In just 18 months, new owners turned vacant and depressing Guilford Mills into a business hub.
Dan Holt and Jamie Place renovated the Cobleskill plant––now called Aker’s Industrial Development––and have 10 business tenants, with more expected.
“It’s a busy place,” said Mr. Place, “but we’re closer to the beginning than the end.”
Mr. Holt and Mr. Place, who also own Mill Services in Cobleskill, paid Schoharie County $400,000 in late 2015 to buy the plant, which had closed in 2001.
The county had taken over Guilford for unpaid taxes.
“We thought there was value there and that we could renovate it,” Mr. Place said of the decision to buy the plant.
Aker’s Industrial Development could have applied for START-UP NY status, which would have made it tax-free for 10 years.
But Mr. Place said that a large “amount of energy and effort goes into that program, in our experience.
“You never seem to achieve the rewards in the amount that are laid out there.”
At first the owners used just a small portion of the 515,000-square-foot plant for storage for Mill Service’s lumber, also leasing space to other local companies for storage.
Renovations followed, including roof work and beefed-up electricity. Then Aker’s began to attract tenants.
Empire Shed Manufacturing was first, producing sheds and gazebos––they line the outside of Aker’s––for sale in New York and Pennsylvania.
Travis Hyer’s Power-Up! Gym came next, and eight more businesses, ranging from kickboxing to a salon, are now in place.
“It was mostly by word of mouth,” Mr. Place said, referring to tenant recruitment. “We renovated space for them, and they moved in.
“The tenants are not upstarts. They’re established businesses.”
The businesses, however, take up only about one-third of the space. Negotiations are ongoing for the remaining 300,000-plus square feet, Mr. Place said.
He estimated that the 10 tenants include 30 to 40 employees, “but I do believe that will be increasing.”
Although Aker’s Industrial Development has been a success so far, Mr. Place said they’ve really just started. Work ahead includes continuing repairs, renovations requested by tenants and nailing down a tenant or tenants for the remaining space.
“It’s been a commitment,” Mr. Place said. “But there’s still a lot of work to do.”