Home Articles posted by George O'Brien

Springfield Has Designs on Continued Progress

By
Community Spotlight

Springfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1852

Population: 155,929

Area: 33.1 square miles

County: Hampden

Residential tax rate: $15.46

Commercial tax rate: $34.35

Median Household Income: $35,236

Median Family Income: $51,110

Type of government: Mayor, City Council

Largest Employers: Baystate Health,
MassMutual Financial Group, Big Y Foods,
MGM Springfield, Mercy Medical Center,
Center for Human Development

* Latest information available

 

Justin Hayes decided it was time to come home.

His was one of the last retail outlets standing in the Enfield Mall, and when he was informed by mall officials in February that he would no longer be able to enter the building due to infrastructure problems, he commenced a search for a new hub for his fashion brand, JUST10.

He considered other spots in Enfield as well as Hartford, but ultimately opted to come back to Springfield, where he grew up, graduated from the High School of Science and Technology, and hung out at Tower Square, which is where he located that hub.

It’s the storefront next to White Lion Brewing Co. on the ground floor, a visible storefront that has attracted a good number of visitors, although Hayes handles clients by appointment only. Still, he’s hoping his presence will generate more vibrancy — and storefronts — in Tower Square.

“I’m excited to be here, and it’s a historic time,” he said. “There used to be fashion in this mall and across the street at the old Steiger’s. To bring fashion back is huge, and hopefully, we can inspire some more.”

Hayes’ move back to Springfield is one of myriad converging storylines in the City of Homes, including the biggest of these stories — the pending construction of a new county courthouse, or regional justice center (RJC), as it’s being called, in the city.

The state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), in consultation with the Massachusetts Trial Court, made its long-awaited decision earlier this month, selecting the Liberty Junction Team and its proposed site at 125 Liberty St.

The decision did not go down well with Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, who said he was extremely disappointed that the state did not choose a proposed site on the riverfront that he favored — or any of the several proposals submitted by local developers.

He was not alone in criticizing the decision, which ushers in the next stage of the project — negotiation of a lease between the state and the Liberty Junction Team, as well as ongoing speculation about the potential impact of the chosen site and the future of the sites not chosen. 

But there are many other stories to follow, including:

 

• The broad of issue of housing, which has many subplots itself — everything from new projects underway to lingering concern about rent control, whether it might eventually become reality, and how it might have a chilling effect on future investments, to Sarno’s intention to “flip the script” on housing initiatives and focus not only creating more inventory but helping existing homeowners make needed improvements to their properties;

• The announced merger of Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center. Some question the impact this move will have on competition and the cost of care, but Sarno said Baystate’s decision to step in saved Mercy from what he called imminent closure. “That move needed to be done — if Baystate Health had not stepped in, Trinity Health Of New England would have shut Mercy down,” the mayor said, adding that the city needs both hospitals;

• Various other developments in and around downtown, including the entertainment district on Worthington Street and a potential project involving several new restaurants — some already open, others soon to open — and a live music venue;

• Energy in Tower Square Park, one of the proposed sites for the RJC that was not chosen. An interactive music installation called Sounds of Springfield has been created. Meanwhile, White Lion has expanded its programming in the park on Wednesdays to include midday and early evening festivities;

• Another gathering spot, known as the Landing, created on property adjacent to the Convention Center Carpark. The facility has hosted several concerts and other events since opening earlier this year, and there are many more on the slate;

• An announced $2 million project to stabilize Old First Church, the oldest building in downtown Springfield (1819), the centerpiece to Court Square, and a component of a possible wider project to redevelop the nearby Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse, which will be replaced by the new SJC; and

• Several other ongoing stories, including redevelopment of the former Eastfield Mall, pending redevelopment of the former Massachusetts Career Development Institute site (a request for proposals on that challenging site is expected to be issued in the near future), and success stories such as the Springfield Thunderbirds (which made another deep playoff run) and the transformation of the former CityStage into the Hope Center for the Arts, a state-of-the-art facility designed to educate young people and perhaps inspire careers in the arts.

It’s easy to see that many of the story lines in Springfield are connected, and that the courthouse decision will ultimately have a considerable ripple effect. For this latest installment in its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at these ripples — and the many other converging stories involving the region’s largest community.

What’s in Store

Justin Hayes recently opened his new ‘hub’ in Tower Square.

By now, many in the region know at least some of the Justin Hayes story, one that has seen his name — and clothes — gain national and international acclaim, with his designs featured in the latest The Devil Wears Prada film, for example.

As noted, he grew up in Springfield and, starting when he was in middle school, developed a fascination for fashion. “It was a childhood dream — middle school and high school is when I found style,” he noted, adding that he started outfitting and dressing some of his classmates. 

He started working at the Gap when he wasn’t legally old enough to do so — 15 — and would eventually go on to work for Aldo Shoes and then Brooks Brothers, where he handled merchandising for three stores in Connecticut, then on to merchandizing for luxury brands such as Hugo Boss.

When his job was discontinued, he had an opportunity to take a position in Chicago, but turned it down to care for his ailing father, and then his mother — and, while doing so, launched his own brand in Enfield in 2009.

He started slow, but he managed to score some good press from the 2018 New York Fashion Week, being listed second among the top 10 designers at Fashion Week in the small, boutique category.

“And then, everyone else started calling me — LA called me and wanted me to be in LA Fashion Week, Miami called, Dubai called, and everything started progressing from there,” he said, adding that his designs for men, women, and children started taking off. Fast-forward to last month, when he opened to considerable fanfare in Tower Square

There, Hayes hopes to help foster a return to the vibrancy he remembers in his youth.

“I’m anxious to see what this store does here,” he said, adding that he’s hoping to inspire more retail in the downtown. “Downtown has a lot of potential, and I want to help see it grow if I can, through fashion.”

Hayes’ return to Springfield is one of several ongoing stories downtown. Others are taking place across the street, in Tower Square Park.

There, Ray Berry, founder and owner of White Lion, has expanded his Pridelands on Mane, which kicked off in June.

He told BusinessWest that, during his frequent meetings with officials at the Springfield Business Improvement District (BID), there was strong sentiment for a return of the pre-COVID lunch festivities that took place at nearby 1550 Main St.

“There was live music, people would brown-bag it … it was fun,” he recalled, adding that those at the BID urged a return of that experience, and it has become reality with White Lion Wednesday, with the accent on ‘day,’ with live, local music sponsored by the BID.

“We’re opening up the park for a nice lunch — come out, enjoy summer, and be part of the downtown fabric,” Berry said, adding that there will be a creative menu with a strong lobster theme — lobster rolls, lobster cones, lobster bisque, lobster tacos … you get the idea.

The Wednesday fun continues with what Berry calls an after-work social, with more live music and pop-up vendors. And on Thursday nights, White Lion will have music with local DJs, and every other Friday will be Latin night, with live Latin music.

An interactive music installation called Sounds of Springfield has been created in Tower Square Park.

But the energy is not confined to the park. Around the corner, there is growing momentum on Worthington Street, where a cluster of restaurants and gathering spots is coming together.

Led by Raipher and Joseph Pellegrino in partnership with the city, the ongoing project involves redevelopment of a block-long stretch of Worthington Street, which was once considered the city’s entertainment district.

A few restaurants have opened in that space, including Mamou, the southern fare restaurant that opened roughly a year ago; Eat, a breakfast and lunch spot formerly located on Page Boulevard; and District Fusion Table, with a Caribbean-inspired fusion menu. Another, Casa Mia, formerly 350 Grille, is slated to open in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, a breakfast and lunch café is planned for the spot at the corner of Worthington and Dwight streets, and a large live-music venue is also being created, said Raipher Pellegino, a Springfield-based attorney and commercial real estate developer, adding that the collection of venues meets a critical need for more dining options and will create more vibrancy downtown and make it more of a destination.

“We have 150,000 people in Springfield and 300,000 across the area, and we are so underserved when it comes to restaurants,” he said. “If you look at a city like Providence, which has roughly the same population, there are four times as many restaurants as we have here. There’s a huge demand for quality food, selections, and options.

“And people want to have some nightlife — this section of the city has been essentially dormant for close to a decade,” he went on. “People want options … options are important.”

City of (More) Homes

Mayor Domenic Sarno says redevelopment of Old First Church is one of the key components in ongoing revitalization of the Court Square area.

Sarno has been in the corner office for more than 16 years now. He’s the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history and has led it through the Great Recession; the tornado that touched down on June 1, 2011; the six-year ordeal that eventually brought a resort casino to the South End; a global pandemic and its many aftereffects; and myriad smaller battles.

His leadership has been defined by a passion for the city and a willingness to stand up for it when he senses it is being slighted, a character trait displayed on countless occasions, including recent cases where he slammed the director of the Basketball Hall of Fame for merely suggesting he was exploring expansion of a high school basketball tournament into the Boston market and, again, with the decision on the RJC.

“This one really hurts,” the mayor said at a hastily called press conference just minutes after the decision was announced by DCAMM. “It’s going to hurt our residents and our business community.

“I always have to punch above my weight as I continue to fight tooth and nail for the city of Springfield; once again, Boston power brokers are telling the city of Springfield what to do,” he went on, blasting DCAMM for shunning local developers and the fact that the chosen proposal does not have a project labor agreement, and then asking the rhetorical question, “do you think a Springfield developer would ever get a shot in Boston?” and answering it with a firm “no.”

Sarno is taking that same passion and fight to other battles, including one involving remote work and its impact on businesses, especially downtown.

“I hear it from the small, mom-and-pop stores all the time — people have to come back to work,” the mayor said, adding that he has taken up this fight to the extent that he can. “It [remote work] hurts the ecosystem of economic development; when people are back to work in their offices, they go out for coffee and for lunch. And it hurts these office buildings, which hurts my foundation, the tax base.”

He’s been grappling with other matters as well, including housing, an issue with several plotlines, starting with projects in various stages of development across the city, including the high-profile initiative to redevelop the Clocktower building, the Colonial Block, and two other adjoining properties into more than 100 units of market-rate housing; the Residences at the Vault, redevelopment of the former Federal Land Bank building on State Street into 52 units of workforce housing; the Merrick Park Apartments on State Street, a reimagining of the former Springfield School Department headquarters; market-rate housing at the site of the former Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge on East Columbus Avenue; single-family homes on Tinkham Road; and many others.

Overall, there are several strategies involving housing, Sarno said, including the creation of new inventory, improving the homeownership rate through projects such as the hugely successful redevelopment of the former Gemini site in the South End into affordably priced single-family homes, and generating improvements to an aging housing stock.

“We’re looking to flip the script here,” he told BusinessWest. “We’re looking at some of our neighborhoods and people who have been in their houses for many, many years, and look at ways to help them maintain the upkeep of their homes, which, in turn, will help with the tax base and stabilize those neighborhoods.

“We’ll have to put some skin in the game,” he went on, referring to local funding for such an initiative, adding that the city will explore state and federal programs to help fund projects for existing homeowners, while also creating new housing opportunities.

As for redevelopment of the Old First Church, Sarno and Tim Sheehan, the city’s chief Development officer, see that as a project that will bring a landmark back to relevance, but also potentially serve as a catalyst for other development in that area, including the current courthouse.

The $2.6 million for stabilization efforts will cover a wide range of deferred maintenance, Sheehan said, including painting, drainage and roof work, and more. The goal is ready the property for reuse, likely as part of a larger effort that involves the current courthouse and adjoining facilities.

As he talked about the project, Sarno said he draws inspiration from the successful efforts to transform the church at 52 Sumner Ave. into an event venue.

“That’s what we’re looking to do with Old First Church,” he said. “It would be a great venue for events.”  

MSBDC Helps People Get Down to Business

By
Cover Story

Regional Director Rob DelMastro

From Idea to Reality

Rob DelMastro says he’ll always remember his first encounter with a consultant working for the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC), the state-funded agency tasked with fostering the start, growth, and sustainability of small businesses.

That’s because it wasn’t exactly a good experience.

“The message was, essentially, ‘go away, little boy, this is a stupid idea,’” said DelMastro, who came to the center when he was in his early 30s for help with launching a software business focused on the insurance industry.

He was quick to point all this out when he went back to the agency for guidance as he was blueprinting his next entrepreneurial gambit — a co-working venture back when that concept was still relatively new, he told BusinessWest. And far more important than the large bit of satisfaction he gained was a critical lesson he took from those experiences.

“When I took this job, I told myself I would never tell someone, ‘that’s a bad idea,’” said DelMastro, director of the MSBDC’s Western and Berkshire regions. “My job is to help someone realize it’s a bad idea.”

Or a good idea, he added, noting that this mindset has prevailed over his work with the agency, which he joined as a senior business advisor in its Central region in 2021 before taking the helm in the 413 last August. And he said the way to help someone determine whether an idea has merit is with numbers.

“I tell all my clients that business is all about math,” he said. “You’re in business to make money, and you need to make money to support your employees and support you and your family. And math often helps people understand why something is a bad idea.”

DelMastro and other consultants with the Western office are doing a lot of work with math these days as the region continues to see an abundance of entrepreneurial energy.

There’s always been a good amount of that commodity locally, but it picked up during the pandemic, he explained, when people had time and opportunity to reflect on their lives and careers, with many deciding they weren’t happy doing what they were doing.

And more recently, an increasingly challenging job market for older individuals has prompted more people to think about going into business for themselves.

“I know several friends, relatives, and clients who are in their mid- to late 50s and older, and they just can’t find a job,” he explained, adding that many need to keep working and are looking to work for themselves, often as a consultant, a path that might seem easy to those considering it, but comes with many different challenges.

As do most all entrepreneurial ventures, he said, adding that the MSBDC exists to help people of all ages, with all kinds of ambitions, at all the various stages of entrepreneurship, from conception of an idea to retirement.

“When I took this job, I told myself I would never tell someone, ‘that’s a bad idea.’ My job is to help someone realize it’s a bad idea.”

People like Amber-Lynn Watson, who created a wedding planning business called Small Town Moments LLC. She had worked as an insurance agent for more than seven years when she decided it was time for a meaningful change.

Amber-Lynn Watson operates Small Town Moments LLC with ongoing guidance from the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center.

“I didn’t feel like that was something I was meant to do; I was doing it to pay the bills, but I wanted something that was actually going to light me up and give me inspiration and help people enjoy their day to the fullest,” she said, adding that she’s found all this in a business designed to help couples with their pain points and essentially deliver as much help as they need — when they need it.

She took the concept to the MSBDC and was eventually assigned to DelMastro, who helped her get started, and has stayed with her, working on everything from forming an LLC to budgeting and cash flow, to understanding when she’s ready to take on her first employee.

“No one tells you how to start a business,” Watson told BusinessWest, adding that the MSBDC has been instrumental with the myriad aspects off getting a venture off the ground and then coping with the inevitable challenges and growing pains. 

For this issue, we take an in-depth look at the MSBDC and its regional office and how it remains an important component in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Western Mass.

Married to the Idea

Watson told BusinessWest that she got a taste of event planning with her own wedding and Jack and Jill, as well a nonprofit event — a fundraiser for the American Heart Assoc. to benefit her cousin, who died from cardiomyopathy.

“It started with passion because I love all the little details that bring an event together,” she said, adding that she started thinking about turning that passion into a business. She did the requisite due diligence and determined that, while there were a few wedding planners and coordinators working in the 413, there was room for another one.

 

Especially one with her model, which she described as ‘a la carte planning support,’ which translates into essentially whatever the couple needs — full planning, partial planning, or month-of coordination. On the actual wedding day, she’s there for as many hours as the couple needs her.

“When I got married, I had a venue coordinator who takes care of the tables, the space, and the chairs, but I didn’t have someone in those weeks leading up to help build a timeline, confirm things with all those vendors, and make sure everyone’s on the same page,” she said, adding that this is the void she’s filling.

And she’s off to a good start, building a word-of-mouth referrals and filling in the schedule with work for the next year and beyond.

Watson is typical of the clients who come to the MSBDC for guidance at various stages of a venture, but increasingly, they’re seeking help at the earliest stages, said DelMastro, adding that he’s not exactly sure why this is, but he suspects it has something to do with more individuals — the older population, as mentioned earlier, but also younger people as well — looking to turn ideas into sustainable businesses.

The MSBDC provides these individuals with a wide array of services, including a two-hour, online “How to Start a Business” training series for those who have not officially launched or generated revenue prior to actual advising.

As for that advising, it covers considerable ground, including business plan development, financial plan development, marketing and sales strategies, cash flow analysis, organizational issues, and government procurement assistance.

There are three business advisors at the Western region, affiliated with the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and now based in the university’s facilities in Tower Square, said DelMastro, who devotes part of his time to such work, adding that they’re working with roughly 20 clients each at any given time.

The advising work is rewarding on many levels, he said.

Lars Reinhard is making some news with his custom muffler business.

“The best part of the job is meeting new individuals with some great ideas, including some things that I never thought about or knew about — that’s exciting. Every new client I meet, I look forward to it, and it’s fun to listen to the enthusiasm — and the ideas.”

Such as the one Lars Reinhard came up with for a muffler whereby the driver can control the volume from inside the vehicle. It’s not an entirely new concept — the Corvette provides the driver with that option, Reinhard noted — but he found a way to mainstream the concept, patented the technology, risked all that he and his wife had saved, and created an LLC (Glory Days Speed Shop) with help from the MSBDC.

He recently passed a milestone, $1 million in annual sales, and now has six employees and has designs on continued growth. But nothing has been easy.

“It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Reinhard, who was teaching during the pandemic before deciding he wanted to go into business for himself. “It’s such a challenge, and most of it is mental, getting used to the stress, the roller coasters, the ridiculous hours, handling the mistakes … it’s hard to celebrate the wins.”

Adding It Up

DelMastro said one challenge for him comes when the idea in question doesn’t sound like a good one, adding, again, that he won’t actually tell someone that; he’ll help them make that determination.

And this brought him back to the subject of math, and how many aspiring entrepreneurs need to do more of it when considering a business proposition. He offered an actual case as an example.

“I had three women come to me right after the pandemic — they were among my first clients,” he recalled. “During the pandemic, they were making muffins for the neighborhood, and they were making 100 bucks a weekend doing it. So they came to me and said, ‘we’re going to start a muffin company.’

“I said, ‘great — what are your parameters?’” he went on, adding that the three said they would like to make $50,000 each annually from the venture. “I said, ‘that’s $150,000 profit you need to make; what are you going to sell your muffins at?’ And they said about $3. They also said they only wanted to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We did the math, and it turned out they needed to sell 6,000 muffins a day.

“That’s a silly example, but a great example of how sitting down and doing the math helps you realize how silly your idea is,” he continued, adding that he’s conducted several such exercises over the years.

“The best part of the job is meeting new individuals with some great ideas, including some things that I never thought about or knew about — that’s exciting.”

But math is only one consideration for those looking to start a business, he said, adding that others include having reasonable expectations and understanding all the challenges and risks, as well as the opportunities.

“Everyone thinks they’re going to make a million dollars, and everyone thinks that when they open their doors, 200 people are going to stream through them,” he said. “So my job is to help them tamper down that enthusiasm and identify the least amount they can sell and break even, and I enjoy that — I’m a numbers guy, and it’s quite an education for most people.”

Reinhard learned about the MSBDC from his mother, who turned to the agency for help with a catering business, and he has been leaning on counselors (most recently DelMastro) for guidance at every step of the journey.

“We just check every month, and I tell him numbers and run things by him,” Reinhard said. “Like, ‘should I go with this marketing agency?’ or ‘who should I hire next, a cheap person or a high-level person?’ — big, strategic questions like that. It’s nice to bounce ideas off people like that.”

Watson agreed and said DelMastro helped her set realistic expectations and also create a roadmap for sustainability, working on issues such as cash flow, creation of a website, how to present at a recent bridal expo at Mohegan Sun, and planning for expansion and hiring an assistant.

And, like all entrepreneurs, Watson said there have been highs and lows, but mostly enthusiasm for doing something that, unlike selling insurance, she really enjoys.

“The most fun is doing something that I love to do; it warms my heart to see people enjoy their day because I was able to take the stress out,” she explained. “The hardest part is the ups and downs — not everything is going work out the way you want it to — but that’s life, and you just keep going every day and get up and keep moving. That’s all you can do.”

Helping businesses keep moving is probably the simplest way to describe the mission of the MSBDC, which offers training and advice of all kinds, but mostly deals in reality — and how to cope with it. 

Courthouse Decision Spurs Criticism, Speculation

By
Commercial Real Estate Features

An architect’s rendering of the courthouse that is the centerpiece of the Liberty Junction Team’s proposal.

Rendering Opinions

The region’s long wait for a decision on the site and development team for a new regional justice center (RJC) is over, with the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) accepting the recommendation of the Massachusetts Trial Court to select the Liberty Junction Team, led by Virginia-based FD Stonewater and Boston-based CoJo Partners.

What is just beginning, however, is fierce debate — and even a lawsuit filed by two of the rejected developers (more on that later) — about the state’s choice of a site and team to replace the troubled Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse, and speculation concerning what this $600 million initiative means for Springfield and its business landscape, the region, and even the legal community.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get it right, and they didn’t get it right.”

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and others — from Hampden County Clerk of Courts Laura Gentile to Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi — have been vocal in their criticism of the chosen team and site, noting that the former is not local and the latter is too far from downtown to have a positive impact on Springfield’s central business district. They’ve also focused on the fact that the chosen proposal comes with the lowest price tag for the state, and that this is not necessarily a positive.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get it right, and they didn’t get it right,” Cocchi told BusinessWest. “Sometimes, the least expensive proposal isn’t the one that creates the most long-term value for our community.”

But DCAMM Commissioner Adam Baacke and Claiborne Williams, a principal with FD Stonewater, have much different takes.

Baacke told BusinessWest that the proposal submitted by the Liberty Junction Team wasn’t merely the cheapest, but the cheapest by a considerable amount — an estimated $600,000 per month less than the next-lowest price — and “one of the strongest, regardless of cost,” boasting everything from a 42-month delivery schedule to proximity to Union Station, 21 bus lines, and regional highways, to a partnering architecture firm, Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates, that specializes in courthouse construction.

“While this was not a low-bid procurement — it was more of a best-value procurement — when you have multiple proposers offering comparable quality, and one of them is at a considerably lower price, that one inherently is the better value,” he said. “That was ultimately the differentiating factor for why the Trial Court ultimately recommended the Liberty Junction project as the preferred proposal, and DCAMM accepted that recommendation.”

Meanwhile, Williams, while noting his firm’s experience building and managing large government buildings, also stressed that this is a courthouse that will serve 23 cities and towns, not simply Springfield, prompting a hard focus on access, which this site provides. But it also offers additional development opportunities at adjoining parcels, including 280 Chestnut St., home to Baystate Health’s corporate offices, and its adjoining, 550-space parking garage.

Adam Baacke

Adam Baacke

“While this was not a low-bid procurement — it was more of a best-value procurement — when you have multiple proposers offering comparable quality, and one of them is at a considerably lower price, that one inherently is the better value.”

“Part of the RFP involves economic development in and around the courthouse, and we knew we needed additional parcels to make that happen,” he said, adding that the development team put 280 Chestnut St. under contract, as well as 616 Dwight St., properties likely to be used for some combination of housing, office, retail, and parking.

“We’ve heard everyone loud and clear, and we want to work with the community organizations, politicians, the city, even our competition, if they’re willing, to come up with the best mixed-use development plan for our three parcels,” he told BusinessWest, adding that, contrary to what some critics of this selection have said, this development will be more than a courthouse.

But the courthouse will be the centerpiece, and its location has bearing on several constituencies, including the legal community.

Another architect’s rendering, this one an interior perspective.

In the decades after the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse opened in the late ’70s, most law firms were clustered into the blocks surrounding that facility, with many leasing space in buildings along State Street. They started spreading out a little when MGM acquired several properties along State Street for its casino complex, forcing them to move.

But, overall, they stayed downtown, joining dozens of other firms located in or near the central district’s four main office buildings. With the new courthouse representing a longer walk for some, there is speculation about whether there will be more shifting.

John Gannon, an employment law specialist with the firm Skoler, Abbott & Presser, located in Monarch Place, doesn’t think that will happen, noting that the planned new regional justice center is roughly the same distance from the downtown office towers as the current courthouse.

