Longtime Oneonta resident Philip Wright is putting a clean twist on an old business.
Wright, 34, launched Philthys, formerly the Church Street Laundromat, in early May after purchasing it roughly a year before.
Wright said the 5 Church St., Oneonta purchase grew out of his real estate expertise.
“My mom owned a real estate office in Oneonta while I was growing up,” he said. “I elected, instead of a foreign language or tech classes at (Oneonta High School), to do business classes. My mom asked permission for me to shadow clients … and I figured out I was interested in real estate and became a licensed realtor at 19, so, for roughly 15 years, I’ve been licensed.
“Football was a passion of mine, and I was captain of the OHS team, and I went on to play at St. John Fisher, where I also did business administration,” Wright continued.
Following time at the University of Hawaii and continued deepening of his real estate passions there, Wright said, he returned upstate.
“When I moved back … I joined Benson Real Estate and that took off,” he said. “I always said, storage units, laundromats and multi-family units are the best investments. A friend owned the laundromat by Toscana’s and called (my partner at Benson) to sell it, and I said, ‘How about I buy it?’ and they agreed.”
Wright said, since making the purchase, he’s focused on rebranding and community-minded improvements.
“Friends said, ‘Why don’t you come up with a nifty nickname?’ so I went with ‘Philthys: We’ll get you clean,’” he said. “My other friend owns Premium Design Co., and he helped me out with the T-shirt design and we did 200 free T-shirts. Social media was my main thing with real estate, so I figured I’d do it with this and it’s worked really well.
“I took it over … and knew I wanted to support the local community and give back to the community, so I’ve done everything I could to improve the place,” Wright continued. “We are trying to make it a safe environment, so I’ve collaborated with the Oneonta Police Department and hired Hubner, LLC to put in a security system and we changed our hours to 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., instead of 24 hours, so people can go there and feel comfortable. We also have a play area, which I plan on upgrading, and vending machines that weren’t working but we’ve fixed up. So, it took a village for this to happen.”
Wright noted that he’s also phasing out smaller washing machines in favor of larger units, to foster a more efficient “one-stop shop” for patrons.
This approach, Wright said, is yielding a loyal clientele.
“There’s a bunch of dedicated locals that use the place,” he said. “I went in, and there were machines broken and I just wanted to fix it up and make it more family-oriented for the locals. I have so many friends of mine that I’ve seen in there that I didn’t even know went to that laundromat, so that’s been rewarding.”
“My goal was to help the community,” he continued, “but we obviously get the baseball (rental owners) for the wash-and-fold service, and anybody who does rentals can come to us. And students, we’re the only ones that have card readers, and I’m hoping to use QR codes moving forward, so students can do it almost like Venmo and just tap their phones. That’s in the works.”
Wright said he is “getting good feedback.”
“People love the name and the T-shirts and they love the cleanliness,” he said. “That’s the No. 1 thing, for the local people. It’s about getting the play place and the vending machines up and running and making sure the place is clean. I just wanted the local community to have a safe place to do laundry if they don’t have access to laundry at home. As a business person, I’ve got to take advantage of the students and baseball people, but the local community is my main thing. I was one of the few in the Class of 2009 that stayed in Oneonta and tried to bring business to Oneonta, through real estate and real estate investments, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity.”
For more information, visit Wright’s Facebook page or call 607-434-2078.