Nine Pin Ciderworks Celebrates Completion of Brick Facade Restoration, Advancing Its Ongoing Warehouse District Investment

June 3, 2026

Project Restores Appearance Of Historic McKinney Steel Complex Original Brick Industrial Architecture

View Announcement Press Release 

 

Nine Pin Ciderworks was joined by Albany Mayor Dr. Dorcey Applyrs and state leaders alongside the City of Albany’s economic development organization Capitalize Albany Corporation to recognize the completion of its latest investment in Nine Pin’s evolving warehouse district footprint. On the outside wall of the 3,200-square-foot expansion of its tasting room, which was completed in 2024 following extensive renovations to repurpose its packaging area, Nine Pin has restored the appearance of the original brick industrial architecture that once defined a corner of the historic McKinney Steel complex.

 


Nine Pin’s overall facility was originally part of the McKinney Steel complex. Its expanded tasting room area is a concrete structure located at Broadway and Thacher Street. It is understood to have replaced an earlier brick building after a fire at the site. A project made possible with support from the City of Albany’s Small Business Facade Improvement Program, thin brick was applied to the 510-square-foot concrete wall facing Thacher Street that is adjacent to Nine Pin’s glass tasting room overhead doors. The completed work reintroduces the traditional brick material of the former industrial buildings, creating greater architectural continuity and strengthening the visual connection between Nine Pin’s facility, the McKinney Steel office building, and the district’s historic character.

This investment into Nine Pin’s facade comes just a few years after the Nine Pin founders purchased the property in 2024 following its first decade in business. With its cidery and fermentation production area located mainly at 929 Broadway, as part of the purchase the founders also now own the four-story, 20,000-square-foot office building located at 927 Broadway.

Nine Pin was founded in the warehouse district in 2013. Its investment in the district to date has been significant and its retail side has grown to be a key destination within the City of Albany for locals and tourists alike, as one of the Capital Region’s most exciting agri-tourism businesses.

The business started with a 5,000-square-foot facility that quickly expanded and it now operates in 24,000 square feet in the heart of Albany’s manufacturing district that has become a vibrant neighborhood since its pioneering decision to locate there.

In 2014, Nine Pin received New York State’s first farm cidery license and in 10 years increased annual production of hard cider from 25,000 to 140,000 gallons. In 2020, Nine Pin began production of nonalcoholic sparkling cider from fresh-pressed NY apples. It sells wholesale to distributors, farm sector beverage manufacturers, farms, and retail to customers in its tasting room and at farmers markets, festivals and events.

Nine Pin’s matching grant award to support its brickwork project was part of the Small Business Facade Improvement Program’s most recent seventh-round which closed a year ago, a new application window for the program is planned for Fall 2026. In this most recent program round, 15 Albany small businesses and nonprofits received matching grant awards totaling more than $100,000. Already, since its inaugural round the program has supported 60 businesses’ completed projects located throughout 16 unique neighborhoods and commercial districts citywide.

The citywide program is designed to provide matching grants to assist eligible small businesses and not-for-profits with up to $10,000 for exterior renovations. Administered by Capitalize Albany, it’s made possible with the support of the City of Albany Capital Resource Corporation and the Albany Community Development Agency supporting the program over many years.

Previous rounds of the Small Business Facade Improvement Program have been tremendously successful. With small business owners’ reinvestment into their properties since 2018, more than $350,000 in program funding has been disbursed leveraging more than $730,000 in private investment, more than twice the amount of grant resources — $2.36 for every $1 of program support.

All information and materials about this program and the Corporation’s four active programs are available at www.CapitalizeAlbany.com/grants.

For more information about Nine Pin, visit, www.ninepincider.com.