Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 30, 2025 7 Deal Watch Unitex President David Potack (left) and Director of Engineering Jim Curiale at a 130,000-square-foot Hartford warehouse the medical linen and uniform rental company is converting into a massive laundry facility. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Cleaning Up $30M warehouse conversion into industrial laundry facility expected to bring more than 200 jobs to Hartford Waterbury. As the Wawarme Avenue facility opens, Unitex will close three of its Connecticut sites and consoli- date operations in the Capital City. An existing 18,205-square-foot facility on Ledyard Street in Hartford will remain open. That property is already outfitted with modern equip- ment and focuses on uniform services, said Unitex CEO Robert Potack. The facilities slated to close currently handle about 850,000 pounds of laundry per week. The new facility is designed to accommodate 1.2 million pounds weekly. All staff from the shuttered facili- ties will be invited to work at the new one, Robert Potack said. He expects to launch the Wawarme Avenue facility with 160 to 170 staff, and eventually increase to 220 employees as the client base expands. The new plant will also have a higher degree of automation and use more energy-efficient equipment, company leaders said. The project will be financed through revolving credit lines with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citizens Bank, Robert Potack said. Raising the roof One unique aspect of the project is that Unitex is paying contractors to raise the roof — from 22 feet to 32 feet — of the Wawarme Avenue building. The complex operation is being over- seen by Maryland-based Rooflift Special- ists and Florida-based Rooflifters. By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A bout 115 years ago, Polish immigrant Max Potack went to work at a small laundry service in Brooklyn, New York, oper- ated by two of his uncles. A&P Coat and Apron Supply laun- dered linens and aprons for butcher shops and restaurants, making deliv- eries with a rented horse and carriage. Over the past century, the company evolved into Unitex Textile Services LLC, with about 2,200 staff operating out of 13 facilities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Run by Potack's descendants, the company sanitizes and rents medical uniforms and linens to hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities in a territory stretching from Bangor, Maine, to northern Delaware. In Hartford, the family-owned company is undertaking a $21-million expansion and renovation of a 130,000-square-foot industrial building, transforming it into a massive laundry facility that will even- tually employ about 220 people. The building, at 121 Wawarme Ave., had housed a Hartford Courant news- paper inserting operation. A Unitex subsidiary bought it in early 2024 for $9 million. In about a year, the building will begin its new life as a washing, sorting and distribution facility for Unitex, providing a constant stream of cleaned linens to medical facilities in Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts. "This will be the sixth (and largest) plant we've constructed in the last 20 years, and we continue on that growth trajectory," Unitex President David Potack said during a recent tour of the Hartford development site. "There is no one in our market that has added that type of capacity, or has that type of investment, or need for investment that we have. And that's all coming from growth over time." The company's growth has been propelled by existing clients that have absorbed other operations, as well as a proliferation of outpatient centers, he said. "There has been a lot of consolidation in the healthcare industry over the past 10 years," Potack said. "We have been fortunate to grow with our clients." More automation Unitex currently owns and operates four smaller industrial laundry facili- ties in Connecticut — two in Hartford, and one each in South Windsor and Continued on next page

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