But for some firms, adjustments will be needed. That’s certainly the case for Bacon Wilson, located across State Street from the current courthouse, and a dozen blocks from the planned new site.

“All the courthouse constituents — court officers, probation, clerks, judicial staff, as well as all the attorneys and all the clients, are going to have to acclimate to a new geography and a new way of doing business,” said Managing Partner Jeff Fialky, noting that the firm’s current home, leased from owners that include several retired partners of the firm, includes a large parking lot that sees heavy use from visitors to the courthouse, revenue that will be lost when the new facility opens. “I’m sure that’s how it was 50 years ago when this was courthouse was built.”

The Verdict Is In

When asked about general criticisms leveled at DCAMM for not selecting a local developer, Baacke responded simply by saying, “the name and address of any of the proposers was not a decisive factor in whether they could deliver the product that the Trial Court needed.”

Factors that were considered include access, parking, design, a site’s ability to stimulate economic development, delivery date, and, obviously, cost, and these essentially decided the four finalists, if you will, among the 10 proposals:

• The Liberty Junction proposal for 125 Liberty St. and adjoining parcels;

• A proposal for 413 Dwight St. submitted by USPB JV LLC, led by Jeb Balise, president of Balise Motor Sales;

• Park View South LLC, a proposal led by Peter Pan Chairman Peter Picknelly that involves several parcels off Avocado Street on the riverfront; and

• A proposal submitted by Greatland Realty Partners for 1860 Main St., the Springfield Republican building.

The nod went to the Liberty Junction Team and FD Stonewater, which, Williams noted, has extensive experience with large construction projects, many of them involving government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels as well as government contractors. And many of these are what he called “secure spaces” — a courthouse falls into that category — which is a specific niche for the firm.

Claiborne Williams

“We’ve heard everyone loud and clear, and we want to work with the community organizations, politicians, the city, even our competition, if they’re willing, to come up with the best mixed-use development plan for our three parcels.”

The portfolio for the 20-year-old company includes the 500,000-square-foot U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Headquarters in Arlington, Va., a facility that includes courtrooms; the new Hanover County (North Carolina) Government Center; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mobile, Ala. District Headquarters; a U.S. Coast Guard Sector Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection Southwest Science Center in Houston; student housing at North Carolina State University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and many others.

“Our ability to finance these high-dollar-per-square-foot spaces is our niche, and we’re successful at it,” Williams said. “This is what we do day in, day out — government real estate — and we’ve been successful numerous times on analogous projects of size and scale, and we’ve delivered on time and on budget.”

He noted that the Hampden County courthouse project came on the company’s radar via the state’s RFP for proposals.

“We were excited about it, and therefore, we pursued it,” he said, noting that this interest preceded any specific site in Springfield or elsewhere. The company eventually focused on the 125 Liberty St. site after it scored high (second among 13 sites scattered across Springfield and surrounding communities, behind only the existing courthouse) in a state assessment of proposed locations for a new courthouse in 2023.

“We wanted to focus in on the North Blocks area, or the northern end of the city,” he said, adding that this section of the city offered perhaps the best blend of access — with Union Station and nearby highways — and opportunities for economic development.

Williams said the Liberty Junction Team, put together in response to DCAMM’s preference for diversity, includes several local players, including O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun, a woman-owned environmental consulting firm based in Springfield, and VHB (Vanasse Hangen Brustlin), a national planning and engineering company with a local office in Springfield. Meanwhile, Andrea Leers, a principal with Leers Weinzapfel Associates, has Springfield roots.

“We have a well-qualified team, and an experienced team,” Williams said, noting that Leers Weinzapfel Associates has designed several courthouses, including the Franklin County Justice Center in Greenfield, and been involved in several DCAMM projects.

“The architect for this team has a really good understanding of what the Trial Court needs in terms of a modern court facility, particularly around security and the character of the courtrooms themselves,” Baacke added. “The primary driver of designing a court is figuring out to manage three very complicated security pathways that cannot intersect, so that the public, the detainees, and the judges and jury members don’t pass one another in the hallway as they move through the building both vertically and horizontally. It’s actually a very complex exercise, and this design firm has mastered how to do that, not only for DCAMM, but for courts across the country.”

As noted earlier, however, DCAMM’s decision was met within days by a lawsuit filed by two of the rejected bidders: Balise’s USPB JV LLC and Springfield Tower Square LLC, owned by Dinesh Patel. They seek to prevent the Commonwealth from finalizing the 40-year lease, citing a conflict of interest — CoJo Partners’ John Barros was named interim executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority while DCAMM was actively evaluating proposals — as well as questions about whether the Liberty Junction Team demonstrated sufficient site control for the project location and alleged failures by DCAMM to apply procurement requirements consistently across bidders.

“I got into this for one reason: the good of Springfield. My family has lived and worked in the Springfield area for four generations, and a new courthouse done the right way could be a generational boost for our downtown. That’s the goal, no matter who ultimately wins,” Balise said. “This is not an effort to stop Springfield from getting a new courthouse. It is an effort to prevent the Commonwealth from locking taxpayers into a 40-year lease before serious questions about the award are reviewed.”

Courting Opinions

Jeff Fialky stands outside Bacon Wilson’s headquarters across State Street from the current courthouse.

As for speculation about the site for the new courthouse and its overall impact, it comes in many flavors.

Evan Plotkin, owner of NAI Plotkin, a commercial real estate brokerage and management firm, as well as the office tower known as 1350 Main St., told BusinessWest that he favored the existing courthouse site as the location for the new one, basing that opinion on convenience for visitors and the broad impact on downtown and individual businesses and properties.

The Liberty Street site, a property his firm had managed for more than 50 years, and he co-owned for some time, won’t have that same impact, he said.

“There just aren’t enough amenities around there — it’s somewhat landlocked,” he explained. “And it doesn’t have proximity to the core of downtown. I think the priority should have been placing this as close to the epicenter, the core of downtown, as possible to try and revitalize Main Street.”

Williams, meanwhile, chose to focus on the North Blocks area and the potential impact of the new courthouse there.

“I think it will be transformative — that neighborhood is prime for redevelopment,” he said, noting that there hasn’t been much growth in that area, created through a massive urban renewal effort in the ’60s, in years, if not decades, and the courthouse will likely stimulate some activity.

Noting the more than $100 million in federal and state investments to revitalize Union Station, he said the courthouse could build on those efforts and bring vibrancy to the area, possibly creating something it isn’t considered now — a neighborhood.

Other speculation concerns the sites not chosen for the courthouse and what happen with them. Sarno and Tim Sheehan, Springfield’s chief Development officer, said redevelopment of the existing courthouse will be a linchpin project for Springfield given its location off the highway and also to 31 Elm St. and other nearby housing projects, as well as Old First Church.

Meanwhile, Balise has said that he is committed to developing the Dwight Street site, which has been cleared of existing buildings, even if he loses the contest to build the new courthouse.

He declined comment for this article, instead issuing a statement shortly after DCAMM announced its decision (and before announcing the lawsuit), noting that “our commitment to this city is bigger than any single project. We invested in these downtown parcels because we believe in this neighborhood’s future, and we remain fully committed to seeing this site become what Springfield deserves.”

Plotkin noted that, while some of the non-chosen sites are more challenging than others when it comes to redevelopment options — he put the riverfront location in that category, for example — many have potential, especially as sites for new housing, which has long been considered a key to bring more vibrancy to the downtown.

And while office use is possible at some of the sites, especially with some law firms possibly looking to move closer to the new courthouse, he doesn’t believe there’s much appetite for new office construction given the amount of space already available. Also, new office construction will likely result in businesses such as law firms moving out of downtown, hurting buildings like his, which houses several firms, including a few displaced by MGM.

Fialky, meanwhile, said the legal community will be making some adjustments, and that will likely include some firms migrating to the North Blocks area, creating opportunities for new development.

“If you build it, they will come,” he said. “As we get closer to 2030 and nearer to completion, and we start to work through what some of those logistics look like, maybe we’ll see some other developments in that area, and that was the hope for any new courthouse location — that it would spur some type of development.”  

Banks Look to Get Out Front on AI

By
Banking & Finance Features Special Coverage

Testing the Waters

It’s called Liberty Live.

Dave Glidden, president and CEO of Middletown, Conn.-based Liberty Bank, describes this as a twice-a-year, in-house ‘broadcast’ where team members are updated on what’s happening at the institution, complete with a ‘fireside chat’ element during which he answers questions from employees.

It was during a recent episode of Liberty Live that Glidden addressed the subject of AI in the financial services sector and started by saying, “it’s no longer something that’s coming … it’s here.”

And the fact that it’s here is one of the motivations behind the bank’s creation of what it calls its AI Center for Excellence, a dedicated function designed to bring advanced artificial intelligence to every department of the bank.

“What I’m looking to do with AI is see where we can apply it in use cases to increase our efficiencies,” Glidden said. “And we’re going to follow what I call ‘ethical AI,’ meaning there will always be a human in the loop — there will always be a human making the final decision.”

Dave Glidden recently told his team at Liberty Bank that AI is “no longer something that’s coming … it’s here.”

At present, the bank is using various AI products, with names like Copilot, Salesforce, ABBYY Value, Rabbitt, and Lama, to create efficiencies and save team members time in areas such as document processing, construction loan automation (the bank has a strong niche in the timeshare construction realm), and smaller (for this bank) commercial real estate loans.

Not all banks have a formal center for excellence when it comes to AI, but they are essentially doing the same thing as Liberty — looking at opportunities to use this emerging technology to improve customer service while also shaving hours off the time it takes to do certain things, thus giving employees opportunities to make better use of their time.

And while doing that, they’re also careful to build thick walls between the AI products they’re using and the vast stores of information on customers and employees alike.

The opportunities, risks, and, yes, controversy concerning AI were addressed in a summary statement on the subject from Kathleen Murphy, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Bankers Assoc.

“Artificial intelligence offers significant opportunities to enhance efficiency and the customer experience across the banking industry,” she said.

“As banks explore these technologies, they will continue to apply the same disciplined approach to risk management, oversight, and due diligence that has guided the adoption of new banking technologies for decades.

“While AI can help banks serve customers more effectively, it cannot replace the human judgment, expertise, and relationships that remain fundamental to banking,” she went on. “Maintaining customer trust will continue to be the industry’s highest priority.”

Chuck Leach, president of Lee Bank, concurred with that sentiment, but added quickly that AI is not like the new banking technologies that have emerged over the decades.

“AI is different — it’s a quantum leap forward from other technology advancements that we’ve all experienced in our lifetime,” he told BusinessWest. “I guess all those other technologies might have made employees better or more effective, but this is just a quantum leap forward in terms of amplifying skill sets and enabling bankers to focus on the human interaction because some of the other tasks that are little more menial will be made much more efficient.”

Indeed, this is a rapidly, as in rapidly, changing landscape, one where best practices are a moving target at best, with banks and credit unions creating their own rather than trying to follow others, and return on investment is still difficult to calculate and often measured in hours or minutes of time saved rather than dollars, although those are added up as well, said Drew Weibel, Lee Bank’s chief information technology officer.

“We’re looking at hundreds of hours, easily, saved thus far,” he said. “It’s in small bits and pieces, but it adds up across the board.”
For this issue’s focus on banking and financial services, BusinessWest takes a look at how some institutions are deploying AI and how the technology is changing the industry, and in the course of doing so, we’ll look at the many aspects of rolling out this technology, from determining what products to invest in to how to measure results.

Technically Speaking

As he talked with BusinessWest about the AI Center for Excellence, Glidden described it as an effort to get out front on this technology, rather than be a ‘strategic follower,’ as he originally planned.

He described the initiative, undertaken in strategic partnership with Flare AI, as a hub for AI strategy, governance, and execution, with each of those elements carrying significant and equal weight.

“We have to make sure that we, as a company, from a governance standpoint, are controlling this,” he explained. “We need to have the policy rules in place but, more importantly, the right people around the table that can evaluate these things, whether it’s part of vendor analysis or identifying opportunities to improve efficiency with AI.”

The center will be led by Jeremy Miller, Liberty’s chief operating officer; Paul Young, chief financial officer; and Troy Damboise, chief enterprise risk officer, and co-chaired by David Hadd, Liberty’s head of Business Transformation; and Mike Stevens, senior vice president of Data Management and Enterprise Architecture.

The center is exploring ways to put AI to use to create efficiences with both back-office functions and customer-facing operations, Glidden explained.

“As much advancement as we’ve made here in my tenure, we still have a lot of manual processes and laborious ways of doing things, policies and procedures, and all the rest,” he noted. “So I really see AI for us, in these early stages, as bringing it in and learning how to apply it safely, from an informational protection standpoint, but also taking advantage of huge opportunities to improve our efficiency.

“If you can free up teammates’ time for more valuable tasks, then we can continue to grow and not have to continue throwing headcount at it,” he went on. “I don’t see it from a headcount reduction standpoint; I see it as increased efficiency for our teammates.”

And some current uses are creating such efficiencies, he noted citing Rabbitt and another product called Lama, a model that focuses on smaller commercial real estate transactions.

With the latter, the AI technology is helping to underwrite and monitor loans more quickly and more efficiently, Glidden explained. “We lend in 36 different states across the country, so it’s a big operation and a great business for us. But anytime you’re making loans that large for complicated projects, there’s a lot that goes into monitoring and underwriting them.

“This is an AI module that actually does all that monitoring for you,” he went on. “Instead of me having to put six teammates who are buried in the data of construction advances, progress payments, and all the rest, now they’re freed up because AI does it automatically. What would normally take a teammate maybe six hours … they get it in a better format in about 30 minutes.”

As for Lama, it addresses a gap in what Glidden called the “commercial real estate investor side.”

The bank handles many large transactions, but in Western Mass. and Connecticut, many borrowers are targeting smaller real estate deals, he explained. “It’s hard, when you build a machine for big, big deals, to put a small one through, and vice versa, so this is an AI we brought in that does the underwriting for small-investor commercial real estate.

“It’s not taking the time of credit analysts, portfolio managers, relationship managers, and underwriters that are working on a $25 million or $50 million deal,” he went on. “This automates it — once you get the information from the customer, the AI model reads it, does an underwriting of it, and spits it all out. In a matter of 15 to 30 minutes, there’s a very well-underwritten document that a credit person and a real estate person can make a decision on.”

Change Agents

Leach bristles at the notion that banks must have size to be efficient, a common refrain among institutions in pursuit of scale.

“I consider myself a really innovative CEO and president — I followed technology closely when I was an investment analyst, so it’s always been near and dear to my heart,” he told BusinessWest. “Stack on to that the knock on small banks, that they’re inefficient, that we need to have scale to be more efficient — and I always push back against that — and in the middle of this comes the next phase of AI, and we’ve really just embraced this whole concept of how to apply it at a community bank.”

Leach said the bank is being entrepreneurial, but also spirited, in its approach to AI, with creation of a committee to review opportunities and products, and a competition within the institution to identify new and creative uses for Microsoft Copilot — now being used by most banks to accelerate routine work — and other platforms.

“We’ve game-ified the use of AI and created a use case contest, for lack of a better word,” he noted. “People submit their use cases, tally up the hours, how much time or money they think it’s saved, and we have our AI, or IT steering committee, vet those, and there are prizes for those who have submitted the best use case.

“That’s a good starting point because, out of that, across the organization, we’re seeing some very unique and exciting use cases,” he went on. “Whether it’s in our commercial lending area or collections area or with our foundation and sorting through grant requests — we’re not dehumanizing it, but making it more efficient.”

Meanwhile, the bank has created a dashboard outside this game-ification of AI to tally up all the use cases and the hours saved, he went on, adding, “it’s almost like a national debt clock tracking the ROI with this whole endeavor.”

As for those use cases, they cover several areas of bank operations, from vendor management to the use of agents, such as on the retail side of the operation.

“Our branch staff have an agent that they can pose questions to. Those questions used to mean interrupting the branch manager or calling the operations area and talking to someone there,” he explained. “This agent can guide the human through those steps.”

Leach cited another use case, this one involving annual reviews on company compiled by the chief credit officer.

“It’s like writing up a Harvard Business School case study on a company — there’s a lot of detail, a lot of which can be carried over from the prior year’s writeup, but then, you have to integrate it with whatever new has happened,” he explained. “It’s a tedious process, and there’s a lot of hunting and pecking and going back and forth between documents. There’s a way with AI to speed up that process, helping with writing the narrative, bringing new data in but leaving the correct data from past years in there … it’s a way to craft a new credit memo or annual review on our commercial credits that’s cutting the time down from five hours to one hour.

“AI is doing the heavy lifting around non-knowledge worker stuff, such as transferring data and things like that,” he went on, “while the human, the skilled credit professional, is reviewing that and shaping it for the final product.”

There are many other examples of how is AI is shaving hours off processes and creating time for team members to put their time and energy to better uses, he continued, adding that, at this still-early stage in the work to deploy AI, return on investment is mostly being measured in time, not dollars, although it can be done with the latter as well.

That’s true in the case of hiring outside consultants, said Leach, citing just one example. “We had planned on having some technical consultants come in and assist IT with some upgrades and migrations, and we decided to leverage Copilot instead to guide us through these steps, and we were able to complete a lot of the work on our own without having to engage these consultants.”

Weibel, like Glidden, said there is no shortage of companies pitching new AI products, and the bank is being diligent about reviewing options and deciding which to invest in.

“There are a lot of shiny things in the marketplace at this point,” he told BusinessWest. “We have to see if it’s the right fit for the institution; it’s just like selecting any other system or tool that we would use.”

Leach agreed, but noted that most small and medium-sized banks are beholden to one vendor that is “like the plumber for everything at the bank.”

“And for better or worse, any new AI tool that comes out of left field has to play nice with that vendor and be reasonably priced to sync them up, which often isn’t the case, for us to even get out of the batter’s box and entertain using them.

“We’re less inclined to use AI in forward-facing or client-facing scenarios, and moreso behind the scenes to drive efficiency, and that’s our rallying point,” he added, summarizing the bank’s mindset with the emerging technology. “That, and trying to move beyond experimentation and one-off cases, which everyone has stumbled across, and actually operationalize in a way that really helps the bank.”

Bottom Line

In most respects, banks, like businesses across all sectors, are just getting started when it comes to using AI to change how people work and how they apportion their valuable time.

As noted earlier, the landscape is changing rapidly and constantly, leaving those in the industry to only imagine what things will look like in just a year or two.

As Leach said, AI is not like previous new banking technologies. It is, indeed, a quantum leap forward.

James Krupienski Wins BusinessWest’s Alumni Achievement Award

By
Alumni Achievement Award Features Special Coverage

James Krupienski receives his AAA trophy from Brandon Okezie, president and COO of Baystate Noble Hospital, and BusinessWest Associate Publisher Kate Campiti.

All A’s

James Krupienski calls it “paying it forward.”

That’s his way of describing his mindset of paying homage to those who mentored and counseled him early in his career by doing the same with the next generation of young accountants at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. (MBK), where he’s a partner.

“I had a lot of mentoring at different levels — it started with a professor in college, and then a tax attorney that I’m still friends with, and then at PWC [PricewaterhouseCoopers], where I started, and then at MBK; there were some great partners I had as resources,” he told BusinessWest. “There were a lot of great people to surround myself with, and I made a point to reach out to them, ask questions, and get their advice.

“And over time, I look at the younger staff here, and I see a group of great people; I see a lot of people who remind me of me when I was that age,” he went on. “And I want to do as much to help them as people helped me.”

This desire to pay it forward is one many reasons why Krupienski was chosen by a panel of judges to be the latest recipient of BusinessWest’s Alumni Achievement Award, sponsored by Baystate Health and Health New England and presented annually to the 40 Under Forty honoree who has, in those judges’ eyes, most embellished his or her track record of success in their chosen field and with giving back to the community.

He was presented with the award at the 40 Under Forty gala on June 11, after being introduced along with fellow finalists Modesto Montero-Forman, founder of Libertas Academy Charter School; Adam Quenneville, owner of Adam Quenneville Roofing and Siding; and Ciara Speller, anchor for WWLP-22 News and founder of the Jeffrey Speller Foundation ‘4 Change.’

Krupienski’s nomination for the award spells out continued success and advancement in his career — he’s risen from CPA manager in the Health Care and Pension Audit divisions to partner at the firm — and continued work within the community, both in his hometown of Westfield and across the region.

Indeed, the day after he took home his AAA plaque, he was one of a few dozen employees at MBK and PeoplesBank (both businesses are located in the same office tower in Holyoke) taking part in a build-a-bed initiative for the nonprofit A Bed for Every Child.

“It was exciting — there were at least 15 people from each organization, and they built about 20 beds,” said Krupienski, adding that another of his priorities is to continue and build on a culture of giving back at the firm.

But his work to pay it forward and be a mentor is another big reason why he is now a AAA recipient.

When asked what he tries to impart on younger team members, he paused a minute and then said he encourages them not to be afraid to fail — “because that’s how you learn. It’s going to happen — it happens to everyone — and you want to do it in a way that’s constructive and you’re getting something out of it.

“Whether it’s a manager reviewing a first year’s work or me as a partner reviewing a manager’s work … we’re going to find things; that’s why we review everything here,” he went on. “But that’s also how that new hire learns and can grow to the manager level, and also how the manager can learn, see things from a different perspective, and grow to the partner level down the road.”

As a partner, he acknowledged that he’s busy, but makes the time to spend time with younger team members at different levels, from those interning at the firm — his son, Jimmy, was one of them this past year — to those working their way up. And he does so in different settings, from a charity golf tournament (he invited an audit manager to play with him at an upcoming event) to Krupienski’s Korner, a gathering spot in the break room at MBK that he created to help team members get a reprieve from the pressures of tax season on Friday afternoons after 5.

It’s all part of those collective efforts to pay it forward — work that helps explain why Krupienski has joined a rather exclusive club: Alumni Achievement Award winners.

—George O’Brien

Monson Boasts Diverse Business Community

By
Community Spotlight

Bryson Busiere says it started as a hobby.

Then it became a “second business.” And there are plans — it will take several years to a decade for them to become fruition — for it to become a full-time pursuit, a career.

Bryson Busier and his father, Marc, have guided their maple syrup business to continued growth and diversification.

We’re talking about Bryson’s Maple Syrup, an undertaking he started with his father, Marc, 15 years ago when he was in middle school. Together, they’ve grown it steadily to where they now tap 3,000 trees across four main properties, and produce 400 to 600 gallons of maple syrup a year.

They use it create a wide range of products, from bottled syrup to candy to some infused offerings, and sell them at craft fairs, farmers markets, and other events across the region and throughout the year, although summer and the holidays are the busiest times.

“We typically do one fair each weekend,” said Busiere, who works in construction by day, adding that the Pioneer Valley Wine Festival in Brimfield was one of recent stops. “But we’re looking at doing two or three, depending on the week. We’re trying to branch out a little more now that we’re making enough syrup to be able do that.”

Bryson’s Maple Syrup is part of an eclectic business community in Monson that includes many small businesses and second businesses, shops along Main Street, and several agriculture-related ventures.

And it’s one of many converging stories in this town of roughly 8,000 people. The biggest, of course, is the redevelopment of the former Monson Developmental Center (MDC), a saga that started when the institution officially closed in 2012 — although speculation began long before that as operations wound down at the complex — and has moved in mostly slow motion for most of that period.

But the pace of progress has accelerated in recent years, starting with the acquisition of the property by Westmass Area Development Corp. And the pace quickened further last month with town meeting approval of a zoning change to create a planned village district that will include housing, commercial, and retail spaces.

What for many years was conceptual is now real, and it will become more real as demolition continues, with the site, which includes more than 30 buildings, due to be fully cleared roughly a year from now, Westmass President and CEO Jeff Daley said.

Meanwhile, numerous other storylines are taking shape in this community, Town Administrator Jennifer Wolowicz said, including:

• A comprehensive reconstruction of a mile-long stretch of Route 33 (Main Street). Now in the planning and public-hearing stage, the projected $15 million initiative is scheduled to start in 2028 and will be the first major reconstruction of the street in roughly a century;

• Expansion of the Board of Selectmen from three members to five; and

• Plans to apply for a grant from MassDevelopment to eventually undertake infrastructure work on a stretch of Route 20 that goes through Monson, Palmer, and Wilbraham to encourage more commercial development there.

