Former industrial site will get new life as a mixed-use development in Upstate New York.
Coined the “Crossroads of the Adirondacks,” the community of Tupper Lake in Franklin County, New York, is home to about 5,000 people. It’s also home to the Oval Wood Dish Factory, which was built during World War I and produced myriad wooden products until its closure in 1964.
In August 2026, it was announced that Building 1 of the former Oval Wood Dish Factory site would be converted into a mixed-use property, featuring affordable and contemporary housing along with commercial space. The $46 million adaptive reuse project will include 80 housing units, more than 25,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, coworking space, a courtyard, a playground and walking paths.
“For decades, that building was part of Tupper Lake’s identity. It was a place where people worked, raised families and helped build this community,” says Tupper Lake Mayor Mary Fontana. “Seeing it sit vacant for so long was a reminder of what we had lost. Seeing it come back to life is a reminder of what is still possible.”
Something Old, Something New
Oval wooden dishes, butcher bowls and veneer bowls, utensils, clothespins, bowling pins, tongue depressors, popsicle sticks, furniture and hardwood flooring. These were some of the items made at the Oval Wood Dish Factory, which ran 24 hours a day and employed more than 500 workers before it closed (with a five-year stint hosting a plastic manufacturer in the early aughts). In 2021, the factory was listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Investment management firm and tax equity advisor Foss & Company will serve as an investor in converting the historic site into a mixed-use property. With combined investments of $8 million in Federal Historic Tax Credits and $4.95 million in New York State Historic Tax Credits for the adaptive reuse project, Foss & Company will work alongside development partners Housing Visions, Braxton Capital and Lahinch Group.
“This is about more than housing. It’s about bringing new life and activity to a property that has been sitting empty for decades. It’s about creating opportunities for businesses, supporting our downtown, and making sure Tupper Lake is a place where people can live, work and build their future.”
— Mary Fontana, Mayor, Tupper Lake, on the Oval Wood Dish Factory adaptive reuse project
“The availability of both the federal and state historic tax credits is key to these types of projects being economically viable,” says John Sorel, a managing director and acquisitions executive at Foss & Company. “New York, under its current leadership, has made housing development and affordable housing development a policy priority, making available significant additional state subsidies targeting affordable housing development generally, including redevelopment projects such as this one.”
Foss & Company acts as a tax equity investor and fund sponsor helping corporate clients lower federal and state tax liabilities, working in renewable and solar energy, historic preservation and rehabilitation, battery energy storage and carbon capture and affordable housing tax credits.
“While many states have a similar focus and also have state historic tax credits available, New York, which offers 20% of the project’s eligible basis for its state credit, is among the more generous,” Sorel adds.
New York’s historic tax credit follows the federal model and is typically capped at $5 million (the Federal Historic Tax Credit program has no cap). Foss & Company invests approximately $50 million each year in the New York historic tax credit space.
The community of Tupper Lake is home to about 5,000 people.
Image Credit: Getty Images / Rabbitti
Passero Associates will lead architectural and engineering design of the building. The project is planned to be “all-electric, with cold-climate heat pump technology providing efficient heating and cooling even through the depths of an Adirondack winter,” according to a state press release.
“This is about more than housing,” Fontana says about the adaptive reuse project. “It’s about bringing new life and activity to a property that has been sitting empty for decades. It’s about creating opportunities for businesses, supporting our downtown, and making sure Tupper Lake is a place where people can live, work and build their future.”
Restoring Tupper Lake
Uptown Tupper Lake has had several revitalization projects, which were awarded $10 million in funding through the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) in 2021. Projects funded under this program include expansions and new housing units located at the Oval Wood Dish Factory and other multifamily housing properties, enhancing streetscapes and pedestrian areas, restoring a two-story building on 70 Park Street, renovating the local theater and the addition of a brewery, miniature golf course and more.
Fontana notes that “housing is one of the biggest challenges facing our community and the Adirondacks. We need places where people can afford to live, where young families can put down roots, and where the people who work here can actually call this place home. Eighty new affordable apartments won’t solve our housing shortage, but it’s a meaningful start.”
“The community of Tupper Lake, like many other small towns in the north country, struggles to retain its younger residents, in part because of the absence of clean, safe affordable housing,” says Sorel. “This project will bring a significant number of new apartments into an area that has seen little new housing developed for some time at rents which are expected to be set at levels under which will allow a large cohort of local residents to qualify.”
“The availability of both the federal and state historic tax credits is key to these types of projects being economically viable.”
— John Sorel, Managing Director and Acquisitions, Foss & Company
Project financing for the Oval Wood Dish Factory project includes about $16.8 million in soft debt and $23.8 million in New York State Low-Income Housing Tax Credits provided by New York State Homes and Community Renewal (NYS HCR) and Empire State Development.
Foss & Company also has other historic tax equity investment in New York State: an adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of two historic multifamily buildings and a former carriage house in Buffalo and the rehabilitation of the Syracuse Public Safety Complex in Onondaga County.
“What I appreciate most is that this project is a partnership. The developers saw potential in a property that many had written off. Our state partners helped make that vision possible,” says Fontana about the new project in the town she leads. “The Village, the Town, and others have worked together to move it forward. Nobody did this alone, and nobody should take all the credit. We have always been a community that builds. Sometimes that means starting from scratch, and sometimes it means taking what you have, believing in what it can become, and doing the work. That’s what Oval Wood Dish represents to me. It’s a piece of our history getting a new purpose, and a real investment in the future of Tupper Lake.”
