Salina, N.Y. — A development company plans to turn the old Will & Baumer candle factory in Salina — known for a smokestack painted to look like a giant candle — into a $15.5 million, mixed-use facility with up to 250 apartments.
Pascarella Development plans to build 200 to 250 apartments, plus commercial and warehouse space, in the factory’s buildings, which have been vacant since the candle company moved to Lewisburg, Tennessee, in 2009.
Vittorio Pascarella, vice president of the family-owned company, said they hope to save the famous smokestack, though he’s not sure yet what it will take to preserve it.
“It’s so iconic, it would be a sin to take it down,” he said.
Rendering shows buildings planned for the first phase of the redevelopment of the former Will & Baumer candle factory in Salina into a mixed-use complex named Urban Villages. (LaBella Associates)LaBella Associates
Will & Baumer was founded in 1855 by Anton Will, a carpenter who moved to Syracuse from Germany (the Baumer name was added in 1896). The company opened the Salina factory at 100 Buckley Road, near Old Liverpool Road and overlooking nearby Onondaga Lake, around 1910.
When the company closed the factory 12 years ago, it was the oldest manufacturer in Onondaga County and employed 25 people. But its workforce was far larger during its heyday. There are 560 timecard slots, some still with employee names, on the wall of the company’s former administration building.
A Canadian-owned company, Light 4 Life Candles, started a small candle-making operation in one of the buildings in 2010, but it has since left.
Many of the factory’s buildings have deteriorated since Will & Baumer’s exit. Thieves have ripped out copper wiring, mechanical systems are missing and water leaks have caused extensive damage.
“It’s going to be quite an undertaking,” Pascarella said.
His family bought the 11.5 acres from its Canadian owners two weeks ago for $1 million. (It’s now owned by Urban Villages PFA, an entity formed by the Pascarellas.)
“I drove by, saw a for-sale sign and decided to take on the task,” Pascarella said. “It seemed like it would be a great fit for a multifamily, re-use project.”
He said the project is in a unique location, “right outside the city limits but still in the suburbs.”
The old factory consists of 11 buildings totaling 179,000 square feet, with exteriors of brick, concrete and metal. Many are connected, but Pascarella said plans are to de-couple them and re-clad their exteriors “to give each their own identity.”
The company’s plans also call for up to three new buildings to be constructed.
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Pascarella at first planned to demolish the shed-like buildings in the rear of the property. However, he said he has decided to use them for covered parking. All tenants of the apartments will be able to park their vehicles in basement garages or in the shed-like buildings, he said.
“We’re going to keep every building,” he said. “The place grew over time and we’re trying to stay in touch with that.”
The project will be done in phases, with the first phase containing 88 apartments in the former administration building in the front of the property. Pascarella said the plan is to have the first apartments ready for leasing in about three years.
He said it is too early in the planning and construction process to know what the rents will be.
The company has applied to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency for $2.4 million in tax exemptions. The exemptions would consist of $1.1 million in property tax discounts over 10 years, $1.2 million in sales taxes on construction materials and $116,587 in state mortgage recording tax.
The agency would charge the company a $195,311 project fee if it grants the exemptions.
Pascarella’s parents, Vincent and Serafina, started the family’s business 30 years ago, at first remodeling single-family homes and then rehabbing and building multifamily developments. A second son, Florindo, is also a member of the company.
Pascarella said the business owns 600 apartments in the Syracuse area, including 200 in Salina, making it one of the area’s largest owners of multifamily properties.
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