The Route 20 initiative — and the MDC project, for that matter — are efforts to bring more development, vibrancy, and people to the community, but without changing the rural character of the town that its residents value, Wolowicz noted.

“Getting this property transferred over to Westmass for oversight and now ownership will provide Monson with an opportunity,” she said. “And opportunities can look and feel different for everyone. I’m sensitive to the historic charm that Monson has, and I’ve loved it since I moved here myself.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives, and generations before them, who are excited about the project,” she went on. “They’re looking at it as an opportunity to downsize from the large home that they’re still living in because their children have grown and moved and have homes of their own; Monson does not have any 55-and-over communities to offer to our seniors.”

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Monson and the many developing stories there.

Progress Report

Craig Swietzer, president of Monson-based Sweitzer Construction, has served on the town’s Planning Board for decades now.

He recalls maybe one subdivision plan in all that time, with all other housing being essentially one-offs. So he can understand why there might be some apprehension about the MDC site and plans for more housing than the community has seen over the past several decades combined.

But he believes most of that apprehension has been alleviated through a thorough review process of Westmass’s plans, coupled with strong desire to see something happen with the long-dormant property — something that will generate tax revenue for the community — as well as recognition that housing of various forms is needed, and will come in phases at the MDC site over the next several years.

Jennifer Wolowicz

“Opportunities can look and feel different for everyone. I’m sensitive to the historic charm that Monson has, and I’ve loved it since I moved here myself.”

 

“The town gets it,” he told BusinessWest, adding that the vote to approve the village district was nearly unanimous, for all those reasons. “It’s easy to be afraid that this thing is going to be huge and there’s going to be 1,000 new residents, but it’s not going to be like that.
It’s going to be market-driven; we anticipate slow, steady, sensible growth.

“Obviously, some adjustments will be needed, like fire and police, but I think this growth can be absorbed efficiently,” he went on, adding that, given the decline in enrollment in town schools, additional students can be absorbed without any new building needed.

Wolowicz agreed, noting that there is some apprehension and negativity concerning the MDC project, but mostly relief that a site that had been vacant for so long is finally being developed, as well as optimism about the various housing options that might emerge at the site.

“One of the things that we hope will be part of this is a mixed-use type of property where you’ll have cluster housing with single-family homes, but you’ll also have a 55-and-over living community that also has some businesses connected to it, like an occupational therapist business or a coffee shop,” she said, adding that, while the property is in Monson, it is near the border with Palmer, and could benefit the residents of that community as well.

Jeff Daley says demolition of the buildings at the MDC site should be concluded by the summer of 2027, with infrastructure work to follow.

Daley agreed. When it comes to the market, he anticipates there will be solid interest in housing of various types in a community just a mile or two off the Palmer turnpike exit — and only a few hundred yards from the planned east-west rail station in town — and a project that will provide a more affordable alternative to the sky-high prices in Greater Boston and the comparatively high prices in the Worcester area.

“It’s a four-minute ride to the Palmer exit,” he said, adding that, overall, the goal will be to use Westmass’s experience in site development and housing construction to create homes that will be more affordable than those built in other locations and by other developers.

As for the timetable moving forward, demolition of the site is the next priority, Daley said.

“Our goal is to have everything on the ground and the site basically cleaned and ready for development by June 2027,” he noted, adding that the contractor, Associated Building Wreckers, is on pace to meet that goal.

After demolition will come infrastructure work — water, sewer, and electricity — and then market-driven development.

“We’re putting together a development plan for how the site could lay out in the future,” he said. “When that comes to fruition, we’ll likely be the land owner, and a good chunk of the developments will happen with us or through us managing those.

“At the of the day,” he added, “our estimate is that it will be $300 million to fully develop the site with all the infrastructure that needs to be done and the housing and commercial use — and anywhere from 10 to 20 years of work.”

Sweet Success

Busiere told BusinessWest that the family maple syrup venture has grown and evolved over the years.

Indeed, that branching out he mentioned has been happening on many levels, starting with the number of taps. But it also includes the roster of events where the company has a presence, the portfolio of products sold, and a “help yourself farm store” in front of the family home, a miniature sugar house, as he put it.

As for the products, there are now 50 to 75 of them, depending on the year, and these include maple syrup, maple candy, maple cream, and a variety of infused maple syrups, including coffee, cinnamon, and many others.

Most of these items are produced at the sugar house in Monson, but the company also rents out a commercial kitchen for some of its items, including maple-coated peanuts and walnuts as well as a planned maple mustard.

“We’re on track to double in size for the next several years,” he said, adding that the long-term goal is to make this a full-time venture, perhaps in a decade at the current rate of growth and progress.

“It’s easy to be afraid that this thing is going to be huge and there’s going to be 1,000 new residents, but it’s not going to be like that. It’s going to be market-driven; we anticipate slow, steady, sensible growth.”

As noted earlier, Bryson’s Maple Syrup is part of an eclectic business community in Monson, one that includes few large employers, but many smaller, venerable institutions, from Monson Savings Bank to the Woodbine Country Store, a fixture on Main Street for generations.

James Przypek, CEO of the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce, which serves 15 communities, including Monson, said the community boasts a wide range of businesses in sectors ranging from construction to telecommunications; from HVAC to farming and the growing realm of agritourism.

Indeed, ventures such as Echo Hill Orchards Winery & Distillery and Silver Bell Farm, known for its elaborate holiday lighting displays, are helping to make Monson a destination.

“Silver Bell is an amazing attraction — people keep coming back for it,” he noted, adding that the community features many smaller businesses, from cookie makers to roadside farm stands that give it a unique flavor .

As for Sweitzer Construction, it has been part of the Monson landscape for more than 40 years now. A family business, it covers two generations, with Craig and his wife Pat at the helm, and sons Brian and Michael serving as project managers.

The company specializes in in high-tech, design-build work that includes dental construction, a unique niche, but also medical facilities, commercial and manufacturing construction, and, most recently, cannabis facilities.

The business has grown steadily over the years — from its portfolio of projects to its team — and is looking to sustain that growth and “feed the machine,” as Craig put it.

“That can be the tricky part,” he said. “To keep up the volume and the numbers that we need, sometimes we travel more than we like to, but that’s the nature of the beast.”

Elaborating, he said the company has, over the years, expanded its geographic base, both to serve long-term customers, such as Attleboro-based Rust-Oleum, and to secure new work, such a recent project in New Haven. 

Overall, each project is unique and brings its own set of challenges, Pat added. “There are a lot of projects that are complex, and they’re really fun — it’s not the same production work over and over. They’re unique projects, and we’re lucky to have a lot of customers like that.” 

CISA Helps Drive the Region’s Farming Community

By
Cover Story Features

Experts in Their Field

Jennifer Core is certainly familiar with the myriad challenges facing the region’s farms these days.

Indeed, she and her husband, Olivier Flagollet, operate Heddy Bell Farm, a livestock farm in rural Warwick, specializing in beef, lamb, pork, Thanksgiving turkeys, and more.

“We see it all, every day,” said Core, who, through that operation, became familiar with, and supportive of, the nonprofit agency CISA (Community Involved with Sustaining Agriculture) and its broad mission to build a stronger, more resilient, and more just local food system.

So supportive, in fact, that when longtime Executive Director Phil Korman retired in 2025, she sought to succeed him in that role.

One of CISA’s primary missions is to promote the region’s nearly 2,000 farms and everything they produce.

“CISA has been this cherished place in my heart and mind for a long time,” she said. “I feel fortunate to have landed at CISA, where we celebrate all the farms in this area and talk about the issues that impact farms, educate and engage the community — and now, I get to see it from the other side.”

For this issue, we talked at length with Core and others at CISA about the state of farming in Western Mass., and about CISA’s mission and how it carries it out.

Regarding the former, she said this region boasts a strong, vibrant farming community, one that is diverse — everything from livestock to vegetables; hay to fruit trees — and features many young, first-generation operators. But it’s also one that, like farms across the country, faces numerous challenges.

“According to a recent legislative report, two-thirds of the farms in Massachusetts are earning about 95.5 cents for every dollar they spend on their farm operations.”

They range from various climate change-induced weather extremes — at present, it’s persistent drought — to succession issues involving the many family farms that remain, to the pressures facing all large landowners during an ongoing housing crisis.

And then, there’s simple economics.

“According to a recent legislative report, two-thirds of the farms in Massachusetts are earning about 95.5 cents for every dollar they spend on their farm operations,” she said. “And that’s important to understand … that’s not sustainable, and that’s why many farmers need multiple careers.

“If I were ever to be stuck on an island with one other person in the world, I would want it to be a farmer — because farmers tend to know how to do a lot of things, how to problem solve, and how to work really hard creatively,” she went on. “And that is asked of them every day in this economy, in the recent past and moving forward.”

From left, Claire Morton, Margaret Christie, and Jennifer Core handle the many aspects of CISA’s broad mission.

And CISA exists essentially to assist farmers with all they must confront, said Margaret Christie, special projects director, who has been with the agency almost from its beginning in in the early ’90s. And this assistance comes in many forms, from workshops on issues ranging from succession to irrigation to climate change, to targeted programs such as the Local Hero ‘buy local’ campaign and an emergency farm fund that provides zero-interest loans to assist farmers and farm businesses struggling to meet their immediate needs in the aftermath of severe weather events and other emergencies.

“We try to be a one-stop shop, which doesn’t mean we can solve every problem that every person has,” said Christie, who, like others we spoke with, described CISA as a resource, but also an important connector, linking farmers with experts and information.

Claire Morenon, CISA’s communications manager, agreed, noting that many of the agency’s initiatives, and part of its mission, is to create opportunities to both support the region’s farmers and address food insecurity issues in the region.

Such efforts include the Senior Farmshare program, which subsidizes summer CSAs for low-income seniors, and HIP (Healthy Incentives Program), which offers individuals and families in the Bay State receiving SNAP benefits an automatic rebate on purchases of fruits and vegetables from farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets, and CSAs.

“We talk about that program being a win-win program — it increases food access for low-income people, but it’s also an important revenue stream for farmers,” Morenon said. “In larger conversations about policy and how we want to see our local food system be supported in a more general sense, we’re thinking about solutions that are at the intersection of benefiting the larger community, but also providing really important financial support for farms.”

By the Numbers

Core told BusinessWest that the latest census data shows there are nearly 2,000 farms across Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties (CISA’s service area), 94% of them are family farms, and about one-third of them sell directly to consumers through farmstands, CSAs, and farmers markets. The value of what’s produced in the three-county area is more than $162 million, she noted, adding that this is more than one-third of what’s produced across the Bay State.

The buy-local thrust so critical to its messaging is essentially how CISA started.

The most popular crops are mixed vegetables, feed corn, hay, and tobacco, she went on, adding that many of those managing area farms would be considered first generation, an encouraging sign for the region.

“The vast majority of the farms in this area are new and beginning farmers, meaning they’re first-generation farmers,” Core said. “Many came to this region for school — our higher education activities in this region draw young people, and we’re talking more about food systems at the university level than ever, which piques a lot of interest.

“A lot of folks who come to farming from a values perspective or an academic interest may not stay in production farming,” she went on. “But they may end up in ag-adjacent careers, system careers, so it is driving a tremendous amount of economic activity.”

When asked how these farms, and all the region’s farms, are doing, she said they are holding their own given all they have to contend with.

“There are a few compounding factors at play right now. Climate is one; the norm now is that farmers have to be ready for any possibility all the time, and that’s a pretty risky endeavor and a costly endeavor. We’ve had late frosts, we’ve had early frosts, we’ve had drought, we’ve had extreme precipitation events, flooding events … and all of those take a toll on crop production in our area.

“That is combined with incredibly increased input costs,” she went on, listing everything from gasoline to fertilizer. And then, there’s a pinch in the agricultural labor market with recent immigration efforts, “which have created an incredible amount of stress on the agricultural workforce, which is a very skilled and valued workforce in our area.”

All this helps explain why many farmers need other sources of income, usually second jobs, said Core, adding that this is an understandably difficult proposition given how taxing farm work is.

“We try to be a one-stop shop, which doesn’t mean we can solve every problem that every person has.”

And it also explains why farm owners are feeling extreme pressure when it comes to keeping their land devoted to farming.

“There’s tremendous development pressure — both housing and solar pressure,” she told BusinessWest. “It’s a lot easier to put solar on agricultural land — it’s flat and accessible. And there’s a vulnerability in farming … when we think about farm transitions and succession planning, that’s a very vulnerable moment for the farmland itself if it’s not protected.

“We’re lucky to live in a state that has exceptional farmland protection programs — that’s something we should all be proud of, that our taxpayer dollars do protect farmland,” she went on. “But farmers are particularly vulnerable for financial reasons; most of the farm equity serves as retirement funds for retiring farmers, most of the time. Balancing and weighing the tradeoffs of how you can pass the business on to another grower or whether you need to liquidate your assets is a tricky moment and an incredibly personal decision, but a decision that could actually impact all of us.”

Planting Seeds

When asked what climate change has brought to this region and those 2,000 farms, Christie said it’s not one specific pattern such as warmer temperatures or more rain.

Profitability has become a key issue for area farms.

“The short answer is that weather is less predictable and more extreme, meaning that we’re more likely to have drought and more likely to have floods,” she explained. “Our rain tends to come in bigger, more precipitous events — we get more rainfall in shorter periods of time rather than more gentle rainfall that is spread out, and that causes drainage problems and erosion problems, and can cause flooding, as we saw in 2023.

“Sometimes, people think that, ‘well, if the climate’s getting warmer, we’ll just be able to grow things that normally don’t grow well here because we’re too far north — all we have to do is shift our product mix,’” she went on. “But, in fact, the weather is getting more erratic and more extreme, so it’s more difficult to plan and make adjustments.”

Helping farmers cope with these extremes and unpredictability is just one of many forms of assistance provided by CISA, she continued, adding that such help generally falls into one of three buckets: business support, including training and technical assistance for both farm and food businesses; promotion of local farms and communication about agriculture and local food; and “making the system work bett`er,” as she put it, meaning the larger system of both farming and food access.

And a big part of that category is advocacy, she went on, adding that this takes many forms, including work to monitor progress on both the federal and state farm bills now working their way through the legislative process, and help ensure that they support that constituency.

Overall, CISA does act as a connector, Christie said, adding that, for some issues, the agency can and will refer farmers to groups such as the UMass Cooperative Extension for production issues, and Land for Good for succession matters.

Promotion of the region’s farms is one of the key aspects of CISA’s mission, Morenon said, adding that the primary goals are to inform area residents of all that is produced in the region and then encourage local buying.

And a key instrument in this work is the Local Hero campaign, the longest-running ‘buy local’ program in the country. It has grown into a comprehensive public awareness and marketing effort with 400 local business members, including farms, farmers markets, distributors, butcher shops, and more.

“This was one of the first ideas that CISA was founded on — the idea that using mainstream media tools to promote local farms and local farm products could be a really powerful way to help farms survive, and not just survive but thrive,” Morenon told BusinessWest, adding that the initiative includes advertisements to alert residents about what’s in season as well as an online database of farms that are part of CISA’s program, detailing what they grow and where their products can be found.

“A lot of other communications work is about helping farmers and other local food businesses tell their own stories,” she went on. “And that’s about highlighting the people who are part of this larger food system and helping them make connections to the community around them.”

This buy-local thrust was essentially how CISA started, she continued, adding that it has branched out in different directions since, including technical assistance and programs designed to address both food insecurity and the needs of farmers.

And that technical assistance takes several forms and addresses a number of issues, from immigration to disaster response, with many of them involving the larger issue of profitability, said Christie, citing those numbers mentioned earlier, as well as the attention given to inflation and the higher cost of going to the grocery store.

Often lost in that dialogue is the plight of farmers producing those products.

“We have prioritized low prices for food, even though, right now, food prices feel high to many people, and they’re not wrong — food prices are high,” she noted. “No one would blame people for wanting prices to come down, but it’s also true that we don’t really pay enough for food to ensure that farmers can pay their workers well, take care of their land, and make sure that their own families are able to be comfortable and send their kids to college and plan for retirement.”

Educating the public on such matters is just one of the many ways CISA goes about its mission of helping farmers grow crops, but also grow their business. 

Dr. Andrew Lam Keeps Writing New Chapters

By
Features Special Coverage Where Are They Now?

Dr. Andrew Lam inside the restored Brewer-Young mansion

Where Are They Now?

It’s called the ‘Cobra Effect.’

And Dr. Andrew Lam is more than happy to explain.

“In India in the 1800s, the British in Delhi had a problem: there were too many cobras. So they said, ‘let’s make a bounty on cobras; if the people bring us a dead cobra, we’ll pay them,’” he explained. “At first, it seemed to be going great; they were getting all these cobras, and the native cobra population declined. But for some reason, the cobras kept coming, and they realized people were breeding cobras so they could get paid for them. So they stopped doing the bounty, and then the people released their cobras into the wild because they were worthless, and that increased the cobra population.

“It was a classic backfiring of a well-intended policy,” Lam went on, noting that he made this case part of a chapter in his latest book, called What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Unintended Consequences, Unnecessary Blunders, and the Urgency of Avoiding Tomorrow’s Mistakes.

It is expected to be released early next year, said Lam, who gave BusinessWest a sneak preview of sorts — a breakdown of tentatively titled chapters and cases to be explored within them. 

In the chapter called “Resist the Easy Fix,” he looks at China’s one-child policy, price freezes, and rent controls. In one called “Assume Your Invention Will Be Misused,” he explores the work of the Wright Brothers, Alfred Nobel, and Richard Gatling, as well as developments such as AI. And in a chapter called “Do Good Carefully,” he addresses Prohibition and the Bay of Pigs.

We’ll get back to What Could Possibly Go Wrong? later. It represents just that latest … well, chapter in Lam’s story, and there are many of them, all ongoing.

Dr. Andrew Lam has written four books, with a fifth slated for release next year.

Let’s start with his day job. He’s a senior partner at New England Retina Consultants and professor at UMass Medical School. And there are his books, several of them now. The others are Saving Sight, in which he describes his life as a retinal surgeon while also telling the stories of doctors whose inventions make saving sight possible; Repentance, an award-winning novel drawn from the heroic story of a Japanese-American regiment that fought in World War II; Two Sons of China: A Novel of the Second World War; and The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases.

And then, there’s his work in the community of Longmeadow. He started on the Historical Commission, later served on the Finance Committee, and, in 2024 was elected to the Board of Selectmen.

“I enjoy doing everything I can to help make Longmeadow better,” he said. “And I’m particularly passionate about helping to steer a prudent fiscal course.”

Meanwhile, Lam and partners Henry Clement and Chris Orszulak restored the historic Brewer-Young mansion on Longmeadow Street into co-working space called Modern Workspace. The venture, which had to endure its own battle to win approval from town board and, ultimately, town meeting voters, has successfully transformed the landmark, which had fallen into deep disrepair, into home for a wide array of professionals.

And just this past week, Lam gave the keynote speech as Longmeadow celebrated the nation’s 250th birthday party with an event on the town green.

Most of the above has happened since he was named a 40 Under Forty winner in 2014. Back then, he had two books published — Saving Sight and Two Sons of China — and was just starting to get involved with the town, on the Center School Council and Longmeadow Soccer Assoc., for example.

He’s added to the résumé in both realms, especially as a public servant, which he finds rewarding, but worlds apart from his work as a retinal surgeon, as he explained.

“I don’t think there’s anything as antithetical to the skills and attitude of being a surgeon as being in government,” he said. “As a surgeon, you learn to be decisive, and sometimes the stakes are extremely high. In government, it’s the exact opposite; it moves like molasses, and things that seem like common sense take a long time because of the process.”

For this latest installment in its Where Are They Now? series, we look at the many aspects of Lam’s life and career, and how he makes time for them all.

Learning from History

Dr. Andrew Lam in 2014, when he was named to the 40 Under Forty.

In his address to those assembled at Longmeadow’s 250th celebration, Lam offered some history lessons about men from Longmeadow who left their homes to travel to Boston the day after the battles of Lexington and Concord — men whose names now grace streets and open spaces in town: Captain Simon Colton, Medad Stebbins, and others.

He also offered some thoughts on the nation’s first 250 years and the forces that have shaped its trajectory.

“History shows us the story of American progress is not a straight line upward,” he said. “It has always involved setbacks, disagreements, sacrifice, and renewal. It has included grievous errors, from slavery to prejudice, nativism, and some wars fought abroad that contributed to untold havoc and suffering. 

“We’ve made mistakes, but the difference between us and the monarchies and dictatorships of the past and present is that our system allows us to recognize those mistakes and correct them,” he went on. “We do not have to pretend we are perfect. We can believe we have an excellent form of government and that America can be a force for good in the world, without insisting that we are exceptional or somehow better than people in other nations.”

These comments display Lam’s passion for history, public service, and learning lessons from past mistakes with an eye toward not repeating them. And these passions have driven his writing, which covers considerable ground — from China during World War II to efforts to cure deadly diseases — and different genres.

“A smart author would only do the same kind of book every time because you make a ton of connections with reviewers and readers,” he explained. “When I did the historical novels, I got lots of connections with people who write blogs and reviewers and podcasts on that subject. And with the medical books, I made a lot of connections. But I can only write well if I’m really interested and fascinated by the subject.”

This mindset includes his latest effort, which is much more than a comprehensive listing of things that have gone wrong over the years, everything from plastic bag bans to desegregation busing; tariffs to geoengineering; the ill-fated bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco to overreaction to the ‘shoe bomber.’

It’s also a look into what drives these failures — the cognitive biases, emotional drivers, and systemic blind spots that consistently derail even the most thoughtful plans.

“With optimism bias, we plan for perfection,” he explained, adding that this mindset drives everything from cities staging the Olympics to towns (like Longmeadow) building new DPW facilities, to people scheduling their day and leaving for appointments. And this bias helps explain why things go wrong — and why people are late.

“People expect there to be no traffic, no parking problems — we do this all the time in our daily lives; we’ll leave at the last second, for everything,” he said, adding that this is just one tiny example of how thinking everything will go right is a major contributor to things ultimately going wrong.

By cataloging some of the more infamous things that have gone wrong over the years, Lam hopes these cautionary tales can perhaps prevent future calamities on many different scales.

“This book covers our worst mistakes in government, business, medicine, the military, and more,” he said. “The idea is to learn lessons from these errors and apply them to future problems.”

The Write Stuff

Like most authors, Lam said that, even before his latest book has been published, he’s thinking about the next one.

He has an idea, but isn’t ready to share it just yet. Suffice to say it will address something he’s passionate about — and that certainly covers a lot of ground. 

Car Makers, Dealers Motivated to Shake Off Slow Start to 2026

By
Autos

Gearing Up

It’s called a ‘20 Group.’

It’s a collection of 20 non-competing auto dealers with similar business models who gather several times a year to exchange ideas and share best practices.

Carla Cozenzi, president of the Hadley-based TommyCar Auto Group, attended a session recently in Cedar Rapids, Idaho. And before that, she was at another conference, ASOTU CON (Automotive State of the Union) in Baltimore. There were packed agendas in both cases, she said, with discussions on everything from AI and how the industry is using it and can use it (see related story on page 15) to the somewhat sluggish start to the year for the auto industry — and the reasons behind it.

And those reasons are many, including everything from a brutal winter in many regions, including New England, to global tensions and economic uncertainty; from the high cost of new cars, trucks, and SUVs — the average sticker price is now close to $50,000 — to soaring gas prices.

Collectively, these factors contributed to a flat start, a few percentage points off last year’s pace and what was projected for this year, and some minor shifts within the market — from a slight uptick in car sales (although SUVs still reign supreme), in a nod to those soaring gas prices, to continued high demand for used cars, a response to those high prices for new models.

Carla Cosenzi says that, unlike the industry as a whole, TommyCar Auto Group is off to a solid start in 2026.

“Overall, automotive is down slightly from last year,” said Cosenzi, adding quickly that her group is bucking that trend, up a few points. “And there are many reasons why … the overall state of the economy, what’s happening in the world, all the talk on tariffs, the cost of vehicles, and the rising cost of living.”

As the calendar turns to June and the sales season heads into high gear, pun intended, dealers are optimistic that this year will get back on track, especially as manufacturers respond with attractive incentives designed to move hesitant consumers to action.

