A cool $1 million goes to former spool factory

Globe Dye Works, the yarn-dyeing  factory turned live-work space, has received $1 million in state grant funding to rehab its boiler room into an event space, KYW reports. The 1.7-acre, 11-building Frankford manufacturing complex stopped pumping out textiles in 2005, only to be purchased three years later by an ambitious team of developers with a vision to create a new kind of place for creative production and life. Today, 19 people live in renovated loft spaces alongside artist studios, workshops for light manufacturing, commercial kitchens, and offices. Current tenants include the Manufacturing Alliance of Philadelphia, Hand in Hand Soap, Birchtree Catering, Weckerly’s Ice Cream, and Rival Bros. Coffee.

State Senator Christine Tartaglione, who announced the grant this week with State Representative Jason Dawkins, called the retrofitted factory “a prime example of the great, often hidden potential that exists in many of Philadelphia’s older, underused industrial properties.”

Speaking of big investments, National Urban League CEO Marc Morial came to Philadelphia this week and urged city and state leaders to create a “Main Street Marshall Plan,” Philadelphia Business Journal reports. Morial wants to see public spending to improve roads, transit and bridges and other public assets, and to strengthen “human infrastructure” through workforce training, affordable housing, and other social programs. Philadelphia Commerce Department director Harold Epps agreed on job creation goals and pointed out the critical role of high-speed rail in the city’s infrastructure and development.

Meanwhile, Marketplace Morning Report’s David Brancaccio spoke to PlanPhilly’s new editor Ariella Cohen in a segment that aired today about the legacy of redlining in Philadelphia, a topic investigated in a data-driven collaboration authored by our own Jake Blumgart.

Media doesn’t always place so nice though. Hidden City Philadelphia is suing 6ABC over the station’s video series titled “Hidden Philadelphia,” Philly Mag’s Victor Fiorillo reports. An attorney for 6ABC responded saying that “the news products offered by the two parties were very different,” pointing out that “the names are not identical — one includes the word CITY, and the other does not.” Hidden City Philadelphia filed the suit in state court, 6ABC entered a motion requesting the suit be moved to federal court, where trademark cases are typically heard. Philadelphia intellectual property attorney Jordan LaVine told Fiorillo that the case was a long shot. “If you look at any of the Hidden Philadelphia features on the 6ABC site, you just don’t think that this comes from the same people,” he said. Hidden City’s attorney J. Conor Corcoran says he will fight the move out of state court, arguing that the case is not a federal trademark case. “This is a business dispute between two journalistic entities in Philadelphia, one of whom ripped off the other.”

Finally, the revised plan for the St. Mary of the Assumption Church site in Manayunk reduces the proposed development from 100 to 56 residential units and sets aside 16 parking spots for the nearby North Light Community Center, PMN’s Valerie Russ reports. Manayunk residents vehemently opposed developer Jack Bienenfeld’s original plan, arguing that the development was too dense for a “neighborhood of narrow, hilly streets; horrible traffic congestion; and little parking.” The church and the rectory were placed on the local Register of Historic Places.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal