Month: September 2024

Community Spotlight

Betsy Andrus says Great Barrington attracts many types of visitors, including those seeking a respite as they hike the Appalachian Trail.

“Small-town living with an extra dose of culture and sophistication.”

That’s how Brook Redpath chose to describe the Southern Berkshires community of Great Barrington, and she’s well-qualified for that assignment.

Indeed, she grew up in town and moved back after living in the D.C. area for some time to raise her family there (and be near her own family) because of that rare blend of small-town feel with culture — and much more. And, for the past 17 years, she’s owned Matruska Toys and Gifts, a downtown staple in the process of relocating from Main Street to Railroad Street.

“This community has something that appeals to just about everyone,” said Redpath, listing stores and restaurants, theater and art, craft beer, hiking, skiing, biking, and more, adding that this blend makes it a great place to live, but also visit. And many do, from across this state and New England, but especially New York, which is just a few miles away.

Indeed, while the community is home to just over 7,000, it is a destination for exponentially more, who come here for everything from leaf peeping to a brief respite while hiking the Appalachian Trail — there’s an access point to the trail off Monterey Road — to something relatively new and completely different. It’s called Berkshire Busk!

“We live in a world where people are on the screens all day long, and there’s a lack of social cohesion; there’s a real need in this world for people to come together.”

Call it organized street entertainment — everything from singers and flamenco dancers to poets and aerialists — which runs on Railroad Street and other parts of the downtown on Friday and Saturday nights from early July to Labor Day weekend.

Gene Carr, the cellist and arts executive (he was director of the American Symphony Orchestra) turned tech entrepreneur who conceived the program, said it brings people, vibrancy, and “community” to Great Barrington.

“We’re creating economic impact, and we’re also creating community, and that’s something that’s hard to quantify,” he told BusinessWest. “We live in a world where people are on the screens all day long, and there’s a lack of social cohesion; there’s a real need in this world for people to come together. And when you come downtown and you experience what we’re putting together, you’ll see people having an experience together in a community, and it’s rare.”

Betsy Andrus, executive director of the Southern Berkshires Chamber of Commerce, said Berkshire Busk! is one of the many positive notes being hit in Great Barrington these days. Others include its bustling, ever-changing downtown, a farmers market combining with an arts market that is drawing diverse audiences, and its many outdoor activities.

Gene Carr says Berkshire Busk! Is creating economic impact — and also cultivating community.

While enjoying this vibrancy and progress, the town is experiencing what Gary Happ, co-owner of Barrington Brewery and Restaurant, nearing its 30th anniversary in business, called “growing pains.”

Specifically, he talked about a shortage of workers for the many hospitality-related businesses in town, a shortage of affordable housing, and how the two trends are certainly related.

To make his point, he flashed back nearly a half-century to when he first came to town and worked at a local school. He recalls making $7,000 a year back then, but he could still easily afford to live in the community. That is not the case with the current generation of workers in entry-level jobs and even those a few rungs higher on the ladder.

“People who work here can’t afford to live here,” Happ said, adding that, while this problem is not unique to Great Barrington, it is certainly acute here, where home prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic as rural living has become more popular, and rents have risen accordingly, pricing many people out.

Meanwhile, there are some serious infrastructure issues — the Brookside Road bridge over the Housatonic River was closed down by the state after a routine inspection revealed it was unsafe for vehicular traffic, and there have been two other bridge shutdowns since 2019 — creating some real inconvenience for residents and visitors alike, he noted.

But despite all this, Great Barrington is a picture of vibrancy and energy. For the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at how this picture is ever-changing and always intriguing.

Taking It to the Streets

As he talked with BusinessWest, Carr was gearing up for Labor Day, the last weekend of Berkshire Busk! The lineup was set to include the Cate Great! Show, an act that combines high-end circus with comedy, at Lower Railroad Street; singer/songwriter Garrin Benfield on Upper Railroad Sreet; Rick and Marilyn, who perform “guitar-centric, edgy, acoustic rock music,” at Carr Hardware; poet Kevin Devaney at TP Saddleblanket, and much more.

That lineup typifies what the program has been about since it was conceived during COVID and launched in 2021 with the support of town officials and several corporate sponsors, including Big Y, Adams Community Bank, and the Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation, among others.

“Many of our employees have to live in larger groups or further out — maybe in Pittsfield or in New York State. In Great Barrington, the demand for workers is high, and that puts a lot of stress on many businesses.”

As Carr explained, outdoor dining was exploding onto the scene in the summer and fall of 2020, and Berkshire Busk! — busk is a verb referring to street performing — was created to bring that street dining experience to a new and much higher level.

“I went to the town and said, ‘you have such a wonderful outdoor opportunity … why don’t we add some buskers, some street performers, who can perform all over town in Great Barrington, and we can bring people downtown who can dine and shop and be with each other — why don’t we create a real festival?’” he recalled, adding that is exactly what has materialized.