Ford is leading the way with the return of employee pricing for May and June, a strategy deployed by various manufacturers during other slow times. It’s an attractive incentive that is already moving the needle, said Mike Marcotte, president of Marcotte Ford in Holyoke.

“It’s a substantial saving for the customer,” he said, adding that the program covers almost the full lineup, including trucks and transits, and was designed as a way to mark the nation’s 250th birthday. “The message has been out there, and it’s created more online traffic and more traffic in the dealership, especially with the nicer weather.”

Meanwhile, other makers are introducing less splashy, but still effective incentives, including attractive lease deals and lower financing rates, designed to make monthly payments more palatable.

“Overall, automotive is down slightly from last year. And there are many reasons why … the overall state of the economy, what’s happening in the world, all the talk on tariffs, the cost of vehicles, and the rising cost of living.”

“Employee pricing is basically the best you can get,” said Alex Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for the Balise Auto Group, which includes a few Ford dealerships. “Most of the manufacturers, though, are taking a targeted approach, offering different incentives based on supply and demand. They’re not just tossing incentives out there … they’re being strategic and going model by model, which makes sense.

“Depending on the model, it might be a low APR or a special rebate,” she went on. “They’re doing what they can do address the needs of each model — which makes it a good time for customers.”

Overall, summer is generally a good time for the industry, between the better weather, longer sales days, people with time on their hands, and sometimes the need to ramp up and get into something new for the family road trip vacation. And with initiatives in place to drive sales and leases, those we spoke with are projecting that the industry’s overall performance should move into a higher gear over the coming months.

“We’re optimistic, based on the last few months, that things will stay steady through the summer,” said Balise, adding that, after a solid May, the company is on roughly the same pace it was last year.

Driving Forces

As he talked about the start to the year and the outlook for the second half of 2026, Marcotte said it seems that dealers are always

Mike Marcotte says Ford’s employee pricing offer during the months
of May and June has already had an impact on sales.

coping with different challenges, many of which are unforeseen.

In his case, it’s slightly lower inventories for the popular Ford F-150 pickup due to supply issues impacting manufacturing. But the dealership is plowing through, he said, moving that model at a faster pace than last year. Meanwhile, SUV sales have remained strong, despite the higher gas prices, and commercial sales have followed up a strong end to 2025 with continued solid performance.

Still, affordability is an issue with many consumers, he said, adding, as others did, that employee pricing and other incentives are designed to make the lift somewhat lighter for consumers.

And in the meantime, cost-conscious consumers are looking at more affordable options, including everything from longer financing terms — up to 84 months, in some cases, to keep the monthly payment affordable — to traditional cars, which have certainly taken a back seat in recent years to the SUV.

“They’re selling now because of the cost and gas prices,” Balise said. “There aren’t many [models] left, but the ones that are there are selling. If you’re looking for a lower price point for a new vehicle, that’s where to find them.”

This explains improved sales of Camrys and Corollas at the group’s Toyota stores, she said, adding that it’s the same with other makers still offering cars.

But SUV sales remain solid, especially those vehicles at the smaller end of the spectrum, those that get better gas mileage, those with hybrid options, and those that offer a lower price point, said Cosenzi, adding that, across the board, car makers are motivated to help consumers get into new vehicles.

“They’re not just tossing incentives out there … they’re being strategic and going model by model, which makes sense.”

“Manufacturers are stepping up in a really big way to make vehicles more affordable for customers again,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re seeing some of the most aggressive incentives and APR offers that we’ve seen in a very long time.

“That’s helped us bridge that gap,” she added, noting that the incentives have helped push consumers over the top when it comes to a decision on buying or leasing something new. “We’ve reached out to customers and put them in better positions and educated them on how we can help them.”

Elaborating, she said these incentives, many of which have been in place for months, have helped TommyCar move ahead of the sales pace set last year at most of its dealerships.

“Our Hyundai store is up more than 8%, our Nissan store is flat, Genesis is up 16%, and our Volkswagen store is up just slightly,” she noted. “So, overall, as a group, we’re up.”

She attributes this to several factors, but especially close customer connections — letting them know about new incentives, vehicles they might be interested in, programs to purchase their used vehicle, and more — that create opportunities.

And there remains strong interest in used cars, especially with the high prices of new vehicles, Cosenzi said, adding that dealerships are looking for cars in what would be called the ‘affordable’ category — quality used cars in the $25,000 to $30,000 range that provide an attractive option to new — and target people with them, to both secure more inventory in that column and put their previous owners into something new.

“That’s a customer life cycle that has made us so successful in the first half of 2026,” she said, adding that such strategies address consumers in both categories.

Fueling Speculation

Meanwhile, the higher gas prices are prompting some movement, or at least some looking, in directions other than the mid-size and large SUVs that have captured the attention of the buying public.

“Gas prices are impacting some of what people are looking for,” Balise said, adding that the surge at the pump has prompted immediate discussion about changes in buying habits, if not immediate action.

“It’s on their mind,” she went on. “People are thinking, ‘am I going to get a truck or an SUV? What’s the gas mileage on it? Is there a hybrid option?’”

Cosenzi agreed. “Our customers have become accustomed to and feel safe having an SUV,” she told BusinessWest. “However, as soon as we see that gas threshold increase to what we’re seeing now, we do see interest in EVs and compact and subcompact SUVs, and we see demand for those vehicles increase.”

Balise said there is a still a strong market for electric vehicles, despite an end to federal incentives, with manufacturers offering their own rebates to move inventory off the lots.

“The people who want EVs are still coming in for EVs,” she noted. “The people who were on the fence … with rebates not being as strong, they’re more likely to consider hybrids. People are still buying EVs, and it helps that the OEMs are offering their own rebates to offset the loss of federal incentives.”

Overall, inventories of vehicles in nearly every category are much improved over just a few years ago, although they’re still not back to pre-COVID levels in many cases, area dealers report.

“It’s a healthier supply-to-demand ratio,” Balise said, adding that, for the most part, there aren’t too many cars on the lot, just a good number that mostly eliminates the need for customers to wait for what they want or settle for less.

“There are multiple options available — it’s not getting on the list for the next one that comes in, necessarily,” she noted, adding that this is yet another reason why it’s a good time to be buying or leasing.

Looking ahead, those we spoke with said the second half of the year — and especially Q4 — is typically better than the first half, and they are expecting that trend to continue in 2026, as various driving forces collaborate to prompt consumers to act.

It should make for some interesting talking points at the next 20 Group meeting. 

Auto Dealers Are Finding New, Creative Uses for AI

By
Autos

 

Driving Change

As he talked about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it’s being used by the auto sales industry, Rob Pion chose to first discuss consumers — and the modern shopping
experience — in general.

“It’s a 24/7 world — we’re an immediate society; people don’t want to wait for the next business day for anything,” noted Pion, president of Bob Pion Buick GMC in Chicopee, the dealership started by his grandfather. “It’s 2 in the morning, you wake up and say, ‘shoot, I forgot to order ‘X,’ you jump on Amazon, order it, and it’s there before you wake up in the morning or the next day.

Rob Pion says AI has helped auto dealers better serve customers in a 24/7 world.

“People expect that out of everything,” he went on, adding that this includes cars, trucks, a part, or a service appointment. In short, customers are looking for information and insight — and in many, if not most, cases, they don’t want to wait until the next day for the answers.

And that’s one way dealers are using AI, Pion said — to chat with customers, answer questions, and collect some leads at all hours of the day.

“At least we have someone, or something, responding 24/7 to customer inquiries and concerns,” he explained, choosing those words carefully and then noting that AI is a way for dealers to meet consumers where they are, on their schedule.

But providing answers to questions on lease rates at midnight is just one of the ways auto dealers are putting AI technology to work. Others include everything from finding answers for technicians in the service bay to slicing through the remarks in customer reviews to find common threads, to finding holes in service schedules — and filling them.

“We always read through reviews, but you don’t always catch the themes as they come in,” said Alex Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for Balise Auto Group. “I’ve been using AI to read our reviews for the past three months and tell us key themes so we know what customers appreciate and where we can improve. A one-off review doesn’t necessarily tell you what the real experience is, but, looking at the themes, you can see that wait times have become an issue at this store or they really like the muffins at Balise Subaru in Hadley, so we should keep those. AI can tell us that.”

And it can do many other things, such as providing help with pricing to analyzing inventory to helping make sure the dealerships are carrying the right mixes of vehicles, said Carla Cosenzi, president of TommyCar Auto Group, noting, as others did, that the technology is certainly not intended to replace the human interaction that has marked this industry from the very beginning, or replace people.

“We want to use AI to make us a better resource for the customer and make sure we don’t lose that human interaction that we pride ourselves on here.”

“We use AI a lot,” she explained. “We’re a very customer-centric and community-focused dealer group, so we want to use AI to make us a better resource for the customer and make sure we don’t lose that human interaction that we pride ourselves on here.”

For this issue and its focus on auto sales, we look at the various ways AI is being used today, and how it might be used in the years to come.

Speed Thrills

Like most other industries, the auto sales and service business is really only beginning to tap into AI and its vast potential.

Indeed, those we spoke with said that, while many different uses have been found for the technology, there are many others still in the developmental stages, with testing ongoing. But already, individual dealers and larger groups have been successful in developing strategies for using AI in everything from sales to marketing to service and using the technology for what it was designed to do — creating efficiencies while allowing employees to do what they do better and make more efficient use of their time.

And in many cases, time is what is being saved — for those working at the dealership, and for customers as well.

“AI gives customers really quick, personalized, and smarter responses with transparent pricing, and it gives them a quicker transaction time,” said Cosenzi, citing the example of a customer looking for information online. 

“If a customer wanted a price on leasing a Nissan Rogue and sent in a quote to our internet department … before, our internet department would have to go to the sales managers and get information from them to properly quote the vehicle if they wanted a lease or different financing options,” she explained.

“But we have new software and AI that enable us to get right back to a customer in under five minutes and give them a completely transparent quote that gives them all the options they need, whether that’s purchasing, financing, options for different money down, for different financing institutions — all in less than five or 10 minutes. Before AI, it might have been 20 or 30 minutes.”

Balise agreed, and offered another example, this one in the service bay.

“A lot of the manufacturers have added AI support,” she explained. “So when a technician is working on something and has a question, their AI guide can help finish the repair sooner than if they had to call a support line and wait for an answer. That’s been a big help with making a repair time faster; AI can read their whole manual, which could be hundreds of pages, and spit back the specific instruction needed for that repair.”

Using AI to sift through customer reviews also saves time, Balise said, noting that employees would spend hours reading through the responses looking for common themes and issues to address. “AI can do it five minutes and give us action items that can make a real difference in the customer experience.”

Beyond saving time, AI is also helping dealerships be more efficient with everything from how they market their products and services to how they shape their inventories, Cosenzi noted, adding that new uses for the technology are continually being explored.

“It’s a 24/7 world — we’re an immediate society; people don’t want to wait for the next business day for anything.”

“We use it to match the right vehicle to the customer for their situation to help meet their goals and accomplish what they’re looking for, which saves them time,” she said. “We use it to price our vehicles in the market to make sure we’re the most aggressive and our customers are getting transparent, upfront, live-market pricing; we’re using it to help customers schedule appointments with us smarter and faster; and we use it to analyze our inventory so we’re carrying the right mix of what our customers are searching for.”

People Power

The overriding strategy is to put AI to work in ways that will enable employees to save time and put their energies in other directions, not put them out of work, said those we spoke with.

“We’re looking for where AI can make our teams more efficient so they can spend their time doing the human things we need them to do — connecting with customers,” Balise said. “AI should be an extra tool for our team. It’s not replacing people; it’s making them more effective in their jobs.”

Pion agreed. “We’re a ways from AI replacing people, especially in our business,” he said. “It’s a personal experience when you’re spending this kind of money, and people want to deal with people. I see AI as a way to communicate with people overnight, when I can’t expect someone to be doing that on my behalf. But there’s no replacing human interaction in a business such as ours.”

While AI is making its mark in the auto sales industry, those in the business say that, in many ways, dealers are only scratching the surface when it comes to this technology, what it can tell them, and how it can make their operations more efficient.

Right down to the muffins at the Subaru dealership. 

As It Turns 100, Rocky’s Continues to Grow, Adapt

By
Building Trades Cover Story

Marking a Milestone

Johnny Falcone (left) and Rocco Falcone

For the Rocky’s Ace Hardware chain, there are many numbers of significance to consider.

Let’s start with 100. That’s the round-number anniversary the family business that started in downtown Springfield is celebrating this year.

But there’s also 52 — the number of stores in the chain. (It was 50 before two recent additions in Kennebunk, Maine and Manchester, Conn.) And also nine, the number of states in which you will now find the Rocky’s chain — five of the New England states (there are none in Vermont) as well as Ohio (which boasts 10 stores), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

There’s also the number four, connoting the number of generations of the Falcone family that have been involved with managing the chain, with the fourth being led by John ‘Johnny’ Falcone, who carries the all-encompassing title of ‘director of growth.’

“In our industry, there are a lot of senior folks like myself who don’t have families ready, willing, or able to take on the family business.”

Indeed, quite a bit goes with that designation, especially the numbers just mentioned and what they will be in five, 10, or 20 years.

There has been a wave of consolidation in the hardware business over the past few decades as the small, independent store that almost every city or town could boast has given way to larger chains, especially as Baby Boomers, many with no succession plans in place, moved into retirement, a process accelerated, in many cases, by COVID.

Instead of cutting a ribbon, officials chainsawed a board to mark the opening of the Rocky’s in Manchester, Conn, one of the latest additions to the chain.

“In our industry, there are a lot of senior folks like myself who don’t have families ready, willing, or able to take on the family business,” said Rocco Falcone II, third-generation owner of Rocky’s and the one who has been instrumental in much of the company’s expansion, even if he didn’t take the same title as his son. “So we’re still seeing opportunities for acquisitions for that reason.”

Beyond growth in the number of stores, the company is looking ahead to the next 100 years, with an eye toward anticipating and embracing change, and keeping its focus where it has always been: on the consumer.

“Every decision we want to make is with the consumer in mind,” Johnny said. “We think about our customers and the options they have when they want to buy. When we look at growth for this business, it has a lot to do with allowing the customer to choose the method with which they want to buy that item or help them with their project — whether that’s buying in store, online, on a mobile app, through third parties like DoorDash, or other apps that are out there — and then meeting them in the method they want to receive that product, whether it’s picking it up themselves, having someone deliver it, or having someone assemble it for them.

“It’s really reinventing what convenience means,” he went on. “Fifteen or 20 years ago, convenience meant a neighborhood hardware store; today, convenience means so much more when it comes to technology, especially with how consumer behavior has changed. So for us, every one of our decisions is made with the customer in mind; we’re working hard at redefining what convenience looks like in the digital world.”

“Every one of our decisions is made with the customer in mind; we’re working hard at redefining what convenience looks like in the digital world.”

For this issue, we take an in-depth look at the first century in the history of the Rocky’s chain and what will come next for what can only be called a retail institution — in this region and now far beyond it.

Changing with the Times

For those not familiar with the Rocky’s story — and by now, most are — it begins in 1926, when Rocco’s grandfather (also named Rocco), who saved some money while selling newspapers in front of the Paramount Theater and, later, working at Zundel’s Hardware in downtown Springfield, decided to go into business for himself.

Equipment and tool rentals were a big part of the Rocky’s success formula for decades.

He started with a small hardware and tool rental business, with the latter half thriving because, at that time, many people could not afford to own equipment.

The company remained on Main Street for decades, but as the population moved out from downtown (and in many cases out from Springfield), the company went with it, eventually adding hardware and rental locations in other parts of the city, such as Breckwood Boulevard, before moving its headquarters and flagship hardware store into a former sawmill on Island Pond Road in the ‘60s. 

In the ‘70s, the company, now under the leadership of Rocco’s father, Jim, expanded to a seven-store chain and joined the Ace Hardware cooperative to leverage national buying power. It also eventually eased out of the rental business while also adding paint and wallpaper, and transitioning into home centers, with lumber, building materials, kitchens, baths, doors, and windows — and larger stores to accommodate all that.

With the arrival in the ‘90s of Home Depot, which took much of that business, the company, now with Rocco at the helm, transitioned again, to maintenance and repair as well as lawn and garden supplies — and smaller stores, with the outside lumber yards on Island Pond Road and the Agawam store converted to garden centers.

“People will shop at Rocky’s not for price, but for value, and the combination of the national brands that we feature and the service, knowledge, and advice we can give. That’s a value that brings people back.”

This evolutionary process has continued, as has expansion of the chain across this state and into other states, with more of the same projected in the years to come as new opportunities continue to arise.

Rocco Falcone noted that there are still smaller, independent stores doing business, but far fewer than a few decades ago, especially in this region, which has seen many familiar names disappear from the landscape, with Manchester Hardware in Easthampton, which closed in 2021 after being in operation for 125 years, being one of the latest.

There are more independent stores in other regions and other states, he said, adding that Rocky’s will get calls on a steady basis gauging interest in acquisitions, and the company has let it be known that it’s interested in further expansion — if the fit is right.

“A good source of referrals are the owners of the stores we’ve bought,” he said. “That’s how we ended up with the store in New Jersey; a fellow from Pennsylvania said, ‘my buddy in New Jersey, who’s only 20 minutes away even though it’s in a different state, is ready to sell.’”

And while there are a few acquisition opportunities remaining in the 413, most of them are in other markets, Rocco said, citing those recent additions in Maine and New Jersey as examples of where growth is happening for this company.

“We want to fill in the map,” he told BusinessWest, referring to both gaps between states and gaps between stores in states where there is already a presence. “Between New Jersey and Pennsylvania and up the Connecticut coast is a great place to look; the I-91 corridor would be nice.

“There are still more opportunities in Worcester … we just can’t find good locations,” he went on, adding that the company’s longer-term goal is to cluster stores in the Worcester market, as it has in the 413, with locations in Springfield (two), East Longmeadow, Agawam, Westfield, South Hadley, and Ludlow. “We could have eight stores in that [Worcester] market, but we only have one or two now. And then we can move up the coast of Maine and into New Hampshire; there’s a lot of opportunity there.”

What’s in Store?

Johnny Falcone says Rocky’s continues to adapt to a changing retail landscape and “reinvent what convenience means.”

Continued growth makes sense for many reasons, especially the economies of scale that come with larger numbers, Rocco said, adding that, as with banks, insurance agencies, and other types of businesses, size is certainly an advantage.

Meanwhile, the company continues to adjust and react to that need to continually reinvent convenience, as Johnny Falcone described it.

That includes growth of the company’s online business, which includes the DoorDash option for smaller items and company-coordinated delivery of larger products like grills, serving as an effective complement to the brick-and-mortar stores, which will always be needed in this business.

“The retail space is not going away,” Rocco said. “The online component just brings the product closer to the customer rather than being in an Amazon warehouse 500 miles away.”

While coping with changes on the retail spectrum, Rocky’s, like all businesses, is adapting to a new workforce landscape as well. Indeed, while many young people are still landing their first or second jobs with the chain, many of those patrolling the aisles have gray hair, said Rocco, noting that this has been the trend over the past several years, especially at the company’s Florida stores, but also in other markets, including this one.

It’s a reflection of changing demographics — fewer young people — but also a desire among many seniors to stay active and remain in the workforce, often on a part-time basis.

“They don’t want to work full-time, they want a purpose, they want to come in and be helpful, which is one of our core values,” Rocco said, adding that these older staff members serve as mentors to the younger men and women learning the hardware business.

And many of those young people are staying with the company, he said, noting that, with 52 stores and growing, there are ample opportunities to advance and move into management positions.

 As for those core values, they are being re-emphasized and reinforced — such as at the company’s recent Leadership Summit at the Marriott in downtown Springfield — as Rocky’s turns 100. Other values, Johnny said, include ‘helpful,’ ‘responsible,’ ‘caring,’ ‘excellence,’ and ‘fun.’

That’s not an acronym, but rather an operating philosophy, he said, and one that separates the company from its competitors, especially the large, big-box variety.

“We all focus on ‘helpful,’ especially the customer-facing employees, as the most important value, because that’s really what sets us apart from our competition,” he told BusinessWest. “People will shop at Rocky’s not for price, but for value, and the combination of the national brands that we feature and the service, knowledge, and advice we can give. That’s a value that brings people back.”

As for the 100th anniversary, the company will be marking that milestone in many different ways, from a kickoff at the Leadership Summit to several ‘hometown days’ events coinciding with holidays this spring and summer, as well as a larger celebration in October, including promotional sales.

Mostly though, Rocky’s will be doing what it’s been doing for the last century — changing, adapting, growing, and, well… being helpful.

Great Barrington Remains a Seasonal Draw

By
Features Special Coverage

While soaring gas prices and the rising cost of plane tickets have most people seeing red, Betsy Andrus sees some opportunity.

Indeed, the exploding cost of traveling far away might prompt some people in this region to travel … well, maybe not so far, said Andrus, executive director of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, adding that one community that stands to benefit from such a development is Great Barrington.

It already sees large numbers of visitors taking in everything from restaurants, clubs, and hiking trails to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, an eclectic mix of shops, a few breweries, and a collection of art galleries. And the numbers could move higher, given current trends.

“Because of the price of gas and because of the way the economy is moving, for people to do lavish vacations and fly to Paris or whatever will be more difficult and expensive,” Andrus said. “Instead of spending $4,000 to get to the Caribbean, hopping into the car and spending a few dollars on gas going to the Berkshires seems like an easier choice.”

Great Barrington at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1761
Population: 7,172
Area: 45.8 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $13.24
Commercial Tax Rate: $13.24
Median Household Income: $95,490
Median Family Income: $103,135
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Fairview Hospital;
Iredale Mineral Cosmetics; Prairie Whale

* Latest information available

As noted, there’s always been plenty to do in this town, and now, there’s more, such as concerts and comedy shows at Barrington Hall, the reinvented former Chrissie Farm, which has become what its owners, Dan Baker and Daniel Latzman, expected it to become — a true destination.

Indeed, the new owners have added live concerts, comedy shows, lectures, family events, and more to the mix.

“We like to think of ourselves as a gathering space for the community,” Baker told BusinessWest. “We really try to be community-oriented, both with our public schedule and our private events.” 

As for that mix of stores and eateries, it’s in a seemingly constant of change, and even more so in recent years as many long-time store owners have moved into retirement. That was the case with the Gorhman & Norton package store, a Great Barrington institution that Robbie Robles has transformed into Robbie’s Community Market, another gathering place that offers fresh sandwiches and salads, brick oven pizza, live music Saturdays, and, as the name over the door suggests, community.

“I work hard on making this a quality place that you want to be in — you want to have memories there; you want to go back and have parties and events,” he said, adding that the word ‘market’ is meant to convey the more European definition of gathering place.

And then, there Tom’s Toys, another downtown Great Barrington institution that has been selling specialty items for three decades. Owner Tom Levin said he’s seen a lot of change over 30 years — in the toys that the public is buying at any given time, and in downtown Great Barrington itself.

“Change has been the one constant,” he said, adding that a once-sleepy community started to change and become a destination about the time he went into business, and it remains one today.

Those we spoke with talked about the rhythm of doing business in Great Barrington, which has a slow season, from January until early May. But then, things start to pick as owners of second homes return for the summer and tourists start arriving in larger numbers. Things really pick up when the summer seasons start at Tanglewood in Lenox, Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, and other venues, and it remains steady, if not quite as robust, through the fall and into December.

Understanding and making do through these seasonal ups and downs is one of the challenges of doing business here, said Levin, adding that, since COVID, the winters have been better, and the summers have remained solid.

And this year, Andrus and others are hoping that those aforementioned economic forces — everything from high gas prices to lingering uncertainty about the future — will make this community even more of a destination.

Staying Power

Abdrus noted that, while January to early May is traditionally slow in Great Barrington, the past four months have been slower than normal, despite a strong season for the ski resorts.

Dan Baker, left, and Daniel Latzman in Barrington Hall, which they have transformed into a destination for a wide array of public and private events.

She’s not sure if the closure last summer of the Simon’s Rock of Bard College campus, the future of which remains a large issue moving forward, had anything to do with that, but she’s more certain that the economy and general uncertainty about what comes next did.

