New York is sending another $3-million-dollars in state funding to the village of Tupper Lake to help turn a historic factory into a major housing development. Construction is expected to start this spring on the Oval Wood Dish Factory project that’s been years in the making. Tupper Lake’s mayor, Mary Fontana, says the old 120-thousand square foot factory will be turned into 80 new units of mixed-income housing.
Retail businesses will occupy another 30 thousand square feet. It’s a project that has received millions of dollars in state funding since 2021 in hopes of bringing more people to the village. The 100-year-old factory used to employ hundreds of workers who made everything from wooden dishes and ice cream spoons, to bowling pins. The Mayor says the housing plans could restore some of the economic vitality from that era.