Each weekend, there are between five and seven buskers at different locations in the downtown, he went on, adding that the lineup varies each week and includes local performers and professional buskers.

Carr said about 25,000 people turned out during the 10 Friday and Saturday night weekends of the festival, with two rain days.

“About half the attendees said they specifically came because of Berkshire Busk!, and the vast majority said they came to also to dine and shop … which means that we generated more than $1 million of incremental economic impact,” he noted.

“We reached all ages, particularly families with kids, and the audience was about 50% local Berkshire county and surrounding areas and 50% tourists, with the majority of the tourists coming from the New York metro area. Also, 97% of respondents said that Berkshire Busk! improved their perception of the town of Great Barrington.”

As noted earlier, Berkshire Busk! is one of many draws in Great Barrington. Another is its array of arts and cultural attractions, including the historic Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, in continuous operation since 1905, and also an eclectic mix of shops along Main and Railroad streets.

This collection of shops is in an almost-constant state of change, said Andrus, noting that, in addition to new shops opening on a fairly regular basis, existing businesses will often move to different storefronts. All this keeps the downtown fresh, she said, adding that it attracts a mix of locals, many from neighboring New York, and tourists from across New England.

They come … not quite year-round, but for at least three seasons, she said, noting that, while spring is relatively slow, summer and fall are very busy, and winter can be, especially if the conditions are good for skiing.

Happ agreed, but noted that winters, especially lately, have been more hit or miss, with generally less snow and even fewer opportunities to make it.

Lager Than Life

Fall is perhaps the busiest season, here and across the Berkshires, and this year, there will be an additional draw.

Indeed, 15 years after the last one, Barrington Brewery is staging Octoberfest, Happ said. When a wedding slated for Oct. 20 at Crissy Farm, the brewery’s events venue, was canceled and he couldn’t fill the date, he decided to turn back the clock.

“It will be a celebration of beer and food, with entertainment,” he said. “It will be a nice late-fall event.”

In general, business is good, but these are certainly changing times for the craft-beer industry, said Happ, who was one of the local pioneers, if you will. He told BusinessWest that those who just brew beer are struggling — he knows this from all the brewing equipment for sale online from operations that have gone out of business — and that a taproom, and, preferably a full restaurant, is now needed to be profitable.

“To be in the microbrew business without a restaurant attached like we do … it’s hard,” he said. “A lot of those little breweries are struggling because it’s hard to find that space; it’s hard to get taps in bars, and it’s hard to find shelf space in package stores.”

Barrington Brewery & Restaurant not only fits that bill, it’s one of the only businesses of its kind that is solar-powered, and it has Crissy Farm nearby, which hosts a wide array of events, including weddings, rehearsal dinners, anniversary parties, and more.

And while the business has had fewer workforce issues than many other hospitality-related businesses in town, Happ noted that his employees increasingly struggle to both work and live in Great Barrington, and this represents a problem for the town.

“Many of our employees have to live in larger groups or further out — maybe in Pittsfield or in New York State,” he noted. “In Great Barrington, the demand for workers is high, and that puts a lot of stress on many businesses.

“You talk to guys in construction, they can’t find anybody to work — masons, plumbers, electricians, they’re all busy as can be, but there’s no workers,” he went on. “And that does create some problems.”

Still, by and large, most businesses are getting by and having a good summer and good year, said Andrus, even if many shops are seeing an overall drop in consumer spending due to a combination of COVID, the economy, and maybe even the election.

The community remains a popular destination, she said, adding that visitors are drawn to the downtown, the hiking and biking trails the ski resorts, and myriad other events and attractions in and around town.

“There’s so many different reasons why people come,” she said. “Sometimes they come for one specific reason, and then they get here and they say, ‘I want to do that, too. There’s just a lot going on all at once, and there really is something for everyone.”

Visitors come from all over, and many will stay a day or two, but some are simply passing through — quite literally, in the case of those hiking the Appalachian Trail.

The trail, which stretches more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine and passes through 14 states, draws more than 3 million people to hike segments of it each year.

A very small percentage of those hikers will step off the trial in Great Barrington for a break to eat, rest, resupply, or all of the above, but those who do certainly contribute to the local economy and individual businesses, Andrus said.

“It’s amazing the volume of hikers that go through here, and Great Barrington absolutely has become a stopping point for them,” she noted. “A friend of mine who’s retired calls himself a trail angel; he will shuttle people around from one location to the next — to town, to get groceries at the Big Y, etc.

“And he keeps statistics on everyone who gets in his car,” she went on. “He said that 99% of the time he’s driving them into town to eat a meal, go grocery shopping, or stay overnight, usually at the Travelodge, because they accommodate for the hikers, or even to a camping facility. People are in town, and they’re purchasing things — there’s a big impact.”

As Redpath noted, this community has something that appeals to just about everyone — especially that small-town feel with an extra dose of culture and sophistication.