She’s hoping for a full rebound during the summer, when the town’s population triples from 7,000 to 21,000, and believes that, if a ‘stay closer to home’ mentality gathers any steam, it will certainly benefit the Berkshires as a region and individual communities where there’s lots to do.

And Great Barrington fits that description, she said, citing everything from a wide variety of shows at the Mahaiwe to Berkshire Busk, the 10-weekend street music and arts festival that makes downtown streets come alive; from an eclectic roster of restaurants to opportunities to hike the Appalachian Trail.

“I think the summer is going to be busy,” she said, adding that the nation’s 250th birthday may bring more opportunities to celebrate the Berkshires’ museums, other cultural institutions, and history, such as the Knox Trail, which winds through several communities in the area, including Great Barrington.

‘Busy’ would certainly suit the many shops in the downtown area, which include a mix of old and new, with Levin now counting his business — located in the heart of downtown, at the corner of Main and Railroad streets — as among the oldest.

“We like to think of ourselves as a gathering space for the community. We really try to be community-oriented, both with our public schedule and our private events.”

“We’ve lost some of our old-time stores, like the photo shop, a hardware store, and a shoe repair shop, and we’ve definitely seen a trend of more upscale shops opening in town,” he said, adding that, for him, business has been generally good as a mix of locals and tourists snap up what’s hot — if he can keep them in stock.

That list includes Japanese blind box toys, Needoh squishy toys for stress relief, and Jellycat stuffed animals, he said, adding that many visitors have specific items on their list, but many come just to browse.

As for Robbie’s Community Market, it is a work on progress, said Robles, a serial entrepreneur with two other businesses in nearby Sheffield, who will mark a year in his storied Great Barrington location — Gorham & Norton was in business for 113 years — later this month.

“I was building the rocket ship while I was going to the moon,” he said of his work to transform the space and add such features as a pizza oven while expanding the overall menu.

Like others who have set up shop in town, he’s experienced a learning curve, especially the ebbs and flows to the calendar.

“It’s a short season, but we’ll be strong until December now,” he said, adding that he’s learning the rhythm of the business year and, thus far, gathering momentum as a place where people gather year-round.

Developments of Note

Baker told BusinessWest that the former Chrissie Farm was mostly a banquet hall, handling weddings, galas, and other gatherings such as corporate outings.

Barrington Hall still hosts such events, but it has broadened the portfolio in dramatic fashion, he said, adding a roster of live, public events that is drawing both area residents and visitors to the region.

This includes live music, including upcoming shows such as “Big Yellow Taxi: The Music of Joni Mitchell,” “Afrobeat Concert with Armo,” “Billy Keane and the Waking Dream,” and “The Rock and Roll Playhouse Plays Music of the Beatles.” There are also comedy shows and events for children and families.

This was the vision that Latzman, a software company owner, and Baker, formerly in the financial services industry, and before that, the entertainment industry (in everything from production to management), brought to their entrepreneurial venture.

The two moved to the Berkshires five years ago and met as neighbors in the nearby town of Egremont and developed a strong friendship.

“We started to align as to our ideals and what it means to live here in the Berkshires, and how there might be opportunities to really establish some roots on the business front,” Baker said. “We then started to look at various venues to accomplish this mission.”

“I work hard on making this a quality place that you want to be in — you want to have memories there; you want to go back and have parties and events.”

In early 2025, when Chrissie Farm came on the market, they gave it a look.

“We walked in, and we knew that we could do what we wanted to do with that space,” he said. “On our side, a lot of this is about a want and need to throw down roots here, grow our families, and create something meaningful for the community, both in Great Barrington and Berskhire County as whole.”

Not quite a year since the sale was completed and several months since the first events were hosted, Baker said the venture is off to a very solid start, with events on both the public and private side of the ledger, especially the former.

“We’ve really packed the schedule with public events,” he said, adding that, beyond the number of events, there has been great diversity as well. “We’ve had rock and singer-songwriter things, jazz, world music like Afrobeat … we’ve really tried to inject some diverse offerings for the people in the Berkshires. We’ve also had a number of comedy shows since the beginning of the year, and some successes beyond that.”

There is a hard focus on local talent — “Live shows. Local energy” is the venue’s marketing tagline — as well as an emphasis on children and families.

“We’ve had at least one kids and family show, and that was a huge success, and we have at least three more lined up for the summer and early fall,” Baker noted, adding that the flexibility of the space provides opportunities to host many different kinds of events. “We can accommodate different setups; that’s one of the beauties of our space, and you might see something different every time you come in here.”

Speculation Abounds as Hampshire College Campus Hits Market

By
Commercial Real Estate

What Comes Next?

The Hampshire College campus covers roughly 800 acres, and there is already widespread speculation about the many potential future uses of the property.

“Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.”

With that, Barry Roberts, a developer who has reshaped downtown Amherst and handled projects across that college town, summed up what most are thinking about the announced sale of the Hampshire College property.

Elaborating, Roberts said he is expecting this to be an intriguing sale process, and one that could impact this community in many ways depending on who buys the property and what they do with it.

The college announced last month that it was selling the 800-acre campus property to pay off creditors; the school currently carries about $25 million in loans. In response to a series of questions sent to the school by email, a college spokesperson would say only this:

“As part of its transition to closure, Hampshire College is working to sell its land in order to satisfy debt obligations and steward an orderly teach-out process. The college has retained Region as a broker, and the college’s board of trustees is preparing to review any and all offers that enable meeting Hampshire’s fiduciary obligations.”

Region is a West Springfield-based commercial real estate firm led by the father-son team of Mitch and Ben Bolotin (see related story on page 28). Region is preparing a listing for the property, and while it was not available at press time, it was to be available ‘soon,’ according to that college spokesperson.

When asked to speculate about the sale and what might happen with the property, Roberts, who has been involved in retail, housing, and office projects in Amherst, said there has been plenty of talk, and there will be more in the weeks and months to come.

“They would like to get some tax money out of the property, I know that. It will be interesting to see who comes forward and what kind of deal they can work out with Hampshire.”

He told BusinessWest that town officials have expressed interest in “putting the property back on the tax rolls.” Colleges like Hampshire do not pay property taxes, but generally make in-lieu-of-tax payments. Most other uses, other than education and nonprofit initiatives, do pay taxes.

“They would like to get some tax money out of the property, I know that,” he said. “It will be interesting to see who comes forward and what kind of deal they can work out with Hampshire.”

He said there should be ample interest in the property, as there was for a 20-acre strip of Hampshire College-owned land near Atkins Farms that came on the market late last year. Roberts noted that his company submitted a proposal for that property that was under consideration by the school when “the clock ran out,” as he put it, and the college announced it would be closing.

Roberts didn’t want to speculate on whether the campus would be sold as one block or whether it could be subdivided and sold that way. Overall, the site comprises 600 acres in Amherst and 200 in Hadley, he said, but only a few hundred acres are developable, with the rest being wetlands.

And while the development community waits for the listing on the property, there have already been a few proposals forwarded for potential reuse.

One is called Hampshire Next, a coalition comprising alumni, students, families, staff, and community members. Its goal is to raise $21 million by September to retire the college’s bonds and ensure its financial stability.

The initiative’s website explains its mission — “to organize and secure a future where a new expression of Hampshire’s mission can be nurtured under the direct guidance of its community” — and motivation.

“It either stays with the community, or it could become the next data center,” organizers wrote on the site. “If we don’t act, Hampshire’s campus may be used for purposes that have little connection to what Hampshire made possible. Hampshire taught us to think critically, act boldly, and build alternatives. Now we are applying those values to ensure the campus continues to serve Hampshire’s mission through a future that is not yet fixed, but firmly rooted in its purpose.”

“It either stays with the community, or it could become the next data center. If we don’t act, Hampshire’s campus may be used for purposes that have little connection to what Hampshire made possible.“

Another proposal forwarded by Jerome Segal, a philosopher and former candidate for president, calls for a plan to refinance the school’s debt while merging it with his newly created Peace Institute into something that would be called the Advanced Hampshire Institute for Peace, Plain Living, and Conflict Resolution Training.

Whether either of these proposals gains any traction remains to be seen. In the meantime, input from the public will be paramount in the discussions about future uses and what will be permitted there, said Jeff Bagg, Amherst’s director of Planning and Economic Development.

“It’s important for the community to submit their ideas, questions, and concerns,” he said. “Given the size and complexity of the news about Hampshire College closing, the town manager has begun a series of meetings with various stakeholders to understand immediate impacts to students, faculty and staff. We are also taking into consideration the needs of the existing nonprofit organizations and businesses on or adjacent to the college campus,” he noted. “After some of the immediate issues are addressed, the town of Amherst expects to facilitate and be part of broader discussions about future uses of the land.” 

As Roberts said, this should be fun. So stay tuned.

James Krupienski

By
Alumni Achievement Award

Partner at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C

It’s called ‘Barrett’s Barracks.’

It’s named after the late Jim Barrett, long-time managing partner at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C., and it’s actually his former office.

It’s where the tax interns hang out, and this past year, the space had even more meaning for James Krupienski, one of the firm’s partners, who works closely with those interns. That’s because his son, Jimmy, was one of those who called the space home this past year, following a stint as an audit and accounting internship.

“It was nice to have him here and work with him,” said Krupienski, adding that Jimmy, who graduated earlier this month from Westfield State University, worked with some of his clients and had the chance to offer feedback on the job. “Your family thinks they know what you do, but they really don’t, and he really got a chance to see what I do, and having him at home go to bat for me for me when my wife asks me why I was working so late … that was helpful.”

Jim Krupienski when he was named to the 40 Under Forty class of 2010, and today (top)

Jim Krupienski when he was named to the 40 Under Forty class of 2010, and today (top)

Jimmy’s tax internship is poignant for many reasons, starting with the old ‘how time flies’ adage. Indeed, Jimmy is front and center in his father’s 40 Under Forty photo from 2010, wearing his ‘Westfield T-ball’ T-shirt.

He’s come a long way since then, and so has his dad, who is making a return appearance as an Alumni Achievement Award finalist after first achieving that honor last year. The award is given to an individual has built upon their résumé — as a professional, a leader, and someone who gives back — and Krupienski has done that on those fronts and many others, as we’ll see.

At the firm, he has grown into a respected leader, a partner focused on areas such as marketing and professional development, including work with the interns, while also setting a tone for community involvement. He does this through his own work within his hometown of Westfield — he’s been involved with everything from Little League (as coach and treasurer) to the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce; from the YMCA of Greater Westfield, where his daughter, Hayley, will be working this summer, to the Westfield State Foundation, which he now chairs — but also through support of firm-wide initiatives to back causes and agencies ranging from A Bed for Every Child to Habitat for Humanity to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

“Jim’s philosophy highlights that, while an individual’s contributions are great, developing a strategic plan for firm-wide involvement compounds those efforts, creating a multiplier effect,” wrote Howard Cheney, another of the partners at MBK, who nominated him for the Alumni Achievement Award.

“Beyond individual contributions, Jim has played a pivotal role in his firm’s community involvement, leading monthly initiatives that encourage team members to engage with local organizations,” Cheney added. “Through sponsorships, Jim and his firm have supported more than 75 local organizations per year, with personal donations to many of them, highlighting his dedication to making a lasting impact in his community.”

“Jim’s philosophy highlights that, while an individual’s contributions are great, developing a strategic plan for firm-wide involvement compounds those efforts, creating a multiplier effect.”

Meanwhile, Krupienski has also grown as a respected leader and the mentor at the firm, one whose best talent might be the ability to listen.

Fast Facts

Age: 47

40 Under Forty Class: 2010

Title Then: CPA Manager, Health Care and
Pension Audit Divisions,
Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

Title Now: Partner,
Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

Walk-up Song: “Dream On” by Aerosmith

Years an AAA Finalist: 2

“Jim leads from intention, rather than from ego,” wrote Sarah Rose Stack, a marketing consultant for MBK and formerly its director of Marketing and Recruitment, who wrote a letter to the AAA judges supporting Krupienski’s nomination. “He makes the final call, but only after thoughtfully considering professional input.
I never felt small or unimportant working for him. Not every idea I brought forward was the right one, but I always felt safe presenting it. We arrived at the best solutions together.

“At the end of the day, what defines a leader is whether people feel seen, respected, and empowered in their presence,” Stack went on. “Jim makes people feel important. He makes them feel capable. He makes them feel safe to stretch and grow.”

When asked what he likes most about what he does, Krupienski paused a moment before listing client work and how he can help individual business owners with their issues, challenges, and growth opportunities, but also professional development and helping others get to … well, where he is right now.

“I’d love to retire at some point — I don’t want to be doing this when Im 75,” he said. “And the only way that’s going to happen is if we have a great team behind us. To see people grow and develop and how I can help with that in different ways, that’s very rewarding.”

As for Jimmy, he’ll be wrapping up his internship soon and then starting another one at the Hartford-based accounting firm CohnReznik.

“I wanted him to spread his wings a little bit … they’re a competitor, but not really a competitor,” said Krupienski, adding that the experience with the larger firm will provide another layer of experience and perhaps guide the direction his career takes.

That step is another example of the way Krupienski balances work, family, and community, taking leadership roles in each case. And it’s yet another example of why he is again a finalist for the Alumni Achievement Award. 

—George O’Brien

Adam Quenneville

By
Alumni Achievement Award

President, Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding

“Under Our Roof.”

That’s the name Adam Quenneville, president of Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding, has affixed to a podcast he started a few months ago.

It features conversations with business leaders who are heavily involved in the community, said Quenneville, adding that he recently had Nate Costa, president of the Springfield Thunderbirds, on the show, and he was really looking forward to his next guest, Gary Rome, president and CEO of the Gary Rome Auto Group.

Adam Quenneville when he was named to the 40 Under Forty class of 2009

“He’s kind of my hero when it comes to involvement in the community, and I’ve told him that personally,” said Quenneville, noting that Rome, one of BusinessWest’s Difference Makers in 2022, has become a role model of sorts for him on the subject of giving back and getting involved. “That guy is a superstar.”

Without doubt. But Quenneville has become a hero to some, a role model to many others, and a superstar in his own right for the way he has created a culture of giving back at the roofing company he launched 31 years ago.

That’s especially true when it comes to the roofs the company donates to area nonprofits and others — an average of three to five a year now. The company has gifted roofs to Revitalize CDC, Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen, the YMCA of Greater Springfield for some of its properties, and, more recently, a 10,000-square-foot roof for the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield.

That was a project that hit home, said Quenneville, noting that the agency provides lodging and meal expenses for the parents of children enduring difficult healthcare journeys. Quenneville’s two children had extended stays in Baystate’s Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which is why he’s such a strong supporter of that institution.

And he supports many others as well, as we’ll see, but first … back to those roofs.

Beyond nonprofits, the company, through its AQ Cares division, is now donating free roofs on an annual basis to a veteran, a first responder, and a teacher, with the public choosing winners among received nominations.

“He has made giving back a meaningful part of his company’s identity through charitable initiatives, sponsorships, and direct support of local causes.”

Overall, and like previous finalists for the Alumni Achievement Award, Quenneville is being recognized for building on an impressive résumé of both accomplishments in business and work within the community.

With the former, he has steadily grown his business, from a few crews to 10 on average, while also broadening the list of services to include siding, windows, gutters, roof repair, roof cleaning, and more. Annual revenues have grown from $4 million when he joined the 40 Under Forty club to nearly $20 million today.

In 2025, the company was named one of three national finalists for Roofing Contractor magazine’s Residential Roofing Contractor of the Year, eventually losing out to a company exponentially larger. 

His company has evolved with the times, said Quenneville, noting that, in addition to the podcast, he uses a YouTube channel to educate consumers who are more into research than past generations, with videos on a wide range of subjects, such as whether to repair or replace a roof. In many cases, it can be the former, he noted, adding that he often advocates for repair to keep roofing materials from filling up landfills.

“We’re releasing three long videos and two short videos per week along with blogs that match that content,” he said, adding that he works out of a studio in his office and creates the videos of another way of giving back.

Fast Facts

Age: 54

40 Under Forty Class: 2009

Title Then: President,
Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding

Title Now: President,
Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding

Walk-up Song: “Eye of the Tiger”
by Survivor

Years an AAA Finalist: 1

As noted earlier, beyond the donated roofs, Quenneville and his company have become involved with a wide array of area nonprofits, causes, and institutions, not only the YMCA of Greater Springfield and Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen, but also the Thunderbirds, UMass sports, and the Miracle League of Western Massachusetts.

As he talked with BusinessWest, he was lamenting recent headlines concerning budget cuts and the possible elimination of sports at South Hadley High School (he’s an alum), and how he intends to get involved and help the school continue those programs.

“I offered to put $1,000 up and then $100 for every roof we do between now and then,” he said, adding that the school will need hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep its sports, and efforts to help are in their early stages.

His planned involvement there is just example of how he has taken a leadership role when it comes to community involvement — and several giant steps toward emulating his role model, Rome.

“He has made giving back a meaningful part of his company’s identity through charitable initiatives, sponsorships, and direct support of local causes,” wrote Morgan Bennett, marketing director of Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding. “His leadership has helped strengthen partnerships with youth organizations, nonprofits, and community events throughout the region.

“Adam’s example shows that true leadership is not only measured by growth and achievement,” she continued, “but also by how consistently someone shows up to support the people and communities around them.”

That’s what Quenneville celebrates with his new podcast, and it’s also the tone he sets at the company he started and has led to continued growth and impact within the community.

And that’s why he’s a finalist for another prestigious honor, the Alumni Achievement Award.

—George O’Brien

Region Real Estate Brings Together Father and Son Mitch and Ben Bolotin

By
Commercial Real Estate

It’s Now a Family Business

Ben Bolotin was working in Boston, handling office leases and coping with the many forms of turmoil that came with the pandemic, when his father, Mitch, called and said he was busy, in a mostly good way, and could use some help.

So Ben headed west — “back home,” as he put it — to provide that help to Mitch, then a principal with Colebrook Realty Services in Springfield. The two worked together at Colebrook for a few years before Ben decided to start his own firm, which he would call Region.

Mitch stayed at Colebrook, where he had been a fixture for more than 30 years, but came to miss the way he and Ben worked together, so he eventually decided to leave and join him at Region.

That’s the condensed version of the story of how the two are building this emerging company together, assembling a diverse portfolio that includes a wide array of industrial, retail, and office properties; former churches; and, most recently, the Hampshire College campus, which recently went on the market in one of the region’s most closely watched stories.

The client list is intriguing and includes the owners of Tandem Bagel, who continue to add locations across the region, including the most recent addition in South Hadley, as well as ServiceNet, PeoplesBank, and myriad others.

“I had such a positive impression of my dad’s work. He was selling and leasing commercial real estate, but I also enjoyed the people he worked with, the people who were making things happen for Western Massachusetts.”

Region is an intriguing business story, one that has a number of starting points, if you will, beginning with a young Ben growing up watching his father, learning, gaining an appreciation for the business, and eventually deciding he wanted to join it.

“I had such a positive impression of my dad’s work,” he recalled, adding that he attended many meetings and many showings with his father. “He was selling and leasing commercial real estate, but I also enjoyed the people he worked with, the people who were making things happen for Western Massachusetts. He was great about introducing me to that world and introducing me to his clients, and I grew up respecting a lot of his clients.”

These include Jeb Balise, president of the Balise Auto Group — Mitch has worked with him for more than 25 years and has handled the sale of property he owned in Chicopee, among other projects — as well as Tom Dennis and Bill Stotler, developers who own several properties across the region.

These business leaders helped instill in Ben both an interest in real estate and an entrepreneurial spirit, and both come together in Region, which didn’t start out as a family business, but it is now, with the two generations, boasting 50 years of combined experience, working together and making each other better at what they do, as we’ll see.

And experience is just one of the key ingredients the two are bringing to the table with this venture. Others include expertise with certain types of properties, such as churches, which are coming onto the market in growing numbers, and technology.

“In this day and age, what commercial property owners and commercial tenants are expecting is really timely, high-quality service, paired up with a lot of experience and a very digitally native approach,” Ben explained, adding that this is what the Bolotins and a growing team are committed to delivering.

For this issue and its focus on commercial estate, we take an in-depth look at Region and how this father-and-son team developed a fondness for working together — and didn’t want to work apart.

Developing Story

Both Ben and Mitch stressed that operating a business together, as they are now, was never really the plan.

“The plan was no plan,” joked Ben, who noted that he was always interested in real estate and actually interned one semester at Colebrook while he was in college. And early on after graduating, he explored different paths within the industry, including work for a firm based in Boston that handled properties across the country.

“I was assisting in managing malls in California, retail properties in Georgia, downtown office buildings in the Loop in Chicago, and I was helping negotiate leases from an office tower in Boston,” he said. “I decided I was not close enough to the action.”

So, after a few other career stops, including one with a startup — a nod to his interest in business and entrepreneurship — he got much closer to the action, albeit at a challenging time and in a challenged place.

“I was doing downtown office leasing in the financial district of Boston in 2020, and very quickly it became businesses talking about ‘how much space can we give back?’” he recalled. “There was a long year of that.”

Things were a little different in Western Mass., he recalled, adding that this market doesn’t see the huge swings that larger metropolitan areas do.

“Western Mass. has a way of humming along and doing its thing,” he told BusinessWest. “Whether it’s people having access to their cars and not relying on public transit … there were certain aspects of the Western Mass. economy that I found to be very resilient, and my father was very busy and needed another set of hands.

“COVID actually brought us back together in a great way and allowed me to come home,” he went on, noting that the two worked together for a few years at Colebrook.

“What we found is that Ben and I worked really, really well together,” Mitch added. “We rounded each other off in a way that made me better at my job, and I loved working with him; we were on that path together.” 

“I was assisting in managing malls in California, retail properties in Georgia, downtown office buildings in the Loop in Chicago, and I was helping negotiate leases from an office tower in Boston. I decided I was not close enough to the action.”

In late 2023, Ben launched what would be considered his own startup, Region. “I was really interested in investing in a business, and it became clear that, for me, it was the right thing to do,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Mitch was staying put at Colebrook — for a while, anyway.

“That was the plan — Ben was going to leave, and I was going to stay,” Mitch said. “But I missed working with him — we did a lot of good things together. I wanted to continue working with him.”

Mitch eventually transitioned to Region in mid-2024, and he and Ben have been building the company together since then, investing in technology and adding new team members, while also building the book of business in many ways.

Overall, while they say the 413 faces the same challenges as other parts of the country, the two are optimistic about this region and its prospects moving forward.

“People are having to be a lot more thoughtful about how they’re spending their money and how they’re choosing to invest,” Ben said. “But I think there’s a lot of drive and will to continue to invest in Western Massachusetts.”

Space Exploration

As noted earlier, Region has a diverse portfolio of clients and properties. The firm handles leasing for two Colebrook-managed properties — 1441 Main St. in downtown Springfield (co-owned by Jeb Balise) and the PeoplesBank building in Holyoke — and also does work for PeoplesBank, including the securing of office space in downtown Hartford and branches in Hartford and Avon, Conn., and the sale of a closed branch on Sumner Avenue in Springfield to Arrha Credit Union.

The company also handles 11 Interstate Dr. in West Springfield, where its own offices are located. Region has succeeded in retenanting the large office building, which was vacant only a few years ago, but is now more than 60% occupied, with a diverse array of tenants.

Region is now also handling some work for ServiceNet, the mental health and human services provider with facilities across the region.

“We’ve been working with them to source a number of different needs of theirs up and down I-91,” Mitch said, adding that the Region portfolio now includes a wide array of clients, some with ongoing needs and others with “one-off real estate deals,” as he described them.

And the portfolio of properties runs the gamut, from industrial properties in Springfield and Leicester to medical office space in West Springfield; from retail space in Belchertown, West Springfield, and Longmeadow to a former church in Littleton, as well as several parcels of land. Actually, the firm has developed a niche with former churches and has handled the sale of several of them.

“There are not of folks who have a lot of experience working with congregations, so we’ve gotten referred to many groups,” Ben said. “A lot of congregations are struggling post-COVID, and many of them are looking for guidance. It’s a very specific part of the marketplace, and there’s not a lot of folks that are finding ways to help those groups.

