Legal cannabis, new gaming bar & more happening at former vacant building in downtown Elmira

ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – After being vacant for several years, the “Water Street Place” building in downtown Elmira is being transformed into several new businesses. A new gaming bar called “The Playground” is getting ready for its grand opening, after a soft opening three weeks ago.

“We’re a family partnership, a family business,” said Kaylen Knox. “So, we looked at this building for a year easily, and it was kind of an eyesore in the downtown area. We did a lot of footwork and legwork to find out who owned it. We purchased the building, and we kind of just had a vision in our mind of what, looking at everything else in the area, of what would be the best fit for the area. So, we built this out.”

The property used to be a furniture rental store that shut down more than four years ago. The building is owned by the Knox and Joseph families. Knox says his brother and sister are also a key part of the business.

“We focus on league play. We have dartboards, we have video games in the back, we have three pool tables. We do have beer pong tables, which will start going when college kids come back into session. We have cornhole, we will be doing cornhole leagues. We have 37 TVs, we have drop down projectors. We have a full DJ booth, full club style sound system.” The space also has a kitchen.

Knox and his family are working on several other projects for the building. They include what could become one of the first legal cannabis dispensaries in Elmira.

“We’re working with OCM (Office of Cannabis Management) to develop a medical dispensary within this property,” Knox said. “We’ve been granted proximity protection down here, which means that within a certain amount of area no one else can open up one. So, we’re just in limbo right now with the lawsuits and legal challenges OCM is going through. They’ve kind of slowed down in their approval processes. So, we’re just in this kind of a holding pattern right now.”

Other projects include an incubator-style space to help small businesses grow.

“People that have secondary jobs, estheticians, beauticians, tattoo artists, masseuses, they’ll be able to rent out a room instead of a booth. They’ll rent out a suite and be able to have a centralized receptionist that works for everyone. That can allow them to be a little more professional and grow their business a little bit faster.”

Knox is also the owner of the “ WMC North Jazz Lounge and Restaurant ” across the street, which opened in 2022. He is also a chef, and the grandson of Jesse Knox, a local chef that worked in at several restaurants in our area for decades.

“Jesse Knox is my grandfather. He was a chef that started here in 1949. He did his final tour of duty in 2005. He spent 30 years at the Holiday Inn, spent time at Vin Hosier’s Fine Food, the Baron Steuben Hotel, he worked in Corning to help set up the plants up there for food service. He worked at the Mark Twain Hotel when it was first coming out in ’49. Many restaurants, many people he influenced, trained many folks.”

“It is a family lineage as far as it’s a partnership of both my maternal and paternal side. My brother, my sister are both integral parts of this business. The great thing is that they’re immigrants. So, we immigrated here from another country and have been able to see the American Dream through that. So, it’s really a cool thing. It’s a Joseph and Knox family partnership.”

Knox told us his family immigrated from Trinidad. You can watch our full conversation with Kaylen Knox below.

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