When an earlier project to convert an 80,000-square-foot former refrigerated rail car factory to condos went bankrupt in 2019, the historic Newburgh property, which overlooks the Hudson, ended up on the auction block. The recently completed Lofts at The Foundry have added 59 light-filled one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments to the rental market. The adaptive reuse project is emblematic of the kind of steady traction Newburgh is determinedly gaining in recent years.

“There’s been a lot of great energy around this project,” says Eric Edelman, principal at Mana Tree Properties, a Newburgh-based company dedicated to helping solve the housing shortage across the Northeast. “We’re part of a wave in Newburgh—there’s been a very bottom-up effort by people, building by building and block by block, to really fix up the city and bring it back to its glory days.”

Mana Tree partnered with Attic Labs, another Newburgh company, to purchase the building at the bankruptcy auction. “Our thesis was that we knew a lot of artists and creatives were moving from Beacon to Newburgh,” says Edelman, “and we knew a lot of people who were moving up from the city to the Hudson Valley to work remotely and commute a couple of times a week. So we felt the demand would be there.”

That turned out to be an accurate perception. Before the property even began leasing, owners had developed a 200-person wait list of prospective tenants. As of this writing, 40 of the 59 units are still available, with options ranging from penthouse units with river views to loft-style apartments with varied floor plans. “What’s neat about these old industrial buildings is the flexibility,” says Edelman. “You don’t have to just build cookie-cutter rectangles.”