“They approach us oftentimes, asking for insight and advice on how to dispossess a property when they no longer have a congregation to support it,” he went on, adding that the company has sold churches in Acton, Lowell, and other communities well outside the region, evidence of how the company’s reputation in this realm is growing.

The Hampshire College sale represents another important opportunity for the company. Region, which has been doing some work for the college for a few years, is putting together an offering memorandum for the property, Mitch said, noting that the assignment represents an important assignment for Hampshire College and the town of Amherst.

“There hasn’t been a college sold in the Pioneer Valley,” he acknowledged. “That said, we have worked on larger and equally complex, multi-dimensional commercial and specialty properties. We combine deep local market knowledge with national reach, and we’re well-equipped to manage a transaction of this scope.

“We’ve also worked on behalf of Hampshire College for several years, so we know the property and the institution well,” Mitch went on. “We’re from here and have a strong vested interest in a successful outcome for Hampshire College and the community.”

“What we found is that Ben and I worked really, really well together. We rounded each other off in a way that made me better at my job, and I loved working with him; we were on that path together.”

Getting back to the business and the dynamic the two have created at Region, the two stressed, again, that there were never plans to work together — until they decided to do just that.

And Mitch believes Ben’s experiences with businesses of different sizes and in different markets helped create a positive family business environment, when tension generally rules in so many other cases of generations working together in the same space.

“Ben came to the party with his own work experiences and his own capabilities,” Mitch said, adding that he brought different perspectives to the company.

Ben agreed. “From those years working in Boston, I had a lot to bring to the Colebrook team right away and how we worked together,” he recalled. “There’re so many other experiences about how offices work and how Boston teams function. Immediately, I was able to add value from a different perspective.”

Added Mitch, “I tell people this: I think I’ve done a good job over the years, but Ben has made me a better broker with the things that we’ve have brought to the team in terms of client satisfaction, a technology base, systems, an efficiency base — from his business experience, he learned a lot of different things that have funneled and shaped our region in many ways.”

Bottom Line

As for returning to this market from Boston — something that rarely happens, and that area economic development leaders would certainly like to see more of — Ben said that, contrary to what might be popular opinion, there are opportunities for young people in the 413.

“A lot of my friends and young people have gotten sucked into the major cities,” he told BusinessWest. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity here for people my age because business owners are aging out.”

Amherst’s Mill District Continues to Evolve

By
Cover Story Special Coverage

Creating Community

Cinda Jones, architect of the Mill District

Amy McDonough was working in the renewable energy business when, in her words, she “picked up pinball again” after putting it down following graduate school at the University of Vermont.

“I couldn’t get pinball off my brain, and I started picking up pinball machines here and there,” she told BusinessWest, adding that she would eventually amass a collection of nearly 70 machines. “And then, I was thinking about pinball much more than I was renewable energy.”

This thinking soon became serious in nature, and it led to an entrepreneurial venture called the Tilted Orbit Arcade, with that name borrowing two terms from the pinball world — orbit, which refers to the path for the ball along the outer rim of the game, and tilt, of course is when the machine is tilted or shaken beyond an acceptable level and the game ends.

Amy McDonough with one of the more than 70 pinball machines she’s collected.

Due to open in the fall, the arcade will feature many machines from McDonough’s collection, as well as a golf simulator, a few vintage ’80s video games, a kitchen, and bar. It is being designed to attract many different constituencies, including families, area college students, teens, and the Boomers who discovered pinball in the ’60s and ‘70s, and then put it down.

And it is part of the ongoing evolution of the Mill District in North Amherst, a mixed-use facility that features housing, retail, art, and hospitality — a canvas that Cinda Jones, its architect owner, has been filling in over the past 15 years or so.

“We’ll still occasionally hear that people don’t know that the Mill District is here and how shocked they are when they find it.”

Indeed, Tilted Orbit will occupy what’s known as the Cow Barn, which was once home to Provisions, the wine and cheese emporium, which was moved to another building on the property (more on that later), and before that, Atkins, said Jones, adding that other additions and improvements include everything from a new pavilion taking shape on the site of another former barn, a new Herrell’s ice cream parlor (the company has been operating a small, pop-up facility the past few years); from recent additions such as Three Amigos, a restaurant that fuses the flavors of Chile, Mexico, and Puerto Rico and Carefree Cakery, and even some demolition  — of another former barn and a seven-car garage — that will improve visibility and allow travelers on Route 63 to see all that the site has to offer.

“We’ll still occasionally hear that people don’t know that the Mill District is here and how shocked they are when they find it,” said Jones, adding that the broad goal, as it has been from the beginning, has been to create what she called a ‘downtown’ in North Amherst, a mix of shops and amenities that deliver food, fashion, and fun — a true destination, attracting people from across Amherst and nearby Franklin County, but also a much wider circle.

Elaborating, she said current work involves creation of public open space, a ‘town common,’ leading from the highway to the shops. It will include the pavilion, which doesn’t have a formal name yet, although Jones calls it the ‘Manta Ray,’ because the architect has given it something approximating that shape.

It will include a catering kitchen and host a wide array of events, she said, adding that a tent has been erected on the site to hold gatherings such as a recent wine tasting staged by Provisions, with construction of the pavilion set to begin this spring, and due to be completed in time to host events this fall.

Judy Herrell stands in the almost-finished new location for Herrell’s in the Mill District.

The Tilted Orbit Arcade is one of many new developments at the Mill District, which has been in a seemingly constant state of change since it opened, and

Meanwhile, the location of the Mill District, and the diverse mix of tenants, eventually drew the attention of Judy Herrell, president of Herrell’s, who said the iconic, Northampton-based brand has been searching for a site for a second location, and zeroed in on North Amherst village.

“What we found out is that people didn’t want to venture over the bridge,” she said, referring to the Calvin Coolidge Bridge, which many in the Amherst/Hadley area simply don’t want to cross, even after significant infrastructure changes made it easier to do so. The new location, due to open in several weeks, will make Herrell’s more accessible, she said.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with Jones and many doing business in the Mill District, or soon to do so, about this evolving concept and the diverse mix of ventures that are drawing visitors from across town and well beyond.

 

Flipping the Script

McDonough joked that her affection for pinball, developed while she was working toward her master’s degree at the UVM, probably put off her thesis by a year.

“I did a lot of procrastinating playing pinball,” she said, noting that one game in particular, The Addams Family, became especially addictive.

Just some of the local art to be found at the General Store.

It was among the first machines she acquired when she started building her collection, and it will be one of those on the floor at Tilted Orbit Arcade when it opens its doors, she said, adding that, before settling on the Mill District as home for her venture, she considered several other sites, including the Canal Lanes bowling alley in Southampton when it briefly came on the market.

The Mill District site offers what she was looking for, she said, meaning visibility and an opportunity to attract a diverse customer base, and also take advantage of a resurgence for pinball.

“It’s making a comeback; it started during COVID,” she noted. “Right now, pinball is serving mostly the male population, ages 40 to 65, but women are up and coming, and there’s a whole tournament world out there as well as leagues.”

McDonough said she’s looking to attract a wide audience that crosses all age groups, “families, seniors, teen-agers, college students, and adults.” And not just for pinball, but also the golf simulator, some arcade games, and other attractions she will offer, although the overriding goal is to inspire all those groups is to get them introduced to pinball and make them regulars.

“You can’t count on the weather in New England, and this will make it much easier to plan things.”

The Tilted Orbit Arcade is one of many new developments at the Mill District, which has been in a seemingly constant state of change since it opened, and the Cow Barn is where Jones began a detailed tour of the property.

Other stops included the town common area and spot for the new pavilion, which will provide larger, better space for the many types of events held there, and, especially, a roof, which will cut down on the rainouts and other weather problems that occurred with frequency last year or moving events to cramped indoor quarters.

“You can’t count on the weather in New England, and this will make it much easier to plan things,” said Jones, noting that the facility is being designed and built by Hardwick Post and Beam, and she is excited by the possibilities it presents.

“It will be a wonderful place where high school groups could perform, or you could have birthday parties,” she said, adding that performances could include seating in the pavilion and the lawn space outside, much like Tanglewood in Lenox.

And the pavilion is one of many steps being taken to attract more visitors and make the Mill District more of a destination.

“There are roughly 25,000 vehicle trips a day, including buses, that go within a block of the Mill District.”

Jones described the location as the ‘gateway to Franklin County,’ and on the route that many employees and students take to get from homes in communities like Greenfield, Montague, Conway, and Sunderland to jobs at UMass Amherst, nearby Northampton or points to the south. From the beginning, the goal has been to create a community, a village where people can shop, eat, see and buy art, and take in the many cultural events staged by tenants.

“There are roughly 25,000 vehicle trips a day, including buses, that go within a block of the Mill District,” she noted, adding that the goal is provide reasons to pull over and explore, while also creating a tenant mix and calendar of events that would prompt planned visits from across the region.

“My goal is to make this a place where community members, full-time, long-term community members, enjoy connecting with friends and enjoy the spaces and shops we’ve brought together,” she said.

The mix of tenants has changed over the years, said Jones, adding that she has always been looking to improve that mix and provide more to see and do. Most of the space is occupied, or soon to be occupied, she noted, adding that there is roughly 4,500 square feet — with high ceilings — available in the building currently home to Provisions.

“We’re listening to people, hearing what they like, and responding to what they’re saying,” she said, adding that this strategy applies to tenants and visitors alike.

Meanwhile, there are concerted efforts to make the Mill District more visible, literally and figuratively, said Jones, adding these include the creation of the common that will improve sight lines to the shops as well as new signage currently winding its way through the permitting process. 

 

Food for Thought

As they talked with BusinessWest, Jose Diaz and Matias Martinez, owners of Three Amigos, the next stop on the tour, were gearing up for Cinco de Mayo.

They were putting together a special menu for the occasion and were expecting a strong turnout for what has become a day of celebration for many in the region.

But most days have produced good crowds at this unique eatery, which, as noted earlier, blends dishes from Puerto Rico, Chile, and Mexico, with many offerings inspired by meals prepared by the owners’ mothers.

Matias Martinez, left, and Jose Diaz, co-owners of Three Amigos, share a moment with Cinda Jones and Shauna Wallace, project manager of Mill District General Store and Local Art Gallery.

“My mom has some really good recipes, and Jose’s mom has really good recipes from Puerto Rico; we take both and we put together a good menu,” said Martinez, a native of Chile, adding that Diaz also brings knowledge of Mexican cuisine to the table — literally and figuratively.

This knowledge and deep menus will have even more local flavor, said Diaz, adding that the partners are now committed to buying more locally produced vegetables, meats, eggs and more, and are further committed to bringing different kinds of experiences to the venue, such as karaoke nights.

“My mom has some really good recipes, and Jose’s mom has really good recipes from Puerto Rico; we take both and we put together a good menu.”

And, like other business owners in the Mill District, the two partners (there was a third, hence the name, but he is no longer involved) said the location brings a diverse mix of patrons across all age groups.

As Jones’ tour of the Mill District left Three Amigos, it made a quick stop in the vacant space adjacent to Provisions and below housing units. As noted earlier, it has high ceilings and what she considers enormous potential as home to a small grocery store, an indoor play space for kids, or similar that will be compatible with and complementary to everything else that exists on the property.

From there, the tour would continue to several existing and emerging businesses, such as Provisions, Futura Coffee Roasters, Carefree Cakery, Everbloom Salon, the Balanced Birch Studio, the Mill District General Store and the art gallery inside its walls, and the Herrell’s now taking shape.

Not on the tour, but technically part of the Mill District are businesses in a mall on Route 63, including Amherst House of Pizza, Big Guys Liquors, Mindy’s Barber Shop, and the Harp Irish Pub.

Collectively, these businesses provide ample reasons to get off the highway, whether one is heading home from work or planning a day trip, said Jones, adding that the Mill District comes as advertised, with that mix of food, fashion, and fun, including several play areas for children and families.

Herrell’s will make an intriguing addition to the mix, she said, adding that the pop-up facility has attracted solid numbers of visitors, and the larger, permanent space is expected to bring more.

Herrell told BusinessWest that the new location needs to be open by summer, for obvious reasons, and it is on track to do so.

She said the location in the Mill District brings the brand closer to other markets, such as Franklin County, and also closer to UMass Amherst, where she teaches a course — a lab on how to make ice cream “from a chemistry point of view” — and partners with the university on an ice cream competition, which is the final exam, if you will, for the that class, with Herrell’s featuring the winner’s flavors in its stores.

“We try to make all of them if we can, but we definitely make the four top finishers,” she said. “We’ve had some incredibly great, creative ideas from that group, and their lab is one mile from here.”

Beyond that partnership, Herrell’s is looking to tap into a broad base of loyal customers that know the Northampton store and now have something that for many will be more convenient.

And then, there’s the Tilted Orbit Arcade, which will present a novel new use for the Cow Barn, and an interesting addition to the mix.

For McDonough, it’s her first real entrepreneurial venture, which means there’s a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Overall, she’s optimistic that she can make something a little different work out in a big way. And in many respects, that’s been the goal at the Mill District from the very beginning. 

Southwick Thrives as a Recreational Community

By
Community Spotlight Features Special Coverage

They called it the Woods O’Cross.

That’s the name that was affixed to a recent event at Motocross 338 in Southwick, a.k.a. ‘the Wick.’ And as that name suggests, it’s a race that takes participants onto the vaunted track behind American Legion Post 338 on Powdermill Road, and also into the woods nearby.

“It was really well received; we were amazed at how many people came out for it; the feedback was phenomenal, so we’re going to another one this month and another at the end of the year,” said Rick Johnson, who, with his son, Keith, is now coordinating events at the Wick, which has, for most of the past 50 years, been a destination as well as a driving force, literally and figuratively, in the local economy.

The Ranch Golf Club has become a draw for players across the state and beyond.

The venue now hosts more than 40 events each year, capped by the Nationals, the three-day event that has become a tradition in Southwick, with dates that are circled by many business owners in town because the population of people in town swells from roughly 9,000 people to more than 30,000.

The nationals will be in July this year, said Johnson adding that, because Southwick doesn’t have any hotels, attendees must stay in surrounding communities. But many other types of businesses in town see and feel the surge, he said.

“You need to have a passion for it. If you handle it properly, you’ll pay the bills and make a few bucks. But you’re never going to retire in the Bahamas and drive a Lamborghini.”

The Wick is one of many recreation and hospitality-related businesses that give Southwick its unique flavor. People come here to eat — there are many restaurants and institutions such as Mrs. Murphy’s Donuts in town — and to play.

They do so at the Congamond Lakes (North, Middle, and South) which offer boating, fishing, swimming, and lakeside dining, and also at several parks, the Wick, and two golf courses (there used to be three), including The Ranch Golf Club.

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Ranch, on Sunnyside Road, is a higher-end course that was designed to be a destination layout that would draw players from across the state and beyond, and a sought-after venue for weddings and other events.

And it has become just that, said Nick Tamburini, the Ranch’s general manager and former golf professional. He told BusinessWest that the club has enjoyed a solid run on both sides of the ledger, with golf continuing to ride a COVID-induced wave of new interest and renewed interest, and events bouncing back from the turmoil prompted by COVID.

On the golf side, the course, among the best and most challenging in this part of New England, continues to draw players from well beyond Western Mass., while maintaining a steady local membership.

“We have a ton of non-local play,” said Tamburini. “Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we’ll get players who say, ‘I drove an hour and a half,’ or ‘I drove two hours;’ ‘I’m coming from the Cape,’ ‘I’m coming from New London.’ Obviously, we get a lot of play from Hartford and from Worcester. Once the member play ends, there’s not a lot of play on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from people in Southwick or Westfield; it’s people coming from all over.”

“You have to try things like this; you have to freshen things up and give people new things to do.”

Some of these players will make the Ranch part of a Western Mass. golf trip, with Crumpin Fox in Bernardson and Taconic in Williamstown among the other stops, he went on. But many are coming just to play the Ranch, which has received good reviews over the years, and continues to draw both first timers to the venue and repeat customers.

On the events side, the venue continues to draw a solid mix of gatherings, and its barn has become increasingly popular with couples planning weddings, as we’ll see.

For this, the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, we take an in-depth look at Southwick and the some of the institutions that help create its recreational quality.

 

On the Right Track

When asked about the business of motocross, Johnson paused for a minute, searching for the right words.
“I’ve been in business all my life — I’ve been in the footwear business and was president of New Balance for Kids,” he explained as he set the tone. “Motocross is not kind of business that you get into thinking it’s going to lucrative to the point where you’re dancing naked in the streets.

“You need to have a passion for it,” he went on. “If you handle it properly, you’ll pay the bills and make a few bucks. But you’re never going to retire in the Bahamas and drive a Lamborghini.” 

Passion is something the Johnsons brought with them as they helped resurrect motocross in Southwick after a few years of decline more than a decade ago.

But they brought some other traits as well, including imagination and a willingness to try new things to keep the product fresh and bring more people to the track — meaning competitors and spectators alike.

Which brings us back to the Woods O’Cross.

“It brings in not just the motocrosser, but the trail rider as well — you get a good mix of people, and they had a great time,” Johnson explained, adding that this was the first new event that organizers have run, and it drew close to 600 participants. And it was followed up a few weeks later by another new offering — a Massachusetts state championship.

“We’ve been racing since the ’70s, and we never realized that Massachusetts never had a motocross state champion,” he said, adding that the Wick rectified this with an event that drew good crowds and hundreds of competitors to the track.

“You have to try things like this; you have to freshen things up and give people new things to do,” he explained, adding that the Wick has a full slate of events on tap for the year.

The Johnsons brought another trait to this venture — a willingness to re-invest in the facilities and continually upgrade the facility, known hills and overall stern challenge.

Indeed, over the years, they’re added a new scoring tower, a new starting line, new irrigation lines to water the track and make it safer for riders, and more.

“We’re the only national track in the Northeast, and we have a reputation, and we have a commitment to maintain the highest level that we can,” he explained. “When you are national caliber and you’re on NBC television (for the nationals), you can’t slack off, you have to make sure you do it the best you can.”

 

Round Numbers

“Barns are in … people want old, rustic, charm.”

With that, Tamburini started to explain why the Ranch has been doing well on the events side of the operation’s ledger, specifically weddings.

Indeed, couples are looking for different kinds of venues these days, and barns have become a popular choice. The Ranch has two of them — extensively renovated — that date back to the late 1800s; one houses the pro shop and restaurant/pub, and the other is used for functions.

“We’ve had the same number of rounds every year since COVID, which is good. COVID created a boom, and we were worried that we couldn’t maintain those numbers, but we have; it’s been really good.”

This trend, coupled with a resurgence in gatherings following COVID has helped the Ranch put more events on the calendar, he noted.

“We’re not the busiest venue in Western Mass., but we do between 40 and 50 weddings a year, on average, and probably the same number of other events, like retirement parties, baby showers, and bridal showers.” 

Tamburini said the Ranch benefits from strong, hands-on ownership — Pete and Korby Clark and a partner living in the Boston area — and a team that has remained intact for the past several years, a rarity in this business.

“We’ve had the same superintendent, the same event coordinator, the same front-of-house manager, the same chef,” he said, adding that this continuity helps the operation provide consistent, high-quality services, from the course to the event facilities. “At a golf course, that’s extremely rare; I’ve been around a little bit, and I know that’s hard to keep the same people for an extended period of time in our industry.”

As for the course itself, while it’s pricey — $125 for 18 holes and a cart, peak season, among the highest fares in this part of the state — it continues to be a strong draw, and because it’s semi-private (although Tamburini doesn’t like that phrase) it’s more playable that private venues such as GreatHorse and Longmeadow.

“We’re a public golf course,” he said, adding that players can book tee times all seven days of the week, although there are often tournaments on Mondays and early Saturday morning is reserved for members.

Overall, golf enjoyed a surge from COVID because so many other activities were put on ice, and the Ranch, like many venues, has been able to maintain the momentum generated by that unique moment in time.

“We’ve had the same number of rounds every year since COVID, which is good,” he noted. “COVID created a boom, and we were worried that we couldn’t maintain those numbers, but we have; it’s been really good.”

And many businesses in this recreational community can say the same thing. 

Maddy Gray

By
Healthcare News

Despite a Cancer Diagnosis, She Refused to Let the Dream Die

Maddy Gray

Maddy Gray

Maddy Gray decided to attend the nurse-pinning ceremony at Holyoke Community College a year ago. She described it as an attempt at finding some type of closure.

She should have been up on the stage getting her pin, but instead, she was in the audience looking up at her classmates and coping with a sea of emotions resulting from a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatment that left her firm of the opinion that her decade-long dream of becoming a nurse had come to a bitter end one semester short of the finish line.

“At that point, I was so sure, so positive that this job wasn’t for me anymore,” said Gray, who told BusinessWest that it was a big hug from Johanna Kassidi, one of her professors, that night and her simple comment, ‘I hope that you’re coming back in the spring — we need more nurses like you in this field,’ that made her think that maybe, just maybe, the dream wasn’t dead after all.

Fast-forwarding through six months of chemotherapy, an eventual diagnosis that she was in remission, and that last semester at school, Gray will be back for another nurse-pinning ceremony in a few weeks, and this time she will be on stage, dealing with a completely different set of emotions that could not have been imagined a year ago.

When her name is called, it will mark the climactic end to a truly remarkable story of perseverance that began almost a decade before it was confirmed that she had cancer and, actually, long before that, when this foster child who was abandoned by her mother while her father was serving a life’s sentence, fought an ongoing battle with thoughts that she couldn’t achieve the goals that most others take for granted.

Gray spent many years not really knowing what to do with her life. Fighting through the stigma of foster childhood, she obtained her GED and began her college journey in 2012, not really knowing which direction it would take. She thought about early childhood education and other realms where she could work with children. But things changed when a friend talked enthusiastically about her nursing degree and the work she would be doing.

So, she decided to pursue a Nursing degree herself. But there would be life challenges to confront, including young children and the availability of childcare, forcing her to attend at night, a course or two at a time.

She was making her way toward her degree, when she was confronted with a challenge that was formidable as it was unforeseen.

Indeed, Gray told BusinessWest that she was driving to class when she felt a strange lump on her neck. It would take months before it was officially determined that she had a large mass in the center of her chest and it was cancer, specifically Hodgkins Lymphoma. She remembers telling a close friend that she would have to drop out of nursing school to battle the disease.

And it was early in the treatment stage that she ventured to the nurse-pinning ceremony, a time when she was not at all sure she would survive the cancer, let alone return to school and complete her degree program.

“I was so close … I was one semester away from graduating, I was crossing that finish line,” she recalled. “And I got hit with that. I was pretty depressed for a long time, and I was convinced that I was never going to be a nurse; I had worked toward something since 2016 that was my dream, and now it was ripped out of my hands and gone forever.”

Until it wasn’t, thanks to those words of encouragement from Kassidi and Gray’s own determination to move forward with her last semester of work, even as she was still waiting to find out conclusively if she was in remission.

As the 2026 nurse-pinning ceremony approaches, Gray has been doing some reflecting, while also getting on with the next stages of her journey.

Indeed, as she braces for the National Council Licensure Exam (NCLEX), she has been offered a job on the mental health unit at Baystate Franklin Hospital in Greenfield and is expected to start in August, if not sooner.

As for that pinning ceremony itself, she knows it will be an emotional time, one a world apart from what she was experiencing a year ago.

“I’ll be standing in the front getting pinned, looking out toward where was I was standing a year ago, feeling hopeless, that my dreams were unfairly ripped away from me,” she said. “This year, I’m going to be standing there, thinking about all the things I’ve endured in my life. Being able to get back up and do it … I’m grateful for that, so it will be a very emotional moment.”

Putting her long journey into perspective, she said there are lessons for others — about not giving up and not letting go of dreams, even when the obstacles seem insurmountable, but also about listening to those who provide encouragement and taking full advantage of the many resources available to those who want to pursue their own goals.

Her message to all is summed up in a scholarship essay she wrote and read at a ceremony for scholarship recipients in 2024, well before her cancer diagnosis. Here’s a passage:

“Thinking back to all I’ve survived, the common denominator is clear, it’s resilience. Life has thrown many curveballs my way and I’ve had to fight like hell to get back up each time. Some hit way harder than others, which made getting back up increasingly more difficult, but the alternative seemed worse. Staying down meant giving up on myself, and for a time, I did give up. … Thankfully, I woke up and decided that enough was enough. I had finally come to the realization that the only thing holding me back was myself.”

