‘The Fun Part’ Under Way On Railroad Avenue Redo

4-2-10

Hops Barns Will Soon Be Ready For A New Life


By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

The rubbernecking has been going on for a year now, as drivers on Railroad Avenue try to figure out what’s going on at the former Agway complex.
The wait is almost over.
“We’re getting to the really, really fun part,” the building’s owner and redeveloper, Mike Manno, said during a tour of the vintage former hop barns, “the part when everything starts to come back together.”
By mid-May, Manno anticipates the exterior will be painted, and the shutters and other fittings put in place.  Much of the interior work will be complete as well.
“So I can start showing it to people,” he said.
For now, the owner has no specific plan for his latest acquisition, although he would like to find one tenant – perhaps a restaurateur and caterer – who sees possibilities in developing the complex as one piece.
But he would also consider a retail use, a micro-brewery pub, a sporting goods store, or maybe a local Cooperstown museum.  He said he’s open to any good idea.
Manno – who owns Apple Converting, the high-end printing concern in Oneonta, and redeveloped 21 Railroad Ave., across the street, a decade ago – bought the former Agway from long-time owner Niles Curtis a year ago April 1.
Job One was to clean out the property, and the associated low-slung building at Railroad and Leatherstocking, an estimated 24 dumpsters worth of accumulated debris.
Manno’s contractor, Steve Smith’s G&S Contracting of Cooperstown, then stripped the insides of the buildings to bare wood.  Susan Snell is architect on the project.
The floor was raised at the northernmost building so it is level thoughout the complex.  Recently, you may have seen crews replacing the stone piers that supported the floors, and replacing the deteriorating sills.

Here’s the layout:
• The larger of the two hops barns (c. 1890) at the south end of the complex will be returned to its original condition, with beams showing.
• The smaller barn (c. 1864) to the north – the second-largest building – will be the most fully redone, with wiring, insulation and 6-foot-tall wainscoting.  The crews have placed trusses for a barrel-vaulted ceiling between the original scissor trusses.  Those trusses will be covered with bead board.
• The building (c. 1950) between the two barns would make a great kitchen, if an entrepreneur can be found to do catering in the larger barn and a restaurant in the smaller one.
• The small building (c. 1970s) on the north end will be redone along the lines of the second barn.
Beyond that was a small modern building and a pergola that housed Agway’s plant business, both now razed for parking.