The more than 100-year-old Crowley Milk plant in Binghamton is seeing new life. Instantwhip Foods has become the second dairy company to locate in the former vacant factory. Vince Briga explains why officials are confident this is a huge step forward for the city.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- In years past, the city of Binghamton was the cream of the crop in the dairy industry, but for a number of years the city's Crowley milk plant has sat vacant.
Now, after growing too large for their Endwell location, national dairy manufacturer Instantwhip saw the former plant as the perfect new location.
"We take great pride in service taking care of the customer and consumer. I think that's why we've been able to grow as fast as we can and as fast as we did and we hope to continue on that pace again with additional businesses and such," said Dave King, the eastern New York general manager for Instantwhip.
Instantwhip is the second company to locate in the former factory after Mountain Fresh Dairy was brought to the facility just a few months ago.
The district's City Council representative, Chris Papastrat, said the plant's design made it hard for anyone to want to move into the location in the past.
"It's not one that you can just re-purpose that easily. It was here 100 years as a milk company and that's the only thing it really could have been," said Papastrat, a Republican.
The distribution center offers everything from Upstate Farms milk to Tropicana orange juice.
Papastrat, who owns the Park Diner next door, said it is the perfect combination for local restaurants and diners like his.
"To have them back in this capacity is wonderful. We're going to order our product from them anyway, but if we run short on something, we can walk right over and pick it up. It's really nice," said Papastrat.
The general manager of Instantwhip Foods say she plans to partner with Mountain Fresh Dairy in the near future to continue to grow the plant
Instantwhip Foods currently has 10 employees but there are plans to add more in the near future.