She stopped holding herself back long ago, and in the years to come she determined that nothing else would her hold her back. Not even cancer.

Dick Easton

By
Healthcare News

This Nurse Proves That Age Really Is Just a Number

Dick Easton

Dick Easton

Dick Easton attended nursing school at UMass Amherst with students roughly one-third his age.

He started work as a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton when he was 62, the age when many in this profession are retired or thinking seriously about it. He was nearly 70 when COVID hit, and while that ultra-challenging time prompted many in the field to head for the exits, it only deepened his passion for this second career.

“It brought even more meaning to my life — it just motivated me to stay at it,” he told BusinessWest. “It was a very trying time, but when you met the challenges, it was incredibly satisfying. There was a lot of heartache because of deaths in the hospital, but it had incredible meaning to me every single day, and never once did I say ‘God, I can’t take it, I’m going to quit.’”

Easton’s story is certainly an inspiring one, a saga that drives home the point that age really is just a number, and not a limitation or a boundary to anything that one might want to do.

It’s a story — well, this chapter, at least — that begins in late 1997, when Easton’s older son was severely injured in a skiing accident. It turns out that this would be the first of three incidents — Dick’s own heart attack a few months later and his younger son’s back injury while at work a few months after that being the other two — that enabled him to see all that nurses and other healthcare professionals did for patients and family members. And it compelled him to start thinking seriously about a later-in-life career change.

“I credit the nurses that took care of myself and my family with instilling in me the desire to help people through health crises; I started thinking, and I started assessing where I was in my life,” said Easton, who was in his late 40s when these health incidents changed the trajectory of his career and his life. “It made me realize that nurses did much more than take care of patients; they were also taking care of the surrounding family.”

So, Easton, a small-business owner — one of his ventures shipped shoring timbers to Boston for the Big Dig — started shadowing nurses in many different settings and departments, from private physicians’ offices to the ER, and after nearly two years of … let’s call it research, came away determined to join the profession. That’s what he told his wife in a far-reaching conversation that would prepare the ground for what was to come.

“I told her I wanted to become a registered nurse and explained to her why, and she said, ‘I think that would be great,’” he recalled. “But we had obligations to both our children, and we said we would see them through their college and graduate school if they so desired, and we had a mortgage on our house; we agreed that I could pursue a nursing career once we had paid off all our debt.

“And so, for the next nine years, we did nothing but pay down debt,” he went on, adding that when they reached the end of that road, he enrolled in what’s known as the Second Bachelor’s program at UMass Amherst, a nursing program for individuals who already have a four-year degree, in 2010. He was 60, and some of the students around him were still in their early 20s. But they made him fit right in.

“It was unbelievably satisfying,” he said of going back to the classroom and entering a taxing program at that age. “Was it challenging going back to school? Yes, but it was incredibly fun; I had a great group of students I was with, and they treated me as if I was their age — it was amazing, and I made really strong connections with people in that class.”

He started working the night shift at CDH on the med-surg unit in 2012 and took a job on the cardiac-telemetry unit three months later.

COVID arrived in late 2019 and certainly changed the landscape, he said, noting that days were challenging and very stressful.

“But I never came home from work any day I worked saying ‘that was a horrific day,’” he noted. “I would come home and say, ‘today was a real challenge, but it was a very good day.”

Now 76, Easton is semi-retired, working per-diem maybe eight days a month (he was full time until just a few months ago), and handling some nursing education “whenever they have a need.” He told BusinessWest he would still be at it full time if not for a compromised immune system that limits his time in the hospital.

Putting things in perspective, he said that his career change is about much more than someone merely joining the nursing profession around the same time as he starts qualifying for most senior discounts. It’s about getting a first-hand look at all that healthcare professionals do and the many rewards they receive and deciding to be a part of all that.

And it’s also about growing as a person and continuously learning.

“When I was younger, I was fairly intolerant, I would say,” he told BusinessWest. “If someone was a smoker and they got lung cancer, I would say, ‘they brought it on themselves, what can I do?’ That all changed when my kids and I became patients with serious injuries; the nurses supported you no matter what.

“That made a deep impression on me and completely changed my intolerance to total tolerance,” he went on. “I treated a lot of patients in the hospital who were there because of lifestyle choices they made, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need help. They need support, they need assistance to get back to the best possible outcome that be achieved. That’s what nursing is all about.

Whether you start your first shift at age 22 or 62.

Jolene Alexander

By
Healthcare News

‘Earn-and-Learn’ Initiative Has Helped Her Realize Her Dream

Jolene Alexander

Jolene Alexander

Jolene Alexander says her father suffered his first heart attack when she was 10 years old. He had another one a year later.

It was a scary time in many ways, she recalled, adding that it was made easier — for her father and the rest of her family — by the care and compassion provided by the team at Baystate Medical Center’s cardiac intensive care unit.

“I just remember how pleasant those nurses were to my family; they were very empathetic toward the situation, and they were very thorough, and he ended up pulling through, even though they weren’t sure what the outcome would be,” said Alexander, adding that the experience helped instill a desire to join the healthcare profession and serve in that environment.

And she did, eventually serving as a certified nursing assistant (CNA), and more recently as a cardiac monitor tech.

The dream, though, was to become a nurse — a dream that was put on hold for the better part of two decades by that thing we call life.

“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse — I did all the pre-requisites, but life just kept getting in the way,” said Alexander. “I left it at the pre-reqs, and I didn’t continue; I decided to just move forward with life as a mom.”

Things were further complicated by ongoing heart issues for her father, including several incidents in 2022, that compelled her to cut back on her hours and focus on family, including care for her father.

But the dream was resurrected — and put on a path to fruition by the Workforce Planning & Development team at Baystate Health and an ‘earn-and-learn’ initiative that blends education, hands-on experience, and paid employment, enabling individuals to enter and advance within healthcare careers without the traditional financial barriers.

In Alexander’s case, she was paid her salary as a cardiac monitor tech while attending the LPN program at Holyoke Community, from which she will graduate this June and then begin the next chapter in her career.

As she tells the story, when she was ready to come back to work full time in 2023, her unit supervisor encouraged her to attend a networking event off campus with someone involved with workforce development at Baystate.

I blindly went into it not knowing what it was all about,” she recalled. “Eventually, I learned it was about a grant they were trying to receive to help some employees get through LPN training.

“That was perfect for me, and it was perfect timing,” she went on, adding that the grant was secured, and she soon started in the LPN certificate program at HCC, thus becoming part of larger initiatives at Baystate and elsewhere to put more nurses in the pipeline at a time when many are retiring from the profession.

She noted that LPNs (licensed practical nurses) do not earn as much as registered nurses (RNs), who must complete a two- or four-year degree program to receive that designation, but the salary represents a significant step up from her present work. Meanwhile, LPNs handle most, but not all, of the same duties as RNs, she noted, adding that this change represents a significant step forward for her.

And she’ll take that step in a familiar setting, her current cardiac unit. There was an opening there, she applied for it, and was hired, she said, adding that she expects to start in mid-August.

“It’s exciting, but at the same time, I’m a little nervous about it, just knowing that now, I’m the one who’s going to have to make those critical decisions,” she said of her next challenge. “It’s more exciting than anything, but also a little intimidating.”

And while this has been a rewarding experience on many levels, it is certainly not without its challenges, said Alexander, adding that balancing life and school is difficult, and she could not have taken this step forward career-wise if Baystate didn’t pay her to learn.

“Every day I got up I said, “I’m not going today, I’m not going through this, it’s too stressful,’” she recalled, adding that she was balancing her classes with parenting responsibilities and helping to manage her father’s care. “It’s a lot, but it’s more manageable not having to work full time; that’s the biggest helpful piece in this program.”

While looking ahead, Alexander also did some looking back, noting that she got her start at Baystate nearly 20 years ago through something called the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership, or BSEP, as it’s called. This is a health school career pathway program for high school students in Springfield. It includes exploration of health careers, a teen mini-medical school, and summer work employment opportunities to give students interested in healthcare careers direct access to people currently employed in the field and health careers training, which often leads to internships and employment.

That was the case with Alexander, who participated in the program as a springboard to her work as a CNA, and now, two decades later, her daughter is participating in the BSEP program.

“She had an introduction to many units within the hospital to see if she had interest in those,” Alexander explained, adding that she will be involved again next year as a senior, with the goal of landing an internship.

And then possibly taking one of many pathways into a career in healthcare, as her mother did.

This latest pathway has enabled her to take a dream that was delayed and turn it into a dream realized.

Events Will Capture the Landmark’s Place in Country’s Development

By
Alan Amelinckx stands by a map tracing the path of Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.
Tourism & Hospitality

Springfield Armory

Alan Amelinckx stands by a map tracing the path of Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.

Alan Amelinckx stands by a map tracing the path of Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.

Alan Amelinckx says there is one overriding goal for the Springfield Armory National Historic Site and its many programs and events to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday — to educate the public about the importance of that location, and this region, to the birth and development of the country.

Many people know the story of the Armory, which was closed in 1968, with many of its buildings becoming home to Springfield Technical Community College, said Amelinckx, program manager for Interpretation and Education at the Armory, adding quickly that too many do not. And a year’s worth of exhibits and programs will address that reality.

“We really wanted to focus on this site and its role in the American Revolution,” Amelinckx said, adding that not only was the site chosen for what became known as the Continental Arsenal of Springfield, and later the Springfield Armory, but it was also known for innovation and manufacturing milestones, such as the first real assembly line. It was a site through which Col. Henry Knox passed with his Noble Train of Artillery — it was Knox who suggested to Gen. George Washington that the property on a hill overlooking the growing city of Springfield would be the ideal site for an arsenal — and it was the site of Shays’s Rebellion in 1786.

“This site was on a hill, it was easily defensible, and Knox liked the fact that, while it was on the Connecticut River, British warships could not attack the site,” Amelinckx noted, citing the dam in Enfield as a barrier to those ships. “It was on the Boston Post Road, so that made it a convenient spot.

“Meanwhile, Shays’s Rebellion was one of the big turning points in American history,” he went on. “The founding fathers realized that the Articles of the Confederation weren’t working, and they needed a stronger central government.”

To educate and entertain the public about all this and more, the Armory, as noted, has a full year of exhibits and programs on tap for the 250th.

“We really wanted to focus on this site and its role in the American Revolution.”

These include a temporary exhibit at the Armory Museum which includes a map tracing the Knox Trail as well as information about how and why the Springfield site was chosen for the arsenal, said Amelinckx, adding that there is also a French cannon within the exhibit that is on display for the first time.

They also include programs late last year and earlier this year commemorating the Knox Trail, including a recreation of the trek through Springfield that drew more than 1,000 onlookers, as well as a lecture on the Battle of Saratoga and a discussion earlier this month titled “The Most Proper Spot in America.” Led by Armory Curator Alex MacKenzie, it focused on the Continental Arsenal, why the site in Springfield was chosen, and the arsenal’s contributions to American independence.

Other events include everything from an Independence Day celebration — visitors can watch the Springfield fireworks from the Armory grounds — to a Heritage Pops Concert on July 25 featuring a big band performance in front of the Springfield Armory Commandant’s House, to Forging Freedom on Aug. 29, a day of re-enactments and demonstrations celebrating American manufacturing.

Based on the strong turnouts for the Knox Trail recreation and program on the Battle of Saratoga, Amelinckx said there is keen interest on the events of the Revolutionary War period, and he expects this to translate into stronger visitation numbers for the Armory throughout the year and solid attendance at those upcoming events.

“The interest is palpable,” he told BusinessWest. “Our events are drawing people from across the region, but they’re also attracting people who live in the area and have never been to the Armory. There’s definitely a lot of interest in celebrating the 250th in this area.”

—George O’Brien

Exhibit Tells the Nation’s Story Through Illustration

By
Tourism & Hospitality

Norman Rockwell Museum

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell” includes James Montgomery Flagg’s “I Want You for U.S. Army” (1917, chromolithograph on paper, private collection).

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell” includes James Montgomery Flagg’s “I Want You for U.S. Army” (1917, chromolithograph on paper, private collection).

 

Russell Lord says planning for the nation’s 250th birthday at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge began several years ago, and kicked into a higher gear when he arrived as chief of Curatorial Affairs in late 2024. Eventually, a mission emerged.

“As a museum devoted to not only Norman Rockwell, but also the history of illustration, we felt like we had something unique to offer at this moment in time,” Lord said. “Also, we understood that it might be somewhat expected of us to do something because Norman Rockwell is so closely associated with American identity and this vision of America.

“We wanted to both embrace what people expected of us and also add a little bit of the unexpected,” he went on, adding that both will come together in “American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell,” which explores how artists from the Revolutionary era to the present “shared the ideals and evolving story of the United States in pictures and captured the American imagination in the process.”

Organized around a series of thematic chapters — including industry and innovation, immigration, the Civil Rights Movement, and civic life — that cut across time periods, the special exhibit, which runs from June 6 to Oct. 26, will bring together a wide range of works. These include illustrations, textiles, ceramics, paintings, prints, drawings, books, posters, advertisements, and digital media, from the nation’s founding to the present day, with each object telling a story.

“The United States is young enough to have its entire history extensively illustrated,” Lord said, noting that early works by engravers such as Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin issue calls for unity against, and independence from, an oppressive monarchy.

“In the 19th century, artists served as visual journalists, entertainers, and advocates for reform,” he went on. “In the 20th century, illustrators captivated the public with idyllic scenes of American life, while also confronting the realities of racial injustice and political division. Today, in the 21st century, artists continue the legacy — engaging critically with the past and imagining possible futures — circulating images faster and more widely than ever through digital platforms.”

Among the items assembled from the museum’s extensive holdings (some 30,000 works representing 350 illustrators), as well as loans from institutions and private collections worldwide, are James Montgomery Flagg’s “Uncle Sam Wants You for the U.S. Army” and Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” posters, as well as Rockwell’s portrayals of American presidents and politicans such as Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, said Lord, adding that the goal is to blend some familiar works with others that visitors have likely not seen before.

“Two of the things I wanted to explore with this exhibit are history and myth, which is to say pictures that tell us about the actual history, and then pictures that are so famous — like ‘Uncle Sam Wants You’ — that they’ve taken on this kind of mythical status, and in some ways, that often means we don’t think about them as deeply as we might; we see them, and we say, ‘we’ve seen that, we recognize that.’”

Russell Lord

Russell Lord

“As a museum devoted to not only Norman Rockwell, but also the history of illustration, we felt like we had something unique to offer at this moment in time.”

And while the exhibit, which will occupy nearly all of the museum’s exhibition space, was created to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, there is another purpose as well, said Lord, adding that the times call for a collection of works that show that this complicated era in the nation’s history is not without precedent.

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell”

“American Stories, from Revolution to Rockwell” includes, above, Norman Rockwell’s “Ben Franklin’s Sesquicentennial” (cover illustration for the Saturday Evening Post, May 29, 1926),

“When I put together an exhibit, I like to ask the question, ‘why this exhibit now?’” he told BusinessWest. “Obviously, there’s an anniversary, but that’s not the only reason for this to have relevance right now.

“No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, I think everyone would agree that this is a very complicated moment for our own identity in the world,” he went on. “I always like to think that it can be somewhat unsettling to think that this is an unprecedented moment, and I also like to think about how there might be a precedent for this. A lot of the conversations we have today about our own identity in the world — about how other countries view us and how we view ourselves — are not new discussions.”

Image makers have wrestled with many of these identity crises from the very beginning, he continued, adding that this is one of many things he expects visitors will take away from an exhibit that offers both a visual journey through American history and a timely reflection on the enduring power of pictures to shape national identity.

—George O’Brien

Paul Accorsi Jr.

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Assistant Vice President, Business Banking Lender, PeoplesBank: Age 31

As he talked about his role as assistant vice president and business banking lender, Paul Accorsi said there are many rewards.

One of them, and he does this often, is pointing out businesses or properties while driving with his wife, Tara, and saying, “that’s my customer … I helped them finance a vehicle,” or “I helped them finance a piece of equipment,” or “I financed that building for that person as they were starting their journey as a landlord.”

He takes pride in helping mostly small to mid-sized businesses with loans that enable them to get started or, more often, take a critical next step, and says there’s satisfaction in creating success stories that those outside this line of work might not appreciate.

Accorsi started his own professional journey at the former Chicopee Savings Bank as a summer float teller. He later worked in nonprofit accounting roles and returned to banking as a commercial credit analyst at TD Bank. He joined PeoplesBank in 2021 and served in the same role before being promoted to business banking lender in 2023.

Active in the community, Accorsi is a member of the Springfield Kiwanis Club and former president of the group, helping to grow two of its major fundraisers — an annual grand raffle that supports six area Key Clubs and an annual cornhole tournament.

In addition, he serves on the board of the South End Community Center; participates in many charitable road races, including the Hot Chocolate Run to benefit Safe Passage, the Springfield Rescue Mission 10K Run to End Homelessness, the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day 10K, and the Magic for Maddie 5K; and volunteers for many other causes and agencies, including Enfield’s Fourth of July celebration.

Whether helping clients at work or volunteering outside the office, “it’s nice to take the community I love and put a positive spin on it whenever I can,” said Accorsi, adding that his career — and his commitment to community — have, in many ways, been inspired by his father, who passed away in 2012 after battling ALS.

“He was a commercial banker for a long time, and as a kid, I saw him involved in the community, and he did a lot of good — he was on multiple boards, including the YMCA of Greater Springfield and Sunshine Village in Chicopee,” Accorsi recalled. “I like all the philanthropic work that he did, but he also made a lot of friends along the way, and I really liked that aspect of the job.”

—George O’Brien

Alexandra Balise

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Director of Corporate Strategy, Balise Auto Group: Age 38

Alex Balise calls it her “happy place.”

This is the fishing camp in Quebec where she, her husband Trevor, and children Connor and Emma spend a week each summer around Connor’s birthday

“The phone doesn’t work … it’s quiet, it’s relaxing, it’s fun — even if you don’t catch anything,” said Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for Balise Auto Group, adding that she has a number of happy places. Others include Benjamin Swan School in Springfield, where she reads to students as a Link to Libraries volunteer and also leads efforts to donate coats to those students, continuing a tradition started by her uncle, Mike; Square One, where she serves as a board member but has also become heavily involved in programs and fundraising, especially for its new headquarters building; and the Big E, where they spend Emma’s birthday.

And then there’s 1441 Main St. in Springfield, Balise’s corporate headquarters. OK, maybe this place isn’t as ‘happy’ as the others, but it’s where she has emerged as a true leader at this 106-year-old family business started by her great-grandfather.

Since she came to Balise in 2015, Alex has taken on several roles and assumed ever-greater amounts of responsibility. She started as an analyst for the company’s then-emerging car wash business and later served as project manager for its new Kia franchise, before becoming director of Marketing.

As director of Corporate Strategy, she has a wide range of duties, including current work to oversee the company’s conversion to a new document management system. She also works on compliance and legal matters — “all the fun things that happen behind the scenes that are important to the business but not glamorous.”

While managing all those responsibilities, she remains very active in the community — with the aforementioned Square One, Benjamin Swan School, and Link to Libraries; the Zoo at Forest Park, where she played a lead role in facilitating the donation of a vehicle, enabling its education team to expand outreach programs; the West Springfield Boys & Girls Club; and the Balise company’s annual holiday giving and back-to-school backpack campaigns.

“Anyone who knows Alex knows of her soft-spoken demeanor,” Square One President and CEO Dawn DiStefano wrote in nominating Balise for this honor. “But behind her gentile smile is a powerhouse of community support and activism.”

A powerhouse indeed, both as a leader at Balise and a force for youth and families within the 413.

—George O’Brien

Alicia Brown

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

English Teacher, John J. Duggan Academy: Age 39

It’s called ‘the Royals.’

That’s the name Alicia Brown gave to a program she created to empower young women in middle and high school through mentorship, leadership development, and life skills education. It’s an after-school program that initially started in the basement of her church.

“We get together every two weeks, and we engage in meaningful conversations and activities,” said Brown, an English language arts teacher at Springfield’s John J. Duggan Academy, adding that the program is centered around mental health awareness in young women and “helping them build healthy coping mechanisms to navigate life.”

The Royals is just one example of how Brown is making a difference inside the classroom and beyond, and building on a passion for working with, and helping to guide, young people that goes back to the days when she was a summer camp counselor.

“I grew up in Springfield myself, and I love the fact that I can build these relationships with my students where they can see a teacher that they can relate to,” said Brown, a graduate of Springfield College, adding that she’s always focused on making an impact that goes beyond a day’s lessons in English. “Not only are we focusing on academics in the classroom, we’re also teaching them about the foundations of life and how to be successful outside these four walls.”

Elaborating, she said that much goes into being a Royal, and that designation, if you will, goes beyond participation in the twice-monthly meetings.

“You being a Royal … you wear that everywhere you go,” she explained. “It means we’re taking our academics seriously and we’re making sure we show up to school, and it’s important that we have healthy communication skills when we need to converse with one of our friends when we feel that something is a little off; it’s how you carry yourself outside of here.”

Brown’s impact inside and outside the classroom was summed up by Duggan Principal April Robinson, who nominated her for the 40 Under Forty award. “She’s my go-to teacher when a student needs extra support and uplifting,” she wrote. “This strong teacher-student rapport positively impacts student confidence, engagement, and overall achievement.”

When not teaching and guiding young people, Brown enjoys spending time with her 20-year-old daughter, Imani, and other family members. “I’m very family-oriented,” she said. “Spending time with my family is very important to me.”

—George O’Brien

Kate Caligaris

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Vice President, Human Resources Program Management, Liberty Bank: Age 34

It’s called the Mirror Ball Trophy.

It’s awarded by the organizers of the Fancy Steps fundraiser, a dance competition of sorts for the Children’s Museum at Holyoke, not to the best dancer — “I would never have gotten it if that was the case,” Kate Caligaris joked — but instead to the one who raises the most money for the institution.

In this case, for the 2025 event, Caligaris raised more than $15,000 by “getting creative,” with initiatives that included everything from celebrity bartending to soliciting Holyoke businesses for donations.

The trophy (yes, its main feature is a mirror ball) now sits on Caligaris’s desk at Liberty Bank, where she serves as vice president of Human Resources Program Management. It will soon be joined by a 40 Under Forty plaque, which she has earned through a combination of excellence in her day job and a strong commitment to community, especially in her hometown, and now her current home — Holyoke.

Her role brings a diverse set of responsibilities, she said, listing everything from administering the intern program to system integration initiatives; from serving as HR business partner for several members of the bank’s C-suite to overseeing the change to a new 401(k) provider. “It’s a little bit of everything, and that’s what I like about it,” she said.

As for her work in the community, it includes years of work on the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, continuing a family tradition that started with her grandfather. In 2010, she was named Colleen, and today she serves as chair of the Colleen Pageant and oversees all that happens after that competition.

“I’m with the girls all through the green season — the school visits, the hospital visits, chamber breakfast … you name it,” she said, adding that she walks beside the Colleen float on parade day.

Caligaris is also a Board of Health commissioner in Holyoke, and served for many years on the board of the Children’s Museum and remains active with that institution. She is also co-chair of the American Cancer Society’s Massachusetts Golf Classic, which will be staged later this spring, and sits of the board of Magic for Maddie, a nonprofit created in honor of Madeline (Maddie) O’Hare Schmidt, who lost a courageous battle against pediatric brain cancer in 2022. Over the past four years, the agency has raised more than $1.3 million money for research, but also to assist families waging their own fight against the disease.

—George O’Brien

Lezlie Braxton Campbell

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Deputy Director, Neighbor to Neighbor: Age 32

Lezlie Braxton Campbell is a big believer in the agency known as Neighbor to Neighbor.

Indeed, he first got involved as a board member and then as board chair before joining the staff of the organization two years ago.

He now serves as deputy director, a role that comes with a broad job description that essentially boils down to carrying out the agency’s broad mission — making democracy work for everyone.

“It’s an organization for community and political organizing,” he said of the agency now celebrating its 30th year, adding that Neighbor to Neighbor gets involved at the grassroots level on issues ranging from housing to criminal justice reform to climate and environmental work.

