls posed another challenge. Any additional brick work had to match exactly what was used in the original construction.

“That was quite a search, but we did find the brick. And testing the chemical composition of the existing mortar, we recreated it,” Linge said.

Inside the kitchen is an original floor scale, on which visitors step on and weigh themselves. However, it’s a couple pounds off, Linge said. And though a new elevator has been installed, a freight elevator from the 1920s is still in use. It can found etched with messages, including a navy veteran's signature from 1944.

“There’s not many buildings like this left,” Druback-Celaya said. “To be able to preserve and restore, and then have the public be able to come in and experience that, was important to us.”

Abbott Brant: abrant@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4809; Twitter: @AbbottBrantPoJo