Dreaming is encouraged at The Pajama Factory, an incubator for creative minds.
The former industrial property, once a robust rubber manufacturer that became a thriving pajama factory, takes up a wide swath of a block bordered by Park and Memorial avenues and Rose and Cemetery streets.
The aging and decaying building is being transformed into a haven for artists, upstart businesses and creative minds of the music and art world.
On Wednesday, the building's owners and management accepted a $50,000 loan from a revolving loan fund newly created through a partnership between the Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, its Industrial Properties Corp. and the city.
"This is more than a loan," co-owner Mark Winkelman said. "It is a vote of confidence."
The money will be used to defray costs for an elevator project, he said. The elevator will provide full handicapped accessibility as well as access to several levels of the building, including the roof where Winkelman and others have a vision for future use.
It will be the first big capital improvement project for the Pajama Factory, said Winkelman, whose business card describes him as "the man behind the curtain."
Such "Wizard of Oz" levity is commonplace in the creative mindset at The Pajama Factory.
"We have 18,000 square feet of space devoted to future shops," said project manager Jennifer Rixey, better known as "Pajama Diva."
The facility's basement is being transformed into shops for woodworking, metal, ceramic, glass and digital laboratories.
They hope to add apartments, condominiums and restaurants to the building design.
Developments at the site are being studied by two professors from the University of Kentucky who want to understand how to revitalize old buildings in the nation's rustbelt, Winkelman said.
They put together a drawing that shows the structure as a modern complex, with studios, residential dwellings and restaurants.
During the mid-1950s, the Weldon Pajama Factory was the largest of its kind, gaining fame in connection with the Broadway musical "The Pajama Game," which later became a Hollywood movie starring Doris Day.
Today, more than 60 businesses call the place home.
The Pajama Factory has a presence on Facebook and plans to distribute quarterly newsletters to those who sign up for them.
"We're really bullish on the west side of Williamsport," Rixey said.
