Berlin: New Life for Former Factory

 The former American Papergoods Company factory will have a new life, thanks to the nonprofit Corporation for Independent Living (CIL), which is converting the factory to 72 loft apartments. Plans also call for building twelve townhouses on the property.

            The factory’s oldest section dates to 1893, when the Ajax Envelope Company of New York and the Howard Manufacturing Company of Jersey City formed American Paper Goods and moved to the Kensington section of Berlin, where it produced waxed paper bags, envelopes, and paper cups. The company added more buildings in the early 20^th century, but it’s the original section, with its semicircular end overlooking the company dam, that catches the eye.

            CIL develops housing for people who are disabled, affordable multifamily housing, and homes for low-income first-time buyers. Many of the organization’s projects use historic buildings; projects in Hartford in the past 10 years including award-winning housing preservation projects on Mortson and Putnam, Benton and Belden streets. The organization is currently renovating the Rudder Building, built in 1885 as a warehouse for the Colt armory, to be its own offices. In Coventry, CIL is creating 46 units of moderately priced housing in the long-abandoned Kenyon Mill, using tax credits from the Connecticut Historic Structures Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program.

            Proceeds from the American Papergoods project will go to support CIL’s programs. The units are expected to be ready for occupancy in the fall of 2010. Funding for the project has included financing by the town of Berlin to cover environmental cleanup, as well as $2.7 million in Historic Structures tax credits.

PHOTOGRAPH:

credit: C. Wigren