New role for cigar factory

(SFGate) According to contractor Yusufu Bomani, the reasoning behind converting the former Rossi Cigar Co. building in the West Oakland neighborhood into seven brick-and-timber lofts was quite simple: There isn't anything else like it in the area. ... "It was important for us to restore the facade to the cigar factory, because a lot of people here are very fond of the building and wanted to see it stay the way it has been," he said. "It'll never be a cigar factory again, but we wanted the exterior to stay authentic, and we spent a lot of money doing research and repainting it to match the way that it was and get the signs restored. Continued

Photo courtesy of the National Cigar History Museum