Flemington's Stangl Pottery Factory to Become Artisan Shops

FLEMINGTON — When future out-of-town guests at the Union Hotel ask, “Where should we go today?” the owners will direct them up Mine Street to the old Stangl pottery works where artisans are making and selling their wares.

At least that’s the plan. Frank Banisch and Joe LoPiccolo, two of the three men who are buying the Union Hotel, are also buying the old Stangl pottery works at the corner of Stangl Road and Mine Street. They are joined in the endeavor by builder George Eckelmann of Delaware Township.

Banisch declined to say how much they’re paying, but he did say the closing date is May 12.

The property consists of a long, narrow two-acre lot that extends from Mine Street upon which stand several buildings, including the old factory with its distinctive conical brick kilns, the log cabin honey shop, Gotta Have It Pools and Spas, and the N’ Joy Yourself! store.

The pottery factory was built in 1924 by Fulper Pottery Co. where it produced its Stangl dinnerware until those operations were absorbed by its larger Trenton plant in 1935.

After that, the Flemington property was a Stangl factory outlet store that was, according to Banisch and LoPiccolo’s new brochure, “a keenly popular tourist destination.”

The sprawling, irregularly shaped building contains 19,000 square feet of usable space, which would become the Stangl Factory Artisan Village and Shops. The brochure invites artists and artisans to “ply your trade” and “sell your wares” in artisan workshops and gallery space. Its “factory chic décor” includes brick walls, iron trusses and the kilns.

Banisch wants to make the place affordable to working artisans, offering spaces as small as 50 square feet, but ranging up to 1,500 square feet and larger.

LoPiccolo gives these examples of the kind of artisans, activities and goods they hope to offer: “glass blower, pottery works (no, they will not be firing up the kilns), prints and frames, printmaking, garden ware, candle makers, glazer, jewelry, lamp makers, blacksmith, wood carvers, soap maker, quilting, chainsaw carver, basket maker and wicker furniture.” Banisch sees the Stangl shops as a “critical link between downtown and Liberty Village.”

Their plan also has an entertainment element. According to the brochure, “Activities in the Lounge will include… weekly music and … such amusements as magicians, caricaturists, juggling, puppeteers and storytelling. Stangl Factory will be a venue for poetry or prose readings and street art — sketching and painting, etc.”

He and his partners have interested private investors in bankrolling the acquisition, Banisch said. The plan is to later obtain a bank mortgage. Christopher Pickell, who specializes in the adaptation of historical buildings, is their consulting architect.

Borough Council on March 28 chose Banisch, LoPiccolo and restaurateur Matt McPherson to redevelop the Union Hotel, a Main Street landmark that has been closed since 2008. Banisch’s team envisions restaurants downstairs, a banquet hall on the fourth story, and old-fashioned but updated hotel rooms on the middle two stories. If all goes well, the place would re-open in autumn of 2013.