Community Spotlight
Ralph Santaniello, right, with executive chef and co-owner (and brother-in-law) Michael Presnal at the recently opened Lola’s at the Longmeadow Shops.
Ralph Santaniello was gushing about the Longmeadow Shops as the location for a restaurant — specifically the one operated by his family, Posto, which features Italian cuisine.
“It’s just ideal,” he said, listing everything from location — it’s in Longmeadow, but just a stone’s throw from East Longmeadow, Enfield, Springfield, and other communities — to its many shops, which draw people for an extended stay that could include a meal; from the strong support for local businesses from the Longmeadow community to the growing number of restaurants in or near the shops, creating a dining destination of sorts.
“It’s becoming a little like West Hartford or Northampton years ago,” said Santaniello, noting that this combination of factors led his family to double down, if you will, and convert the former Umi’s Asian restaurant (and, before that, a Friendly’s) at the shops into Lola’s, described as a ‘coastal Mexican’ restaurant.
“Mexican is now the most popular food behind Italian food in this country,” Santaniello said. “And we’re taking a different look at Mexican food; for years, it was what Mexican-American food was; now, you’re getting more authentic Mexican food from different parts of Mexico.”
Lola’s adds this authentic Mexican eatery to a growing, diverse roster of restaurants in town that also includes Posto, Max Burger, and Delaney’s Market, all in the shops, as well as the Meeting House, featuring ‘creative New American’; Royal Spice, an Indian restaurant; and a Jersey Mike’s, all in the plaza across Williams Street from the Longmeadow Shops, and Fletcher’s barbeque restaurant on Longmeadow Street.
This steady progress toward becoming a dining destination is one of many storylines in this residential community of roughly 16,000 people.
Another is the relatively new ownership at the Longmeadow Shops. It was acquired roughly a year ago by Regency Properties, which saw a unique asset — what Jack deVilliers, managing director of the company’s Northeast region, called “the heart and soul of the community.”
“This has the DNA that we really like — it’s a community shopping center,” he said, noting that the shops, fully leased for as long as anyone can remember, is a gathering spot, not just for Longmeadow residents, but those in neighboring communities as well. “This property checks all the boxes — location, tenant mix, access, visibility, parking; it’s all there.”
On the municipal side, the town is making progress with plans to consolidate its two middle schools and construct a new facility at the site of one of them, Williams Middle School, Town Manager Lyn Simmons said. This is a $150 million project, according to the latest estimates, expected to open its doors in the fall of 2028 if all goes according to schedule.
Meanwhile, plans are moving forward for work at a major intersection, and for improvements at one of the municipal parks, projects that will now be coordinated by employees working at a new complex of town offices in the former Greenwood Park Elementary School.
“This has the DNA that we really like — it’s a community shopping center.”
That move leaves the former offices, in the Community House on Longmeadow Street, available for reuse, said Simmons, adding that the town will be commissioning a study to determine the best uses of not only the Community House, but Town Hall, located next door, and Old Town Hall, located about a half-mile down Longmeadow Street.
On the business side, all eyes are on the former First Church of Christ Scientist property on Williams Street, just east of the Longmeadow Shops. The property, unused for several years now, has been acquired by the Springfield-based Colvest Group. While no specific plans have been announced, Colvest has said the planned development, to be called Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow, will include retail (high-end shops) and one or more restaurants to complement the town’s growing mix.
Jack deVilliers says the Longmeadow Shops checks all the boxes for him, from location and tenant mix to access, visibility, and parking.
deVilliers said the development, which has been several years in the making, will in many ways be an extension of the shops, one that will complement that complex and make it even more of a magnet for diners and shoppers.
“This will only strengthen the gravitational pull of that area,” he said, adding that Regency is already working with Colvest on upgrades to access where the properties join.
Meanwhile, three years after fire destroyed the Maple Shopping Center at the corner of Maple and Shaker roads near the Enfield line, the shell of a new plaza has been constructed, said Simmons, adding that its owners have not announced any tenants to date.
She noted that both commercial projects are important developments for the town, which has very few developable parcels — meaning few opportunities for business growth.
For this latest installment of its Community Profile series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Longmeadow and the many developing stories there.
Food for Thought
As he talked with BusinessWest at a table in Lola’s, Santaniello said there is a considerable amount of dining history at that site.
Indeed, for several decades, this was a flagship location for Friendly’s, the chain started by Longmeadow Shops developer S. Prestley Blake and his brother Curtis.
