FOUND reopens at SouthWorks as Ithaca’s former factory enters next chapter

FOUND In Ithaca, a longtime Ithaca vintage and reuse shop, has reopened inside the former SouthWorks factory, making it the redevelopment site’s first commercial tenant. As plans for new neighbors, infrastructure upgrades and future businesses advance, the shop offers an early glimpse of how the long-dormant complex is beginning its second life. 

The mixed-use, adaptive reuse project on South Aurora Street in Ithaca repurposes the former Morse Chain Factory site, aiming to transform it into a vibrant new neighborhood.

Plans for the fully developed SouthWorks complex include housing for all income levels, an innovation hub to retain start-ups in advanced manufacturing, biotech and ag-tech, a living laboratory for trades-focused workforce development with child care and wraparound services, and an integrated neighborhood with locally tailored amenities for recreation, livability and the arts.

From pop-up opening to full-time location

Vanessa Weber and Jeremiah Cigno, owners of FOUND in Ithaca, found themselves needing to move after Tompkins County purchased their former building on Cherry Street, which is currently the site of the county’s Code Blue warming shelter. Ultimately, that building will be torn down so the county can build a new, permanent homeless shelter with 100 beds.

In December, Weber and Cigno opened their new space to the public for the first time in a holiday pop-up.

“We were like, ‘Oh, my God, the holidays are here. We have to open,” Weber said, “and even though it was super rough and we were like, ‘Are we ready for this?’ as soon as [we opened], people poured in. It was like a party.”

She and Cigno estimated there were about 75 vehicles parked outside.

“A lot of people wanted to see the site,” Weber said. In just eight days, the store made the same amount of sales it would typically do in an average month.

At about 20,000 square feet, the new location is much larger than FOUND’s previous home. But it has already filled up, as almost all of FOUND’s 65 sellers followed the store to SouthWorks. There is currently a 90-person waitlist.

Every booth has a unique aesthetic. Some spotlight old folk-art finds and antique furniture. Others feature refinished mid-century dressers and vintage lamps. One seller collects paintings and sculptures from her adventures to exotic locations around the globe and brings them back to FOUND.

A row of large glass cases displaying valuables ranging from vintage jewelry to glass figurines to antique knives sparkles in the natural light that the large windows provide.

A bigger space, same low-margin model

Weber and Cigno officially took ownership of FOUND in March 2024, purchasing it from the previous owners.

Weber, who had recently moved to Ithaca from New York City, was a regular customer of FOUND and jumped on the opportunity to own it after overhearing the owners say that they were looking to sell.

She partnered with Cigno on the venture, and the couple took ownership using the same business model that had worked for nearly a decade, retaining a cooperative, low-margin model designed to keep booth rents affordable.

The cost per booth has gone up slightly, but the booths are larger than they were on Cherry Street, where many vendors rented two booths next to each other. 

“It’s really important to try to keep the booth rent as low as possible,” Weber said. “We’re not really making any money off the rent.”

The shop primarily sustains itself through an 8% commission on sales. The owners also sell their own inventory to remain financially viable.

The sprawling location provides storage space in the back, a luxury the owners didn’t have at the Cherry Street site.  

Other improvements include the natural light, operable awning windows and new bathrooms. 

The SouthWorks location has enabled new operations that were previously impossible, including in-house furniture refinishing and partnerships with vendors who run live online auctions with in-person previews.

Clothing accounts for about one-third of the sales at FOUND, Weber estimated.

Many of FOUND’s customers are young shoppers who appreciate the high quality and timeless style of the store’s used clothing. Weber finds that these shoppers gravitate toward the vintage, one-of-a-kind pieces as an alternative to fast fashion and prize natural fabrics like wool over synthetic materials.

Weber and Cigno hope that FOUND’s presence in SouthWorks will be the start of a migration of businesses that embody Ithaca’s historically “funky” character, and that it proves the former factory site can be a viable alternative for those priced out of downtown Ithaca.

They say the industrial character and historic feel of SouthWorks aligns closely with their vision and want to maintain it, so much so that they even struggled with the decision to paint any of the walls, though eventually they realized it was inevitable; they would need to in some spots, particularly in one corner where Serendipity catering will be opening a coffee bar and lounge area.

