KINGSTON, N.Y. – City planners will soon pay a visit to the Kingston Business Park to assess the idea of expanding a company building there, an official said.
City Planner Suzanne Cahill said this week that Planning Board members will visit the site of the Community Manufacturing Solutions plant on Corporate Drive, off Delaware Avenue, at the Kingston Business Park.
Cahill said she has had preliminary discussions with company representatives who have pitched the idea of expanding the 10,0000-square-foot, former Armour Dynamics building.
“They are looking to undertake an expansion of the building and I met with them earlier on and talked about some of the issues. . ., Cahill said.
Cahill said her office “encouraged” the owners to allow for a site visit “to provide the board with a firsthand look so that, when plans come in for what they are proposing, the board would have a familiarity with the project site.”
No formal plans have been submitted to her office yet, Cahill said.
Company President Peter Fenwick said the company is currently “running out of room.”
He said the company has been steadily adding state-of-the-art industrial sewing machines at the facility in preparation for full-blown fabric-cutting and sewing operations.
Fenwick said he was uncertain when expansion plans would be submitted to the city’s Planning Office.
The company has said that, by the end of 2019, between 18 and 25 employees are expected to be working at the plant, with 12 to 15 sewing machines installed. Employees can be trained to use them in a second-floor section of the two-story building.
In April, the facility became fully operational as a fabric-cutting plant.
In July 2017, Community Manufacturing Solutions bought the building from the Kingston Local Development Corp., which owns the Kingston Business Park. The price tag for the building was $750,000.
The company describes itself as “passively” owned by the Bruderhof, a Christian community. Seven employees currently work at the plant.
At present, the Bruderhof Community is Community Manufacturing Solutions’ only client. It purchases cut fabric for Bruderhof-made products, including children’s toys, furniture and adaptive equipment for people with disabilities, among other items.
Fenwick has said that, once the product orders for Community Playthings and Rifton Equipment are fulfilled, additional “business and new customers will be welcome.”