This paper will explore the redevelopment of the Fuller Brush Factory in the Northeast neighborhood of Hartford, Connecticut as a case study of market-rate housing development in historically underserved neighborhoods of post-industrial cities. This research will highlight the differences between revitalization and gentrification in a neighborhood where development has stalled for decades and consider how the marketing and justification of this particular project reveals important truths about the relationships between local governments, planners, residents and developers in struggling cities. The Fuller Brush Factory, a former industrial site in one of the state’s poorest neighborhoods, serves as a case study for Hartford’s trajectory: industrial success, followed by decline and economic disinvestment and more recently, a surge in potential. The ways in which developers, planners and local leaders communicate about, market and consider the adaptive reuse and branding of a development project that breathes new life into the Fuller Brush Factory are telling signals for what role new development will play in the story of Hartford’s future, and other post industrial city’s as well.