Chicopee Anticipates Movement on Stalled Projects

Community Spotlight

The vacant Cabotville Industrial Park poses a huge challenge for Chicopee officials.
Staff Photo

John Vieau says he remembers the event vividly.

It was the fall of 2019. Vieau, a Chicopee city councilor at the time, was running for mayor, and he and many others were on hand for an event, a showcase of sorts, at the Silverbrook Mills Building, formerly Cabotville Industrial Park. Its owners had created two demonstration apartment units, and the event was essentially a party in anticipation of the 600 more to follow.

“We were all excited. I remember those beautiful demos — one-bedroom and an efficiency unit — high ceilings, beautiful views, granite counters, washer-dryer stacks. They were talking about renting the efficiencies for under $1,000 a month,” said Vieau, who would go on to win the election. “I realized the impact that would have on our renaissance that we were trying to create downtown; it would create foot traffic and bring residents who would be interested in goods and services downtown.”

To say things haven’t gone according to that script would be a huge understatement.

Indeed, the pandemic hit soon thereafter, and the plans for the huge, 700,000-square-foot mill, where those two demo units remain, have gone unfulfilled. The ensuing years have been marked by frustration, inaction, repeated scalingcback of plans, a court-ordered eviction of remaining commercial tenants in 2022 due to the property being deemed unsafe, the city being forced to step in pay for needed security measures, and more frustration and inaction, with the current owner “going dark,” the mayor said.

The matter reached a tipping point of sorts recently, when the city began the long, arduous process of taking the property for non-payment of taxes — something it really doesn’t want to do.

Instead, it would prefer to see the property redeemed — either by the current owner, 4 Perkins LLC, a subsidiary of Silverbrook Properties, or another entity — out of tax foreclosure, and then sold to a developer with experience with large mill conversions, said City Planner Lee Pouliot, adding that this remains a possibility, and it represents the best-case scenario at this point.

“We were all excited. I remember those beautiful demos — one-bedroom and an efficiency unit — high ceilings, beautiful views, granite counters, washer-dryer stacks. They were talking about renting the efficiencies for under $1,000 a month.”

“It has to be an entity that has knowledge of doing a conversion from the ground up and has a reputation particularly with public funders — because there will need to be public investment in this to make it happen,” said Pouliot, noting that the price tag for redeveloping the property could exceed $200 million. “Every public program that we could make it eligible for is in place; we just need the right partner now and a developer who can pursue them.”

Historic Chicopee City Hall is undergoing an ongoing, $30 million renovation.
Staff Photo

While the Cabotville mill remains a source of frustration, especially as the region and state are in the midst of a housing crisis, there are plenty of positive developments in the second-largest city in Western Mass. These include:

• The start of work to convert one of the remaining parcels within the former Facemate complex into 105 units of workforce housing, with two more phases of that project to come — redevelopment of a brick warehouse and an indoor sports complex;

• The selection of a preferred developer for the redevelopment of the four remaining buildings in the Uniroyal complex, bringing light to the end of a tunnel the city has been in for nearly 45 years as it sought reuse of the property;

• Ongoing work to renovate City Hall, a complex undertaking that involves revamping spaces while city government operates, a game of musical chairs that has reached its second phase;

• The recent opening of the Hub, community space created from redevelopment of the city’s former public library, next door to City Hall;

• Advancement of plans to build replace Berry Elementary School with a new, $124 million facility to be built on the grounds of Szetela Early Childhood Center;

• Plans to move the School Department out of temporary facilities (its former home was closed due to poor air quality) and into the Westfield Bank Loan Center, formerly Williamson’s clothing store, in the heart of downtown, bringing about 80 employees, and more vibrancy, to that area;

• Renovations to Szot Park and Sara Jane Sherman Park;

• A chamber of commerce that is enjoying growth in membership, new initiatives, and the return of its popular tabletop expo (more on that later); and

• Plans to hire the city’s first Economic Development director in several years. The mayor said he has been handling most of those responsibilities in the interim, but the City Council voted to fund that office again.

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at the many converging storylines in Chicopee and the many forms of progress in the community.

Milling About

As they talked about the Cabotville complex, both Vieau and Pouliot stressed that they don’t want this to become “another Uniroyal.”

By that, they meant property the city was forced to take for tax title and then essentially find someone to develop it — a long, difficult, and expensive process that has been playing out for many years now.

Instead, as noted earlier, the city would much prefer that 4 Perkins secure another buyer, one that can take the stalled project forward. And this is where much of the frustration comes in, said the mayor, adding that such a prospective buyer came forward a few months ago.

“He went through the permitting process, but it all came apart at the end; he said his agreement with the owner didn’t work out. He was frustrated and upset,” Vieau said. “In the meantime, entities have been calling and saying they’re interested; it’s a wonderful shell and has so much potential, and it’s really a key to the success of our downtown.

Indeed, several hundred units in that complex would bring people and vibrancy to the downtown area, bolstering existing businesses and probably inspiring new ones, he went on, adding that this is what the city was anticipating at that party back in the fall of 2019.

That anticipation has been replaced by large question marks, and time is becoming increasingly a factor as the property sits idle.

“Structurally, the building is in fine shape for being vacant,” Pouliot said. “The concern that we have, and it was similar with Uniroyal, is that the longer buildings sit vacant, the more and faster they deteriorate. So, while it is in good shape, it’s the right time to get a developer experienced with mill conversions to pursue it.”

And the mayor is hopeful that the recent publicity about the city beginning the lengthy process of taking the property will bring more potential buyers to the table or spur the current owner to take some action. Recouping lost years of taxes, liens, and the money the city has spent on security, sprinkler system repairs, and other work is a priority, he noted, but the bigger priority is transforming that dormant property into a catalyst for vibrancy and more redevelopment downtown.

While that process enters its next phase, one clouded by uncertainty, the four-decade-long saga at Uniroyal is entering another phase as well.

Indeed, a preferred developer, Wisconsin-based J. Jeffers & Co., has been chosen and it is in very early-stage work to reimagine the four remaining buildings in the complex — the office building, a small retail building, and two large production facilities.

The company has a deep portfolio of mill conversions and related projects, including conversion of the Milwaukee Grain Exchange into event space and conversion of the former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel building into 141 market-rate apartments, and Pouliot said it is looking at a $300 million investment in the Uniroyal buildings, redeveloping them into roughly 600 residential units (a mix of market-rate and workforce) and some commercial space.

The city was recently awarded a $450,000 MassWorks grant to look into infrastructure improvements in the Chicopee Falls area to support such a project, Pouliot said, adding that, when needed work is identified, the city will apply for additional grants from MassWorks to pay for them. Meanwhile, J. Jeffers will put its financial stack together from an array of sources, and conversion work will take place over the next several years.

Opportunities Knock

While the city continues work on those fronts, it can celebrate the completion of another project that took years to conceive and bring to fruition — conversion of the former library into the Hub.

The ceremonial ribbon was cut last fall, and the space started hosting programs in November. These include a series of business development courses, led by Samalid Hogan, CEO of Greylock Management Consulting, as well as several one-offs, said Pouliot, adding that the city will soon launch a webpage on the facility highlighting its use policies, with the goal of filling out the spring schedule.

The library project is part of a larger effort to renovate, modernize, and reactivate historic city properties, including City Hall, built in 1871, which sits next door.

The work there is ongoing, with the recent completion of what Pouliot calls “phase 2, sequence 1,” which involved renovation of the City Clerk, Facilities, and Registrar of Voters spaces. Next will come sequence 2, the Human Resources and Retirement Office spaces, due to be completed later this month.

“I like to say that we’re retrofitting and maxing out every square foot of this building, and being a mayor in a building that’s been under construction since I took office — it’s been a challenge,” said Vieau, who talked with BusinessWest in a temporary office carved out of a portion of what had been City Council chambers. He will move to a new office on the third floor (near the Law Department and the renovated auditorium, which now hosts council meetings) later this year, although he joked that he likes his current space and would prefer to just stay there.

The mayor’s historic office is now a conference room, with its waiting space now part of a larger office for the city clerk.

There will be more shuffling to come in a project that will be completed in 2028 — because the work is being undertaken as city government continues its work — and a total cost of nearly $30 million.

While change comes to City Hall, the old library, and hopefully (eventually) Cabotville, it is also coming to the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, said Melissa Breor, its executive director, noting that the agency is adapting to the changing wants and needs of its members.

For example, the traditional chamber breakfast has been replaced on the schedule with monthly coffee hours at member businesses. These gatherings take less time to plan and execute, she explained, and they provide additional opportunities for members to network and showcase their businesses.

“We’ve adjusted the style of event to suit the schedules of our members,” she said, adding that the chamber runs at least two events a month — a coffee hour, an after-hours function, or one of its signature events — to give members opportunities to network.

Meanwhile, the chamber is turning back the clock in some respects and bringing back a tabletop business expo, slated for April at the Castle of Knights.

A slimmed-down version of the program staged years ago, which included several different chambers, hasn’t been undertaken since before the pandemic, but this edition will feature Chicopee chamber members (and non-members), said Breor, adding that it’s being brought back at their request.

“Our current members have been asking for something like this,” she said, adding that it’s been so long since a tabletop event has been staged that newer businesses may not be familiar with the format. Thus, the chamber will be doing some Zoom orientation meetings to help participants make the most of their opportunities there.