Day: January 22, 2019

MassDevelopment Bond Helps Patriot Armored Systems Buy, Expand Facility

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Daily News

LEE — MassDevelopment has issued a $2,646,000 tax-exempt bond on behalf of Patriot Armored Systems Holding LLC, a real-estate entity affiliated with glass manufacturer Patriot Armored Systems.

Patriot Armored Systems currently leases 45,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space at 100 Valley St. in Lee. The company’s real-estate entity will use bond proceeds to buy the building and construct a 7,500-square-foot addition, allowing Patriot Armored Systems to expand its manufacturing operations and hire 13 additional employees. Berkshire Bank purchased the bond.

“For more than 25 years, Patriot Armored Systems has been a leading manufacturer of protective glass systems, with an emphasis on quality craftsmanship, precise customization, and first-rate customer service,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Lauren Liss. “We’re proud to leverage tax-exempt bond financing to help Patriot Armored Systems buy and expand its facility, a move that will allow the business to grow its operations and create jobs.”

Founded in 1992, Patriot Armored Systems manufactures laminated, customized protective glass systems by purchasing glass as a raw material and melding it with bonding compounds. The company specializes in bullet-resistant glass and security glazing and offers an array of glass types, including architectural, ballistic, and bullet-resistant glass. Patriot Armored Systems serves a broad customer base, manufacturing customized products for various military operations, law enforcement, government buildings, banks, hospitals, retail businesses, vehicles, and homes. 

“We’re grateful for MassDevelopment’s low-cost financing that is enabling us and many other manufacturers to grow in Western Mass.,” said Patriot Armored Systems CEO Tom Briggs. “With this support from MassDevelopment and Berkshire Bank, Patriot Armored Systems can now expand, hire additional employees, and further our mission of providing unique, customized products for our clients.”

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY 2018, MassDevelopment financed or managed 384 projects, generating investment of more than $4.1 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are estimated to create or support 10,994 jobs and build or rehabilitate 830 housing units.

Springfield Cultural Partnership Announces Return of Art Stop on April 26

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Cultural Partnership (SCP) announced the return of Art Stop, a pop-up gallery/street festival hybrid, on Friday, April 26 from 5 to 8 p.m. The SCP is partnering with venues downtown to open galleries in unexpected spaces simultaneously.

Additionally, several existing Springfield art galleries along this year’s route will also participate as stops along the Art Stop. Between the galleries, which will have the typical artist talks and receptions, there will be street performances. Art Stop was designed to activate underutilized community spaces with colorful art, create economic opportunity for artists, and bring communities together.

“Guests who attended Art Stop in the past will be pleased to see both exciting new and prior year favorites during the spring 2019 Art Stop,” said SCP Director Karen Finn. “In response to the feedback of our audience and with incredible new revitalization projects within downtown, we’ve added new venues and increased street performances. We were also able to expanded the reach to local emerging artists by utilizing our new ‘artists of Springfield’ database, which can be found on www.springfieldculture.org.”

Galleries will all be located in downtown Springfield. Each individual gallery opening will have an reception with the artist on site to both sell and talk about their work. This year, the SCP has also partnered with several downtown restaurants that will offer a discount on food to Art Stop attendees who present their Art Stop ‘passport’ on April 26.

The SCP, along with organizing the curation of art in the pop-up spaces, is hiring unique buskers to encourage attendees to walk from place to place. Guides will be strategically placed to guide attendees along the Art Stop route. The performers will showcase an array of dance, music, and entertainment. All locations are within a walkable area.

Berkshire Theatre Group Receives Universal Participation Designation from Mass Cultural Council

By
Daily News

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) announced it was the recipient of the Mass Cultural Council’s (MCC) Universal Participation (UP) Designation. The UP initiative seeks to break down barriers that prevent civic participation in the cultural sector of Massachusetts.

“It is our goal to open our theatre doors wide to make sure everyone feels comfortable and capable of making BTG their home for all things creative,” said BTG Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire.

The UP designation provides peer networking, leadership platforms, access to grants, promotional opportunities, and professional development for organizations demonstrating inclusive practices.

Through the MCC Innovation and Learning Network and the UP designation, the goals of the UP initiative are to support the growth and development of organizations that embrace inclusivity as core to their mission and recognize the power of design to anticipate and accommodate patrons, staff, volunteers, and students. 

BTG received this designation through providing training to the staff, board, and volunteers about inclusion; engaging users and experts to steward institutional needs to facilitate program and policy development; and implementing innovative accessible practices.

The MCC is a state agency that promotes excellence, inclusion, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities and sciences to foster a rich cultural life for all Massachusetts residents and contribute to the vitality of Massachusetts communities and economy. The council pursues this mission through a wide range of grants, initiatives, and advocacy for artists, communities, organizations, and schools.

Elms College to Hold Instant Accept Day at Berkshire Community College

By
Daily News

CHICOPEE — The School of Graduate and Professional Studies at Elms College will host an Instant Accept Day on Tuesday, Feb. 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the cafeteria at Berkshire Community College, 1350 West St., Pittsfield.

Interested students should bring their official transcripts to be considered for admission to bachelor’s degree completion programs in social work or early care and education. Elms College representatives will be on hand to discuss program options, review students’ educational histories, and offer instant acceptance to qualified applicants.

In this degree-completion program, classes are held Saturdays on the Berkshire Community College campus, taught by Elms faculty. By completing coursework in 10 eight-week sessions over a 20-month period, students can save thousands of dollars in completing a bachelor’s degree.

Why Niche Magazines Are One of the Best Ways to Advertise Locally

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Marketing Tips

Courtesy ofAshley Lauwereins, www.swiftlocalsolutions.com

It can be hard to wear all the hats associated with successfully running your own business. When it comes to advertising, so many different opportunities exist. There are social media advertising options, digital marketing tactics, and a variety of print options. Magazines are an often-overlooked platform that can drive powerful results for your business.

In this post I will highlight why niche magazines are one of the best ways to advertise locally and explain the results you can expect to see when you advertise in these specialized publications.

About the Audience

Magazines resemble small businesses in that they target a niche target audience.

This is especially true for local special interest magazines. These publications are often run by local media companies and backed by demographic data about the local communities. The reader’s commitment to this unique brand experience results in unparalleled consumer engagement with magazine content be it in print or in digital format.

Read more

Isenberg School Expansion Makes Powerful, Practical Statement

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Architect Yu Inamoto says the copper used in the building’s exterior was chosen in an effort to give it a look that is “authentic and real.”
Cover Story

Form and Function

Interim Dean Tom Moliterno

Interim Dean Tom Moliterno

The Isenberg Innovation Hub, a $62 million expansion and renovation of the business school’s facilities on the UMass Amherst campus, will open its doors to students later this month. The building’s exterior design is stunning, and it gives a new face to Isenberg and perhaps the university, but the architects have made it functional as well.

Dramatic. Striking. Stunning. Powerful. Distinctive.

Those are some of the words that come to mind as one takes in the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub, a $62 million, 70,000-square-foot addition and renovation to the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and its copper cladding, circular design, and falling-dominoes effect.

And those who conceptualized this project and then went about raising the money for it certainly had all those adjectives in mind when they went about hiring architects to create something that would effectively, and loudly, announce the Isenberg school’s ascension to the ranks of the best business schools in the country — and also help recruit the next generation of top students.

“Now that we are a top-20 business school, the students who are considering us are also considering a lot of other exceptional business schools. And one of the things that a student and his or her parents think about is the physical space.”

But that’s certainly not all they wanted — or demanded.

“Now that we are a top-20 business school, the students who are considering us are also considering a lot of other exceptional business schools,” said Tom Moliterno, interim dean at Isenberg. “And one of the things that a student and his or her parents think about is the physical space; there is a requirement, much like a football team needs good facilities, for facilities of a certain caliber in order to ensure that we get the best students.

The learning commons in the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub, like the building itself, has both a striking design and a great deal of functionality; it also doubles as event space.

The learning commons in the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub, like the building itself, has both a striking design and a great deal of functionality; it also doubles as event space.

“But there’s more to it than that,” he went on. “You need more than a pretty building; you need a building that’s designed to train students and to prepare students for careers in the 21st century.”

Elaborating, he said business schools today require space that is geared far more toward student collaboration, team working environments, distance learning, and career services than even a decade or two ago.

And all of this is reflected in what’s behind the flashy exterior of the Business Innovation Hub. Indeed, as he conducted his formal tour of the new facility, Moliterno seemed to be constantly pointing out places where people, and especially students, could come together and collaborate.

The hallways, like all the areas in the Business Innovation Hub, are designed to promote collaboration.

The hallways, like all the areas in the Business Innovation Hub, are designed to promote collaboration.

In the learning commons, which doubles as event space, there are dozens of soft chairs and small round tables at which people can gather; in the classrooms, the chairs have wheels, and for a reason — so they can be moved and maneuvered to face in any direction, toward the instructor in the front of the room or the student across the table; in the hallway outside the classrooms, there are more soft chairs and gathering spaces; in the courtyard, there are stone benches; on the grand stairway, there are wooden planks affixed to one set of the concrete stairs — again, for a reason.

“If you’re heading up the stairs and you see someone coming down that you want to talk to, you can pull over, sit down on the stairs, and talk,” said Moliterno, adding that the architects — Boston-based Goody Clancy, in partnership with the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) of New York and Denmark — went to extremely great lengths to inspire and facilitate collaboration, and this, perhaps even more than the stunning exterior and interior designs, is what the new addition is all about.

Roger Goldstein, the principal at Goody Clancy who headed the Isenberg project, agreed, and said the firm applied lessons from two decades of work designing college business schools and additions to the Isenberg initiative.

An aerial view of the expansion project

“Their aspiration was for something with real distinction — something that would be forward-looking and quite contemporary,” he explained, referring to Moliterno and Mark Fuller, the former dean of the Isenberg School and now associate chancellor at UMass Amherst. “But also a building that works really well and will stand up in the long run.”

Yu Inamoto, lead architect for the BIG group on this project, concurred. “One of the desires put forth by the dean, the faculty, and all the others we interacted with was to have a space that was not only impressive, but a place for gathering, and this is reflected throughout.”

Faculty and staff are currently moving into the new facilities, said Moliterno, adding that the building will be ready when students return to classes later this month.

One of the state-of-the-art classrooms in the Business Innovation Hub.

One of the state-of-the-art classrooms in the Business Innovation Hub.

What they’ll find is a state-of-the-art, user-friendly facility that does a lot for Isenberg, and UMass Amherst on the whole.

It gives the business school — and perhaps the university itself — a bold new face. It also gives the school a powerful new recruiting tool and perhaps the ability to rise still higher in the rankings, something that’s difficult to do as it moves up the ladder.

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest toured the Business Innovation Hub and learned how it blends form and function and punctuates the Isenberg School’s ongoing ascent among the nation’s top business schools.

Space Exploration

While obviously proud of the expansion’s ground floor, with its learning commons, courtyard, hallways crowded with gathering spaces, and generous amounts of glass, Moliterno was anxious for his tour to reach the second floor.

Because this is where more of that all-important functionality can be found. And it manifests itself in a number of ways, from greatly expanded and enhanced space for the Chase Career Center to separate lounges for students waiting to be interviewed and recruiters waiting to do some interviewing, to the small interviewing rooms that, when not being used for that purpose, can double as additional gathering spaces for students, thus maximizing each available square foot of space.

“Those rooms are sized and furnished to swing one way or the other depending on what the need is,” said Goldstein. “And that improves efficiency because you’re not creating spaces that have only one use and are empty half the time.”

Before elaborating on this mindset and what the Business Innovation Hub means for Isenberg, its students, faculty, the recruiters who will visit it to query job candidates, and other constituencies, Moliterno first went back to roughly the start of this decade, when the seeds for this facility were planted.

And they were planted out of need, he went on, which came in many forms.

The first was simply spacial. Indeed, while the original Isenberg building, built in 1964, was expanded with the so-called Alfond addition in 2002, by the start of this decade, and actually long before that, a growing Isenberg was busting at the seams.

Architect Yu Inamoto says the copper used in the building’s exterior was chosen in an effort to give it a look that is “authentic and real.”

Architect Yu Inamoto says the copper used in the building’s exterior was chosen in an effort to give it a look that is “authentic and real.”

“What we used to say is that we were a family of eight living in a two-bedroom apartment,” said Moliterno, noting that undergraduate enrollment at Isenberg had risen from 2,500 in to 3,400 in just a few years earlier this decade.

Facilities were so cramped that some departments within Isenberg, such as Hospitality & Tourism Management and the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management, were spread out in other buildings, said Goldstein, creating an inconvenience for students and faculty alike. The Business and Innovation Hub brings all of Isenberg’s departments and offices together under one roof.

Beyond the need for more space, though, Isenberg also needed better space, said Moliterno — space that reflected its climb in the rankings in the U.S. News & World Report listings of business schools — both public institutions (it’s now 26th nationwide and first among undergraduate programs in the Northeast) and overall (44th in the nation). And space that would help Isenberg compete for students applying to the other schools just above or below them on those lists.

“Relatively early in his tenure, Mark Fuller realized that the school was on a trajectory, both in terms of growth and in terms of quality, that was going to necessitate new physical space,” said Moliterno, adding that the first discussions and estimates on square footage required date back to 2010 or even 2009.

At this point, the project essentially “went into the queue,” as Moliterno called it, noting that there were a number of building projects being forwarded for consideration and funding. To move up in the queue — something deemed necessary as the school continued its torrid pace of growth as well as its ascent in the rankings — the Isenberg School took the unusual step of committing to provide 60% of the funding for the project, with the rest covered by the university.

This commitment translated into the largest ever made by a specific school for a campus building project, he went on, adding that this bold step did, indeed, move the initiative up in the queue. And in 2014, formal planning — including specific space requirements and preliminary cost estimates — began in earnest.

However, in the two to three years since the initial discussions and rough sketching were undertaken, construction costs had increased 50%, he said, bringing the total cost to $62 million.

While raising that sum was a challenge — met by tapping into a growing base of successful Isenberg alums — it would be only one of many to overcome.

Another would be fitting the building into that crowded area of the campus while also negotiating a veritable rat’s nest of underground utilities in that quadrant.

“There was this bowl of spaghetti of steam lines, electrical conduits, and high-speed data lines,” said Moliterno. “And one of the real design challenges was figuring out how to put a building on this part of campus given everything that was underground.”

Designs on Continued Growth

Creating a road map for navigating this bowl of spaghetti was just one component of the assignment eventually awarded to Goody Clancy and the Bjarke Ingels Group — a partnership that Moliterno called a ‘perfect marriage’ of an emerging force in the design world (BIG) and a company with vast experience in designing not only academic buildings, but business-school facilities.

“There was this bowl of spaghetti of steam lines, electrical conduits, and high-speed data lines. And one of the real design challenges was figuring out how to put a building on this part of campus given everything that was underground.”

Indeed, BIG has been on a meteoric rise, with a portfolio now boasting Two World Trade Center in New York, Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters building, and several dozen other projects either under construction or in the planning stages.

As for Goody Clancy, as noted, it has spent the past 20 years or so developing a strong niche designing new buildings and additions for business schools, and the portfolio includes recent work at Harvard, Boston University, Georgetown University, Texas Tech, and the University of New Hampshire.

Development of this niche wasn’t exactly by design, to use an industry term, said Goldstein, but as often happens in this business, a single project or two can lead to additional opportunities.

And that’s what happened after the firm took on a project for Babson University, known for its programs in entrepreneurship.

“We then did a few more, and before you knew it, we had three business-school buildings, and we thought, ‘OK, this looks like a specialty,’” he told BusinessWest, adding that the company has another four or five business-school projects in various stages of completion, a reflection of the need for such institutions to keep up with the Joneses, if you will, so they can effectively compete for the best students.

“Business schools have wealthy donors and want to build buildings that will advance their brand,” he said. “They want something that will differentiate them.”

Inamoto agreed. “Schools definitely want to make a statement with these buildings,” he said, adding that the Isenberg addition is the first academic project taken on by the firm in this country, and thus it sought to partner with a firm with a deep portfolio in that realm.

As they went about designing the addition, the team of architects focused on both of their priorities — form and function. They conceptualized an exterior that would fit in — sort of — and respect the brutalist style so prominent in other buildings in that part of the campus, such as the Fine Arts Center and the Whitmore Administration Building.

The circular design, meanwhile, would create a dynamic look that would also connect, in dramatic fashion, with the existing Isenberg facility (as the aerial architect’s rendering on page 18 shows) and “close the loop,” as Goldstein put it.

As for the copper exterior, Inamoto said it was chosen — after aluminum was first considered — because the material, like the school itself, isn’t stagnant; it changes over time.

“As a firm, we like the look of copper, and we like to recommend naturally aging materials,” he explained. “The copper panels are already starting to weather; when they’re first installed, they’re a bright, shiny orange, and within weeks, that starts to become darker and brown, and over time, they’ll oxidize to a green copper look.

“Over time, the building weathers,” he went on. “And we didn’t want something that was too flat or too plasticky, if you will. That’s part of our design strategy; we try to select something that’s authentic and real.”

In designing what’s behind the copper façade, they started by gathering extensive feedback, via focus groups, from a number of constituencies, including Isenberg administrators and staff, students, faculty, and others. And they incorporated what they learned into the final design, said Moliterno, citing everything from a café to greatly expanded space for the career center and undergraduate advising.

“They brought in Career Services and said, ‘walk us through everything you do — what are your space needs? You have interviewers here — how many, and what do they need?’” he recalled. “And then, they had that same conversation with Undergraduate Programs and with a committee of faculty who talked about the classroom space.

“And they had the same conversations with students,” he went on. “And this is where we learned that students are often here from 8 in the morning until 10 at night, and thus they want a place to eat in the building, because if they leave the building, they break up their team process.”

As for the career center and undergraduate advising facilities, these are as important to the ultimate success of Isenberg students (and the school itself) as the classrooms, said Moliterno, adding that these facilities provide more services to far more students than they did even a few years ago.

“Students don’t just show up when they’re juniors and look for job postings,” he explained. “They’re working with the career services offices constantly in order to get internships, résumé review, and structure their social-media profile. The hands-on career prep, the number of hours one spends in career services, has grown dramatically over the years, and this is reflected in the design of this building.”

Seeing the Light

As he walked through the expanded career services office during his tour, Moliterno put the Business Innovation Hub and the chosen designs for it in their proper perspective.

“At the initial bid process, when I was speaking to all the architects who were bidding, I said, ‘I want to be clear about something: this might be the most beautiful building in the world, but if it doesn’t work for the students, if it doesn’t enhance and improve the student experience, it will be a failure — full stop,’” he recalled.

‘Most beautiful building in the world’ is a purely subjective matter for discussion, he went on, while the matter of whether a building works for students certainly isn’t.

He’s quite sure that this one does, and while that quality generally doesn’t warrant adjectives like ‘dramatic, ‘striking,’ ‘stunning,’ or ‘powerful,’ it probably should.

And it explains, even more than that façade, why the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub is such an important development for the school and the university.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

VVM Takes Agency — and Its Mission — to a New Place

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Kristin Leutz in VVM’s new space at Springfield’s Innovation Center.
Features

Collision Course

Kristin Leutz in VVM’s new space at Springfield’s Innovation Center.

Kristin Leutz in VVM’s new space at Springfield’s Innovation Center.

As Valley Venture Mentors completes its move into Springfield’s Innovation Center on Bridge Street, it is also moving into a new era in its history, one that is very entrepreneurial in nature — in keeping with its broad mission — and strives to continually expand and strengthen the region’s ecosystem for supporting and inspiring entrepreneurs.

‘Pivot.’

In the startup world, this term has become incredibly versatile, now serving as a verb, a noun, and an adjective. It has become the subject of lectures, books, and articles bearing titles that hint at its emergence — as in “The Art of the Pivot,” “Three Rules for Making a Successful Pivot,” “Five Steps for Pivoting into Entrepreneurship,” and countless others.

In simple terms, to pivot means to adapt, or to change the course or strategy of an emerging business based largely on customer wants and needs. Some of the most prominent companies in the world owe their success to a pivot, or several of them.

There are various methods of pivoting, as indicated by those article titles above, but the bottom line — both literally and figuratively — is for entrepreneurs to understand the importance of flexibility and the need to pivot, and to not be afraid to so.

Administrators and mentors at Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) have been preaching the need to pivot and showing people how since the nonprofit was launched eight years ago now. And these days, one might say it is practicing what it’s been preaching.

Well, sort of.

What VVM is engaged in now could be called a pivot, although its overall mission and strategy are not really changing. They are evolving, though, and being taken to a new and higher level as the organization completes its move into the long-anticipated, $7 million Innovation Center on Bridge Street in downtown Springfield.

“One of the barriers, especially in a region and city that smaller, like Springfield, is a lack of connectivity. Place-making is a foundational piece of that, creating a physical home for people to collide in and meet and have natural connection with each other across industry.”

The move began last summer, said Kristin Leutz, who assumed the role of CEO at VVM about the same time as the moving trucks started unpacking furniture. And it is ongoing, she said, as new furnishings arrive and new strategies emerge for making the best and most efficient use of the intriguing 10,000 square feet of space VVM now commands.

The agency will be using a small percentage of that space for its own administrative needs, with the rest devoted to revenue-producing, entrepreneurial-ecosystem-building endeavors, from signing on tenants for various co-working spaces and small offices to renting out the large, 175-seat auditorium that dominates the ground floor of VVM’s suite.

And this is where the pivoting comes in, said Leutz, adding that VVM is moving to a slightly adjusted, more entrepreneurial model, necessitated by the need to cover the expenses of what is, in many respects, a growing business in its own right.

These include the nearly $4,000 in monthly rent — a great bargain given the amount of space and the going rates downtown these days — as well as a growing staff and the myriad other costs of running such an operation.

From left, Stephanie Kirby, VVM’s director of Mentorship; Kristin Leutz, CEO; and Ron Molina-Brantley, COO.

From left, Stephanie Kirby, VVM’s director of Mentorship; Kristin Leutz, CEO; and Ron Molina-Brantley, COO.

“This space represents a micro entrepreneurship venture of our own,” she explained, adding that, like the startups mentored and supported by VVM, it has a business plan and a strategy for executing it.

In simple terms, it involves making the Innovation Center not merely a revenue center, although it will become that as well, but an entrepreneurial hub and a place where collisions can and will happen — collisions between fellow entrepreneurs, business owners and mentors, entrepreneurs and potential investors, and more.

“When we think about how to introduce people from Springfield and Western Mass. to the entry point when it comes to entrepreneurship and remove any barriers that exist, we come back to the all-important concept of place-making,” she told BusinessWest. “One of the barriers, especially in a region and city that’s smaller, like Springfield, is a lack of connectivity. Place-making is a foundational piece of that, creating a physical home for people to collide in and meet and have natural connection with each other across industries.”

Summings things up, Leutz noted VVM’s working slogan (“Give. Get. Grow.”) and said the new location and all its facilities — from different kinds of co-working space to a nursing room for new mothers; from a shared kitchen to areas where startups and mentors can meet and collaborate — provide individuals, startups, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole with more opportunities to do all of the above.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with the staff at VVM about not only the move into the Innovation Center, but the organization’s pivoting action and the next crucial steps in its history.

Right Place, Right Time

VVM will stage a grand-opening ceremony at its new space on Thursday, Feb. 7, when it co-hosts the annual State of Entrepreneurship Conference with the Economic Development Council of Western Mass. The invite list for that event, and the ribbon cutting to follow, is rather lengthy, said Leutz, noting that it includes representatives of a number of entrepreneurial ecosystem partners — from the Grinspoon Foundation to TechSpring to area colleges and universities — as well as a number of other constituencies, including elected officials, VVM alums, mentors, and long-time supporters.

“We’re checking our occupancy level to see how many we can have in here legally,” she said, adding that the agency will test the upper limit of that number, whatever it is.

Getting to this ribbon-cutting ceremony has been an adventure, she noted, and a long journey that started when she and many other representatives of this region toured the Cambridge Innovation Center and came back determined to create a similar place-making facility in this region, preferably in downtown Springfield.

Fast-forwarding somewhat — this story has been well-chronicled — the historic structure at 270-276 Bridge St. was eventually chosen, and a number of funding partners, including MassDevelopment, MassMutual, Common Capital, and others, were secured. The project got underway in 2017, but as work proceeded and walls were taken down, it became clear that the cost of the work would far exceed preliminary estimates — and the amount raised.

Work was stopped for several months before eventually starting up again last spring. Leutz recalled the occasion.

“It was like a reunion — we got the architects back together with the contractor, we were meeting weekly in the space, there were holes in the floor … there was drama, but we were doing it,” she said. “And things moved fast; we knew in June that we were going to fast-track this thing and get it open by January, and we did.”

But as work was starting up again, VVM was going through a transformation of its own, starting at the top, where Leutz, who joined the organization as COO in the fall of 2017, was chosen to succeed Liz Roberts as CEO.

Kristin Leutz says VVM’s new co-working spaces, like the dedicated spaces for lease seen here, are “the beating heart of the startup community.”

Kristin Leutz says VVM’s new co-working spaces, like the dedicated spaces for lease seen here, are “the beating heart of the startup community.”

“I’ve always been a big fan of VVM,” said Leutz, who was a mentor with the organization in its earliest days and is perhaps best-known locally for the decade she spent as vice president for Philanthropic Services at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

She noted that, while at the Community Foundation, she helped VVM secure one of the first innovation grants awarded by that organization, a three-year commitment made to help launch its accelerator, among other programs. “I understood early on that this was something unique in Western Mass. and that it would really take off.”

And now that it has, she and fellow team members take on the assignment of plotting an ambitious course — and keeping it on the course, again, much like the startup businesses it helps mentor, she said, adding that when she came on board as COO it was to essentially help blueprint a new strategic plan for the nonprofit centered on its home and the new opportunities it offered, and she was intrigued by the assignment.

As was Ron Molina-Brantley, who joined VVM a few months before Leutz did and would eventually succeed her as COO.

Formerly an employee of the city of Springfield, working first in the Finance Department and then the Facilities Department as senior program manager — a perfect blend of skills for an organization moving into new space and also assuming new fiscal responsibilities — Molina-Brantley said he was looking to grow professionally, and VVM and the next stage in its development offered an intriguing challenge.

“VVM was the right place at the right time,” he told BusinessWest. “The environment and ecosystem they were trying to build really appealed to me; there was an instant love affair between me and VVM and the community. The atmosphere is amazing, the startups are amazing, and you just want to be part of it. It’s contagious.”

It was, and is, for Stephanie Kirby, as well, VVM’s director of Mentorship. An alum of the agency’s collegiate accelerator program, she started her own business (a music label) at age 14, and has continually honed and reshaped it over the years — so much so that she was known as the “pivot queen” when she took part in VVM’s first collegiate accelerator while attending Five Towns College in New York.

“I would pivot a lot within my business, and when you come to VVM, that’s what they teach you — how do you actually build your business,” she said, adding that she’s now working to help others master that skill.

Writing the Next Chapter

Together, these and other team members have taken on the assignment of moving VVM into a new era, if you will, one that poses some challenges for the agency, but myriad new opportunities for entrepreneurs and those mentoring them — and for strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem the region has built and that has gained considerable momentum in recent years.

To explain it in simple terms, Leutz said the VVM operation is in some ways similar in structure to a pyramid. At the base is the place — in this case, the Innovation Center — where things, meaning those collisions she mentioned, can happen. The next level in the pyramid is programming, which at VVM means mentorship and acceleration, specifically its two popular accelerator programs — a startup accelerator and a collegiate accelerator. And the top of the pyramid is what she called “an ecosystem builder,” meaning systems to support what others across the region, like the Grinspoon Foundation and the area’s colleges and universities, are doing.

VVM’s mentorship lounge, top, and the shared community kitchen are just some of the spaces carefully designed to promote collisions.

VVM’s mentorship lounge, top, and the shared community kitchen are just some of the spaces carefully designed to promote collisions.

“Within these realms, we hope to serve everyone, from the ideation stage, early, early, person-with-an-idea-on-napkin type of entrepreneur, to someone who has a venture and is on their way to raising their first round of capital or beyond,” she said. “It’s usually seed stage for us, and our programs are customized for that entrepreneur’s unique goals and challenges. What’s new for VVM, and what we’re really zeroing in on, is ‘how do we take a particular venture and uniquely help it to succeed?’

“Our big focus now is to think about 1,000 startups in the Pioneer Valley — what would that look like and how would that change the success rate, because we know a large number of startups fail,” she went on. “The more that you create, the greater chance you have for seeing transformational companies.”

And the Innovation Center and VVM’s new facilities are designed to help make that vision reality, she went on as she offered a tour that started on the ground floor, devoted to programming, and the auditorium, which is community space in every sense of that phrase.

“We encourage anyone and everyone to think about how to promote entrepreneurship in their industry, their business, or their community, and come talk to us, and we’ll make this space available,” she said, adding that the space was essentially created to showcase people’s ideas and their notion of entrepreneurship.

That first floor also includes a mentorship lounge, which represents a major upgrade from the spaces where mentors and entrepreneurs would get together in recent years when VVM was located in donated space in Tower Square. “We’ve never had a space like this; before, people were just hanging out on folding chairs in a big, open room.”

It also includes two private offices that can be rented out and café space as well.

The second floor, what she called the “beating heart of our startup community,” is where the co-working space is to be found. Half of the floor is dedicated to people who rent permanent spots on a month-to-month basis, she said, adding that three startups are currently doing so. There’s also the so-called ‘hot desk’ space — unassigned space that be rented for $25 a day, with other rates for more regular use — as well as a ‘brainstorming nook,’ a community kitchen, private phone rooms for entrepreneurs seeking some privacy, the private room for nursing mothers, and more.

Roughly 50% of the space that can be rented is now under lease, she said, adding that the goal is to get that number to 75% and perhaps 100% by the end of this year.

Describing the look and feel of VVM’s new home, Leutz noted that, while these spaces may have been inspired by similar facilities in other communities, they don’t look like those spaces.

“This space is meant to feel like it belongs in Springfield,” she said, adding that there is furniture made by local artists and the walls will feature what she described as ‘community-driven’ art. “It’s beautiful, and it’s aspirational, but it also feels like it’s home. It won’t feel like you’ve stepped into some place in downtown Manhattan, and it shouldn’t. It should feel like Springfield.”

Bottom Line

Summing up what’s been created on Bridge Street, Leutz went back to the goals put down on paper after the group visiting the Cambridge Innovation Center returned to Springfield and set about replicating what they encountered.

“This intention of this project was always to have it be a community-driven space focusing on the innovation economy and enlivening the economic activity downtown,” she said, adding that this is a broad mission, and, as noted, somewhat of a pivot for VVM.

An exciting pivot, for sure, and one that certainly bears watching in the months and years to come.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Eastern States Exposition Touts Its Heritage and Continued Impact

By
President and CEO Gene Cassidy
Meetings & Conventions

Horse Sense

President and CEO Gene Cassidy

President and CEO Gene Cassidy.

When people think of the Eastern States Exposition, they often think immediately of the Big E, the 17-day fair that dominates the tourism landscape at the start of each fall. But Eastern States is much more than that, as reflected by its diverse array of events, both large and small, and the resulting economic impact on the region — not to mention its important mission of keeping its agricultural heritage alive for future generations.

Fifty-two years ago, notes Greg Chiecko, a local camping group set up shop at the Eastern States Exposition — and have come back every year since.

“That was our first non-fair event. They took the building for the whole month — it took that long to set up, do their show, and move out.”

How things have changed, said Chiecko, director of Sales. The Big E, the 17-day fair that has taken place each fall for more than a century, remains the ESE’s most famous calling card. But outside the fair, the grounds hosts more than 100 events annually, some small-scale, some much larger, like the camping and outdoor show that now crams hundreds of vehicles into three large buildings each February.

One of the many horse shows at the ESE.

One of the many horse shows at the ESE.

“The dynamics have changed substantially over the past 50 years,” Chiecko said. “They’ve been doing it so long, it’s amazing. They still take a little while to move in, but they do it with such accuracy, and they literally move out of all the buildings in a day.”

A quick look at the coming month’s schedule demonstrates the range of groups that present events here. February alone offers the Amherst Railway Society’s Railroad Hobby Show, the aforementioned Springfield RV Camping and Outdoor Show, the Springfield Sportsmen’s Show, and two dog shows. March brings the Old Deerfield Spring Sampler Craft Fair, Mark’s Northeast Motorsports Expo, the Antique & Modern Firearms Show, the Maple Harvest Day & Pancake Breakfast, the AMMO Fight League, a Massachusetts 4-H Blue Ribbon Calf Sale, and the large Western Mass. Home and Garden Show — not to mention two more dog shows.

“We call ourselves the flexible facility in the heart of New England, and we truly are,” said Chiecko, who will leave the ESE next month to become president and CEO of the Outdoor Amusement Business Assoc. “And every show is different. The Big E and the Fiber Festival are the only events we produce. We’re a landlord the rest of the year. Some of these are volunteer groups, some are professional promoters, some are associations … it runs the gamut. They produce the shows, and we offer services, like ticket takers, ticket sellers, security, and more. They can use our services or use their own.”

Greg Chiecko calls the ESE “the flexible facility in the heart of New England.”

Greg Chiecko calls the ESE “the flexible facility in the heart of New England.”

Gene Cassidy, president and CEO of the Eastern States Exposition, noted that the facility also offers services like advertising, sign manufacturing, banking, and other amenities that many venues don’t have in their portfolio. The result of this flexibility and roster of services results in a high retention rate, with groups that return year after year. In addition, he noted, “some staff people have been here for 40 years. So there’s a lot of institutional memory.”

The ESE’s consumer shows — home shows, gun shows, camp shows, sport shows, and the like — tend to be among its most popular offerings, Chiecko said. “We’re also the dog-show capital of the Northeast. In 2017, we had 36,000 AKC-registered dogs on our property, just from the AKC shows, not counting other groups. Dog shows are a big deal. And we love dog shows because they come on holidays: Easter, Thanksgiving weekend, Fourth of July weekend, times of the year when it would be difficult to fill our spaces.”

“In 2017, we had 36,000 AKC-registered dogs on our property, just from the AKC shows, not counting other groups. Dog shows are a big deal.”

EASTEC, the largest manufacturing event east of the Mississippi, returns to the fairgrounds this May for its biannual visit. “Exhibitors love it, and the area restaurants and hotels do great,” Chiecko said, adding that local trade shows, from the likes of J. Polep Distribution Services and Performance Food Group, also regularly host events. Meanwhile, clients book parties and weddings at Storrowton Tavern and the Carriage House, which managed by a private firm but owned by the ESE.

That’s far from an exhaustive list, but it does lend credence to Chiecko’s “flexible facility” motto.

“I’ve been here 24 years, and I’ve never heard a “can we do it?” inquiry that I’ve had to say ‘no’ to,” he said. “The facility is so flexible, and our crew is so flexible, we can do anything.”

Animal Attraction

Despite the myriad events the ESE presents each year, its heritage remains firmly rooted in animals and agriculture.

“We do 13 horse shows outside the three we do for the fair,” Chiecko said. “We do a sheep show, youth cattle shows, and we have a big poultry show coming up next month. And this past year, we had the National Rabbit Association. We had 18,000 rabbits here.”

“The joke,” Cassidy quickly added, “was that 18,000 rabbits came, and 36,000 left.”

The attendance level varies among these events, Chiecko noted. “A lot of the horse shows tend to watch themselves rather than anything else. But the rabbit show attracted a huge population from the general public.”

The annual Western Mass. Home and Garden show

The annual Western Mass. Home and Garden show brings attendees face to face with hundreds of local businesses.

However, when it comes to most animal events, Cassidy said, “I wish there were more people engaged. It’s our job to promote the breed or species, put it out there for the public to consume, and they’re free events. The fact is, if the Big E had more days or we had more acreage, more of those shows would take place during the course of the fair so we could get as many people from the public exposed to that. But we do our best to try to promote interest in it; we believe it’s important for agriculture. It’s mission-driven; we’re not making any money on that. That’s all stuff we promote and invest heavily in.”

Still, “the more shows we can put in during the fair, the more it helps us fund our agriculture program, most of which happens outside of the fair, in the other 49 weeks of the year,” he went on. “We make it available to the public so they can have the exposure. It’s tough in this day and age, when the youth in the general population are so disassociated from agriculture, and we deal with the hardcore animal activists, the people who have serious agendas against consumption of animals, and they influence public policy to the detriment of the greater good of society.”

That has affected the national 4-H program, which gets federal funding and is being influenced by people outside of agriculture, which results in regulation making it harder for children to be involved. Meanwhile, Future Farmers of America, a private nonprofit not under federal control, is going strong, Cassidy explained, noting that, no matter the vehicle, it’s important to keep engaging young people in agriculture and animal rearing. “Those are the kids that going to feed the world in the next generation.”

It’s one of the reasons why the Big E, which continues to set attendance records, is so critical, in that it helps fund the other 49 weeks of events while driving interest in animal shows; people are more likely to check out such shows once they’ve bought a ticket and are at the fairgrounds.

“At one time, we had four or five antique shows here. The Internet has almost eliminated antique shows because people can shop from the comfort of their own living room.”

“The fair is just a fundraiser. It’s like your church bazaar, except we just happen to run 17 days and are one of the biggest in the world,” Cassidy said. “It’s a fundraiser for us to drive stewardship into our mission. I wish more people were as excited about that mission as we are. I look down the road a generation, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

On the other hand, Chiecko said, the consumer shows are still strong because people enjoy events that reflect their hobbies and interests. But even there, the Internet has impacted certain shows.

“At one time, we had four or five antique shows here. The Internet has almost eliminated antique shows because people can shop from the comfort of their own living room, which is really too bad, because the quality of what people get isn’t nearly the same. It’s the same with craft shows. That’s the nature of the business cycle — we’re no different than a brick-and-mortar store dealing with Amazon.”

Living the Mission

Cassidy emphasized more than once during BusinessWest’s visit that the Eastern States Exposition makes a priority of its agricultural mission. “Not everyone relates to that mission. But if we can’t support agriculture, we can’t support everything else we support – and we support a lot.”

He’s not just talking about planned events. The fairgrounds has been a staging center for emergency situations as well. Northeast Utilities set up camp and fed its crews there during the famous October 2011 snowstorm. A few months before that, the ESE’s dorms housed hundreds of people suddenly made homeless by the tornado that struck the region. “We’ve hosted large RV rallies here,” Chiecko said. “If a cattle guy breaks down on 91, they might come here.”

So there’s a community impact in addition to the economic impact to the region — more than a half-billion dollars a year, he noted, with only part of that generated by the 17-day Big E. “Year-round operations play a big role.”

He believes its impact will only grow now that MGM Springfield has opened across the river.

“I think we have a good partnership,” he said, one that extends beyond parking cars for MGM during its first week of operation last summer. “They bring large conventions to town, which utilize rooms and banquet spaces downtown — well, we have 355,000 square feet of exhibit space. We’re hoping to see more city-wide conventions. It’s a tight-knit community here.”

Dog shows have become a surprisingly robust source of bookings for the ESE.

Dog shows have become a surprisingly robust source of bookings for the ESE.

For convention goers and people who attend events at Eastern States, MGM is another activity to take in while visiting Springfield, he added, while people who come to Springfield mainly for the casino might also take in an event at the fairgrounds — and everyone benefits.

“Because of the advertising campaign MGM launched, it put Springfield on the map in a bigger way, and I think our fair benefited from that,” Cassidy said of last year’s record attendance at the Big E, which took place a few weeks after MGM opened. “My hope is that, with the synergies we’ve developed in partnership with MGM, we can help bring more commerce to the city of Springfield in the form of non-fair events: trade shows, professional shows, manufacturing shows.”

With that in mind, he keeps plugging away at that year-round mission — because, simply put, the Eastern States Exposition is more than a center for events of all kinds. It’s a critical piece of the region’s tourism and economic picture.

“If this place ever went away, the impact on our economy would be devastating,” he said.

Which is why he doesn’t intend to let the ESE go to the dogs — well, except on those weekends when it does.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Karin Jeffers Has Grown CSO into a Leader in Behavioral Health

By
Karin Jeffers, CEO of Clinical & Support Options
Women in Businesss

Culture of Care

Karin Jeffers, CEO of Clinical & Support Options

Karin Jeffers, CEO of Clinical & Support Options

Karin Jeffers, the long-time CEO of Clinical & Support Options, knew she had a challenge on her hands when she took the reins at the struggling behavioral-health and social-services agency. But she’s never been one to shy away from a challenge, and has steadily grown the organization into the broad-based, community-focused force it is today. She’s done so by embracing constant change, a culture of learning, and a sensitivity to the unique experiences of each client who walks through the door.

As the daughter of teachers, helping and supporting people was in Karin Jeffers’ blood. How she eventually applied that idea, however, wasn’t exactly a straight line.

“I went to school at Springfield College for physical therapy and thought I had my life figured out,” she told BusinessWest. “That’s what I was going to do. But then I took an abnormal psychology class, and I was just fascinated. It was way more interesting than anything I was doing otherwise.”

After doing a bit of research and learning how mental-health professionals impact people’s lives, she was sold, and switched her major to counseling and psychology.

“That was probably three and a half years through the PT program,” she recalled. “That was a fun phone call home to my dad.”

Her career path has validated that decision in spades, however. After earning her master’s degree in psychology, Jeffers took a job with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and, over the next 13 years, rose through the ranks there, from home family therapist to coordinator to clinical director to regional director.

“It can be challenging when working with children and families, but what I found immensely rewarding — and this holds to this day — is the resilience of kids and families and their desire for a better life.”

“It was a great organization; it really exposed me to a lot of the ways you can help people and make a change in an individual, a family, and a community.”

It was telling — and another validation of her shift away from physical therapy — that she found the work rewarding, even though the issues she dealt with on a daily basis could be sobering, to say the least.

“It can be challenging when working with children and families, but what I found immensely rewarding — and this holds to this day — is the resilience of kids and families and their desire for a better life,” she said. “That really drives me through what can sound like horrible stories, whether it’s abuse or trauma or whatever people have been through.

“You rarely meet somebody who wants to be in a bad place,” she went on. “You meet people who want to do better, but they may not have the tools or the resources or the supports to get where they need to be; the hope is that you can help people get closer to healing and recovery.”

Meanwhile, Clinical & Support Options was an agency founded as a child and family organization that had crept away from that mission somewhat over the years, Jeffers said. She arrived there in 2005 to become CEO of what was then a $4 million nonprofit behavioral-health enterprise with about 90 employees and just a handful of sites, mostly in Franklin County.

“I’ve always loved challenges, and at the time that I came to CSO, it was a much smaller agency,” she said. “They had been through several CEOs in the prior few years. They had a really good core mission and core group of people, but needed some leadership, so it was an opportunity for me to make my mark on a new agency and see if we could build something that would make a difference.”

That she has. Thirteen years into her leadership tenure at CSO, it has become a $40 million organization with more than 700 employees spread across five counties, with 15 office locations, and serving some 17,000 people annually.

“We really have the full spectrum of services, from crisis intervention to family support to prevention services to support and recovery services,” Jeffers said. “Our latest merger was with Friends of the Homeless, so now we’re able to add housing and shelter to it. The way we’ve been able to integrate and really blend all those services together, we can truly say that, if you need support or help, just come here, and we’ll help you figure out where to get it, as opposed to you having to know which number to call and where to go and what to ask for. We work very hard at that kind of integration and service.”

She has spearheaded that kind of growth and integration through a specific set of values and a nimble leadership style that embraces change, and encourages her team to do the same. And she’s certainly not done.

Dramatic Turnaround

The Clinical & Support Options that Jeffers joined in 2005 was saddled with what she called a bad financial picture, but a good core team that wanted to provide strong services — and needed strong leadership to do so.

“I’m a big believer in strategic planning and actually following that plan and executing it,” she explained. “Some of the growth has happened through partnerships or mergers or takeovers of other offices. We’ve actually had other behavioral-health agencies close down offices, then reach out to us at CSO to assume operation. So we were able to grow by picking up those services where they were needed and expand on them, really use it as a launch point to do even more.”

Some growth was driven by changes at the state and federal levels. The 2009 Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative, which aimed to expand and integrate children’s mental-health services in Massachusetts into a comprehensive, community-based system of care, wound up building up CSO’s roster of contracts. Meanwhile, it was one of only three agencies nationwide to win a federal grant from the Department of Justice to link victims of crime to mental-health and trauma services. Other grants followed, and the agency continued to grow.

“It’s been exciting; we’ve been able to find our niche,” Jeffers said. “There are larger agencies than us and smaller agencies than us, but we’ve really been able to find our niche in certain things and do them well, while also offering a broad range of services to the community, so people can access what they need when they need it.”

Part of meeting those needs is a strategic direction toward what she calls a “trauma-informed” culture, which is essentially a system-wide change, launched about five years ago, that emphasizes sensitivity to possible trauma in every person who comes to CSO.

“A lot of people think of trauma-informed care as just a modality, trauma treatment, and we really look at it as a much broader philosophy, which is that trauma affects way more people than you think,” she explained. “You never know who has been traumatized, so how you treat people and what culture you set and having a place where you respect choices and empowerment and safety — that’s different than just providing trauma treatment.”

To that end, CSO has embarked on a long-term culture shift that not only includes best practices in treatment, but also examines what the offices look like, how policies are received, and how people are treated.

“The end result has been an ongoing philosophy of embedding trauma-informed care and resilience throughout everything we do,” she went on. “We trained everybody, from clinicians to the janitorial staff to administrative staff and secretaries, right across the board, so that everybody had the same filter and philosophy and support in doing their jobs.”

She even enlisted people to walk through the various CSO offices, like secret shoppers, and report back on their experience. The feedback included everything from pictures on walls that might be triggering to how they were treated when they came to the front window, and that feedback was then used to initiate change.

“You never know who has been traumatized, so how you treat people and what culture you set and having a place where you respect choices and empowerment and safety — that’s different than just providing trauma treatment.”

As one example, the waiting room in the Springfield office used to have hallways on either side, and staff constantly walked through. But Jeffers heard that felt really intrusive, and bothered clients who were finally asking for help, but were being ignored by professionals in the office. So the waiting room was moved to a larger, quieter spot, where the first providers clients saw were there to help them, not walk past.

“We look at our staff from the client lens,” she said. “It really is about a culture shift, and that is ongoing. There really isn’t a start and an end. Well, there’s a start, but then it’s an ever-evolving process, and our goal is quality improvement.”

Knowledge Is Power

That training in trauma-informed care is just one reflection of an organization — and its leader — that value continual learning. In fact, CSO provides more than 500 hours of free training for staff per year, which makes it easier to promote from within; more than 48% of the management team (70 out of 145) have come up through the ranks.

“It is very much a learning culture. We do a tremendous amount of internal staff training, but we also do external training,” Jeffers said, noting CSO has trained more than 1,000 individuals in mental-health first aid (both youth and adult versions) and more than 1,100 community members in principles of trauma-informed care (TIC). That’s on top of training 820 employees in the TIC curriculum over the past four years.

“We’ve provided training to other agencies, police, schools, colleges, and community groups on trauma-informed care and the impact of trauma in the communities,” she explained. “For the lay person, a lot of the focus is on how to recognize what your role can be in helping somebody get to a better place. Stigma is still real; people are afraid of mental health, and they don’t know how to react to situations. So we’re really trying to break down that stigma and empower people and teach them what their role can be, whether it’s your family or neighbor or someone in line at the grocery store having a tough time.”

That community impact — not just in external trainings, but in the day-to-day improvement in people’s lives — is one of the things that keeps Jeffers motivated as new threats emerge, such as the opioid crisis that has become so prevalent in recent years.

“The state of Massachusetts is heading in some really exciting directions with their investments in behavioral health, so to be a part of that is really exciting,” she told BusinessWest. “We will continue to be good at what we do and then see what else we can do. We certainly don’t want to grow just to grow. We want to grow to meet the needs of our community, and I think there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

“People who work here know we’ve got to change and adapt,” she went on. “It’s not about doing the same old same old, but how do we constantly strive for better quality and better outcomes? That’s something that drives me, and it’s exciting to be a part of it.”

As a prominent female leader in healthcare, Jeffers is especially proud of the percentage of women in leadership positions at CSO, including 60% of the executive leadership team (six of 10), 73% of the senior leadership team (27 of 37), and 84% of the overall, agency-wide management team (122 of 145).

Still, at the end of the day — and some days are tougher than others — it’s all about meeting needs and creating change in the community.

“There are definitely challenges,” she said. “Challenges on the funding front, keeping up with demands, and creating a good place to work are tough. But it’s exciting to know we can impact the number of people we impact.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Construct Associates Builds Lifestyle Improvements

By
Partners Stephen Ross (left) and Bob Walker
Construction

Home Free

Partners Stephen Ross (left) and Bob Walker

Partners Stephen Ross (left) and Bob Walker

Construct Associates has built a reputation for home renovation and restoration in Western Mass. over the past few decades, which is fortunate these days, since business is surging in that area. The reasons are myriad — among them, plenty of old housing stock in the Pioneer Valley, a generally strong economy, and the continued aging of America and the desire among the senior set to remain in their homes and age in place. It all adds up to opportunity, and Construct is making the most of it.

Stephen Ross says residential renovation is looking up — in more ways than one.

“We’re doing a lot of aging-in-place stuff — personal elevators, residential elevators, additions,” he told BusinessWest. “I like to say that an elevator costs probably 10 months worth of a decent retirement community. There, you’re not going to get that money back. But with an elevator, it’s equity toward your house.”

Ross and Bob Walker, the partners at Construct Associates in Northampton, say aging in place is a major trend in residential construction and renovation these days, with the Baby Boom generation continuing to swell the ranks of the over-65 age group, many of them loath to give up independent living.

“I saw a poll recently where 88% of people want to remain in their home, and a lot of them are trying to do just that,” Ross said, noting again that elevators, accessible showers, and other additions pay for themselves if they make the difference between staying there and moving to a retirement community. “I’ve got two of those in the works now. One is an in-law suite, where they’re making it accessible for the in-laws, and the other is a professional couple that wants to be able to utilize their whole house.”

Meanwhile, Walker is wrapping up a first-floor master suite in Northampton with an aging-in-place concept. “It’s an older home right in the middle of town, but all the bedrooms are upstairs. A couple years ago, they did a big kitchen remodel, and now they want a bedroom and bath and laundry on the first floor, where they can get to all of it. We’re putting in a curbless shower, in case of limited mobility.”

“We did a pretty serious job search back in the fall, but we we got a lot of people we felt weren’t qualified for the quality work we do. Sometimes you do get good people come in who are older guys. The labor pool is aging, and it would be nice to see a lot more young people coming into the field.”

Not only do older people want to age in place, Ross said, but the Five College area tends to have consistent rotation of housing stock, and new owners want to come in and put their mark on their new house. And many newcomers to the region arrive from pricier markets, so they’re getting relative bargains and have money left over for remodeling.

“We’re a high-end firm,” Walker added. “We’ll do the whole gamut of work, but our real money is in high-end residential remodeling. At this point, we really are working off our reputation, our referral base. I’m doing a major house remodel in Longmeadow now — four bathrooms, going through the house and upgrading. I have another major job like that, a big Victorian in town here with a high-end kitchen, a big master bath, upgrading mechanical systems, making it as energy-efficient as possible.”

New home building remains a quieter market, Ross added, so Construct is in the right place these days. “Kitchens and bathrooms are our bread and butter, and it always seems like weve got one or two, if not four or six, going on in the background.”

Innovative Idea

Walker and three other partners — Hobie Iselin, Bob Reckman, and Chris Dawson — launched Construct Associates in 1984 with a bright idea — and good timing.

The idea was to create a construction company based on the model of a law office, where the owners share space, marketing, and accounting, but are responsible for managing their own projects.

This residential addition in Northampton

This residential addition in Northampton features an elevator, an amenity that has become more popular in recent years.

The good timing had to do with the company’s home city of Northampton, which was growing quickly and had recently begun to capture the imagination of developers. Construct had a hand in shaping the commercial rebirth of the city, building or renovating the Northampton Brewery, the Hotel Northampton, the Calvin Theater, two Bart’s Ice Cream Shops, Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery, Pinch Pottery, Pleasant Street Video, Silverscape Designs, and other properties.

Other partners have come and gone over the years; today, Walker shares ownership with Ross, who first joined the company as a carpenter in 1988 and became a partner in 2006.

The workload has changed over the years; Construct Associates does far more residential work — mainly home-renovation projects — than it used to. But it still does some light commercial work, notably the recent renovation of New England Treatment Access, the marijuana dispensary a block away from its Northampton headquarters.

The firm’s design and construction capabilities cover everything from antique designs to modern styles, the partners note, but they specialize in older buildings, providing innovative designs and construction for kitchen and bathroom remodeling, renovations, and additions, as well as new construction projects.

“We do all our carpentry. We don’t sub out any carpentry because we have our in-house guys,” Walker said.

While the volume of work has been strong lately, he noted, the staffing issues that plague many contractors may be the only thing holding back further growth.

“We lost a few guys last year, and we’re trying to replace them. We did a pretty serious job search back in the fall, but we we got a lot of people we felt weren’t qualified for the quality work we do. Sometimes you do get good people come in who are older guys. The labor pool is aging, and it would be nice to see a lot more young people coming into the field.”

He said he hired a carpenter last year who recently graduated from Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School — one of only three students in the carpentry program at the time. That’s not surprising, as a decades-long emphasis on pushing kids into college has contributed to talent shortages in what are generally well-paying careers in the construction trades.

“The most interesting thing I see in vocational schools is the percentage that are going to college,” Ross said. “Back when we were kids, if you went to vocational school, that meant you were going into a vocation. I’m personally shocked at the kids going on to higher education.”

Walker agreed. “It’s interesting. You can make a really good wage doing this rather than try to come into the job market with some computer skill that every guy and his brother has.”

Smooth Sailing

Other than finding talent, the construction-industry landscape is looking strong in 2019, Walker said.

“One of my lumber-yard reps asked how we were doing because he was really surprised that, right after the first of the year, things are still hopping. He sees it because he supplies a lot of builders. Generally, you get to this time in January, and things kind of slow up, but they’re moving quite well.”

Part of that has been the mild winter — though at press time, shortly after this interview, a major snowstorm was expected to sweep through the Northeast.

“There are jobs where I might have pushed a little harder to get concrete in the ground had I known we would have had this mild weather,” Ross said, “but you had that first [November] snowfall that made you think winter was coming, and then it didn’t.”

He’s expecting a solid spring surge this year, though, once people get their tax refunds and the weather starts to get truly warm.

“One of my lumber-yard reps asked how we were doing because he was really surprised that, right after the first of the year, things are still hopping. He sees it because he supplies a lot of builders. Generally, you get to this time in January, and things kind of slow up, but they’re moving quite well.”

“People are funny,” he said. “They’ll call you in the spring when it starts warming up and want to do something right then, but in reality, some of them should be talking to us right now and planning ahead.”

At the start of 2019, though, the calls have been coming in, partly due to the lack of snow.

“With the weather being mild,” Ross said, “some of them are a little more anxious to get some projects started, when normally they would be hunkered down because they don’t want people tramping sand and salt into their house, and opening and closing doors. So we have more calls than we usually do this time of year, but winter will have to come sooner or later. It’ll be interesting to see what happens then.”

The desire to age in place, however, or simply to turn an old house into something fresh and modern, aren’t ideas subject to the season, and on that front, Construct Associates continues to make its mark on Northampton and the region.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Greenfield Presents Blend of Familiar and New

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M.J. Adams says Greenfield’s status as a 4/20-friendly community is one of many forces driving economic development in the city.
Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight

M.J. Adams says Greenfield’s status as a 4/20-friendly community is one of many forces driving economic development in the city.

M.J. Adams says Greenfield’s status as a 4/20-friendly community is one of many forces driving economic development in the city.

The phrase ‘4/20-friendly’ has been around a while now.

April 20 las long been an international counterculture holiday of sorts, when people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. In recent years, it was also a day to call for legalization of the drug, and even more recently, as legalization spread, the term has morphed into a form of acceptance and, yes, business-friendliness when it comes to the many types of ventures within this industry.

Greenfield could now be considered 4/20-friendly, said M.J. Adams, the city’s director of Community Development and Economic Development, adding that there is already a medical marijuana dispensary, Patriot Care, located within the community, and it is poised to become a recreational dispensary next month. And there are many other parties expressing interest in establishing different forms of cannabis-related businesses within Franklin County’s largest community.

“Our zoning is pretty flexible, and we have the opportunity to issue eight [cannabis] icenses, and we already have nine entities that are interested in accessing those licenses.”

“We’ve had a lot of interest from people that want to grow and do recreational retail,” said Adams, noting that Greenfield’s efforts to build a cannabis cluster, if you will, are bolstered by its status as one of the 29 communities across the Commonwealth designated as “an area of disproportionate impact,” as defined by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.

Such communities — Amherst, Springfield, Holyoke, West Springfield, and Pittsfield are among some of the others — have been deemed “disproportionately harmed by marijuana-law enforcement,” according the commission, and therefore, priority review is given to applicants who can meet several criteria involving these areas, including residency.

“We’re quite 4/20-friendly,” she went on, adding that this has become code for communities that are “pretty OK” when it comes to marijuana use. “Our zoning is pretty flexible, and we have the opportunity to issue eight licenses, and we already have nine entities that are interested in accessing those licenses.”

But cannabis and the prospect of more businesses in that intriguing industry is just one of positive forces shaping the picture in this community of 18,000 people.

Diana Szynal says Greenfield’s downtown is an attractive mix of new businesses and stalwarts that have been part of the landscape for decades.

Diana Szynal says Greenfield’s downtown is an attractive mix of new businesses and stalwarts that have been part of the landscape for decades.

Others include the opening of a long-awaited parking garage on the west end of downtown; the arrival of many new restaurants and clubs downtown, punctuated by the emergence of the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center as a force for attracting diverse audiences to Greenfield; emerging plans to expand the city’s industrial park amid heightened interest in space for manufacturing and warehouse ventures; some new ventures, including the conversion of a Roadway Inn into a 90-bed Marriott Grand Hotel and plans for UMassFive College Federal Credit Union to build a branch within the city; ongoing redevelopment of the former Lunt Silversmith property; and perhaps some forward progress in efforts to forge a new life for the long-dormant First National Bank building on the stretch known as Bank Row.

Meanwhile, from the big-picture perspective, the broad economic-development strategy for the city involves making the community, and especially its downtown area, more of a destination for many constituencies, including tourists, entrepreneurs and small-business owners, and families.

That’s the assignment for the city, but also for the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, said its new executive director, Diana Szynal, who takes the reins in somewhat ironic fashion. Indeed, she succeeds Natalie Blais, who was recently sworn in as the state representative for the First Franklin District. Szynal, meanwhile, was the long-time district director for the late Peter Kocut, long-time state representative for the First Hampshire District, and was unsuccessful in her bid to win that seat last fall.

She inherits a chamber that will celebrate its centennial this year, and while a good deal of her time will obviously go toward marking that milestone, another priority will be helping to get the word out on all that Greenfield and Franklin County have to offer.

“One thing we have to do is spread the word about all the things that happen here and some of the opportunities that are here,” she said. “And Franklin County is a place that young people and young professionals just starting out and looking for a place to put down roots should consider; this is the perfect place for that.”

For this, the latest installment in our ongoing Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Greenfield and the many forms of progress being seen there.

Getting Down to Business

Szynal told BusinessWest that she worked in downtown Greenfield a quarter-century ago, and that moving into the chamber’s office on Main Street is like coming home again.

“I just came from lunch at Taylor’s [Tavern] and was at Wilson’s [department store] recently,” she said, mentioning two mainstays in the downtown for decades and noting that there are many more that fit that category. “Downtown has many of the same businesses it had years ago; it hasn’t lost its charm — it has that same old feeling.”

But there are also many new ventures in the city that are giving it a somewhat new and different feeling as well, she said, especially in the broad realm of hospitality and entertainment.

“There’s Indian food, there’s Thai food, there’s some fabulous Mexican food,” she noted. “So in a way, it has that perfect balance; things you can count on like Wilson’s, combined with new places.”

Building upon this balance and creating an ever-more diverse mix of businesses in the downtown is one of the main strategic initiatives for the city, said both Szynal and Adams, adding that that there are many components to this assignment.

“There are a number of properties that have remained vacant longer than we would have liked them to remain vacant, and one of my major goals for this spring is to get a handle on that and fill some of those spaces.”

They include everything from efforts to bring high-speed broadband service to more neighborhoods within the community — a prerequisite for attracting many types of businesses — to formal and informal efforts to help spread the word about all this city and this region have to offer; from making the most of that “area of disproportionate impact” designation when it comes to cannabis to making the First National Bank building a fitting final piece to the puzzle that has been Bank Row.

Indeed, while significant progress has been made in rehabbing and repurposing the buildings along that stretch across from City Hall — the so-called Abercrombie building, now home to the Franklin County district attorney, being the latest — the former First National Bank remains a stern challenge, said Adams.

So much so that the city applied for, and received, a technical-assistance grant from MassDevelopment that will fund a consultant charged specifically with blueprinting a reuse plan for the structure.

Greenfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1753
Population: 17,456
Area: 21.9 square miles
County: Franklin
Residential Tax Rate: $22.36
Commercial Tax Rate: $22.36
Median Household Income: $33,110
Median Family Income: $46,412
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield Community College, the Sandri Companies
* Latest information available

Built in 1929, the building has been essentially unoccupied for the better part of 40 years, said Adams, adding that the Greenfield Redevelopment Authority took ownership of the property in 2017 with the goal of determining the best reuse option.

“We’re waiting for the consultant that’s been assigned to us to come aboard, and we expect that to happen later this month, and have that individual work through this spring on a potential-reuse study of the building,” she said, adding that she expects this work to be completed by June. “We’re also spending some funding on some engineering to take a look at the building envelope — the structure, the fire-protection systems, and more — and then doing some preliminary cost estimates for getting a clean shell that can be developed.”

The project is important, she said, because the property has a prominent place in the city’s history and a prominent location as well. Its redevelopment could act as a catalyst for other investments and make the city more of a destination.

Speaking of catalysts, the cannabis industry could become one as well, Adams went on, adding that retail operations could help create still more vibrancy in the downtown, and the cultivation businesses could help fill various types of commercial properties, including old mill buildings.

Overall, the goal downtown, and just outside it, is to attract a diverse mix of businesses, said Adams, adding that, while there are have been some new arrivals, there are still many vacant storefronts in the central business district — more than city officials would prefer.

“We did an inventory about two years ago that looked at the properties downtown and especially the ground-floor retail spaces,” she noted. “There are a number of properties that have remained vacant longer than we would have liked them to remain vacant, and one of my major goals for this spring is to get a handle on that and fill some of those spaces.”

As for the chamber, as it celebrates its centennial, it will focus on a number of initiatives, including efforts to support and promote not only Greenfield but the entire county. One key to doing so is through collaboration with other entities involved in promoting business and economic development, said Szynal.

“There’s an active business association for Shelburne Falls, there’s one for Greenfield, Nortfield has a business association … there are several of these organizations,” she said. “One of my top priorities is to figure out how to work collaboratively to promote more business growth and keep our businesses strong county-wide.”

One challenge to overcome is enabling Greenfield, and the rest of the county, to shed its ‘best-kept secret’ status.

“We have some incredible outdoor recreation opportunities in Franklin County, and that’s something we’re looking to highlight in the coming year,” she said. “It’s a big part of the economy, and it can be even bigger; there are some people who don’t know that these opportunities are here in Franklin County and that you don’t have to drive far to experience them.”

Balancing Act

Reflecting upon her return to downtown Greenfield a quarter-century since she last worked there, Szynal said she is impressed by, and increasingly enamored with, its mix of old and new.

“To some extent, Greenfield is growing and changing, but it’s also staying true to its roots,” she explained. “There’s a familiar feeling as you walk down the street, but there is exciting change as well.”

Moving forward, the goal is to create … well, much more of that, and there has been considerable progress in that regard as well as the promise of more.

Some might result from being 4/20-friendly, as the saying goes, but the bulk of it will come from being plain old business-friendly and willing to take advantage of the opportunities that develop.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Education to Employment Program Closes Gaps in Many Ways

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Ware High School graduates
Education

Reservoir of Talent

Ware High School graduates

Ware High School graduates, from left, Felicity Dineen, Jordan Trzpit, Valentina Towne, Joe Gagnon, Morgan Orszulak, and Seth Bourdeau with Michael Moran (right), president of Baystate Health’s Eastern Region, which helped fund tuition and textbooks for the students’ EMT training at Holyoke Community College’s satellite in Ware.

 

 

Seth Bordeau had no plans to become a paramedic, but a chance elective at Ware High School last year — “Introduction to Fire Science,” taught by Ware Fire Department Deputy Chief Edward Wloch — led him down an unexpected path.

“I was less than enthusiastic, but slightly interested in the fire-science class,” Bordeau said. “But after every class, I found myself more and more excited for the next. The subject of emergency services was fascinating, and as the year-long course was coming to an end and graduation grew closer, I knew I’d miss this class the most. I also knew that I wanted to pursue this career.”

Fortunately, the elective led to an opportunity to take an EMT class at the Holyoke Community College satellite located at the Education to Employment (E2E) site on Main Street in Ware. He and fellow Ware High students who finished the high-school elective are now contemplating a career in fire science and emergency medicine. Baystate Wing Hospital Corp., one of the E2E’s local business partners, provided a matching grant that covered half the tuition and textbooks for the EMT course for each of the students.

“When we took a step back and took a broader look, we realized there was a hole in the region — there really weren’t any institutions of higher learning past high school, very little if any public transportation, and a lack of resources for people looking for jobs and employers looking for qualified workers.”

“I signed up for the EMT course almost immediately and didn’t think twice about my decision,” said Bordeau. “The EMT course ran from June to August, the whole summer, and looking back, I wouldn’t have wanted the summer to be any different. I have completed the practical exam and passed, and I am now onto taking my written exam. Once that is completed, I’ve been offered a position as an EMT for the town of West Brookfield. I hope to further my career by looking into paramedic school.”

This career pipeline between Ware High School and HCC’s satellite in Ware is just one example of how E2E — initially forged as a partnership between the Quaboag Valley Community Development Corp. (QVCDC) and HCC — is building connections between higher education, local businesses, economic-development leaders, and the community to meet workforce needs, said Jeff Hayden, vice president of Business and Community Services at HCC.

“From an academic point of view, they’re really looking to provide hands-on training activities for students who maybe aren’t sure what they want to do, or aren’t as book-motivated as some students might be. The hands-on training is giving them experience in an actual occupation,” said Hayden, noting that Ware High School added a criminal-justice elective to its roster of project-based, career-focused learning in 2018, and will introduce a certified nursing assistant (CNA) course in the fall of 2019.

Those efforts are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to E2E programming, which features a range of resources for employers looking for talent and individuals seeking jobs (and the skills needed to procure them), and even a transportation service, the Quaboag Connector, that helps people access these services across these lightly populated towns in West-Central Mass.

“E2E is really a unique and innovative facility to help meet the needs of folks in our rural, former mill-town communities,” said Sheila Cuddy, executive director of the QVCDC. Several years ago, she explained, her organization was looking at strategic planning in the 15 communities it serves.

Jeff Hayden said HCC meets a need in Ware and surrounding towns

Jeff Hayden said HCC meets a need in Ware and surrounding towns for students who might be burdened by a long commute to the nearest college campus.

“We had been meeting with educators and small-business people and larger employers about the disconnect in our unemployment rates in this region, which tend to be 1% to 2% above the state average,” Cuddy told BusinessWest. “At the same time, we had employers who had difficulty hiring qualified workers. When we took a step back and took a broader look, we realized there was a hole in the region — there really weren’t any institutions of higher learning past high school, very little if any public transportation, and a lack of resources for people looking for jobs and employers looking for qualified workers.”

After HCC came on board as the QVCDC’s higher-ed partner in E2E, Country Bank stepped up with class-A office space in downtown Ware it no longer needed, and a mix of business funders (including Monson Savings Bank), grants, and tax credits began to take shape. “Since then, it has mushroomed,” Cuddy said.

For this issue’s focus on education, BusinessWest takes a look at how Education to Employment has brought new levels of collaboration and creativity to bear on the persistent problem of matching job seekers with jobs — often jobs, as in Bordeau’s case, they had no idea they’d want.

Key Connections

In one sense, Hayden noted, the E2E center was created to provide a place where individuals could connect with the college, because a 45-minute commute could be an obstacle — in both time and money — to enrolling in college. “So if you had a place where you could get information, resources, and a study place, with technology there, that might be advantageous.”

Indeed, the roughly 3,000-square-foot center located at 79 Main St. in Ware includes two classrooms, as well as private study areas and office space. Computer workstations are available for community members interested in enrolling in credit classes at HCC as online students. Meanwhile, the center has offered non-credit classes in hospitality and culinary arts, manufacturing, and health careers. Staffers are also on hand to help people with résumé writing, job-interview and application advice, and soft skills that all employers seek.

“They might need help with a résumé, or they might need additional classes, either for college credit or workforce-training classes to get certification for a new job. Or there might be questions about how to apply for financial aid,” Cuddy said.

“We have several computers and robust broadband service,” she added. “It really has become what we envisioned it to be — an education-to-employment center. We’ve had several ServSafe classes to help people step into the hospitality industry, which also helps local restaurants. We did some training with the Mass. Gaming Commission to prepare for casino jobs. We’ve also done manufacturing training with MassHire folks from the Franklin-Hampshire region.”

In addition, local employers have come to E2E looking for skilled workers, and sometimes matches are made through job fairs, she said. “We also have a local veterans’ group that meets there once a month. It really has become a vibrant and vital community resource and a respectful place for people to come to learn.”

Hayden agreed, citing efforts like a business-led program aimed at instilling workforce training and soft skills in the 16-to-24 age group. “They’ve also done programs at the QVCDC where they help people save money to start businesses. They do computer classes, literacy classes, financial-literacy classes, and we’ve done some of that stuff as well out there. It has become very active.”

It’s all supplemented by the Quaboag Connector, a mini-bus system that brings people back and forth between Palmer, Ware, and the other Quaboag communities for jobs, classes, and other things, Hayden noted. “That’s been extremely effective. Oftentimes, we think of the poverty in the urban core of Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee, and we don’t necessarily think of the rural or suburban poor, especially in the communities out east, where the challenges of transportation, day care, and elder care are the same as in urban communities. Getting to work on time is a challenge without buses and vans to make it work.”

Baystate Health’s Eastern Region, which includes Baystate Wing Hospital and Baystate Mary Lane, is one of the Quaboag Connector’s partners, providing $90,000 in funding to the transportation initiative.

“The consequences of the lack of transportation and unemployment elevate the importance to invest in these local initiatives. Both provide good options for our young people,” said Mike Moran, Baystate’s Eastern Region president. “Baystate Health is strongly committed to the many communities in our region and will continue to work with our community partners to focus and grow programs and initiatives that promote wellness, education, and workforce development.” 

Natural Fit

Surveying the growing roster of programs run through E2E, Hayden said the partnerships forged among higher education, the business community, and other groups, all of whom are seeking similar outcomes when it comes to building a vibrant workforce, have come together naturally and organically.

E2E offices

Country Bank donated space on Main Street in Ware to the QVCDC for the E2E offices.

“It doesn’t feel forced at all; it feels like people really want to work together to make something happen,” he told BusinessWest. “The challenge is always financial resources. None of us singly have enough resources to make it work, and even jointly, it would be difficult to make some of these initiatives work, but we’ve all been working together to find those resources.”

The needs remain significant, Cuddy added.

“We have a number of manufacturers, small and large, based in our region that are facing the challenge of a workforce that’s aging out. I know a company with more than 100 employees, and within five years, 50% of those employees will be approaching retirement age. I know everyone is having difficulty finding people who are certified to be CNAs, especially as the population ages, and other healthcare careers are having the same issues — the aging of the existing workforce and training newer folks needed to take up these careers.”

That’s why Education to Employment makes sense, and is needed, she went on.

“These community partnerships really speak to Western Mass., whether it be out of necessity or creativity or a general spirit of neighborliness. Especially in the smaller communities, there’s a recognition that all of us working together accomplish a whole lot more than we could individually.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

New Construction Starts in 2019 to Hold Steady with 2018 Figures

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Construction

National Outlook

According to the 2019 Dodge Construction Outlook released by Dodge Data & Analytics, a leader in construction-industry forecasting and business planning, total U.S. construction starts for 2019 will be $808 billion, staying essentially even with the $807 billion recorded in 2018.

“Over the past three years, the expansion for the U.S. construction industry has shown deceleration in its rate of growth, a pattern that typically takes place as an expansion matures,” said Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. “After advancing 11% to 14% each year from 2012 through 2015, total construction starts climbed 7% in both 2016 and 2017, and a 3% increase is estimated for 2018. There are, of course, mounting headwinds affecting construction, namely rising interest rates and higher material costs, but for now these have been balanced by the stronger growth for the U.S. economy, some easing of bank lending standards, still-healthy market fundamentals for commercial real estate, and greater state financing for school construction and enhanced federal funding for public works.”

One important question going into 2019 is whether deceleration is followed by a period of high-level stability or a period of decline, he noted. For 2019, it’s expected that growth for the U.S. economy won’t be quite as strong as what happened in 2018, as the benefits of tax cuts begin to wane. Short-term interest rates will rise, as the Federal Reserve continues to move monetary policy towards a more neutral stance. Long-term interest rates will also rise, reflecting higher inflationary expectations by the financial markets. At the same time, any erosion in market fundamentals for commercial real estate will stay modest. In addition, the greater funding from state and local bond measures passed in recent years will still be present, and it’s likely that federal spending for construction programs will increase.

“In this environment, it’s forecast that growth for construction starts will decelerate further, but not yet make the transition to the point where the overall volume of activity declines” Murray noted. “For 2019, total construction starts are forecast to hold basically steady at $808 billion. By major sector in dollar terms, residential building will be down 2%, non-residential building will match its 2018 amount, and non-building construction will increase 3%.”

The pattern of construction starts by more specific segments includes the following:

• Single-family housing will be unchanged in dollar terms, alongside a modest 3% drop in housing starts to 815,000. There will be a slight decline in homebuyer demand as the result of higher mortgage rates, diminished affordability, and reduced tax advantages for home ownership as the result of tax reform.

• Multi-family housing will slide 6% in dollars and 8% in units to 465,000. Market fundamentals such as occupancies and rent growth had shown modest erosion prior to 2018, which then paused in 2018 due to the stronger U.S. economy. However, that erosion in market fundamentals is expected to resume in 2019.

• Commercial building will retreat 3%, following 2% gains in 2017 and 2018, as well as the substantial percentage increases that took place earlier. While 2018 market fundamentals for offices and warehouses were healthy, this year, vacancy rates are expected to rise as the economy slows, slightly dampening construction. Hotel construction will ease back from recent strength, and store construction will experience further weakness.

“There are, of course, mounting headwinds affecting construction, namely rising interest rates and higher material costs, but for now these have been balanced by the stronger growth for the U.S. economy, some easing of bank lending standards, still-healthy market fundamentals for commercial real estate, and greater state financing for school construction and enhanced federal funding for public works.”

• Institutional building will advance 3%, picking up the pace slightly from its 1% gain in 2018, which itself followed an 18% hike in 2017. Educational facilities should see continued growth in 2019, supported by funding coming from numerous school-construction bond measures. Healthcare projects will make a partial rebound after pulling back in 2018. Airport terminal and amusement-related projects are expected to stay close to the elevated levels of construction starts reported in 2017 and 2018.

• Manufacturing plant construction will rise 2% following a 18% jump in 2018. The recent pickup in petrochemical plant projects should continue, and cuts in the corporate tax rate from tax reform should encourage firms to invest more in new plant capacity.

• Public-works construction will increase 4%, reflecting growth by most of the project types. The omnibus federal appropriations bill passed last March provided greater funding for transportation projects that will carry over into 2019, and environmental-related projects are getting a lift from recently passed legislation.

• Electric utilities and gas plants will drop 3%, continuing to retreat after the exceptional amount reported back in 2015. New generating capacity continues to come online, dampening capacity utilization rates for power generation.

Dodge Data & Analytics is North America’s leading provider of analytics and software-based workflow-integration solutions for the construction industry. 

Warning Signs from Hampshire College

By
Opinion

Editorial

For years now, there have been rumblings from the world of higher education. Rumblings that times were changing and times were not particularly good. Rumblings that in some cases led to mergers among colleges, even a closing or two, and predictions that more were likely to come.

But the rumblings seemed far away, involving small institutions most of us had never heard of — Mount Ida College, Newbury College, the College of St. Joseph.

All of that changed last week, when Hampshire College President Miriam Nelson dropped what seemed like a bombshell, but what was in reality news that many saw coming. She announced that, amid falling enrollment and declining revenues, the nearly half-century-old college has commenced a search for a partner to help secure its future. The situation is so dire that school officials are not even sure if they’re going to admit a freshman class for this coming fall.

That decision will come in the near future, and in the meantime, the school will search hard for a merger partner, preferably one that will not only help it get back on solid financial footing, but enable it to maintain its non-traditional approach — there are no grades here, for example — and decidedly different ways of doing things.

Nelson is confident that such a partner can be found — other schools, such as Wheelock College, have forged such partnerships, in its case with Boston University — but time will tell.

Meanwhile, the announcement from Hampshire College should serve as a wake-up call, not that anyone in higher education really needed one, that times are, indeed, changing, and that imaginative, proactive steps are needed to secure the future of such institutions.

Numbers lie at the heart of this problem — all kinds of numbers, but especially those pertaining to the size of high-school graduating classes. They’ve been falling steadily over the past several years, and at an alarming rate.

With fewer students going to college, a survival-of-the-fittest scenario is emerging, and there are high stakes, not only for the colleges involved but the communities in which they reside.

Indeed, it’s no secret that, in addition to healthcare, education is the other pillar of the region’s economy — hence the phrase ‘eds and meds.’

Fortunately, for the most part, the ‘eds’ sector locally remains quite strong, and many institutions are faring well, primarily because they are fitter than some others.

And by fit, we mean aggressive in efforts to develop new programs and new revenue streams, and also tell their story. In short, they are not sitting on their hands, hoping and believing that times will get better and that what has worked in the past will work in the future.

At the risk of greatly oversimplifying things, this is exactly what has happened at Hampshire, and also Mount Ida and other schools.

Several schools in this area have been very proactive in finding new ways to attract students and remain vibrant. Bay Path University and the emergence of its cybersecurity programs is a good example (and there are many others there), and American International College’s ambitious expansion of its graduate programs (a strong sources of revenue) is another example.

The demographic patterns we’re seeing today are not projected to change anytime soon. High-school graduating classes are going to continue to get smaller, and colleges of all sizes — even this region’s community colleges — must be creative and entrepreneurial in their planning if they intend to not only survive but thrive.

If they’re not, there may well be more press conferences like the one at Hampshire College last week.

Employers Impacted by Shutdown

By
Opinion

Opinion

By Mark Adams

The ripple effects of the government shutdown have started to come to bear on employers.

Specifically, due to the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22, 2018, the E-Verify system is not available. According to the E-Verify site, operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), “E-Verify is currently unavailable due to a lapse in government appropriations. While E-Verify is unavailable, employers will not be able to access their E-Verify accounts. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to serving you once we resume operations. For more information, see E-Verify Unavailable.”

During the shutdown, employers will not be able to enroll in the program; access their E-Verify accounts; create a case; view or take action on any case; add, delete, or edit accounts; reset passwords; edit company information; terminate accounts; or run reports. Workers will not be able to resolve E-Verify Tentative Nonconfirmations (TNCs) during the shutdown.

In addition, myE-Verify will be unavailable, and employees will not be able to access their myE-Verify accounts.

To minimize the burden on both employers and employees, DHS announced that:

• The three-day rule for creating E-Verify cases is suspended for cases affected by the unavailability of the service;

• The time period during which employees may resolve TNCs will be extended. The number of days E-Verify is not available will not count toward the days the employee has to begin the process of resolving their TNCs; and

• Federal contractors with the Federal Acquisition Regulation E-Verify clause should contact their contracting officer to inquire about extending federal contractor deadlines.

Further information about what is and is not available online can be found at www.e-verify.gov/e-verify-and-e-verify-services-are-unavailable.

The shutdown does not affect an employer’s responsibility to verify employment eligibility through the Form I-9. Employers must still complete the Form I-9 no later than the third business day after an employee starts work for pay and comply with all other Form I-9 requirements.

Once the government operations fully resume, DHS will notify employers with additional guidance regarding the ‘three-day rule’ and time period to resolve TNC deadlines once operations resume.

Mark Adams is director of HR Services for the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast (EANE), an Agawam-based company that provides resources for organizations to maximize employee engagement and retention while minimizing risk.

Picture This

By
Picture This

Email ‘Picture This’ photos with a caption and contact information to [email protected]



Asnuntuck Community College

Going Digital

In an effort to provide students with relevant skills for the workplace, Asnuntuck Community College has adopted eLABJournal, a software solution from Bio-ITech, a division of Eppendorf. eLABJournal is an intuitive and user-friendly application that is designed for laboratories in academic teaching and research labs as well as in commercial settings. Students using this platform in the classroom will gain valuable experience in electronic notebook and inventory/data management, which will better prepare them for their careers. Here, Asnuntuck student Samantha Fox is photographed in one of the college’s labs working with eLabJournal. Asnuntuck Community College’s Foundation provided the funding, through a mini-grant, for this software.





The West of the River Chamber of Commerce

Open for Business

The West of the River Chamber of Commerce recently welcomed Box Paper Scissors to the Agawam community. The store, which opened in late December and is owned by Bryant Whitsett, offers a wide variety of products and services, including key cutting, notary, DVD transfer, office supplies, conference-room rental, space to sell and promote local products and services, shipping, mailbox services, faxing, and more. A grand-opening celebration was staged Jan. 17. Here, Whitsett is seen with employee Delaney Tanzer.





North Brookfield Savings Bank

Meeting a Need

North Brookfield Savings Bank (NBSB) recently thanked the community for the overwhelming success of its annual toy drive, during which the bank accepted thousands of donations of new and unwrapped toys and collected monetary donations in jars at its branch locations. Pictured are the Cindy Fountain (left) and Patty Ostrout of NBSB with officers from the North Brookfield Police Department, whose Toys for Joy program was one of many partnering organizations in the drive.





Officials from Holyoke Community College and Westfield State University

Nursing Degree Partnership

Officials from Holyoke Community College and Westfield State University signed a dual-admission agreement that streamlines the process for students who want to continue their nursing educations at Westfield after earning an associate degree in nursing at HCC. The RN-to-BSN completion program partnership was announced during a ceremony at HCC’s Center for Health Education on Jarvis Avenue, home to the college’s RN (registered nurse) and LPN (licensed practical nursing) programs and medical simulation center. From left: Diane Prusank, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Westfield State University; Ramon Torrecilha, president of Westfield State University; Christina Royal, president of Holyoke Community College; and Monica Perez, vice president of Academic Affairs at Holyoke Community College.

Court Dockets

By
Court Dockets

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Pedro Precipe v. City View Commons II, LLC and First Resource Management Co., LLC
Allegation: Negligence; slip and fall causing personal injury: $43,779.77
Filed: 12/3/18

Brianna Meade v. Governor’s Center RE, LLC
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $25,000+
Filed: 12/4/18

Susan Barai v. Borges Construction Inc.
Allegation: Negligence; slip and fall causing personal injury: $47,181.67
Filed: 12/4/18

Rosemary Askew v. Michael J. Spink, DDS, MD; and Facial Cosmetic & Maxillofacial Surgery, P.C.
Allegation: Medical malpractice: $16,742+
Filed: 12/5/18

Associated Scaffold Builders, LLC v. Timothy Ford d/b/a Ashmar Group Inc. a/k/a John Doe Corp.
Allegation: Breach of contract; money owed for materials, labor, and supervision: $23,607.13
Filed: 12/5/18

Peter Miele v. Jackson’s Auto Sales and Service
Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury: $20,000
Filed: 12/10/18

Fedex Corporate Services v. Turley Publications Inc.
Allegation: Money owed for transportation services: $26,825.10
Filed: 12/10/18

Christine Lemay-Kenyon v. University of Massachusetts
Allegation: Motor-vehicle negligence causing personal injury: $6,408.27
Filed: 12/12/18

HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT COURT
Taylor England v. B. Koi, LLC d/b/a Kisara Japanese & Korean Restaurant
Allegation: Failure to compensate for tips due, failure to pay proper hourly wages: $3,375
Filed: 12/4/18

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
Margaret LaMotte v. Paragus Strategic IT Inc. and Delcie D. Bean IV
Allegation: Non-payment of wages, non-payment of overtime wages, retaliation, defamation, tortious interference with employment relationship: $45,000
Filed: 12/7/18

Agenda

By
Agenda

40 Under Forty Nominations

Through Feb. 15: BusinessWest is currently accepting nominations for the 40 Under Forty Class of 2019. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 15. Launched in 2007, the program recognizes rising stars in the four counties of Western Mass. Nominations, which should be detailed in nature, should list an individual’s accomplishments within their profession as well as their work within the community. Nominations can be completed online by visiting www.businesswest.com, clicking on ‘Our Events,’ and then ‘40 Under Forty.’ Nominations will be weighed by a panel of judges. The selected individuals will be profiled in the April 29 issue of BusinessWest and honored at the 40 Under Forty Gala on June 20 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke.

Stress Management and Resiliency Training Course

Jan. 28 to March 18: Baystate Franklin Medical Center announced it will offer the eight-week Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) course in the hospital’s conference rooms on Monday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. Developed by the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, the SMART program helps participants achieve greater quality of life and an enhanced sense of well-being. The program teaches self-care practices that help buffer daily stress, making participants less emotionally and physically vulnerable to it. Stress affects more than just mental health; an estimated 75% to 90% of all doctor visits are for stress-related issues. Stress is a factor in five out of the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, lower respiratory disease, and accidents. Topics include techniques to improve eating, sleeping, and physical activity, as well as how to recognize an individual’s responses to stress and how to change though patterns. The cost is $150, which includes a workbook. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call Pascucci at (413) 773-2741.

‘Speaking Out: For Women and Girls’

Jan. 30: #MeToo has galvanized a national reckoning about sexual harassment — but girls have been downplayed in the dialogue. “Speaking Out: For Women and Girls,” an event presented by Girls Inc. of Holyoke from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Delaney House, is doing its part to change the exchange. The need is dramatic. Sexual harassment doesn’t begin in the workplace, but starts much earlier: studies show that seven of 10 girls are harassed before they leave high school, and one in four girls experiences sexual abuse and assault in childhood. This is why “#GirlsToo: Respect Starts Young” inspired the night’s theme. #GirlsToo is a new viral media campaign launched by the national Girls Inc. organization that adds girls’ voices to this essential conversation. The moderator of “Speaking Out: For Women and Girls” is Victoria Ann Rodriguez, a litigation assistant at MassMutual and committee member of Springfield’s Puerto Rican Parade. The three featured local authors are Latoya Bosworth, Magdalena Gómez, and Crystal Senter-Brown. They have long advocated for women and girls and promise to present a lively, thought-provoking evening. Event tickets are $100 each and include an open bar and hearty appetizers. To purchase tickets, visit bit.ly/SpeakingOut2019. The authors’ books will be on sale at the event. All proceeds will benefit Girls Inc. of Holyoke.

Talk on Prosthetic Technology

Jan. 31: Kevin Carroll, a certified prosthetist and developer of the first prosthetic tail for a dolphin — portrayed by Morgan Freeman in the Dolphin Tale feature films — will speak with local amputees and show them what’s available with prosthetic technology and what’s on the horizon. The event will be hosted by the Hanger Clinic, 1985 Main St., Springfield from 5 to 7 p.m. Carroll is acclaimed for his work in creating the first prosthetic tail fluke for Winter, a young Atlantic bottlenose dolphin who got caught in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral when she was just three months old. Her tail fluke eventually came off, as it was severely damaged by the trap’s rope entanglement. Winter received round-the-clock medical attention at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to save her life. Having survived, she adapted to a less efficient, damaging side-to-side swimming style, as there was no tail fluke to give her thrust. Thanks to the ingenuity of Carroll and his colleague, Dan Strzempka, Winter became the first dolphin to have her entire tail fluke replaced with a prosthetic device. Additionally, the unique levels of research and development necessary to fit a prosthetic tail on a dolphin resulted in the development of WintersGel, a new gel material that is benefiting human amputee patients worldwide. Winter’s story of survival has become an inspiration to people all over the world. Springfield residents interested in meeting with Carroll should call (413) 313-5608.

Western Mass. Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Banquet

Jan. 31: Seven individuals and one team will be inducted into the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame’s class of 2019. They include Justine Siegal, Dana LeVangie, Karl Oliveira, Mike Laga, Jim Jachym, Mark Belanger, Candy Cummings, and the 2018 Pittsfield Little League team. The class will be inducted at the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Banquet, presented by Westfield Bank at 6:30 p.m. at Hadley Farms Meeting House, 41 Russell St., Hadley. The keynote speaker for the evening’s ceremonies will be Siegal, president and founder of Baseball for All, a nonprofit organization that empowers women to play, coach, and lead in baseball. Siegal became the first female coach of a Major League Baseball team in 2015, when the Oakland Athletics invited her to be a guest instructor for two weeks in the instructional league in Arizona. This year’s class is the sixth since the inaugural banquet in 2014. Since its inception, 35 individuals and four teams who have represented and served the baseball community of Western Mass. have been honored. Tickets for the banquet are $50, or $450 for a table of 10. Dinner and dessert are included. To purchase tickets, call (413) 533-1100 or visit valley-blue-sox.ticketleap.com/2019-hof.

‘DiSC for Sales’ Workshop

Feb. 28: Elms College will host a workshop to help salespeople and business leaders maximize their effectiveness with customers from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Faculty Dining Room in the Dooley College Center. The three-hour “DiSC for Sales” workshop, sponsored by the college’s MBA program and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), will be led by Nancy Davis, Business Development specialist at CEL. DiSC for Sales is a model that supports people in sales roles and helps them to recognize and understand their own unique strengths and style, while also helping them build relationships with clients by learning to read each client and adapt to connect with them better. The model offers a concrete method and practical tools to help businesspeople engage with all personality styles. During the interactive workshop, Davis, a certified DiSC facilitator, will offer educational content, examples, activities, and opportunities for sales-oriented people to recognize customer priorities, what to emphasize to customers, and strategies that work with different personality styles. Prior to the event, participants will take an online assessment and receive a full report. The cost to attend is $199 per person, which includes the workshop and dinner. Space is limited. Register by Friday, Feb. 15 by e-mailing [email protected]. For more information, e-mail Davis at [email protected].

Springfield Leadership Institute

Feb. 28 to June 6: The 2019 Springfield Leadership Institute will focus on core management and leadership skills for increasing personal and organizational effectiveness. The practical and applied program will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to take their leadership to the next level. The Institute takes place on Thursdays from 1 to 4:30 p.m., and is directed by Robert Kleine III, dean of the Western New England University College of Business, and Associate Professor Stacie Chappell, who has a strong background in leadership development and consulting to a variety of organizations. The program is supported by the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. All sessions will be held at the TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Main St., Springfield. Sessions will focus on managerial leadership, emotional intelligence and self-awareness, powerful communication, building high-performance teams, and leveraging conflict. Participants will actively explore best practices of leaders; analyze their own leadership, learning, and problem-solving styles; and experience the synergies that result from high-performing teams. The emphasis will be on experiential activities that provide opportunities to identify, develop, and refine skill sets for effective leadership. Participants will have the opportunity to apply and extend their learning through a practice-based team project. The program is designed for aspiring managers, new managers, and professionals interested in increasing their effectiveness and/or expanding their impact within or beyond their current role. Upon successful completion of Leadership 2019, participants will be eligible to enroll in a free graduate course offered through the College of Business at Western New England University (subject to certain requirements). Applications must be received by Thursday, Feb. 14. Tuition is $885 per participant and includes a day trip to Beacon Hill and a graduation dinner. For questions about the program or the application process, e-mail Grace Szydziak at [email protected].

Difference Makers

March 28: BusinessWest launched its Difference Makers program in 2009 to celebrate individuals, groups, organizations, and families that are positively impacting the Pioneer Valley and are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. The class of 2019 will be announced and profiled in the Feb. 4 issue and feted at the Difference Makers Gala on March 28 at 5 p.m. at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. Tickets are on sale now for $75. To reserve a spot, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100, or e-mail [email protected]. Event sponsors include Royal, P.C. and Burkhart Pizzanelli, P.C.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

By
Chamber Corners

1BERKSHIRE
www.1berkshire.com
(413) 499-1600

• Feb. 26: 1Berkshire Entrepreneurial Meetup. Looking to start up a business? Grow your network? Meet others with similar business interests? 1Berkshire is a countywide organization with an innovative approach to economic development. Get to know fellow entrepreneurs and business owners, rub elbows with local leaders, and share success stories at the monthly free Entrepreneurial Meetups. Free of charge. Register at www.meetup.com/1berkshire-alliance.

• Feb. 28: 1Berkshire February Chamber Nite, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Barrington Stage Co. Wolfson Center, 122 North St., Pittsfield. Join us for the February Chamber Nite in partnership with Downtown Pittsfield Inc. Members of either organization get in for free. Stick around after the event for discounted tickets to the 10×10 play festival. Register at www.1berkshire.com.

FRANKLIN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.franklincc.org
(413) 773-5463

• Feb. 7: Business After Hours, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Greenfield Savings Bank, 400 Main St., Greenfield. Come meet the chamber’s new executive director, Diana Szynal, at a wine and chocolate pre-Valentine’s Day networking event sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank. Register at franklincc.org or e-mail [email protected].

• Feb. 22: Monthly Breakfast Series, 7:30-9 a.m., hosted by Greenfield Community College Cohn Family Dining Commons, One College Drive, Greenfield. Full breakfast will be served during the program, which will feature a panel on the ways businesses and secondary schools can benefit from each other and help the community. Sponsored by Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board. Register at franklincc.org or e-mail [email protected].

GREATER CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• Jan. 30: Annual HR Update, 8:30-10:30 a.m., hosted by Hampton Inn, Memorial Drive, Chicopee. Join this presentation with attorney John Gannon of Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., one of the leading labor and employment law firms serving employers in New England, for a discussion aimed to prepare you to enter the New Year with a better understanding of state and federal laws employers need to be aware of in 2019. Series sponsored by Westfield Bank. For more information, visit chicopeechamber.org/events or call (413) 594-2101.

• Feb. 7: Business After Hours, 4:30-6:30 p.m., hosted by Elms College, 291 Springfield St., Chicopee. Sponsored by Polish National Credit Union. An evening of fun, networking, and an opportunity to meet potential employees. Free hors d’oeuvres and cash bar available. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Sign up online at www.chicopeechamber.org/events.

• Feb. 12: Educational Seminar on Employee Development, 7:30-9:30 a.m., hosted by Elms College, College Center FDR Room, 291 Springfield St., Chicopee. Sponsored by Elms College MBA Department. An educational seminar on proper planning and maintenance of your employees’ development. Includes a continental breakfast. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Sign up online at www.chicopeechamber.org/events or call (413) 594-2101.

• Feb. 22: Lights On Arts & Culture, 5-8 p.m., hosted by select downtown Chicopee businesses. Explore local art, meet the people, visit the places, and learn about the events that help to shape our city’s culture. Sponsored by the Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, the Chicopee Cultural Council, and TDI Partner. Cost is free, but donations are welcome. Check out more information online at chicopeechamber.org/events or call (413) 594-2101.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• Jan. 31: Celebrate Success, 5-8 p.m., hosted by Northampton Country Club, 135 Main St., Leeds. Sponsored by Polish National Credit Union, Finck & Perras, and Taylor Real Estate. The event honors milestone achievers, salutes annual award recipients, and gives a preview of where the chamber will head in 2019. Cost: $40 per person, which includes dinner. Pre-registration is required. For more information and to register, visit www.easthamptonchamber.org or call the chamber at (413) 527-9414.

• Feb. 19: In the Know, 5-7 p.m., hosted by New City Brewery, 180 Pleasant St., Easthampton. The first in a series of three panel discussions exploring the challenges and frustrations shared by business owners. Panelists will include Elizabeth Paquette from Rock Valley Tool, Mark Zatyrka from INSA, and Nate Costa from the Springfield Thunderbirds. There will be time for networking and noshing after the panel concludes. Cost: $15 for members, $30 for non-members. Pre-registration is required. For more information and to register, visit www.easthamptonchamber.org or call the chamber at (413) 527-9414.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holyokechamber.com
(413) 534-3376

• Jan. 24: Legislative Leaders Reception, 5 p.m., hosted by Marcotte Ford, 1025 Main St., Holyoke. Sponsored by Marcotte Ford, bankESB, the Dowd Agencies, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke Medical Center, and the Republican. Build connections and network among the Greater Holyoke business community as well as local and state legislators. Featuring keynote speakers Timothy Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, and Denis Luzuriaga, managing partner at the Cubit. Hearty hors d’oeuvres and open bar. Cost: $40.

• Feb. 20: Business After Hours, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Gary Rome Hyundai, 150 Whiting Farms Road, Holyoke. Get connected and help your business grow. Meet the Gary Rome team, Jack and Gary, as welcome guests during one of their busiest seasons. Light bites, cash bar, door prizes, and 50/50 raffle. Cost: $10 for members, $25 for non-members.

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618

• Feb. 4: February Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m., hosted by Armbrook Village, 551 North Road, Westfield. Join us for our monthly Mayor’s Coffee Hour with Westfield Mayor Brian Sullivan. The event is free and open to the public. Sign up online at www.westfieldbiz.org/events or call the chamber at (413) 568-1618 to register so we can give our host a head count.

• Feb. 11: February After 5 Connection, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Pair A Dice Clean, LLC, 31 St. Jacques Ave., Agawam. Refreshments will be served, and a 50/50 raffle will benefit the chamber scholarship fund. Bring your business cards and make connections. Cost: free for members, $15 for non-members (cash or credit paid at the door). Sign up online at www.westfieldbiz.org/events. For sponsorships or more information, call the chamber at (413) 568-1618.

SOUTH HADLEY & GRANBY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.shgchamber.com
(413) 532-6451

• Feb. 7: Business After 5, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Yarde Tavern, 3 Hadley St., South Hadley. Refreshments will be served, and connections will be made. Bring your business cards to share and to enter a raffle to win a prize. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Register by e-mailing Kim Prough at [email protected].

SPRINGFIELD REGIONAL CHAMBER
www.springfieldregionalchamber.com
(413) 787-1555

• Feb. 6: Winning the War for Talent, 7:15 a.m.-9 a.m., hosted by the MassMutual Center, 1277 Main St., Springfield. Presented by Mark Emrick of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast. Sponsored by United Personnel and the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast. Cost: $25 for members ($30 at the door), $35 for non-members ($40 at the door). To register, visit www.springfieldregionalchamber.com, e-mail [email protected], or call (413) 755-1310.

• Feb. 28: Leadership Institute, hosted by TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Main St., Springfield. Presented in partnership with Western New England University College of Business with support from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. The deadline to apply is Feb. 14. E-mail [email protected] for an application.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
(413) 426-3880

• Feb. 6: Wicked Wednesday, 5-7 p.m., hosted by MacMillan Group, 265 Main St., Agawam. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to network in a laid-back atmosphere. For more information about this event, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or register at www.ourwrc.com.

• Feb. 28: Mayoral Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., hosted by Crestview Country Club, Agawam. Join us as we listen to an informative discussion with our mayors, who will update the guests on all that is going on in our towns individually and collaboratively. For sponsorships or to register online, visit www.ourwrc.com.

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD
springfieldyps.com

• Feb. 21: February Third Thursday & Trivia, 5 p.m., hosted by Nathan Bills Bar & Restaurant. Cost: free for members, $10 for non-members. Visit springfieldyps.com to register.

People on the Move

By
People on the Move
Colin Lacey

Colin Lacey

Clare Ladue

Clare Ladue

Samuel Smith

Samuel Smith

PeoplesBank announced the appointments of Colin Lacey as Village Commons South Hadley Banking Center manager, Clare Ladue as Hadley Banking Center manager, and Samuel Smith as East Longmeadow Banking Center manager. In his new position, Lacey is responsible for identifying and providing personal and small-business customers banking options to achieve their financial needs, including depository services and lending solutions. He has six years of financial-services experience. Lacey holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. He is also a 2017 graduate of the Springfield Leadership Institute. He is a volunteer youth lacrosse coach in South Hadley. In her new position, Ladue oversees and manages all aspects of a full-service banking center, including staffing, sales, operations, business development, and community relations. She has 24 years of banking experience. Ladue earned commercial-lending certification from the Massachusetts Bankers Assoc. (MBA), and is a graduate of the MBA’s New England School of Financial Studies. Her volunteer service includes the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce, where she served on the executive committee, as well as the Ware 250th anniversary committee, West Springfield Partners for Education, the Walk of Champions to benefit Baystate Mary Lane Rays of Hope, Junior Achievement, Rays of Hope, Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen, and Link to Libraries. In his new position, Smith is serving the financial needs of both consumer and small-business clients. Utilizing technology, he is providing a consultative learning environment in order to educate clients around the various options for banking with PeoplesBank. He has 13 years of banking and financial-services experience. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems with a minor in business management. He is also a certified business banker by Moody’s Analytics. He is also an active volunteer for Revitalize CDC and Junior Achievement.

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Bill Grinnell

Bill Grinnell

Beth Young

Beth Young

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts announced the addition of two new members, Bill Grinnell and Beth Young, to its board of directors. Grinnell is president of Webber and Grinnell Insurance and manager of Webber and Grinnell Employee Benefits LLC of Northampton. He also serves as vice president of River Valley Investors, an angel investment group in Springfield. He is the former president of the Hampshire YMCA, past co-chair of the United Way annual fund, past vice president of the Employers Assoc., former member of the Northampton Planning Board, and past trustee of the Academy at Charlemont. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Hartwick College in New York. Young has served as district director of Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. for the past 20 years, covering stores in all four counties in Western Mass. and two stores in Connecticut. Throughout her time there, she and her team have organized numerous fundraising events to support local community organizations, including regional food banks, the USO, and Dana Farber’s Cure for Childhood Cancer. She is a graduate of Westfield State University and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology. 

•••••

Mayor Domenic Sarno announced the appointment of attorney Talia Gee as the city of Springfield’s new chief Diversity & Inclusion officer. “As I said this past year, and with the upcoming retirement of Equal Opportunity Administrator Dan Hall, a newly evolved/transitional position would be developed,” Sarno said. “My thanks to Dan Hall for all his years of dedicated service to our city. This new position enhances my vision to lead in development and implementation of proactive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in hiring, career development, and leadership opportunities in support of our city’s strategic plan to continue to foster a working environment, where all have an opportunity to succeed. Though this new position will work closely with our Human Resources Division, it is a direct cabinet-level report to me.” Gee will start her position on Jan. 14. Her salary will be $92,000. She is a graduate of St. John’s University in New York City and received her MBA and law degree from Western New England University. She is MCAD-certified and previously worked at the law firm of Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn. She is the board chairwoman of the Springfield Boys & Girls Club and co-creator of the “How to Wear Your Crown” event that focuses on Springfield-area teenage girls.

•••••

Kathryn Crouss

Kathryn Crouss

Bacon Wilson announced that Kathryn Crouss has been named the firm’s newest shareholder. Crouss is a member of Bacon Wilson’s litigation team and handles all aspects of employment law, including management-side representation, defending employers against discrimination and wage-and-hour lawsuits and routinely advising employers on matters related to compliance, official policies and procedures, and best practices. She also represents employees with regard to severance or employment agreements, worker’s compensation matters, as well as claims of discrimination against their employers. She also has extensive experience with both family-law litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Crouss is a certified mediator, trained in collaborative law, an LAR (limited assistance representation) qualified attorney for Hampden County, and a trained conciliator for the Massachusetts Probate & Family Courts. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Bay Path University, where she teaches “Legal Environments in Business” to students of the university’s business department.

•••••

Greg Chiecko

Greg Chiecko

Greg Chiecko, director of Sales at the Eastern States Exposition (ESE), has been named president and CEO of the Outdoor Amusement Business Assoc. (OABA), the mobile amusement industry’s trade association. The announcement was made by the OABA board of directors following a comprehensive executive search. Chiecko succeeds longtime OABA President Robert Johnson, and will embark on his new career on Feb. 1. The OABA is the largest trade association representing carnivals, circuses, concessionaires, independent ride owners, and others who serve fairs, festivals, and community events. Chiecko’s 24-year career at ESE included the oversight of midway operations at the Big E. He worked closely with the OABA and other industry associations and is past board member of the International Assoc. of Fairs and Expositions, and past president of the Massachusetts Agricultural Fairs Assoc. and the New England Assoc. of Amusement Parks and Attractions. He also sits on the board of the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau and served as its chair for five years.

•••••

Berkshire Family & Individual Resources Inc. (BFAIR) announced an organizational restructuring and internal promotions. Rich Weisenflue, previously executive director, will assume the role of CEO. Other promotions included Ethel Altiery to executive director, Jane Patenaude-LeBeau to chief financial officer, and Theresa Gelinas to senior vice president, Day Services. The structural changes come as a response to the organization’s continued growth. According to Alex Kastrinakis, BFAIR’s board chair, “the board of directors placed an emphasis on devising a management structure to achieve the agency’s mission to meet the growing needs of people with disabilities and older adult members of our community. In 2019, we will celebrate the agency’s 25th anniversary, and the new structure is also reflective of the positive changes the management team accomplished over the past two decades, including expansion of services beyond the Berkshires into the Pioneer Valley and Southern Vermont.” Restructuring of the management team will also include a newly created position, vice president, Residential Services. BFAIR is a member agency of the Northern Berkshire United Way and Williamstown Community Chest.

•••••

Monson Savings Bank (MSB) announced the promotions of Carolyn Balicki to branch manager/retail banking officer, Rob Chateauneuf to first vice president commercial loan officer, and Dina Merwin to first vice president compliance and BSA officer. Balicki joined the MSB team in 2009 as a CSA in Monson. She was promoted to CSA supervisor in 2010, assistant branch manager in 2011, and branch manager in 2014. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at UMass Amherst and is a graduate of the New England School of Financial Studies. Chateauneuf joined MSB in 2012 as an assistant vice president commercial loan officer. He was promoted to vice president in 2014 and took on the added responsibility of assistant department manager of the Commercial Loan department in 2015. He has close to 20 years of commercial and retail banking experience and earned a bachelor’s degree in business management at UMass Amherst. Merwin came on board in December 2012 as a temporary BSA analyst to assist during an employee leave of absence. In June 2013, she was hired as compliance officer. In 2014, she was promoted to AVP compliance and BSA officer, and she earned the vice president title in 2016. She has 25 years of community banking experience and is a graduate of the National School of Banking and the Massachusetts School for Financial Studies.

Company Notebook

By
Company Notebook

Smith Brothers Insurance Merges With the Partners Insurance Agency

EASTHAMPTON — Effective Jan. 1, Smith Brothers Insurance, with offices in Easthampton and West Springfield, and the Partners Insurance Agency, an independent insurance agency located in Vestal, Owego, and Waverly, N.Y., have merged together. This merger expands the Smith Brothers Insurance footprint into upstate New York, where the Partners will maintain local presence while leveraging the resources of Smith Brothers Insurance, one of the nation’s top 100 independent brokers. Owners of the New York offices — Don Patterson, Bill Soprano, Phil Wiles, John Carlin, Michael Constantine, and Chris Hutchings — will stay fully engaged in client service and business development. Constantine will run the New York region, continuing to serve clients with the same team of insurance professionals who have also become employees of Smith Brothers Insurance.

Florence Bank Opens Second Branch in Hampden County

SPRINGFIELD — Florence Bank opened its second Hampden County branch at 1444 Allen St. in Springfield on Dec. 19. “We’re very pleased to be expanding our presence in Springfield,” said John Heaps Jr., Florence Bank’s president and CEO. “Our focus is on providing great customer service and helping to reinvigorate the community.” The Allen Street branch has an open floor plan with two teller pods and innovative technology for quick cash handling. The location will also feature a drive-up ATM with SMART technology for easy depositing and a comfortable waiting area inside with a coffee bar and free wi-fi. Nikki Gleason serves as branch manager for the new location. Other employees include Candice Somar, assistant branch manager; Bianca Hyde, customer service representative (CSR) and teller operations manager; Mario Nascimento, CSR and senior teller; Magdalis “Maggie” Sierra, CSR and senior teller; and Carolyn Ware, community relations director. In August 2017, Florence Bank opened its first branch in Hampden County at 1010 Union St. in West Springfield. The Springfield branch marks the second of several anticipated branches in the region, Heaps said.

WNEU Announces $35 Million ‘Campaign for Our Second Century’

SPRINGFIELD — Western New England University (WNEU) announced plans for a comprehensive fundraising campaign designed to enrich the student experience inside and outside the classroom. Named the Campaign for Our Second Century, the philanthropic endeavor launched publicly on 1/9/19 — a nod to the university’s founding year of 1919. Western New England University aims to raise at least $35 million in private support for a range of priorities that will build on the institution’s historic first century and shape its future progress. Those priorities fit into five overall fundraising objectives: growing scholarship aid, building and enhancing campus facilities, creating impactful opportunities for student life, boosting academic initiatives and experiences, and strengthening the President’s Fund for Excellence. Current and future Western New England students will be the direct beneficiaries of the most ambitious fundraising effort in the university’s history. The number-one priority of the campaign is to increase student aid through donor-funded scholarships. In recent years, full-time undergraduate enrollment has grown to record levels, with more than 98% of students receiving financial aid through scholarships, grants, and loans. The university has already secured more than $29 million in new gifts and commitments to advance Western New England during the campaign’s pre-launch phase, which began in 2016. Lead gifts were made by two of the university’s most ardent supporters — Kevin Delbridge ’77 and Janet Johnson Bullard ’69, both university trustees who are serving as the campaign’s honorary chairpersons. To date, more than 4,000 individual alumni, friends, and foundations have made commitments. Each gift made to WNEU during the campaign counts toward its goal. This is Western New England’s second comprehensive campaign. Private philanthropic support is not intended to replace university sources of revenue, but rather provide the margin that enables greater access to scholarship support, state-of-the-art technologies, outside-the-classroom experiences, faculty development, and other critical learning services. For details about the Campaign for Our Second Century, visit wne.edu/campaign.

Community Chooses Recipients of Monson Savings Bank Philanthropy

MONSON — For the ninth year in a row, Monson Savings Bank asked the community to help plan the bank’s community giving activities by inviting people to vote for the organizations they would like the bank to support during 2019. The top vote getters include Wilbraham United Players, Scantic Valley YMCA, the Women’s Empowerment Scholarship Fund, Rick’s Place, River East School-to-Career, Greene Room Productions, Boy Scouts of Western Massachusetts, Link to Libraries, Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, and Old Post Orchestra.

HealthSouth Rehab Hospital Unveils New Name, Brand

LUDLOW — HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Massachusetts has unveiled its new name and brand as part of its management company’s name change and rebranding initiative. As of Jan. 1, the inpatient rehabilitation hospital is known as Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Massachusetts. It will continue to provide the same post-acute care for patients overcoming a variety of major illnesses and injuries. Birmingham, Ala.-based HealthSouth Corp. launched its new name and brand on Jan. 1, 2018 and will be transitioning its 130 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and 273 home-health and hospice locations serving 36 states and Puerto Rico through 2019. All of the company’s post-acute-care service locations in Massachusetts migrated to the Encompass Health name and branding last week.

Advocacy Network Donates $17,000 to Whole Children

HADLEY — The Advocacy Network, a local organization with a mission to promote and protect the health, human rights, and safety of people with developmental disabilities, recently donated $17,000 to Whole Children. The donation was one of the last acts of the group, which announced it is dissolving after more than 60 years of work. The late Benjamin Ricci, an Advocacy Network member, was the father of Belchertown State School patient Robert Ricci. He filed a class-action lawsuit against the school in 1972, claiming that its residents were living in horrific conditions. The judge assigned to the Belchertown case, Joseph Tauro, who died in November, spearheaded a major overhaul of Massachusetts’ state facilities as a result of the lawsuit, which ultimately ended in the closing of the institution. Amherst resident Bob Ricci, the man named in the lawsuit against Belchertown, came to Whole Children with members of the Advocacy Network to deliver the check to director Maggie Rice. Whole Children was started in 2004 by a group of parents looking for after-school programs for their children with intellectual disabilities or autism. It joined with Springfield-based Pathlight in 2010 and has expanded to serve some 600 adults, teens, and children each year in a variety of recreation, performing-arts, and enrichment programs.

SmartDollar Names OMG Inc. Company of the Year

AGAWAM — The statistics are alarming: 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. At work, stress over finances can take a toll on employee performance and impact productivity. Almost 10 years ago, OMG Inc. saw this as a factor limiting employee success and took action. OMG used SmartDollar, the financial-wellness program created by money expert and best-selling author Dave Ramsey, to teach employees how to take better care of themselves financially. More than 300 employees have taken advantage of the program to create a financial plan for themselves and their families. Using SmartDollar, the average OMG participant has paid off more than $8,000 in debt and saves more than $5,000. Collectively, participants have achieved a positive swing of almost $1 million through debt reduction and savings contributions. As a result, SmartDollar recognized OMG as its 2018 Company of the Year.

Briefcase

By
Briefcase

Employer Confidence Weakens in December

BOSTON — Massachusetts employers gave a big “bah, humbug” to the year-end economy as business confidence withered in the face of a government shutdown and the largest one-month stock-market decline since the Great Depression. The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index lost three points to 58.6 during December, its lowest level since December 2016. Confidence readings have dropped five points during the past 12 months. The retreat was led by an 8.6-point drop in employer views of the national economy, and a 4.7-point drop among manufacturing companies. Overall confidence remains within optimistic territory, but less comfortably so than earlier in 2018. “The Massachusetts economy remains strong, with a 3.3% growth rate and an unemployment rate of 3.4%, but employers are increasingly concerned about factors such as financial-market volatility, a dysfunctional national political debate, and challenges such as the cost of providing health insurance to employees,” said Raymond Torto, chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Design. The AIM Index, based on a survey of Massachusetts employers, has appeared monthly since July 1991. It is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral; a reading above 50 is positive, while below 50 is negative. The Index reached its historic high of 68.5 on two occasions in 1997-98, and its all-time low of 33.3 in February 2009. It has remained above 50 since October 2013.

Bradley Adds New Non-stop Service to Raleigh-Durham, Orlando, Pittsburgh

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — The Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) announced the debut in 2019 of new, non-stop service from Bradley International Airport to Raleigh-Durham International Airport and Orlando International Airport on low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines, as well as the addition of non-stop service to Pittsburgh on Via Airlines. The service to Raleigh-Durham will commence on April 30 on an Airbus A320. It will operate seasonally on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. The service to Orlando will commence on May 1 on an Airbus A321. It will operate seasonally on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The service to Pittsburgh will commence on July 22 on an Embraer ERJ145 with 50 seats. It will operate four times a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

 

Community Foundation Awards $665,200 to 45 Nonprofits

SPRINGFIELD — The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts (CFWM) recently awarded $665,200 to 45 area nonprofits through its capital grant and capacity grant programs, two of the foundation’s six competitive grant-making programs that focus on improving and supporting quality of life for people in Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties. CFWM capital grants help local nonprofit organizations expand their impact by funding new and upgraded technology, equipment, and facilities. Capacity grants support local nonprofits to build their own organizational effectiveness and operational efficiency. Grant awards range from $4,500 to $40,000 and address community needs in the areas of arts and culture, education, the environment, health, housing, and human services. More than 25 of the projects funded were supported by trusts administered by Bank of America. CFWM receives and reviews grant applications on behalf of Bank of America for four charitable trusts for which the bank serves as a trustee. Total grant awards by county are as follows: Hampden, $412,000, Hampshire, $144,400, and Franklin, $108,800. Capital grants were awarded to the following programs and organizations: Ascentria Community Services, Baystate Health Foundation, Bethlehem House, Chester Theatre Company, Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society, Davenport Child Care, Franklin County Community Meals Program, Franklin Land Trust, Friends of the Montague Common Hall, Friends of the Springfield Public Library, Gardening the Community, Hilltown Community Health Center, Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Holyoke YMCA, MHA, Multicultural Community Services of the Pioneer Valley, Quaboag Valley Community Development Corp., Robert F. Kennedy Academy, Roca, Second Chance Animal Services, ServiceNet, Springfield Museums, Stanley Park, Tapestry Health Systems, Tolland Volunteer Fire Department, Valley Eye Radio, Willie Ross School for the Deaf, and Womanshelter Companeras. Capacity Grants were awarded to the following programs and organizations: 1794 Meetinghouse Inc., Birthday Wishes, Brick House Community Resource Center, Cancer Connection, Double Edge Theatre Productions, Hilltown Land Trust, Kestrel Land Trust, Link to Libraries, Mary Lyon Education Fund, Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, Massachusetts Review, North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy, Northampton Education Foundation, Trauma Institute and Child Trauma Institute, and the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts.

Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, Big Y Announce Local Farmer Awards

AGAWAM — Starting Jan. 1, farmers in Western Mass. are invited to apply for Local Farmer Awards up to $2,500 toward equipment and infrastructure projects to help them complete in the marketplace. The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation (HGCF), in partnership with Big Y and with the support of other funders, is entering the fifth year of the awards program, which has helped more than 125 farmers carry out a total of 188 projects. Some examples of how the awards have been used include a high-efficiency vegetable washer, a walk-in cooler aging room, an egg washer, high tunnel irrigation, electric fencing, and a milkplan bulk tank. To be eligible, farms must have gross sales of $10,000 or above and either be a member of Berkshire Grow or Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) or reside in one the four Western Mass. counties. Berkshire Grown and CISA share their passion for local farms by providing ongoing guidance and help with promotion of the of the Local Farmer Awards. The deadline for applying is Thursday, Jan. 31. Interested applicants are encouraged to visit www.farmerawards.org for more information.

Horace Smith Fund Offers Scholarship, Fellowship Funds

WESTFIELD — The Horace Smith Fund, now in its 120th year, has scholarship and fellowship money available for graduates of Hampden County public and private high schools. Scholarship awards of $12,000 are distributed as $3,000 annually and renewable each year until graduation. Fellowship awards of $15,000 are distributed as $5,000 annually and renewable for two additional years. Students must maintain at least a B average in college. Recipients are selected on a variety of criteria, including financial need, college entrance-exam scores, class rank, extracurricular activities, and recommendations. Of great importance is a personal, written account of why the student feels deserving of financial assistance. Fellowship applicants must also submit their transcripts and, if applicable, GRE or degree-specific test scores. All recipients must be full-time students and residents of Hampden County. Last year, $382,000 was awarded to 37 individuals. Scholarships were given to 26 graduating seniors from 13 Hampden County high schools. Five scholarships were also awarded to current college students to assist them in completing their undergraduate degrees. Six fellowships were given to college graduates pursuing graduate degrees, who had graduated from Hampden County high schools. Completed applications must be received either electronically or by mail to the Horace Smith Fund at 16 Union Ave., Suite 2K, Westfield, MA 01085 no later than March 15, 2019. Applications are available at local high-school guidance offices, college financial-aid offices, online at www.horacesmithfund.org, or by phoning (413) 739-4222.

Small Businesses Starting to Feel Impact of Shutdown

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the partial government shutdown continues, small businesses across the country are starting to feel the effects of the shutdown, resulting in unnecessary uncertainty at the start of a new fiscal year. Keith Hall, president and CEO of the National Assoc. for the Self-Employed, the nation’s leading advocate and resource for the self-employed and micro-business community, called on Congress and the White House to work together to end the shutdown on behalf of America’s small-business community. The Washington Post reported that, as of Dec. 22, the Small Business Administration stopped processing new small-business loans due to the government shutdown. Thousands of small-business owners across the country are unable to receive critical funding to start and grow their businesses because of the partial government shutdown. Even when full funding is restored, a backlog is likely. “The negative consequences of one of the longest shutdowns in U.S. history is now fully impacting our country’s small-business community,” said Hall. “From uncertainty around how the shutdown could impact delays in tax refunds small businesses were looking to invest from this year’s new tax law to the shuttering of the Small Business Administration impacting small-business loans, America’s small businesses are on the front lines feeling the adverse impact.  “The government shutdown has created additional uncertainty during a critical time when small businesses are starting a new fiscal year,” he continued. “Small businesses must continue to abide by their tax obligations, including paying quarterly tax estimates and adhering to all filing deadlines. However, the federal government is unlikely to keep their end of the deal by processing tax refunds on time and providing small businesses access to critical answers they may have to questions about filing for the first time under the new tax law.” During the shutdown, about 12% of IRS staff are expected to continue working, according to the agency’s lapsed funding contingency plan. This will result in the inability of such functions as staff being available to answer questions for small businesses filing for the first time under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act law going into full effect this tax year. It could also negatively impact the ability of IRS staff to process tax refunds in a timely manner, resulting in delays.

Incorporations

By
Incorporations

The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.

BELCHERTOWN

VSL Investments Corporation, 9 Crestview Dr., Belchertown, MA 01007. Van Lip, same. Property investments.

EAST LONGMEADOW

TDS Center for Communication Inc., 232 North Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Jodi L. Mckenna, same. Speech therapy.

West Road Assisted Living Inc., 200 North Main St., Suite 204, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Jason Robertson, same. Assisted living facility.

LONGMEADOW

Western Mass. Endodontics Holdings, P.C., 66 Dwight Road, Longmeadow, MA 01106. Craig A. Saltzman, 266 Ardsley Road, Longmeadow, MA 01106. Dentistry and related specialties.

NORTHAMPTON

The Eric and Barbara Carle Foundation Inc., 84 North St., Northampton, MA 01060. John F. Fortier, 1174 Florence Road, Florence, MA 01062. Preservation and protection of the environment and domestic and wild animals.

PALMER

Ware River Woodworks Inc., 4400 High St., Palmer, MA 01069. William Fenner, same. Production of custom cabinetry.

SOUTHWICK

Smigiel Inc., 6 Alcove Road, Southwick, MA 01077. Shawm Smigiel, same. Restaurant.

SPRINGFIELD

Smoke and Sweets Distributors Corp., 143 Main St., Unit 212, Springfield, MA 01105. Oscar Cadiz, same. Sales and distribution of tobacco.

WESTFIELD

Service Jobs Inc., 51 Murray Ave., Westfield, MA 01085. Jamshed Khan, 68 Windsor Road, Brookline, MA 02445. Sales.

The Westfield Tavern Inc., 2 Broad St., Westfield, MA 01085. Peter Kantos, 1192 Amostown Road, West Springfield, MA 01089. Restaurant.

WILLIAMSBURG

Water Heaters America Inc., 46 Bissell Road, Williamsburg, MA 01096. Benjamin C. West, same. Sales, installation, and servicing water heaters.

WILLIAMSTOWN

The Architectural Sales Group Inc., 63 Spring Street Suite 2B, Williamstown, MA 01267. D. Foster Goodrich, same. Sales of architectural products.

Doing Business as Certificates

By
DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and trade names were issued or renewed during the months of December 2018 and January 2019.

BELCHERTOWN

Nelson’s Barber Shop
51 North Main St.
Nelson Eusebio

Planet Fuel of Belchertown
33 State St.
Stephen Weibel, Kristina Weibel

Webster’s Garage
176 Federal St.
Barry Potter

CHICOPEE

All Ways Roofing
522 Springfield St.
Nicholas Lafayette

Blueprint Hair Design Studio
44 Walnut St.
Mary DiDomenico

Lucky Strike Restaurant
703 Grattan St.
LS Restaurants, LLC

S & V Mart
659 Grattan St.
Suresh Patel

Sheffield Logistics
340 McKinstry Ave., Suite 200
Brian Paige

Western Massachusetts Futbal League
52 Hendrick St.
Brent Dilliard

DEERFIELD

Country Strong Fitness
90 Steam Mill Road
Brennan McKenna

Deerfield Nail & Spa
Hong Yen Vo
6A Sugarloaf St.

Lichocki Design
10 Crestview Dr.
Edward Lichocki

HOLYOKE

BE Donuts
1600 Northampton St.
Lori Martins, John Salema

DX2 Fitness
155 Nonotuck St.
Daniela Fernandez

F & M Motor Sales
414A South St.
Michael Gruszka

Jerry’s Auto Repair and Sales
901 Main St.
Victor Gomez

Two Dog Media
404 Southampton Road
Damian Gawle

United Capital Financial Advisors, LLC
330 Whitney Ave., Suite 750
United Capital Financial Advisors

LONGMEADOW

Artists of Springfield, MA
195 Meadowbook Road
Artists of Springfield, MA

Rachel Kuhn, LMHC
123 Dwight Road
Rachel Kuhn, LMHC

NORTHAMPTON

Busy Bee-Cleans
187 North Main St.
Carrielynn Fournier

Gemini Research
220 Grove St.
Rachel Volberg

JoKent Katz
693 Bridge Road
Joanna Kent Katz

Nail Care by Shauna
16 Center St., Suite 511
Shauna Rogers

New Takes
49 Beacon St., Apt. B
Bette Elsden

Panacea Salon
28 Pleasant St.
Panacea Salon

SpecCNC
89 Ridgewood Ter.
Paul Voss

Swing Graphics
126 Main St.
Gregory Perham Jr.

WintergreenDev
72 Barrett St., Unit 109
Joseph Carlino, Rebecca Tremblay

SPRINGFIELD

A+ Family Child Care
37 Waldorf St.
Avril Reid

A Brighter Future Childcare
83 Main St.
Michele Pepe

Acropolis Enterprises
191 Chestnut St.
Jorge Martinez

EM-K Nails Spa
1655 Boston Road
Cindy Tai

Fame Cuts
278 Oakland St.
Virginia Arias

Family Dollar #32212
1250 St. James Ave.
Family Dollar Stores

Hancock Market
260 Hancock St.
Rigoberto Grullon, Cristine Batista

I.Q. Smoke Shop
1655 Boston Road
Cameron Quinlan

Keno White, LLC
961 Worcester St.
Keno White II

Lily Crow Wellness Center
899 Carew St.
Lilian Ramos David

Mobile Man Details
105 Princeton St.
Andre Yarns Jr.

Monsoon Roastery, LLC
270 Albany St.
Timothy Monson

Professional Meats of New England
955 Boston Road
David Smith II

Stonekoncepts
257 Dickinson St.
Pablo Morales

Touch of NYC Hair Studio
803 Belmont Ave.
Sophia Evans

WESTFIELD

Del Photo & Craft Works
46 Spruce St.
Michael Del Monte

San-Man Graphics
16G Union Ave.
Edgardo Sanchez Jr.

Smith Monuments
David Dumala
104 Court St.

Vision Centre
194 East Main St.
Nickolas Linna

Yummi Noodle
160 Elm St.
Dong Han

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Apex Home Improvement
1215 Elm St.
Jason Boulanger

Bath Crafters
176 Labelle St.
James Belle-Isle

Dk Tax Prep
425 Union St. Ext.
Michael Dipon

Llumin Inc.
59 Interstate Dr.
Edward Garibian

Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Co.
174 Brush Hill Ave.
Andrew Churchill

Market One
70 Robinson Road
Nicholas Toma

Perfect Fit Dental Lab
442 Westfield St.
Vitaliy Tkachenko

Pisst Fish
1270 Memorial Ave.
Kevin Ondras

Bankruptcies

By
Bankruptcies

The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

Adhikari, Prem
463 Belmont Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/17/18

Aller, Christopher R.
950 North Pleasant St., Apt. 123
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Berger, Mindy
a/k/a Roman, Mindy
34 Gordon St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/18/18

Boudreau, Margaret
144 Branch Hill Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/18

Brooke, Kevin
2 Barker St.
Three Rivers, MA 01080
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/21/18

Cabana, Patricia
4 Sutton Place, Apt. 18
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/27/18

Chadwick, Lesley Lee
Chadwick, Marilyn Rose
a/k/a Wright, Marilyn Rose
1127 Mohawk Trail
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/24/18

Cruz, Noel
128 Woodmont St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/20/18

Davis, Katherine N.
14 Prospect St.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/18

Downs, Thomas
11 Cochran St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/21/18

Gibson, Chad M.
14 Salli Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/21/18

Griffith, Shirley M.
6 Roosevelt Ter.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/26/18

Herbalife Nutrition
Collins, Elizabeth L.
79 Delaney Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Jez, Daniel Anthony
Jez, Carolyn Joann
29 Geraldine St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/24/18

LeVasseur, Denise Marie
9 Desimone Dr.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Mailloux, Cheryl-Ann
116 Bostwick Lane
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/17/18

McKoy, Mark A.
155 Laconia St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/18

Patruno, Derrick M.
155 Jackson St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Pride Property Service
Meisenhelder, Glen C.
62 Chapin St.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/27/18

Puchelt, Cheryl A.
a/k/a Brouillard, Cheryl A.
a/k/a Grant, Cheryl A.
58 Poole Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Puchelt, William
58 Poole Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Robbins, Loretta J.
91 Hadley Village Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/28/18

Sorenson, Shawn
31 Knowlwood Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/19/18

Trudeau, Steven S.
55 Empire St., Unit 42
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/18

Vazquez, Angela G.
34 Pasadena St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/18

Wheble, Robert J.
43 Brianna Lane
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/18

White, Michael D.
12 Hollywood St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/18

Yvon, Karen M.
419 Poole St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/18

Zavala, Raul
25 Piedmont St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/18

Real Estate Transactions

By
Real Estate

The following real estate transactions (latest available) were compiled by Banker & Tradesman and are published as they were received. Only transactions exceeding $115,000 are listed. Buyer and seller fields contain only the first name listed on the deed.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

ASHFIELD

686 Creamery Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Hannah L. Jacobson-Hardy
Seller: Aaron Grinstein
Date: 12/20/18

Pfersick Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: David P. Thibault
Seller: Poplar TR
Date: 12/28/18

BERNARDSTON

242 Bald Mountain Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Jessica Shepley
Seller: Andrews INT
Date: 12/28/18

258 Northfield Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $143,500
Buyer: 258 Northfield Road RT
Seller: Susan M. Adams
Date: 12/28/18

CHARLEMONT

280 Legate Hill Road
Charlemont, MA 01339
Amount: $212,000
Buyer: David M. O’Neil
Seller: John J. Handschuh
Date: 12/27/18

COLRAIN

18 Coombs Hill Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Lawrence R. Bruffee
Seller: Ivey T. Dowell
Date: 12/27/18

CONWAY

91 Hidden Ledge Dr.
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $269,000
Buyer: Robert C. Douglas
Seller: David S. Chalfant
Date: 12/20/18

DEERFIELD

26 Whitmore Ferry Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $470,000
Buyer: Joseph Berman
Seller: Tierney TR
Date: 12/21/18

ERVING

5 East Prospect St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $147,900
Buyer: Harold K. Burt
Seller: Jennifer A. Stiles
Date: 12/28/18

GILL

163 French King Hwy.
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Mauria Sirum
Seller: Dickerman, Leon F., (Estate)
Date: 12/28/18

GREENFIELD

720 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Paul Mervine
Seller: Isaac L. Galeas
Date: 12/21/18

199 Chapman St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $142,500
Buyer: Douglas R. McNamara
Seller: Alex J. Schimelpfenig
Date: 12/28/18

284 Conway St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $128,200
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Rochelle Lussier
Date: 12/26/18

21 Mill St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Mark D. Bodah
Seller: Matthew D. Parody
Date: 12/21/18

24 Mill St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Richard J. Brynda
Seller: Fitzgerald RET 2010
Date: 12/31/18

97 Newton St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Jason B. Stevens
Seller: Robert F. Hale
Date: 12/21/18

12 Oak St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Michael D. Crigler
Seller: Christine R. Ciepiela
Date: 12/21/18

MONTAGUE

91 2nd St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Jessica Solarski
Seller: John Haigis
Date: 12/17/18

139 Dry Hill Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Jane A. Alessandra
Seller: Bernard J. Goclowski
Date: 12/21/18

366 Montague City Road
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $1,130,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Donoghue
Seller: Michael C. Stempel
Date: 12/31/18

370 Montague City Road
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $1,130,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Donoghue
Seller: Michael C. Stempel
Date: 12/31/18

NEW SALEM

37 South Main St.
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: 37 South Main TR
Seller: Patricia I. Barletta
Date: 12/24/18

NORTHFIELD

137 Alexander Hill Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Jessica Brice
Seller: Sarah P. Hoffman
Date: 12/28/18

84 Captain Beers Plain Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Stephen R. Shearer
Seller: Hammond, Beryle, (Estate)
Date: 12/21/18

693 Millers Falls Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: Evelyn E. Whiteman
Seller: Johnson FT
Date: 12/28/18

ORANGE

105 Daniel Shays Hwy.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Marie Reid
Seller: Currier Road Holdings LLC
Date: 12/28/18

24 East Howe St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $183,500
Buyer: Joel S. Demont
Seller: Clarke T. Doody
Date: 12/21/18

383 East River St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $5,472,500
Buyer: King Pine RHF Partners LP
Seller: King James Court RHF Housing
Date: 12/28/18

419 East River St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $4,477,500
Buyer: King Pine RHF Partners LP
Seller: Pine Crest RHF Housing
Date: 12/28/18

435 East Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $146,250
Buyer: Bank New York Mellon
Seller: George Yiantsidis
Date: 12/24/18

5 Roche Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: William R. Johnston
Seller: Steven E. Savoy
Date: 12/28/18

94 West Orange Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: David J. Murphy
Seller: Constance E. Selanis
Date: 12/21/18

326 West River St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Paul W. Penerian
Seller: George J. Batista
Date: 12/21/18

WHATELY

11 Laurel Mountain Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $710,000
Buyer: Carl D. Long
Seller: John W. Torchia
Date: 12/21/18

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

62 Annable St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $182,500
Buyer: Scott M. Dashnaw
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/28/18

179 Country Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Jason Pami
Seller: John J. Kirby
Date: 12/19/18

129 Elm St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Timofey Pchelka
Seller: Tara J. Dasilva
Date: 12/21/18

87 Farmington Circle
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $492,000
Buyer: Robert G. Labun
Seller: Hillside Development Corp.
Date: 12/27/18

70 Fernwood Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Charles H. Miller
Seller: Victor R. Alessandri
Date: 12/28/18

10 Gary Place
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $247,944
Buyer: 716 Spring Valley LLC
Seller: Yellowbrick Property LLC
Date: 12/28/18

17 Hall St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Timothy Huston
Seller: Richard D. Black
Date: 12/26/18

210 High St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $202,000
Buyer: Frank E. Disco
Seller: Rhonda K. Blanton
Date: 12/18/18

190 Mill St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Jose Quinones
Seller: Bayview Loan Servicing
Date: 12/18/18

43-45 Orlando St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $177,615
Buyer: 716 Spring Valley LLC
Seller: Yellowbrick Property LLC
Date: 12/28/18

11 Valentine Terrace
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Lorelei Alfano
Seller: Edwin M. Cushing
Date: 12/21/18

BLANDFORD

26 Brookman Dr.
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Michael K. Tame
Seller: Theo Martzoukos
Date: 12/26/18

17 Gore Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Sean E. O’Clair
Seller: Corinne M. Cheffer
Date: 12/17/18

BRIMFIELD

120 5 Bridge Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Peggy S. Armentrout
Seller: Peter R. Neslusan
Date: 12/28/18

66 Holland Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Mary Veit
Date: 12/18/18

185 Old Sturbridge Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $212,000
Buyer: Philip Cordello
Seller: Mark R. Bastien
Date: 12/17/18

CHESTER

57 Middlefield Road
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $145,900
Buyer: Christopher D. Strong
Seller: Cody Mizula
Date: 12/17/18

381 Route 20
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: 381 Huntington Road LLC
Seller: Leland W. Wheeler
Date: 12/31/18

CHICOPEE

56 Brentwood Ter.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Douglas D. Meserve
Seller: Denis M. Martel
Date: 12/18/18

65 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $13,500,000
Buyer: Macarthur Ter. LLC
Seller: Chicopee Housing Assocs.
Date: 12/28/18

70 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $13,500,000
Buyer: Macarthur Ter. LLC
Seller: Chicopee Housing Assocs.
Date: 12/28/18

1785 Carew St.
Chicopee, MA 01104
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Hector M. Ortiz-Valdez
Seller: Eleanor F. Haggerty
Date: 12/21/18

114 Carriage Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Jonathan M. Pirog
Seller: Maria L. Silva
Date: 12/17/18

418 Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Roseann Bonatakis
Seller: Diane R. Sawyer
Date: 12/28/18

191 Dale St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $121,000
Buyer: John P. Bosley
Seller: Veronica M. Melanson
Date: 12/19/18

116 Dayton St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Sheila A. Gordon-Nieves
Seller: Virginia C. Humel
Date: 12/28/18

33 Fairfield Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Melissa M. Fifer
Seller: Lynn A. Scott
Date: 12/28/18

91 Laclede Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $206,000
Buyer: Kenneth J. Brown
Seller: Patriot Living LLC
Date: 12/21/18

15 Lavoie Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Jonathan M. Pasternak
Seller: June A. Plasse
Date: 12/18/18

20 Lawrence Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Anthony Machuca
Seller: Sonja E. Kokoszka
Date: 12/21/18

100 Lombard St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Adam T. Dubois
Seller: Stephen A. Foster
Date: 12/31/18

72 Lord Terrace North
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $363,000
Buyer: Christopher M. Topor
Seller: Peter Lake
Date: 12/21/18

134 Lukasik St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Daniel J. Leclair
Seller: Anthony Bourget
Date: 12/21/18

107 Maryland Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Nyasha Gutsa
Seller: Nikolay Dikan
Date: 12/17/18

32 McCarthy Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Joseph E. Brault
Seller: FNMA
Date: 12/28/18

2040 Memorial Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: At Home Properties LLC
Seller: Reniewicz, Lucille M., (Estate)
Date: 12/19/18

19 Old Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Sunny Hill LLC
Seller: Mitchell Nowak
Date: 12/27/18

27 Old Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Jerzy Cebula
Seller: Mieczyslaw Nowak
Date: 12/27/18

445 Oldfield Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $188,500
Buyer: Nicole M. Devlin
Seller: John M. Wozniak
Date: 12/21/18

32 Roosevelt Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $262,000
Buyer: Michael R. Maciolek
Seller: James G. Costigan
Date: 12/28/18

75 Saint Jacques Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: John C. Brault
Seller: Jonathan M. Pirog
Date: 12/17/18

46 Saint James Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Kenneth R. Germain
Seller: Yellowbrick Property LLC
Date: 12/19/18

257 School St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Robert A. Arcott
Seller: Arabasz, John, (Estate)
Date: 12/19/18

433 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $239,900
Buyer: Victor J. Morando
Seller: Laplante, Leona C., (Estate)
Date: 12/17/18

106 Tolpa Circle
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Patrick M. Lathrop
Seller: Luis Gomes
Date: 12/21/18

28 Wells Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Yurii Savchuk
Seller: Testamentary TR
Date: 12/18/18

11 Wilson Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Craig P. Zielonka
Seller: Wanda Zielonka
Date: 12/18/18

81 Woodcrest Circle
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Keith A. Arvanitis
Seller: Debra L. Badger
Date: 12/31/18

EAST LONGMEADOW

64 Colony Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Renee Coppolo
Seller: Rose Karaarslan
Date: 12/18/18

30 Harwich Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $238,000
Buyer: Jeffrey K. Demers
Seller: Dennis F. Olisky
Date: 12/27/18

604 North Main St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Andrew Bonavita
Seller: MPSA LLC
Date: 12/31/18

226 Parker St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $234,900
Buyer: Jeffrey R. Armitage
Seller: Anthony P. Potito
Date: 12/21/18

9 Pine Grove Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Angelo A. Gomez
Seller: Sharon A. Adams
Date: 12/17/18

39 Rankin Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: James K. Doyle
Seller: Daniel J. Delaney
Date: 12/18/18

26 Rockingham Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $555,000
Buyer: D. O. Oloruntola-Coates
Seller: Robert Hayes
Date: 12/21/18

36 South Brook Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $302,000
Buyer: Anthony R. Cirillo
Seller: Ayaz G. Kagzi
Date: 12/19/18

3 Shawmut St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Antonio Montefusco
Seller: Beverly J. Budd
Date: 12/21/18

157 Smith Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $235,500
Buyer: Derrick Savaria
Seller: Zin Property Solutions Inc.
Date: 12/17/18

GRANVILLE

76 Blandford Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Jeremiah S. Tysz
Seller: Patricia L. Tysz
Date: 12/28/18

HAMPDEN

8 Maple Grove Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $287,400
Buyer: Joann Gagliarducci
Seller: Loretta J. Scibelli
Date: 12/28/18

HOLLAND

25 Forest Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Matthew McNutt
Seller: Christine S. Tenney
Date: 12/20/18

63 Mashapaug Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $530,000
Buyer: Scott Davis
Seller: Donna Reed
Date: 12/20/18

166-B Stafford Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Paul G. Leone
Seller: Nathan R. Trombley
Date: 12/19/18

HOLYOKE

6 Beacon Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: Javier Flores
Seller: Christopher S. Clark
Date: 12/21/18

8 Field St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Luis Rodriguez
Seller: Marc C. Thompson
Date: 12/21/18

16 Gary Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $252,320
Buyer: Shawn Delton
Seller: Allen, Helen E., (Estate)
Date: 12/31/18

18 Hemlock Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Kevin Bechard
Seller: Patrick J. Clayton
Date: 12/21/18

97 Hitchcock St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Tamara Figueroa
Seller: David N. Vermette
Date: 12/24/18

4 Kennedy Circle
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $272,500
Buyer: Ann W. Wedaman
Seller: Robert J. O’Neill
Date: 12/28/18

604-606 Main St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: SR&JP Investment LLC
Seller: Wholesale Transfer LLC
Date: 12/21/18

42 Meadowview Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Alexander F. Rodriguez
Seller: Robert A. Burnett
Date: 12/28/18

3 Montgomery Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $228,100
Buyer: Megan M. Cornell
Seller: Davis J. McCabe
Date: 12/19/18

95 Ridgewood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Roberto F. Deza
Seller: Ernest, Sias D., (Estate)
Date: 12/19/18

108 Westfield Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Tamara Figueroa
Seller: David N. Vermette
Date: 12/24/18

LONGMEADOW

38 Hazelwood Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $331,000
Buyer: Helene G. Robbins
Seller: Neil A. Daboul
Date: 12/18/18

909 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $347,000
Buyer: Albert E. Hofmann
Seller: Patricia J. McTaggart
Date: 12/28/18

56 Massachusetts Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Cara M. Canedi
Seller: Reinaldo Rivera
Date: 12/28/18

53 Meadowlark Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $238,000
Buyer: Thomas C. Bernatavitz
Seller: Lloyd C. Sutton
Date: 12/21/18

80 Windsor Place
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Patrick M. Frechette
Seller: Hamlin, Charles G., (Estate)
Date: 12/24/18

LUDLOW

Cislak Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Carlos Martins
Seller: Antonio F. Gois
Date: 12/28/18

223 Clover Road
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $226,810
Buyer: Joshua Bailey
Seller: Matthew J. Simonoko
Date: 12/28/18

3 Fontaine St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $264,900
Buyer: Matthew T. Bridges
Seller: Joan F. Ramos
Date: 12/28/18

62 Gaudreau Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Alexander A. Suglia
Seller: Roz Denette
Date: 12/28/18

50 Holy Cross Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Emily V. Leonczyk
Seller: David A. Williams
Date: 12/17/18

103 Karen Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $338,000
Buyer: David A. Rodrigues
Seller: Emily V. Leonczyk
Date: 12/17/18

22 Leland Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Jessica Szlosek
Seller: Janusz Szlosek
Date: 12/28/18

359 Lyon St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $248,500
Buyer: Luis Gomes
Seller: Glenn Potter
Date: 12/21/18

637 Miller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Danielle E. Bowen
Seller: Miller Gap LLC
Date: 12/21/18

Sunset Dr. #5
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: David J. Vanderboom
Seller: Baystate Developers Inc.
Date: 12/27/18

MONSON

102 Bumstead Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Matthew J. Doyle
Seller: Brown, Alice, (Estate)
Date: 12/20/18

40 Crest Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $231,900
Buyer: Rachel A. Wright
Seller: Aaron T. Chesnes
Date: 12/31/18

130 Ely Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $404,408
Buyer: Matthew Tassinari
Seller: H. & Assinari Builders Inc.
Date: 12/28/18

423 Lower Hampden Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Eric M. Gilbert
Seller: Earl M. Gilbert
Date: 12/31/18

34 Paradise Lake Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $207,875
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Sandra M. Czupryna
Date: 12/31/18

238 Silver St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Kyle Chase
Seller: Wendy L. Gleason
Date: 12/28/18

47 Thayer Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Ruby Realty LLC
Seller: Robert J. Sanderson
Date: 12/31/18

PALMER

2261 Baptist Hill Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: Justin A. Kania
Seller: Kristy L. Kania
Date: 12/28/18

123 Boston Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Charles Bowes
Date: 12/17/18

5 Linda St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $182,500
Buyer: Robert W. Roy
Seller: Joseph H. Vigneau
Date: 12/20/18

2022-2024 Palmer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Frank Delvalle
Seller: Michele A. Topor
Date: 12/28/18

2142 Palmer Road
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $194,816
Buyer: Carrington Mortgage Services
Seller: Edes A. McCray-Walton
Date: 12/31/18

3034 Pleasant St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Anthony Quintana
Seller: Margaret M. Landers
Date: 12/28/18

366 Rondeau St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $297,000
Buyer: Mark A. Crawley
Seller: Justine M. Gliesman
Date: 12/21/18

RUSSELL

680 South Quarter Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $237,000
Buyer: Sara A. Raymaakers
Seller: Chapter 7 Of US Bankrptcy
Date: 12/27/18

SOUTHWICK

32 Bungalow St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Mackenzie Powers
Seller: Dellagiustina, S. H., (Estate)
Date: 12/26/18

10 Gargon Ter.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $170,900
Buyer: Richard L. Winkler
Seller: David A. Howard
Date: 12/28/18

64 Kline Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Scott T. Colby
Seller: David B. Hopkins
Date: 12/19/18

80 Kline Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Scott T. Colby
Seller: David B. Hopkins
Date: 12/19/18

11 Noble Steed Xing
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $575,000
Buyer: Vincent L. Petrangelo
Seller: Driftwood Development Co.
Date: 12/28/18

Sawgrass Lane #4
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Joseph G. Fournier
Seller: Fiore Realty Holdings LLC
Date: 12/18/18

40 South Longyard Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: David Avalone
Seller: Clifford P. Kibbe
Date: 12/28/18

SPRINGFIELD

248 Abbott St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Vincent R. Esposito
Seller: Jennifer L. Henderson
Date: 12/27/18

Amboy Court #1
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $571,000
Buyer: Rae Realty Partners LLC
Seller: Northeast Terminals LLC
Date: 12/31/18

49 Ambrose St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Samantha E. Hahn-Clark
Seller: Leonard Camano
Date: 12/21/18

81 Amore Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Gloria V. Carrino
Seller: Leila Hurst
Date: 12/17/18

34 Ashwood St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $227,400
Buyer: Chad J. Fraga
Seller: Raul Fraga
Date: 12/17/18

39 Ballard Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Matthew Wright
Seller: Scott L. Tidlund
Date: 12/28/18

36 Berlin St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Luis R. Franco
Seller: Cynthia L. Ray
Date: 12/21/18

1791 Boston Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $685,000
Buyer: J&C Business Ventures LLC
Seller: Armand J. Beaupre
Date: 12/20/18

242 Breckwood Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Yvette C. Young
Date: 12/19/18

64 Burt Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Douglas R. Eldridge
Seller: Howard C. Eldridge
Date: 12/21/18

234 Cambria St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $172,900
Buyer: Samantha Alejandro
Seller: James Hutchinson
Date: 12/17/18

29 Cedar St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $120,700
Buyer: Alves & Son LLC
Seller: Pamela C. Johnson
Date: 12/21/18

80 Chapin Ter.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $166,690
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Carline Bouquet
Date: 12/31/18

10 Chestnut St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $12,000,000
Buyer: Chestnut Park Preservation LP
Seller: Related Springfield Assocs.
Date: 12/17/18

275 Chestnut St. #1
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: BH Chestnut Crossing LLC
Seller: YMCA
Date: 12/21/18

108 Cuff Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Miguel A. Hernandez
Seller: Murphy, Mary, (Estate)
Date: 12/27/18

98 David St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Angel R. Ayala-Marrero
Seller: Della Ripa Real Estate
Date: 12/26/18

101 Daviston St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $169,900
Buyer: Mary L. Burgos
Seller: Rosemary Perez
Date: 12/20/18

69 Dawes St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Rafael Medina
Seller: Vadim Tulchinsky
Date: 12/28/18

307-309 Dorset St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Guiseppe Leone
Seller: Eric Chapdelaine
Date: 12/18/18

67-69 Draper St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Orange Park Management
Seller: Orange Park Management
Date: 12/19/18

133 Drexel St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $138,350
Buyer: Ryan McAnaugh
Seller: Mary E. Scott
Date: 12/17/18

226 Dutchess St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $173,000
Buyer: Jessica M. Baker
Seller: Cooper Properties LLC
Date: 12/28/18

115-185 Dwight St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $12,000,000
Buyer: Chestnut Park Preservation LP
Seller: Related Springfield Assocs.
Date: 12/17/18

185 Dwight St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $12,000,000
Buyer: Chestnut Park Preservation LP
Seller: Related Springfield Assocs.
Date: 12/17/18

65 East Allen Ridge Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Acevedo
Seller: John P. Polaski
Date: 12/28/18

64 Euclid Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Dnepro Properties LLC
Seller: Catfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/17/18

144 Ferncliff Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Candice M. Garner-Higgins
Seller: Dawnelle Davis
Date: 12/21/18

98 Forest Park Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: West Valley LLC
Seller: Thomas J. Manion
Date: 12/17/18

46 Gates Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $239,900
Buyer: Diana M. Chung-Edwards
Seller: Kyle Chase
Date: 12/28/18

12 Green Way
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Shawna Nelson
Seller: Myles D. Donoghue
Date: 12/28/18

109 Grover St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Zion Property LLC
Seller: Armand M. Roy
Date: 12/20/18

58 Haskin St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $151,900
Buyer: Minani Marc
Seller: Travis A. Kuffel
Date: 12/28/18

56-58 Horace St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Ana M. Mirbon
Seller: JJS Capital Investment
Date: 12/28/18

30 Jardine St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $151,410
Buyer: M. I. Polanco-Martinez
Seller: RBT Enterprise LLC
Date: 12/28/18

23 Lakevilla Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $155,675
Buyer: Delphine Wray
Seller: Knolly D. Demills
Date: 12/21/18

88 Lancashire Road
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Aaron Abreu
Seller: Jorge Montalban
Date: 12/27/18

58 Larkspur St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $138,000
Buyer: Mario Velazquez
Seller: Rochelle D. Newbert
Date: 12/20/18

189 Laurelton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: David Bowens
Seller: Sherquita Thomas
Date: 12/28/18

96 Laurence St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: William Suarez
Seller: Jose M. Monzon
Date: 12/28/18

12-14 Ledyard St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: J&W Feng LLC
Seller: Sara Maldonaldo
Date: 12/28/18

64 Littleton St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $147,900
Buyer: Lenford Gunthrie
Seller: Candice M. Garner-Higgins
Date: 12/20/18

Malden St.
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Kelnate Realty LLC
Seller: Nest Egg RT
Date: 12/28/18

211 Marmon St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Monika Rodriguez
Seller: Kim J. Gumlaw
Date: 12/21/18

57-59 Maryland St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Jared A. Barklow
Seller: Leon Hutt
Date: 12/18/18

65 Merida St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: HSBC Bank
Seller: Robert Marona
Date: 12/31/18

N/A
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Juan R. Hernandez
Seller: William M. Gaynor
Date: 12/17/18

