Developers break ground on $16M project in former Crescent Corset factory in Cortland

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Developers on Wednesday broke ground on a $16 million project to develop the former factory of the Crescent Corset Company in Cortland into both residential and commercial space.

The project, dubbed Crescent Commons, is a joint effort between Housing Vision Consultants of Syracuse and developer David Yaman Realty Services of Cortland, Empire State Development (ESD) said in a news release issued Wednesday.

ESD is helping to finance the project with a $200,000 grant through the CNY Rising plan that won $500 million in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Upstate business-plan contest in 2015. ESD is also providing a $750,000 capital grant.

The rehabilitation of the “long-vacant” industrial building in downtown Cortland will feature 47 “high-end,” loft-style units as well as a cafe, lounge, and exercise room.

The building has more than 100,000 square feet of available commercial space between its basement and first floors. Three tenants are already signed for nearly 40,000 square feet of space on the first floor, according to a separate news release from Housing Visions.

Developers expect to complete the project sometime in the spring of 2018, ESD said.

The former Crescent Corset factory is on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

As a result, part of the restoration efforts will include maintaining the original integrity of the building which has stood on the site since 1923.

The factory used to manufacture “Lady Luke” corsets for national department-store chain JCPenney.

Project Developer David Yaman called it an “exciting project” for downtown Cortland.

“I thank the state for realizing the impact that the repurposing of this building will have on the area. At construction start, we already have half of the middle floor leased to three organizations. The lower floor will provide an additional space for a wide variety of uses,” Yaman said in the ESD release.

The adaptive reuse of this former factory on Cortland’s Main Street will be a “premiere destination” for commercial and residential tenants, Christopher Trevisani, director of development for Housing Visions Consultants, said.

The undertaking “builds on the momentum happening in Central New York as a result of the CNYRising economic-development plan which is working to establish a stronger regional economy,” ESD said in the release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com