BY JONATHAN D. EPSTEIN Nov. 11, 2024 Michael Wopperer is the vice president of Frontier Insulation and is spearheading the development of the Wood & Brooks building.
Wood & Brooks starting on a high note Eighteen months after construction began at the former Wood & Brooks piano-key factory in the Town of Tonawanda, the six-story former manufacturing building has reopened with 55 apartments and a coworking and incubator space geared toward contractors in the construction trades. The $23.1 million redevelopment project by contractor Michael Wopperer took aim at part of a mostly vacant industrial complex on the border of Buffalo and Tonawanda that his family has owned for decades.
The complex was built in 1902 and was used to produce ivory piano keys and piano actions for more than 29 manufacturers until it closed in 1970. During World War II, the facility produced military landing craft that were used in the invasions of Nazi-held Europe. It was purchased in 1972 by the Wopperer family, whose businesses, including Frontier Insulation Contractors and Thermal Foams, still operate at the campus, mostly using other buildings.
But the primary building involved in the redevelopment was mostly vacant, used only for storage by Frontier. So Wopperer led the renovation of both that structure and a connected one-story section, using a mix of historic tax credits, brownfield tax credits, tax breaks from Erie County Industrial Development Agency and the town, bank loans and private money. C.