Later, it was Umi’s, which essentially “papered over and bricked over” the Friendly’s as it installed its own look.
“This certainly provides an opportunity for development, job creation, and new growth, which is not something we see very often, especially to the extent we can see from this parcel.”
“As we dug through, we saw different iterations of Friendly’s, including a fireplace,” said Santaniello, adding that his family essentially took the storefront down to the studs in creating Lola’s, which opened in March and is off to a solid start.
“We had a great launch, and we’ve settled in,” he noted. “Everyone rushes in to try a place at first — every night is like Saturday night when you first open up. That tapers off eventually, and then you build it back up, and that’s where we are now.”
This success has not come at the expense of Posto, or probably any of the other restaurants in town, he said, adding that the emergence of a “restaurant community,” as he put it, helps bring more people from across the region to the town.
Longmeadow at a glance
Year Incorporated: 1783
Population: 15,853
Area: 9.7 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $20.68
Commercial Tax Rate: $20.68
Median Household Income: $109,586
Median Family Income: $115,578
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting; Town Manager; Board of Selectmen
Largest Employers: Bay Path University; JGS Lifecare; Glenmeadow
* Latest information available
Meanwhile, for the family, which is selling the third restaurant it owns, the Federal in Agawam, Lola gives them two operations about 250 yards apart, which brings several advantages, as well as lots of steps for Santaniello, who will go back and forth between the two spots at least a few times each day.
He passes an eclectic mix of shops and eateries, one that is historically stable, a retail property where vacancies — and pending vacancies — are filled quickly.
Such is the case with one storefront, soon to be available as its owners retire, that will be filled by Warby Parker, the manufacturer and retailer of eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other products.
“When you look at the lifestyle centers that Warby Parker has been going into … they saw this, loved the community-center aspect of this, and jumped on it,” said deVilliers, adding that the location is slated to open in the summer of 2025.
Meanwhile, Longmeadow’s stable of restaurants should have at least one addition with the development of the neighboring church property, said Simmons, adding that the project is an important development for the town, which has little in the way of developable land or property.
“We have very few parcels that can be redeveloped,” she noted, adding that a measure was passed at the Nov. 12 town meeting to update the town’s zoning map to reflect an article passed at an earlier town meeting to change the zoning of the property from residential to business. “This certainly provides an opportunity for development, job creation, and new growth, which is not something we see very often, especially to the extent we can see from this parcel.”
Developing Stories
As for the Maple Road plaza, known to most locals as the Armata’s Plaza, for the supermarket that was located there, the shell of a new facility has been constructed, as well as a new parking lot, said Simmons, adding that the owners have not provided information on potential new tenants, which will not include Armata’s.
As these commercial developments unfold, there are several municipal projects advancing as well, starting with the new middle school.
The town’s two middle schools, Williams and Glenbrook, are aging structures, opened in the ’60s, noted Simmons, adding that the trend in communities of this size is toward one middle school, which in this case would be built on the athletic fields adjacent to Williams, with the existing structure then demolished.
“Our population at each school is about 330 students, so when we consolidate, we’ll have 660 at one site, which is the standard model used in many districts across the state,” she explained, adding that the town will gain efficiencies, and certainly reduce costs, by operating and maintaining one school instead of two.
The project has received approval from the state and is the queue for funding, said Simmons, noting that a town-meeting vote will take place in the fall of 2025.
Meanwhile, the consolidation of the middle schools would give the town an opportunity for redevelopment of the Glenbrook site, said Corrin Meise-Munns, assistant town manager and director of Planning & Community Development, adding that talks about what to do with that property are still in the very early stages.
Other municipal projects include a state Land and Water Conservation Fund grant, the first one the town has received in 30 years, to be used for renovations of the playground at Bliss Park.
The project comes with a $1.6 million price tag, with the grant covering just over half that total. The work involves replacing the playground, benches, and picnic tables and making them all ADA-accessible. The work complements significant investments in the park’s pool, including upgrades to the pump room, said Simmons, adding that the next phase of that initiative is a liner.
The town has also received its first-ever MassWorks grant, $285,000 to design improvements to the intersection of Williams Street, Redfern Drive, and Frank Smith Road, site of the church adjacent to the Longmeadow Shops that is slated for redevelopment.
“It’s a heavily trafficked area, and there have been discussions for some time about the need for pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular improvements, and this will fund that design work,” Simmons said, adding that the town will look for additional grant monies to help pay for the recommended improvements.
