SYRACUSE — The new addition to Cathedral Candle Company’s operations connects the company’s existing office building to the original factory at 510 Kirkpatrick St. on Syracuse’s North Side.

Cathedral Candle has produced church candles since 1897.

The project created more “functional” space to meet Cathedral Candle’s need for increased shipping and storage space for inventory as it supplies candles to churches throughout the U.S. and around the world, the company says. 

“Increasing our operational efficiencies, especially in shipping and inventorying product, is critical to ensuring that we can remain competitive in what’s an evolving marketplace,” Louis Steigerwald III, president of Cathedral Candle Company, said. Steigerwald spoke at a Dec. 7 ceremony as the company formally opened its new three-story, 14,700-square-foot expansion.

“The new building is this area that we’re in right here … we have a basement underneath it and we have two floors up above that you can see from the outside,” he added. 

The $2.5 million investment was privately funded and is part of a multiphase master-development plan, Cathedral Candle says. 

MCK Building Associates Inc. of Syracuse handled the construction work on the project, and King + King Architects, also of Syracuse, designed the new addition, Steigerwald said in his remarks during the ceremony.

Steigerwald also credited the company’s 80 employees, many of whom live in the surrounding neighborhood, “just as they did 120 years ago.”

“Their talent is the main reason … the big reason that we really want to stay here on this site in this neighborhood and in this community. They’re a resource that you can’t find anyplace else,” he said.

Steigerwald’s great-grandfather, Jacob Steigerwald, founded Cathedral Candle Company in 1897.

The company is the longest-continuous member of CenterState CEO, which started as the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce.

From its start, Cathedral Candle has been a religious-candle manufacturer and has a network of distributors across the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, Steigerwald added. Those distributors sell the candles to all denominations of Christian churches around the globe.

The company has an international footprint, but notes that the original brick factory on Kirkpatrick Street remains “a part of its core manufacturing facility.”

Cathedral Candle says more than 90 percent of sales come from outside of New York, and the company has previously provided candles for U.S. visits made by the Pope.

“So, we really are an exporter to the world,” Steigerwald noted.

The event took place on the feast day of Saint Ambrose, patron saint of candle-makers.

“We just thought how appropriate to be able to have it on today’s date,” said Steigerwald. The festivities also included a ribbon- cutting with Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and a ceremonial blessing by Bishop Robert Cunningham of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.

ONONDAGA — The newly renovated family birth center at Upstate University Hospital’s Community Campus will begin housing mothers and babies throughout the entire 21-bed unit starting in January. 

It’s located on the second floor of the hospital at 4900 Broad Road in the town of Onondaga. 

Construction on the 29,000-square-foot space project started in November 2016. Upstate University Hospital hosted a formal opening ceremony and media tour at the birth center on Dec. 5.

PAC Associates of Oswego Inc. was the contractor on the $9.2 million renovation project, while Syracuse–based Dwyer Architectural handled the design work.

“We now have the most modern labor and delivery and post-partum unit in Syracuse,” Dr. Howard Weinstein, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Upstate’s Community campus, contended in his remarks at the ceremony.

About the project

Upstate Medical University, in a news release, described the post-partum section of the completed floor as “unrecognizable” when compared to the pre-renovation space. The renovations included a new floor plan, expanded rooms, new family lounge spaces, a new six-bed nursery, nursing upgrades, and technology improvements.

The unit also has a dedicated lactation room for one-on-one support sessions with Upstate staff. 

“Moms come here healthy. They’re not sick. They don’t want to be treated as sick. They want to have good meals. They want their families to visit,” Barbara Bennett, nurse manager of the family birth center, said in speaking with reporters during the media tour.

The project was split into two phases to allow the Community campus to continue caring for moms and babies as the project continued. Crews completed the first phase in the fall of 2017. It involved renovating 12 patient rooms, a nursing station, and the hallways of half of the post-partum unit. 

The work on the second phase finished in November. It included the remaining patient rooms, an additional nurses’ station, the lactation room, and the six-bed nursery. 

The rooms were designed to allow visitors and for someone to stay overnight in the room with the mother and the newborn. Each room also has a computer and supply cart for the nursing staff.    

OSWEGO — Construction crews have started work on a $26.2 million mixed-income, mixed-use housing development in downtown Oswego. 

The new development, called Harbor View Square, will provide 75 rental homes serving people with a range of income levels and offer 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space intended for small retail stores and restaurants. 

The development is being constructed on an underutilized, city-owned brownfield site located at the convergence of the Oswego River and Lake Ontario, according to a news release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. Harbor View Square is a “priority project” of the City of Oswego’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI). 

Oswego was awarded $10 million in 2016 through the DRI, a statewide initiative to “boost local economies and foster vibrant neighborhoods.” Harbor View Square addresses several strategies identified in Oswego’s DRI plan, including infill development of underutilized space and creating new housing in the downtown area. Harbor View Square will also “activate the blocks between the heart of downtown and Lake Ontario, better connecting downtown Oswego to the lakefront and creating a more vibrant pedestrian environment,” the state contends.

The development’s location at 68 West First St. is the former home of Flexo Wire, a nationwide wire manufacturer and distributor. The long-vacant property was named a brownfield site by the state and will undergo remediation and cleanup under the Brownfield Cleanup Program.

Encompassing an entire city block, Harbor View Square will include a five-story building with 57 apartments and four ground-floor commercial spaces totaling 10,000 square feet. The development also includes 18 two-story townhomes. Eleven units will be set aside for persons with physical disability or traumatic brain injury. Apartments will range from affordable to low- and middle-income households. Nine apartments will be designated market rate.

Building amenities include a fitness center, rooftop terrace, resident lounge, media center, and conference room. Harbor View Square is within walking distance of Lake Ontario’s shorefront, downtown attractions, retail stores, and restaurants.

“The redevelopment of a brownfield site into an area that will anchor the ongoing revitalization efforts of Oswego’s downtown and waterfront will cement the forward momentum not only in the areas of community and economic development, but also addresses the critical need of providing quality housing opportunities for low-to-moderate-to-upper income families in the city,” Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow said in the release.

Barlow and other officials were on hand for the traditional hardhats and shovels groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site on Nov. 30.