101 Oak St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Joshua M. Gonzalez
Seller: Adeleke Thomas
Date: 12/20/18

103 Oak St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Joshua M. Gonzalez
Seller: Adeleke Thomas
Date: 12/20/18

21-23 Oakwood Ter
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $171,000
Buyer: Veronica Addison
Seller: Kaleshwar Bedessie
Date: 12/21/18

103 Ontario St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Timothy M. Waldron
Date: 12/31/18

381 Orange St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Katherine A. Lopez
Seller: Carmine E. Dibella
Date: 12/26/18

85 Osborne Terrace
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Isabelle Joseph
Seller: Savage, Karen A., (Estate)
Date: 12/31/18

86 Osborne Terrace
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Katherine C. Ortiz
Seller: Adam T. Dubois
Date: 12/28/18

1416 Page Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Tedeschi Properties LLC
Seller: Forest, Richard J., (Estate)
Date: 12/28/18

778 Page Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $299,000
Buyer: Joaquim C. Martins
Seller: Mary T. Popko
Date: 12/24/18

159 Patricia Circle
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $186,300
Buyer: Ashley Discawicz
Seller: Donald M. Stevens
Date: 12/17/18

65 Primrose St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Lara Quiles
Seller: Thomas A. Lefsyk
Date: 12/31/18

234 Redlands St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Mark R. McClarty
Seller: Carmen Reyes
Date: 12/28/18

55 Rimmon Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Ryan Banville
Seller: Mamba Capital LLC
Date: 12/20/18

50 Ringgold St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Felix G. Checo
Seller: Full Service RE LLC
Date: 12/21/18

171 South Branch Pkwy.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $249,500
Buyer: Jennifer McCarthy
Seller: Nicole E. McClain
Date: 12/20/18

28 Southern Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Dennis P. Moulton
Seller: Amirah Guess
Date: 12/28/18

61 Southern Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Andre P. Bernatchez
Seller: JJB Builders Corp.
Date: 12/28/18

659 State St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $3,000,000
Buyer: 659 State St. Apt. LLC
Seller: Ocean Development 1 LP
Date: 12/18/18

663 State St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $3,000,000
Buyer: 659 State St. Apt. LLC
Seller: Ocean Development 1 LP
Date: 12/18/18

106 Suffolk St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Delia Arroyo
Seller: Giuseppe Berardi
Date: 12/21/18

590 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $748,677
Buyer: TGN Associates LLC
Seller: S-Bank Springfield LLC
Date: 12/28/18

62 Temple St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Joseph Coat
Seller: Living Stone LLC
Date: 12/17/18

Terrence St. (WS)
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $3,000,000
Buyer: 659 State St. Apt. LLC
Seller: Ocean Development 1 LP
Date: 12/18/18

479 Trafton Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Nancy M. Peterson
Seller: Amy Kenefick-Moore
Date: 12/28/18

130-132 West Alvord St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Bank New York Mellon
Seller: Wanda I. Fontanez
Date: 12/17/18

71 Wachusett St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $115,257
Buyer: Springhouse Properties LLC
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 12/21/18

98 Welland Road
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Glenn Wilson
Date: 12/17/18

826 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $165,770
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Katheeln M. Ahren
Date: 12/17/18

2163 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Tracy M. Ryan
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/31/18

48 Willard Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Miguel A. Colon
Seller: TM Properties Inc.
Date: 12/28/18

WALES

47 Fountain Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Roxanna M. Fredette
Seller: Sharon A. Mikaelian-Vlk
Date: 12/28/18

95 Union Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $212,000
Buyer: John Martin
Seller: Kyle Welch
Date: 12/31/18

WESTFIELD

15 Angelica Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Michael J. Dicarlo
Seller: Trinity Group Development LLC
Date: 12/21/18

41 Arnold St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $2,272,725
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Van Deusen Apts. LLC
Date: 12/28/18

42 Arnold St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $2,272,725
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Van Deusen Apts. LLC
Date: 12/28/18

54 Arnold St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $2,272,725
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Van Deusen Apts. LLC
Date: 12/28/18

69 Court St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $2,050,425
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Van Deusen Apts. LLC
Date: 12/28/18

16 Denise Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Vanessa Filiault
Seller: Joseph L. Hart
Date: 12/18/18

302 East Main St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $675,000
Buyer: NPJW LLC
Seller: Kyprea LLC
Date: 12/26/18

91 Elm St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $3,304,275
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Chalmers Enterprises LLC
Date: 12/28/18

61 Glenwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Brian W. Isaacson
Seller: Subataitis, Irene S., (Estate)
Date: 12/26/18

23 High St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $213,100
Buyer: Scott A. Ostrander
Seller: John A. Devine
Date: 12/21/18

32 Knollwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Eva Fuller
Seller: Amy M. Varner
Date: 12/20/18

6 Lockhouse Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Kristina M. Schnopp
Seller: Michael J. Brouillard
Date: 12/27/18

8 Monroe St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $2,122,575
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Pilgrim Apts. LLC
Date: 12/28/18

11 Monroe St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $2,122,575
Buyer: CV Westfield 1 LLC
Seller: Pilgrim Apts. LLC
Date: 12/28/18

73 Northridge Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Amy M. Varner
Seller: Kristen A. Edinger
Date: 12/20/18

40 Plantation Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Nicholas Galarneau
Seller: Diane Lennox-Barstow
Date: 12/21/18

169 Pontoosic Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $291,925
Buyer: Michael Forry
Seller: Natalie F. Latulippe
Date: 12/20/18

20 Queen St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Cindy A. Bobe
Seller: Amy Neumann
Date: 12/19/18

15 Riverside Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $203,000
Buyer: Logan A. Morton
Seller: Loren M. Cowhey
Date: 12/21/18

1220 Russell Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: EDS Holdings LLC
Seller: William F. Carlin
Date: 12/18/18

89 Sunset Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Maxim Bratnichenko
Seller: Ellen M. Unsderfer
Date: 12/28/18

180 Tannery Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Brian T. Howard
Seller: Nicholas R. Galarneau
Date: 12/21/18

36 White St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $133,100
Buyer: Denise A. Pooler
Seller: FHLM
Date: 12/31/18

8 Woronoco Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $189,500
Buyer: Mary E. Krol
Seller: Michael E. Goodwin
Date: 12/17/18

WILBRAHAM

12 Algonquin Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $445,000
Buyer: Preston E. Beadling
Seller: Ronny Priefer
Date: 12/20/18

3121 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Jacob C. Bailey
Seller: Gordon W. Richards
Date: 12/26/18

11-13 Brimfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $212,000
Buyer: Daniel B. Dinis
Seller: Sheila Rodrigo
Date: 12/21/18

5 Country Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $199,000
Buyer: Elizabeth StJohn
Seller: David Stone
Date: 12/21/18

7 Country Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $199,000
Buyer: Elizabeth St.John
Seller: David Stone
Date: 12/21/18

5 Elm Circle
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: Kaylan Beaudry
Seller: Pennymac Loan Services
Date: 12/19/18

39 Glenn Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $263,000
Buyer: Terrie Alexis
Seller: Edmun G. Ellington
Date: 12/27/18

299 Main St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $207,500
Buyer: Jennifer L. Raiche
Seller: Dale M. Varney
Date: 12/18/18

685 Main St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $253,000
Buyer: Scott L. Tidlund
Seller: Peter W. Ablondi
Date: 12/28/18

7 Pearl Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $259,900
Buyer: Joseph A. Lorenzatti
Seller: Edward C. Ebberston
Date: 12/18/18

59 River Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Brenda J. Hickey
Seller: Judith M. Auclair
Date: 12/19/18

80 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $199,999
Buyer: Kerry Sheldon-Ferry
Seller: Donna L. Fountain
Date: 12/27/18

8 Tall Timber Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: John J. Blain
Seller: Carol J. Cote
Date: 12/28/18

WEST SPRINGFIELD

34-36 Allen St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Oleksandr Yusenko
Seller: Anatoliy Chuduk
Date: 12/28/18

59-61 Bliss St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $131,500
Buyer: Yevgeniy Popa
Seller: Sergey Malikov
Date: 12/31/18

159 Brookline Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Roy E. Beusee
Seller: Roy E. Beusee
Date: 12/26/18

Front St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: 108 Front St. RT
Seller: Langone Realty Corp.
Date: 12/28/18

83 Herrman St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: MAA Property LLC
Seller: Joseph Pavlovich
Date: 12/17/18

11 Hill top St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $217,500
Buyer: Dirk P. Kidwell
Seller: Celeste Benoit
Date: 12/28/18

79 Massasoit Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Melan Gurung
Seller: Michael E. Barber
Date: 12/28/18

108 Park St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Town Of West Springfield
Seller: First Cong Church
Date: 12/27/18

5 Piper Cross Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Arjun Basnet
Seller: Jose L. Quinones
Date: 12/20/18

1367 Piper Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $457,900
Buyer: Calvin C. Fletcher
Seller: Zed O. Griffin
Date: 12/21/18

19 Queen Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Billy Velazquez
Seller: Anthony Gamelli
Date: 12/28/18

14 Thomas Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $202,500
Buyer: Gregory L. Rewinski
Seller: Kathleen Curley
Date: 12/28/18

162 Verdugo St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Hope-Anne E. Johnson
Seller: Gordon, Orville F., (Estate)
Date: 12/28/18

74 Winona Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $221,400
Buyer: JP Morgan Chase Bank
Seller: Shane M. Ross
Date: 12/20/18

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

18 Grove St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $247,500
Buyer: Sara R. Lawler
Seller: Jason W. Sullivan-Flynn
Date: 12/17/18

30 Hillcrest Place
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Maya J. Marx
Seller: James M. Matusko
Date: 12/28/18

27 Hills Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Jason Sullivan-Flynn
Seller: Kathryn V. Broy
Date: 12/17/18

42 Kingman Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Yongzheng Zhang
Seller: Jannet Douglass
Date: 12/21/18

36 Valley View Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $263,000
Buyer: Kelly L. Koomler
Seller: Elaine C. Aldrich
Date: 12/21/18

45 Ward St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $367,000
Buyer: Franklin S. Odo
Seller: Jon A. Kurtz
Date: 12/19/18

196 West St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $342,900
Buyer: Ana M. Curcija
Seller: Japheth E. Dziubek
Date: 12/28/18

BELCHERTOWN

360 Amherst Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Jeffrey T. Menard
Seller: Emerald City Rentals LLC
Date: 12/20/18

500 Amherst Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $250,500
Buyer: Jessica Detweiler
Seller: Alison Berryman
Date: 12/17/18

15 Barrett St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: John D. Sansoucy
Seller: Jason D. Woodcock
Date: 12/21/18

403 Bay Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Stephan S. Wright
Seller: Carolyn Olsen
Date: 12/28/18

689 Bay Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Nelida Barreto-Monteiro
Seller: Camerlin, Carol A., (Estate)
Date: 12/28/18

83 Cheryl Circle
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $485,000
Buyer: Peter Fafard
Seller: Merrill J. Gagne
Date: 12/18/18

11 Dana Hill
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $271,500
Buyer: James Worrall-Turgeon
Seller: Lisa D. Watts
Date: 12/17/18

1 Dogwood Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Roxanne Dorrie
Seller: Luis Builders Inc.
Date: 12/27/18

305 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Rebecca J. Kowalik
Seller: Florence Bank
Date: 12/19/18

10 Fox Run Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $339,900
Buyer: Charles M. Voth
Seller: Jessie-Sierra Ross
Date: 12/31/18

208 North St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Remeliza V. Swain
Seller: Glenn Wilson
Date: 12/20/18

400 Stebbins St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Danny O. Champagne
Seller: Deborah E. Whidden
Date: 12/19/18

CHESTERFIELD

62 Willicutt Road
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Thomas E. Dawson-Greene
Seller: Snoeyenbos, Oona L. O., (Estate)
Date: 12/20/18

EASTHAMPTON

34 Brook St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $138,500
Buyer: Etabav RT
Seller: Deborah A. Banas
Date: 12/26/18

40 Church St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Reymanuel Sola
Seller: FNMA
Date: 12/17/18

18 Coed Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Judy D. Peloquin
Seller: Jonathan Donais
Date: 12/18/18

9 Droy Circle
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $193,851
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Katie Clark
Date: 12/19/18

42 East Green St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Jonathan M. Donais
Seller: Maryann Donais
Date: 12/18/18

26 Florence Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $264,000
Buyer: Jonathan R. Harris
Seller: David Raucher
Date: 12/28/18

3 Fugere Court
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Gleason Johndrow Rentals
Seller: Revampit LLC
Date: 12/21/18

5 Glendale St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Mark J. Brewin
Seller: Bruce H. Gagnon
Date: 12/17/18

13 Peloquin Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $207,000
Buyer: Rudolph A. Sacco
Seller: Dorman FT
Date: 12/28/18

17 Peloquin Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Carlos J. Reyes
Seller: Todd R. Carson
Date: 12/18/18

29 Pepin Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $265,500
Buyer: Holly E. Ricci
Seller: Casey J. Trytko
Date: 12/18/18

88 Plain St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Brittany M. Kelly
Seller: Erin K. Gluckman
Date: 12/31/18

99 Plain St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Mark S. Rioux
Seller: Jenna L. Novotny-Schmidt
Date: 12/28/18

GRANBY

132 Aldrich St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Kevin C. Connally
Seller: Dennis Gareau
Date: 12/28/18

14 Cold Hill Dr.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Amanda Grayum
Seller: Alecto RT
Date: 12/27/18

HADLEY

154 Rocky Hill Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Weizhao Huang
Seller: Carol W. Rundberg
Date: 12/27/18

400 Venture Way
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $4,650,000
Buyer: University Of Mass. Building
Seller: NCS Pearson Inc.
Date: 12/28/18

HUNTINGTON

4 Bromley Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $241,000
Buyer: Kathryn J. Dugan
Seller: Sarafin, Christopher D., (Estate)
Date: 12/17/18

10 Nagler Cross Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Shaina A. Salvatore
Seller: Tracey B. Yankee
Date: 12/20/18

78 Searle Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Siren Song RT
Seller: Diane Wozniak
Date: 12/19/18

NORTHAMPTON

136 Acrebrook Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $349,000
Buyer: Christopher J. Herndon
Seller: Philippe J. MaCary
Date: 12/18/18

37 Austin Circle
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $238,000
Buyer: Jessica Whitehead
Seller: Sara C. O’Donnell
Date: 12/17/18

42 Bliss St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $290,400
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Diane Johnson
Date: 12/21/18

20 Bridge Road #21
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $807,859
Buyer: Terry J. Minnick
Seller: Bridge Road LLC
Date: 12/21/18

670 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $167,700
Buyer: Lathrop Community Inc.
Seller: Ruby Realty LLC
Date: 12/21/18

128 Brookside Circle
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $216,500
Buyer: Barry M. Gruber
Seller: Daniel W. Emerson
Date: 12/21/18

428 Chesterfield Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Angel M. Emerson
Seller: Kathleen J. Farris RET
Date: 12/21/18

225 Chestnut St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $263,000
Buyer: Seweryn Kolysko
Seller: Edmund O. Jones
Date: 12/17/18

46 Cross St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Helen Spiegel-Savoie
Seller: Lise L. Wessmann
Date: 12/20/18

34 Dewey Court
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $670,000
Buyer: Dewey Court Properties LLC
Seller: Northeast Ent. Realty Partners
Date: 12/19/18

22 Gilrain Ter.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $269,875
Buyer: Philippe J. Macary
Seller: Cynthia M. Malcolmson
Date: 12/18/18

36 Hampden St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Pioneer Development LLC
Seller: Christine A. Nolan
Date: 12/28/18

39 High St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $259,000
Buyer: Keddie B. Loughrey
Seller: James K. Doyle
Date: 12/18/18

65 Sherman Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $346,500
Buyer: Noah Merhar
Seller: Helen Spiegel-Savoie
Date: 12/20/18

213 Spring Grove Ave.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $309,900
Buyer: Jesse A. Harris
Seller: Premo FT
Date: 12/21/18

67 Winterberry Lane
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Daniel Dodge
Seller: Edith M. Mehiel
Date: 12/31/18

PELHAM

57 Buffam Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Youssef Oulhote
Seller: Maureen S. Williams
Date: 12/21/18

SOUTH HADLEY

75 Canal St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $2,300,000
Buyer: 75 Canal LLC
Seller: YCCO6 South Hadley MA LLC
Date: 12/26/18

14 Carlton St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Brett Marrin
Seller: Aaron Judge
Date: 12/21/18

28 Cornell St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Ruby Realty LLC
Seller: Catherine E. Partridge
Date: 12/21/18

1 Ethan Circle
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Homes By Leblanc Inc.
Seller: Ethan L. Bagg
Date: 12/24/18

27 Gaylord St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Fuel Services Inc.
Seller: WBCMT 2007-C33 Gaylord St.
Date: 12/18/18

26 Parkview Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Crystal M. Williams
Seller: Neil T. Heymanns
Date: 12/19/18

SOUTHAMPTON

24 Bissonnette Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $490,000
Buyer: Patrick J. Clayton
Seller: Joseph P. Arduino
Date: 12/21/18

15 Center St.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Alan Madsen
Seller: Thomas M. Bacis
Date: 12/20/18

18 Coleman Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Janet L. Pare
Seller: Judy D. Peloquin
Date: 12/27/18

257 College Hwy.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Lise L. Wessmann
Seller: Alison Frary
Date: 12/20/18

94 County Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Todd Carson
Seller: Lewis H. Wright
Date: 12/18/18

7 Nicholas Lane
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Nathan A. Dastoli
Seller: Volkan Polatol
Date: 12/28/18

19 Pequot Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Darin Pawlus
Seller: Eric C. Maslak
Date: 12/21/18

134 Russellville Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Casey J. Trytko
Seller: Janet G. Swierzewski
Date: 12/18/18

WARE

51 Coffey Hill Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $178,760
Buyer: Citizens Bank
Seller: Shawn B. Fontaine
Date: 12/20/18

109 Fisherdick Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Michael Kiernan
Seller: Jonathan L. Miller
Date: 12/19/18

32 Gilbertville Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Kristyl Hermosillo
Seller: Paul Clark
Date: 12/20/18

353 Palmer Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $324,720
Buyer: Palmer Road 1031 Exchange
Seller: Philip R. Clarkson RET
Date: 12/26/18

355 Palmer Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $324,720
Buyer: Palmer Road 1031 Exchange
Seller: Philip R. Clarkson RET
Date: 12/26/18

WILLIAMSBURG

23 Old Goshen Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $305,500
Buyer: Thomas H. Lynn
Seller: Flippin Good Home Buyers
Date: 12/26/18

123 Petticoat Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $470,000
Buyer: Steven R. Roszko
Seller: Corey A. Fox
Date: 12/21/18

WESTHAMPTON

108 Main Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: James D. Jackewich
Seller: E. Reginald Bouchard
Date: 12/27/18

WORTHINGTON

272 Cummington Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: 272 Cummington Road RT
Seller: Forest Medicines Sanctuary
Date: 12/28/18

Building Permits

By
Building Permits

The following building permits were issued during the months of December 2018 and January 2019.

AMHERST

A Nelson, LLC
20 Belchertown Road
$22,000 — Sheetrock, demolish interior walls, install new door, frame basement stairwell

D’Angelo Inc.
48 North Pleasant St.
$45,455 — Install two antennas, remote radio heads, and associated equipment

Frances Goodwin, Jerry Bryant
25 Columbia Dr.
$1,820 — Install snowguards below solar array

Bruce Patterson, Galina Patterson
324 Montague Road
$67,080 — Ground-mount solar array

CHICOPEE

American Tower
645 Shawinigan Dr.
$25,000 — Replace three panel antennas, install six remote radio units and associated equipment

O’Leary-Vincunas No Two, LLC
102 First Ave.
$17,850 — Renovate existing fire sprinkler system

Veden, LLC
55 Main St.
$50,500 — Commercial fit-up for National Ambulance

NORTHAMPTON

Zahoor Mian
60 King St.
$3,500 — Illuminated sign

Northwood Development, LLC
15 Atwood Dr.
$1,500 — Non-illuminated wall sign

PeoplesBank
415 Pleasant St.
$11,500 — Install ATM

Pride Convenience Inc.
375 King St.
$15,000 — Remodel interior space

Thornes Marketplace, LLC
150 Main St.
$15,000 — Swap three antennas, swap three remote radio units, add six coaxial cables, remove three AISG cables

PALMER

Camp Ramah in New England
39 Bennett St.
$100,000 — Repairs to arts and crafts building due to tree damage

SPRINGFIELD

Ramos Argenis
784 Bay St.
$54,000 — Remodel existing space at auto-service garage, add restrooms, install show window

Blue Tarp Redevelopment Corp.
12 MGM Way
$400,000 — Install filter fabric and gravel fill under pavers at all roof decks

City of Springfield
36 Court St.
$2,500 — Alter office space on fourth floor of City Hall for internal auditor

Five Town Station, LLC
300 Cooley St.
$120,000 — Alter interior tenant space for ATI Physical Therapy

McDonald’s Corp.
386 Main St.
$416,000 — Alterations and accessibility upgrades

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inc.
1000 Hall of Fame Ave.
$2,135,000 — Alter space on Hall of Honor gallery on second-floor mezzanine

Shriners Hospitals for Children
516 Carew St.
$24,000 — Renovate existing space in Room 1202

Vibra Healthcare Real Estate Co. II, LLC
1414 State St.
$20,000 — Replace three antennas

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Chandler Holdings, LLC
69-73 William Franks Dr.
$129,500 — Build new drywall partitions, relocate doors and frames, change lighting to LED lighting, hang new acoustical suspended ceilings, change two existing restrooms to handicap-accessible restrooms

Della Ripa Real Estate, LLC
51 Park Ave.
$36,500 — Roofing

Family Nepali & Indian Cuisine
977A Main St.
$10,000 — Install two handicap-accessible bathrooms, install checkout countertop, add double doors to kitchen area

Ievgenil Gusiev
311 Elm St.
$3,800 — Alter interior space for a wedding-dress designer with a fitting room and a handicap-accessible fitting room and bathroom, build a handicap-accessible ramp to enter building

Ronald Laprise
346 Main St.
$14,800 — Install roof-mounted solar array

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