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The Pajama Factory: Setting the record straight

It is time for us to emphasize, from our perspective, what we feel is accurate about the situation we are facing at the Pajama Factory today. This is especially important at a time where there are sensationalized headlines and false rumors floating around. When you put your heart and money into a project like this that benefits the entire community, it is critical to ensure those in our community and in decision making positions are fully informed. We also want to apologize for the length of the following report but we feel it’s important to get as much accurate information out there as possible.

First and foremost, safety for our tenant community, which includes us and our daughter and her fiancé, has always been a top priority. We are a family here and we can’t imagine anything worse than a fire. The Pajama Factory, as explained further below, has never been safer and is fully open for business. To this point, we urge everyone to support our 150 tenants including our many businesses; take some classes, attend some events, stop by for coffee or visit the restaurant. Help keep this wonderful institution vital.

We, of course, have work to do as we continue to develop this massive project but we are hoping we can look forward to a strong collaboration with the City to support us in our efforts. Can we make the Pajama Factory safer, yes; one can always enhance safety but it doesn’t mean we are currently unsafe or a public safety risk. However, what is proving so unfortunate is the labeling of the Pajama Factory facility as dangerous. This hurts the businesses who are in the building, the people who have made this their place of community. It even hurts the future development of the Pajama Factory by causing people to question this wonderful asset to Williamsport. Those who visit the building – whether local or from outside the region – consistently express excitement for what is being created here. It is a great example of revitalizing what was an empty, scary, eye-sore into an economic driver for the city.

Now, here is the ‘nitty gritty’ on how we got to where we are today with the recent Appeal Hearing.

The Order to Vacate issued by the Codes department referenced two specific requirements: 1) the need to provide a working sprinkler system and 2) requiring a ‘fire watch’ until the full complex is developed with a Certificate of Occupancy in place for all 8 buildings. Completion of the project would be, at best, 5-10 years away (as the buildings are only about 60% developed now). This particular requirement stating that all construction was to be completed before there could be legal occupancy didn’t take into account that phased construction can be done in a code-compliant way and allows incremental occupancy. This is spelled out in the IEBC (International Existing Building Code) Chapter10 Change of Occupancy and Chapter 12 Historic Buildings which allows and even encourages phased, gradual development to make possible the preservation, restoration, and repurposing of these big factory buildings.

With the full knowledge of the previous administration’s code and fire departments, this is how we have been approaching the development of this 300,000 sq ft 8-building complex. The demand to immediately renovate the entire complex is financially undoable and the added financial burden of providing a 24/7 fire watch until the project is 100% complete was also financially unsustainable.

Thus, we needed to challenge the Order that was issued by the City.

When issuing the Order to Vacate the Codes department acted based on the information that they had. Unfortunately, they did not have all the relevant information.

According to the Order, they understood that there was a single sprinkler system that was not in service. The conclusion that there was a single system is also understandable when it was believed that a non-functioning fire pump was required for the sprinklers to function. Fire department management did not know of the existence of a hydraulic engineering report, submitted in 2009, that demonstrated that street pressure is sufficient to reach the 5th floor of the property. This engineering report proved that the need for the fire pump is being bypassed by returning the sprinklers to wet systems, as they were originally designed, from the inferior dry systems.

Additionally, the new staff in the fire and codes departments did not understand that, in addition to sprinklers, there are also functioning smoke and fire alarms in place that cover a great majority of tenant spaces.

In fact, the Pajama Factory has 7 independent sprinkler systems serving the 8 buildings. Four of the systems have been continuously functioning since shortly after we bought the buildings in 2007 and currently cover 98% of the rented spaces (there are only 3 ground floor businesses that do not currently have sprinkler coverage). These four sprinkler systems protecting the occupied spaces in the bigger buildings (for a total of 220,000 sq ft) cover about 80% of the complex overall. The remaining 20% that does not have operational sprinklers is comprised of the 4 smaller 3-story buildings that are vacant and boarded up, with the exception of the 3 ground floor tenants mentioned above.

Sprinklers are the most effective system to protect lives and property. Sprinklers, alone, are better than the best alarm systems. We have both sprinklers and alarms for all of the occupants in two of our biggest buildings which provides added protection. In addition, all of the residential tenants have hardwired smoke detectors in their units. The alarms, currently in place, are a plus but we are doing more. For the past year, we have been working on the design, bidding and financing of a new improved alarm system that will automatically notify the fire department if there is a problem. Installation of the system is currently underway and should be completed by the end of the month.

There are scores of other safety improvements we have made to the buildings since we bought it. A few are worth noting below. But keep in mind, the building has never had a fire in over 100 years. Never. And it has never been safer than it is today!!

· We have annual sprinkler inspections each year as required by the city (we were 3 months overdue this year but only because we lost track of the timing and had no reminder shared with us). In fact, this year we also upgraded many of the sprinkler heads to enhance protection

· We have ‘fire resistive’ construction in the complex designated as ‘heavy timber or mill construction’-meaning the wooden ceiling and floors have a fire-resistant rating of at least 1 hour. (done when this was a rubber company and molten rubber was in the building)

· We converted three of the dry sprinkler systems back to the preferable wet systems

· We have heavy fire doors to exit stairs between buildings with multiple well-marked exits

· We have fire extinguishers throughout the buildings

· Our ‘code compliant’ courtyard provides 30 ft of separation between the vacant buildings and the large 5 story occupied buildings

· The studio construction for our tenants is made with 1-hour fire rated walls and doors which compartmentalizes the original open floor plates (helps prevent fire spread).

Finally, for added perspective, take a walk throughout downtown and you will note that there are many, many buildings in Williamsport that don’t have any sprinklers at all. We aren’t suggesting these buildings aren’t safe – as they probably conform to older code requirements – but we are suggesting that we are safer.

And a final reminder, we invite you to visit the Pajama Factory and experience this wonderful community and support the many businesses who make this complex what it is today!

Mark Winkelman is an architect by profession and, with his wife Suzanne, owner of The Pajama Factory complex in Williamsport.

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