FOUND has a 10-year lease, and by then SouthWorks is expected to look very different. At the end of the lease, the store could end up relocating to a different part of the development.

“SouthWorks, as a whole, is so dynamic and interesting,” Weber said. She would like to be settled for longer than 10 years but is excited to see what the future brings.

Robert Lewis, SouthWorks development project manager, said he is “thrilled” to have FOUND on site.

“It’s been so wonderful working with them through this process,” Lewis said. “They love this building just as much as we do, and their vision for how they take this beloved business and move it into the next chapter is exciting, and it was thrilling to see it realized. Their holiday preview was very successful, and so many members of the community came out to see them and to patronize them, and we’re just really glad that they started off with a bang.”

State funding speeds redevelopment plans

The surrounding SouthWorks campus is expected to fill in faster than originally anticipated, driven by a $38 million funding award.

The money was given as part of the New York Regional Economic Development Councils’ ACHIEVE competition.

As part of this year’s Regional Councils competition, each council developed a transformational initiative for the chance to win up to $50 million in implementation funding, or partnered on a joint multi-regional proposal.

Regions collaborated with local stakeholders to develop an actionable roadmap featuring high-impact, transformational projects and regional partnerships to guide implementation.

“We were fortunate enough to be selected by our region, the Southern Tier, to compete, and after a long process involving a lot of effort by the team here, but also by collaborators throughout the Southern Tier, we were selected as one of the recipients,” Lewis said. “We are excited for what it means we can do.”

The funding will push forward a substantial amount of infrastructure across the site. “It will really just enable us to do things like water and sewer and road — stuff that isn’t necessarily exciting by itself, but then once you do that, you can take those foundations and do things like advanced manufacturing spaces and indoor recreation spaces, a daycare, and a workforce development center. And that altogether will start to really make this feel like a place and, along with FOUND being open, really help it come alive,” Lewis said.  

Everything the funding is intended for was already in the SouthWorks master plan, but the funding will help the project move forward on an accelerated timeline.

“We have to execute everything we intend to do under the program within three years,” Sarah Barden, community outreach and leasing coordinator at SouthWorks.

Barden explained that funding for large projects often comes piecemeal: a grant might provide funding for lead paint removal, for example, but that is only one small piece of the puzzle for a large-scale renovation.  

“Because these buildings are connected to each other, you’re not just looking at a standalone building; you’re looking at the infrastructure throughout the whole site, oftentimes, and how that impacts a single building that you want to renovate and lease,” Barden said. “What’s nice about a funding award of this amount is that you can address many of those contingencies all at one time. And so that means that you get to that final outcome a lot faster.”

Housing, workforce development and what comes next

This year, the developers will break ground on the building that will host the day care and Workforce Development Center.

That portion of the project, called the Empowerment Center, is the adaptive reuse of an existing building on Turner Place, which is a standalone structure and not part of the main, contiguous complex.

“The idea is to co-locate the Workforce Development Center with the day care because oftentimes child care is a barrier to folks who are looking to go through that sort of training,” Barden said.

Construction employers working on the SouthWorks site will also be co-located there. People seeking employment in the skilled trades can utilize the workshop space that will be developed and then be in close proximity to potential future employers.

“They can start to build those relationships and do a job shadowing and really utilize the site as a learning laboratory,” Barden said.  

SouthWorks also expects to break ground on more than 200 units of affordable housing in October of this year, working with Homes and Community Renewal to help fund the project and Beacon Communities to co-develop it.

The housing will be available to those making 80% of the area median income and below.

Plans for the project include 915 units of housing when it is complete.

The 200 units breaking ground this year will be two groups of buildings, “one on the town side and another on the city side of the site,” Lewis said. “We are still working through the design in terms of how those buildings relate to each other … but it’s going to end up feeling like a real neighborhood.”

Lewis said that he hopes to achieve the feeling of a cohesive community by intentionally choosing a mix of tenants and uses that relate to each other. This includes bringing in more commercial tenants that will join FOUND and “add breadth to the kind of activities present on site,” Lewis said. “This place is really going to come alive.”