"It was a rubber hose running half a mile underground in city sewers," said Danny Sorotkin, "from the Barnett Brewery ... to the Barrel Factory."
Sorotkin, partner with Dan Simone at MHV Development, spoke before a group of political celebrities who had come to admire the complete renovation of a 120-year-old brick building. He told them the well-traveled story about the bootlegging operation that once was. "They pumped the ale into the barrels," he said, "and shipped them across New York State."
The bricks behind Sorotkin had been repointed and whitewashed in patches. The floor under his feet was freshly sealed. Lampshades glowed atop large wooden and brass nautical tripods.
For the last 15 years the 18,000-square-foot building stood as a derelict warehouse next to the train tracks, left to deteriorate in the heart of Midtown. Sorotkin and Simone saw opportunity there. The vision of a warehouse converted into apartments and commercial space called the Barrel Factory Lofts was theirs. Rochester-based general contractor Christa Construction brought their vision to life.
To pay for it, the duo -- affectionately called the Dans -- pursued numerous funding opportunities. The project attracted $840,000 from a Restore New York state grant and $4.8 million from a Hudson Momentum Fund grant. Tax credits, good for 40 to 50 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenditures, were procured through the state and federal governments, providing an estimated value of $1.4 million in equity.
The $4.6-million twelve-unit mixed-use, mixed-income renovation was just the first phase. The second phase, with a pricetag of $26.2 million, will see a four-story, 100-unit mixed-use, mixed-income development on the adjacent parking lot. Included will be the restoration of a vacant 21,000-square-foot warehouse.
Using a component of affordable housing built into their development, the Dans courted other development incentives. While 80 units will rent at market rate, the remaining 20 will be available to renters of 80 percent of average median income.
Christa Construction project superintendent Rick Kunta's full mutton chops and the red, white and blue flag graphic on his hi-vis jacket set him apart from the slacks-and-cordovan-leather-shoed crowd.
"This was an existing brick building that we put twelve units in and a commercial space," Kutna said. "Ten months, start to finish. It wasn't bad at all."
"They've already got nine units filled," added project manager Audra Sharpe.
Hope Knight, commissioner of the Empire State Development Corporation, exhibited the gravitas befitting a leader of an agency empowered to issue bonds and notes, grant loans and tax exemptions, exercise eminent domain, acquire private property and exempt projects from local ordinances, laws, codes, charters or regulations.
"We created the Mid-Hudson Momentum Fund exactly for this kind of purpose," Knight said. "For projects that were put together, shovel-ready but needing a little bit of financing to get it over the finish line. And so that's why our $4.8 million is going to help bring this project over the finish line."
At the end of May, when the monetary awards were announced, another housing project in Kingston also received a momentum fund grant. The 164-unit mixed-use development at Golden Hill got $10 million.
Flanked by the flags of the United States and New York, speakers commemorated both the completion of the development's initial phase and the ceremonial groundbreaking about to take place.
"One of the smartest things we can do as a community is take old, abandoned buildings and turn them into much-needed housing," asserted state senator Michelle Hinchey.
"This is the first time that I have ever been to both a ribbon-cutting and groundbreaking in one day," quipped county executive Jen Metzger. "I feel like it gives the word 'momentum' new meaning."
"The building that we're in is on the National Historic Register," mayor Steve Noble said. "We are so lucky to be able to have not only a city that has a lot of these historic treasures, but also development partners that want to actually preserve these buildings."
After the speechifying, the assorted functionaries were invited to gather in the parking lot behind a dirt berm piled up on the asphalt for the symbolic occasion of the groundbreaking. They were issued plastic hardhats and functioning shovels. The blades and collars of the tools had been spray-painted gold. Wielding a shovel, only superintendent Kunta looked authentically placed in the scene.
The hundred new apartments are expected to be built by July of next year.