It’s currently involved in a letter-writing campaign to urge passage of the Clean Slate Act, which would automatically seal old criminal records, removing barriers to jobs, housing, and stability for thousands of state residents.

“I enjoy my work because we’re a multi-issue organization,” he told BusinessWest. “I can be talking about voter engagement, then get deep into other issues … and then, there could be a bill we’re pushing. So it does put you out in many different directions.”

A graduate of Westfield State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business management, Campbell is currently working toward a master’s degree in politics & education at Columbia University. He brings a diverse résumé to his current role, including a 5-year stint in education (humanities and social studies) that included teaching at both the Springfield Public Schools and Springfield Technical Community College. He’s also been involved in a number of local, regional, and statewide political campaigns, and ran for City Council in Springfield himself.

He said his current job description includes a mix of administrative duties, work on specific issues, such as the Clean Slate bill, and getting to know the people and issues facing them in communities served by the chapter, including Springfield, Holyoke, Worcester, and Lynn.

Active in the community, Campbell is a part of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network in the Bay State, executive vice president of Young Democrats of America, and a former mentor with the Academic Leadership Assoc. Last year, he received the Black Excellence on the Hill Award and the Ronn D. Johnson Servant of All Award.

And now, he has another plaque for his desk, one that identifies him as a member of 40 Under Forty.

—George O’Brien

 

Steven Costa

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

First Vice President, C&I Lending, Beacon Bank: Age 34

Steve Costa started his professional career in public accounting, with one of the Big Four firms. He enjoyed that work — but “didn’t love it” — and had no real intention to make a change until a friend, mentor, fellow churchgoer, and chief credit officer with a local bank gave him something to think about.

“He pulled my arm and said, ‘I think this is something you’d be really good at; you’re extroverted, you have a good personality for it, you’re relationship-driven, sales-oriented, and high-energy. I think you’d do well at this banking thing.’”

Turns out, he was right. Costa has done pretty well at this ‘banking thing,’ and because of all those attributes he listed.

He started at Country Bank and later moved to Berkshire Bank (now Beacon Bank), where he has been promoted several times and currently serves as first vice president, C&I Lending, managing a $150 million portfolio that has grown steadily over the years. He finds the work rewarding on many levels.

“I love the people, love the relationships, love making a difference,” he said. “The networking side of it is awesome. Being high-energy myself, I like getting out and meeting people, hearing about their life stories, learning about their businesses, knowing that a good banker can actually make a real big difference at a company.

“Every bank’s money is green,” he went on. “But that relationship side of the business is extremely important, and I enjoy working with people and helping them reach their goals. Seeing a business grow, hire new employees, and contribute to the local economy … it’s not just about the numbers; it’s about making a real impact.”

While doing that, he’s making an impact on other fronts as well. Indeed, Costa is active in the community, serving as a member of the Square One finance committee and as a member of the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral audit committee. And through his church, he serves various volunteer efforts, including Glendi, its annual Greek festival, and teaching Sunday school.

He also supports cancer fundraising efforts through his role on the executive leadership committee for the American Cancer Society’s Massachusetts golf tournament, and volunteers with agencies and causes ranging from Junior Achievement to the Zoo in Forest Park.

When not doing any of that, he’s spending time with his family — his wife Kerri and son Crew — which will get larger soon; a second child is due at the end of this month.

—George O’Brien

Giancarlo Crivelli

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Executive Director, Fishing Friends: Age 24

For Giancarlo Crivelli, fishing has always been more than a pastime.

It’s been a passion, a way to connect the generations in his family, and a vehicle for bringing joy, and some valuable life lessons, to others.

Indeed, Crivelli has lasting memories of fishing with his father and grandfather when he was younger. They both passed away when he was 12, and since then, fishing has always been a way to remember them and bring him closer to them.

And in recent years, fishing has become even more — a way to honor his father’s legacy of using the activity to connect with young people in the community who didn’t have a father figure in their lives.

“He would take them fishing, too, and it soon became a regular thing,” Crivelli recalled. “He would become a friend to these kids, teaching them about the importance of getting back in touch with nature. Fishing, he would say, grounded us, helped us relax, and taught us the value of patience.”

All of this informs the mission of a nonprofit that Crivelli started called Fishing Friends. The 501(c)(3) provides fishing trips to local young people throughout Western Mass. — but it goes beyond baiting hooks and casting lines. Trips are designed to educate children on boat safety, water stewardship, fishing, patience, kindness, sharing, and more.

These are skills that can last a lifetime, said Crivelli, adding that Fishing Friends has several components, from the fishing trips to conservation cleanups, where participants gather to protect and preserve local waterways, to Harbor Hands, a youth boat repair program.

As for the best fishing spots … Crivelli didn’t reveal all of them or get too specific. But he gave a partial list, including Hampton Ponds in Westfield, Five Mile Pond in Springfield, the Oxbow in Northampton, and Red Bridge, a recreational area on the Chicopee River bordering Ludlow, Wilbraham, and Palmer.

“That’s just a few spots … we’re all about exploring new areas and teaching kids about all the different and unique places to go fishing,” he said.

And these places on the map are just a small part of the story, he went on, as he recited the Fishing Friends mission statement. “We teach youth about fishing so they can build character, connect with nature, develop meaningful relationships, and learn new life skills.”

That’s quite a mission, but he knows from experience, and all those coveted memories of times spent with his father and grandfather, that fishing can do all that.

—George O’Brien

April Doroski

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Senior Wetland Scientist, Team Leader, Fuss & O’Neill: Age 35

It’s come to be known simply as the ‘mushroom calendar.’

That’s because it features photographs of mushrooms, taken and collected by April Doroski, who encounters numerous varieties of the fungi while out in the field serving as a team leader and senior wetland scientist for the Springfield-based engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill (F&O).

The calendar, which graces the cubes of many employees at the company, and several other settings as well, is offered as part of a fundraiser. Since 2020, Doroski has raised more than $6,500 for environmentally focused nonprofits including the Clean Air Task Force, Ecology Project International, Biobus, and Trees for the Future.

And such efforts comprise just a few of the ways Doroski has become … well, a standout in her field.

Indeed, as a senior wetland scientist and permitting specialist at F&O, she is a key member of its environmental permitting practice and the firm’s climate resilience work. She leads environmental permitting strategy and preparation for a wide array of climate adaptation, ecological restoration, transportation, energy, water, infrastructure, and development projects across the state. She has delineated wetlands across New England and has conducted compliance monitoring, as well as water quality and hydrologic assessments.

This is work she’s been drawn to since she was very young.

“As far back as I can remember, I always enjoyed spending time outdoors, camping with my family, and I knew I was interested either in microbiology or environmental science, and I ended up in environmental science,” Doroski said, adding that she enjoys many facets of this work but especially the places it brings her and the improvements she helps create.

“I drive by projects or sites or areas where I’ve performed wetlands delineation, and I always point them out to people,” she said, adding that she’s proud of the work she and other team members carry out across the region, such as the removal of obsolete dams that are no longer being used and repair of those that still serve a purpose.

“There are a lot of dams and infrastructure that are outdated and not needed,” she explained. “And the dam removals are exciting projects because we’re restoring the rivers to their natural flow and natural state.”

When not working or putting together the mushroom calendar, Doroski enjoys traveling — she has a trip to Spain planned for this summer — and snowboarding, two activities that provide her with more time outdoors, which is where she thrives.

—George O’Brien

Jack Dowd

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Partner, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, The Dowd Agencies: Age 37

Jack Dowd says he never really thought about anything other than a career in insurance when he was young. This certainly differentiated him from most people his age, but for a good reason.

Indeed, he watched his father, John, and grandfather before him thrive in this business, with their name on what had become a Holyoke institution, and he liked what he saw.

“It all centered around my father — I held him in such high regard, and I just wanted to be like him,” recalled Dowd who represents the fifth generation involved in the family business, and worked his way from the ground up — literally. Indeed, he started as an intern working in the basement, converting paper to electronic files.

At his father’s advice, he started his career outside the family business, gaining experience at an agency in Boston and then for Quincy Mutual. He joined the Dowd Agencies in 2016 and has moved up the ladder to partner and vice president of Sales and Marketing.

He wears a lot of hats during this intriguing time for the company and industry, one marked by continued consolidation — and opportunities for companies like Dowd to grow and expand their footprint.

He’s a producer himself, but he also manages the sales team as well as the marketing team. And as a member of the senior leadership team, he’s involved with efforts to explore acquisition opportunities and, in many cases, make them happen.

“We’ve really started to push and grow beyond Western Massachusetts; we’ve realized there’s some opportunity to grow faster in Northern New England,” he said, adding that Dowd has purchased two agencies in Vermont over the past 18 months, among other acquisitions, and is looking at similar opportunities across the region. “We’ve tripled in size since I came to the agency.”

Dowd is also active in the local community, serving on the Swish Night committee for Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island and on the board of directors for the Holyoke Taxpayers Assoc. Previously, he served on the board of the Western Massachusetts Council of Boy Scouts of America, and on a committee supporting Brightside for Families and Children.

And when not working and volunteering, he’s spending time with his family — wife Vanessa and two children, John IV and Clara — especially at Lake Sunapee during the summer.

“They’re getting into sports now, and T-ball will be starting soon, so I’ll be coaching that,” he said — yet another hat for someone who already wears many.

—George O’Brien

Tom Dowling

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Partner-in-Charge, Holyoke, Whittlesey: Age 39

Tom Dowling says he’s always been drawn by the variety of work offered by the broad realm of public accounting.

By that, he meant the wide range of business sectors as well as the diverse nature of individual companies and nonprofits he gets to work with — especially the latter.

Indeed, Dowling, partner-in-charge for Whittlesey’s Holyoke office, manages a large book of clients, many of them nonprofits, for which he has become a trusted advisor, providing services that go well beyond tax and audit work.

“He guides them through regulatory changes, funding changes, and leadership changes,” wrote Drew Andrews, Whittlesey’s CEO and managing partner, who nominated Dowling for the 40 Under Forty. “As Massachusetts nonprofits face more financial pressure, Tom’s advice goes beyond audits; he helps clients find new funding, improve internal controls, work more efficiently, and build long-term financial plans.”

These sentiments help explain why Dowling was drawn to public accounting, and why he is a rising star in this field. But there’s more to the story.

Indeed, he came to Whittlesey in 2017 and played a key role in its merger with the Holyoke-based firm Lester Halpern and then in strengthening the Hartford-based firm’s presence in Western Mass. and growing market share in this region. He was named partner in 2022 and now oversees the Holyoke office and its staff of 20.

His portfolio of clients is diverse, but, as he noted, one of the focal points — for him and the firm — is nonprofits, which are now facing ever-rising levels of uncertainty and challenge.

“This year has been busy with the current developments in the political landscape — it seems like every other day, there’s something that’s changing and impacting a nonprofit or creating some uncertainty in their funding,” Dowling said. “And we are constantly in discussions with all of our clients to make sure they’re aware of these issues and that they know how to assess and react if needed.”

Active within the industry — he’s a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, and the Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners, among other groups — he is also busy in the community, especially as a committee member for the Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island Swish Night event, but also as a youth basketball coach.

“I’ve been coaching my kids since they were able to play,” he said, referring to sons Carter, 14, and Wesley, 8. “It’s one of my favorite times of the year, and it’s nice to see the kids grow.”

—George O’Brien

Jill Foley

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Director of Membership, Massachusetts Society of CPAs: Age 36

Jill Foley is not an accountant, and she doesn’t play one on TV.

But she’s essentially made a career out of promoting and supporting accountants from across the state.

Indeed, she’s been director of membership for the Massachusetts Society of CPAs for eight years now, playing a major role in growing membership, expanding networking events, and providing more opportunities for members to connect and develop professionally. It’s a role that brings rewards on many levels.

“Relationships, and connecting people with people, are a big part of what I do and what our team does,” she told BusinessWest, adding that this work takes many forms.

These include everything from the agency’s Small Firm Roundtables, created to provide firm owners and leaders with a collaborative, non-competitive space to share best practices, discuss operational challenges, and learn from one another, to an expanded Sip and Socialize, MassCPAs’ most lucrative and best-attended networking event, from a single annual gathering in Boston to a multi-region, three-event series with Boston and Springfield locations.

It also includes the launch of a new program to support entrepreneurial CPAs who have recently started or are planning to start their own business, surpassing year-one participation goals by more than 50%.

A graduate of Assumption College, Foley majored in accounting, drawn to the profession by the diversity of opportunities available to people in the accounting world — and the importance of those professionals to individuals, businesses and nonprofits of all sizes.

An entrepreneur herself, she also created Fed by Foley, a food service business serving the Pioneer Valley, which she operated until late last year.

In the venture’s second month, she created Charcuterie for Community, where she worked alongside other organizations to support general operations or special projects for organizations and causes ranging from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts to Cancer Connection; from Cooley Dickinson Hospital to Nonotuck Community School.

“The business grew in ways I never imagined — over a thousand orders over those four years,” Foley said. “It’s so hard to open a small business, but so many people in this region want to support you.”

That’s one of many examples of how she makes giving back a priority. She’s a board member for the People’s Institute of Northampton, raises funds for the National Brain Tumor Assoc., and serves as a non-medical volunteer for the Medical Reserves Corps of Massachusetts.

Add it all up — that’s what they do in accounting — and it’s easy to see she’s a member of this year’s 40 Under Forty.

—George O’Brien

Sara Landaverde

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Director of Survivor Advocacy & Outreach Programs, YWCA of Western Massachusetts: Age 31

Sara Landaverde has always had a passion for working with children.

“Growing up, I always wanted to work with kids who experienced trauma, who went through a hard time,” she said, adding that, while earning her undergraduate degree at American International College, a discussion with one of her professors left her convinced that social work would be the lane she would travel down.

“And I’ve been in that lane ever since,” said Landaverde, director of Survivor Advocacy & Outreach Programs for the YWCA of Western Massachusetts, where she started as a clinical intern while completing her master’s degree in social work at Boston College.

Early on, Landaverde displayed “something special that made her stand out,” said Elizabeth Dineen, the agency’s CEO, who nominated her for this award. “Sara distinguished herself because of her intelligence, empathy, and creativity. She had the drive and ability to figure out how to reach a child who had literally closed down due to profound trauma.”

After completing graduate school, Landaverde was hired as a child and family clinician. Four years later, she was named a director, and she now supervises more than 20 employees.

In this role, she oversees four programs — the domestic violence counseling program, the sexual assault counseling program, the 24/7 hotline, and the data program — and while doing so, she mentors younger employees and interns and conducts many different forms of outreach to inform the public, and potential partners, about the many programs and services provided by the YWCA. And while doing all that, she still manages a small case load herself.

Active in the community, she is a board member of Holyoke Children’s Museum and a member of the Elms College social work advisory board. She’s also a guest speaker at colleges and churches throughout Western Mass., educating others about sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking. And when not working, volunteering, or public speaking, she’s a devoted dog mom who puts aside time to spend with family — her mother, five brothers, nieces, and nephews.

Although her work at the YWCA is challenging, Landaverde considers it rewarding on many different levels, especially the opportunity she and others have to change the course of survivors’ lives.

“My goal has always been to make some little change in someone’s life,” she explained, “so that they were able to change the paradigm and be able to change their family history with regard to any childhood event they may have gone through.”

—George O’Brien

Siobhan Matty

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Assistant First Vice President, Financial Advisor, St. Germain Investment Management: Age 35

Siobhan Matty recalls her father’s commentary when Paul Marchese, director of Business Development for St. Germain Investment Management, suggested she join the firm her dad served as president.

“His response was, ‘you can hire her — I can’t,’” she said with a laugh, adding that, eventually, he did, suggesting that her strong social skills would translate well into work as a financial advisor — and work within the community as well.

Turns out, he was right about all that.

Indeed, Matty has established herself as an advisor with a strong ear, and also one with a big heart, volunteering her time, energy, and talent to several institutions and causes.

“Siobhan’s advancement in this field is a direct result of her earnest and compassionate nature,” wrote Mary Orr, media specialist for Trinity Health Of New England, who got to know Matty when she became friends with her daughter. “She gets to know her clients as people with needs, not only as the individual they are, but also with needs that may change as they age due to illness, divorce, or loss of a loved one.”

When asked what she liked about her work, Matty was direct. “I like helping people; it’s that simple — knowing what they have and what they need to do. It’s not about ‘what’s the hot stock?’ — and you do get asked that sometimes. I tell them, ‘that’s not what we’re doing.’”

While listening to her clients and helping them meet their financial goals, Matty is also involved in the community on many levels.

She currently serves as a board member and a development committee member for Glenmeadow Retirement Community and as a board member and marketing committee member for the Springfield Public Forum. She has previously served on boards for the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield and New Haven, Conn., the United Way of Pioneer Valley, and Link to Libraries.

She also volunteers with Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, most recently participating in the organization’s 20th annual Stock Market Challenge, and as a celebrity bartender at the agency’s recent fundraiser.

Giving back has been a pattern throughout her life and career. Indeed, following the suicide death of a high school friend, she worked with that friend’s mother to organize the Kayla Rae Clark Walk to raise money to support the addiction recovery program at the former Providence Behavioral Hospital in Holyoke.

That’s just more example of how Matty has always focused on making a difference in the lives of others.

—George O’Brien

Jesse McMillan

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Principal, Westfield Middle School: Age 33

Jesse McMillan comes from a family of educators, and he counts himself lucky to have had teachers who made a big impact on his life — and inspired him to want to do the same.

So, it’s natural that he would find his way into that field.

But the path he’s taken has been anything but typical.

Indeed, he was named principal of New Hingham Regional Elementary School when he was just 24, making him the youngest principal in the Bay State at that time.

“I had people around me who really believed in me and gave me opportunities to grow; that made all the difference,” he said of his quick ascension to a top administrative role. “I loved being in the classroom, but I realized I wanted to have an impact beyond just my own students. Becoming a principal gave me the opportunity to support teachers and improve the experience for an entire building of kids at once.”
This mindset has propelled him to reach higher and seek new challenges, including his current position as principal of Westfield Middle School, where he leads a staff of 100 and provides direction and motivation to 700 students.

And as he goes about his work, he draws inspiration from his own middle school principal. “Every morning he’d greet me with ‘Hey, Jess!’ and it made me feel seen,” he recalled. “That stayed with me. It showed me the kind of impact a principal can have on a student.
“At the end of the day, it’s about people,” he went on. “If students feel safe and supported, and teachers feel valued, everything else starts to fall into place. That’s what I try to build every day.”

He said that he loves all aspects of this job, but especially the fact that no two days are the same, and every day provides a new opportunity for him to learn and build on those experiences.

“That process of continuous learning and refining my approach is what’s helped me grow as a leader,” he said. “And I hope it creates a culture where staff and students feel comfortable taking risks and learning from mistakes as well.”
“I have always seen myself as a learner first,” he continued, adding that this applies to everything from his teaching as an adjunct at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to learning something completely new like beekeeping. “It all comes back to that same curiosity. I think that mindset makes me a better educator and leader.”

It also makes him a 40 Under Forty honoree.

—George O’Brien

 

Jamillah Joy Medina Nova

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Community Relations Coordinator, Springfield City Library: Age 35

Hers is a career built “at the intersection of public service, entrepreneurship, and community-centered storytelling.”

That’s how Ellen Williams, director of Community Engagement and Education at the Springfield-based nonprofit Learning for Better, summed up Jamillah Joy Medina Nova, as she nominated her for the 40 Under Forty award.

And she’s right on every score.

Indeed, as Community Relations coordinator at the Springfield City Library, Medina Nova leads marketing and community relations efforts that strengthen the library’s visibility, relevance, and partnerships across the city. She also supports outreach and relationship building across neighborhood events and community touch points, helping residents connect with library services and resources.

It’s a job that blends what she calls her ‘favorite things.’

“That includes community involvement, helping young people, and my marketing background, so it’s a perfect fit,” said Medina Nova, who joined the library staff in 2019 and has led initiatives such as the recent drive to secure 10,000 library card signups.

But she’s also an entrepreneur — the founder of LMN Creative, a marketing and branding consulting firm, and the owner of Jamillah Joy Designs, which provides graphic design services, especially to women-owned and BIPOC-owned small businesses.

With LMN Creative, she specializes in helping clients show up on social media — and generate revenue on those platforms.

“I have big plans for a studio in the future, but right now, I’m doing mostly consulting, working behind the scenes to help clients,” said Medina Nova, a graduate of EforAll’s cohort program and the Sphere Northampton’s accelerator program, adding that her portfolio includes several hair salons, wellness studios, and other small businesses.

All this means she’s quite busy, but she finds time to get involved in the community, especially with efforts to support young people, women, and the arts. She is co-troop leader with Girl Scouts of the USA and serves as a board member of the Drama Studio, supporting access to theater and arts education for area children and families. She also volunteers with agencies such as Girls Inc. of the Valley, the YWCA, and Give Kids the World Village.

She also enjoys spending time with her 4-year-old daughter, Luna, “the light of my life,” and serving as an inspiration to her and many others.

“I want to teach my daughter that there are many buckets that can be filled — you just have to appropriate your time properly,” she explained. “This is the city that raised me, so I want to give back in any way I can.”

—George O’Brien

John Page

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Executive Director, Amherst Business Improvement District: Age 29

It’s called Amherst Restaurant Week.

As that name suggests, it’s a week (in June) designed to promote, celebrate, and introduce people to Amherst’s eclectic mix of dining establishments.

And it’s just one of many initiatives created or enhanced by John Page, executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) as he carries out the agency’s mission to support local businesses and cultivate a dynamic and vibrant downtown Amherst. Others include everything from the fall Downtown Block Party and summer concerts on the Common to the holiday-season Sip and Shop Stroll, which encourages holiday shopping.

Expanding that list is among the priorities for Page, a UMass Amherst grad who formerly worked for the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, which shares space with the BID, and came to understand and respect the latter’s mission. After a stint working on events at his alma mater, he eventually decided to seek the BID director’s job after the departure of Gabrielle Gould.

That’s eventually.

“I was reluctant at first because I didn’t know if I was ready,” he said, adding that the BID’s board asked him to help with some projects, such as the Block Party and summer concerts, in the interim, and while doing that, he became convinced he was ready.

And over the past two years, he has become a force in efforts to bring people downtown and create more vibrancy there.

“It’s an interesting time to be in the downtown because there’s a little bit of a renaissance, but there are also some really big challenges,” he said, adding that there’s been a changing of the guard, with the owners of some long-standing businesses retiring, and new ventures taking their places. “We’ve been very lucky to have several new businesses open up, expand, or move into the downtown over the past few years, and there’s still room for more.”

While being active in the community is part of Page’s job description, such work takes many forms and extends well beyond Amherst’s downtown, including service on the board of the Amherst Education Foundation. He also serves as co-chair of the Pelham Cultural Council and has been a lead organizer of Amherst’s LGBTQ+ Pride events in downtown Amherst, including the first-ever Amherst Pride Parade.

And when not doing all that, he loves to travel — including trips to Barcelona, Costa Rica, and Mexico — while always looking forward to returning home to a community where he plays a key role in setting the tone.

—George O’Brien

Corrine Ryan

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2026

Managing Attorney – Hampden County, Community Legal Aid: Age 37

Corrine Ryan wasn’t sure what she would do with the law degree she was earning at Georgetown University Law Center. But she knew it would be in the broad realm of public interest law, which is dedicated to representing and advocating for the rights and interests of individuals or groups that are typically underrepresented or marginalized in society.

And that is exactly the path she has followed, rising to the role of managing attorney at Community Legal Aid (CLA), which provides free civil legal help to low-income and elderly residents in Central and Western Mass. across several practice areas, ranging from eviction defense to education law; immigration to Social Security.

Ryan doesn’t handle many cases in this role; instead, her multi-faceted work is focused on staff development, professional development, grant writing, meeting with legislators to secure adequate funding, community engagement to build awareness of what CLA does, and direct oversight of its many operations, from the more than 100 calls the office receives each day to implementation of new programs.

Since becoming managing attorney, she has led several new initiatives, including the Commonwealth Care Alliance (CCA) Medical Legal Partnership, a collaboration between CLA attorneys and CCA medical staff that gave critical legal help in 350 cases to poor and elderly patients presenting with health-harming legal needs between 2022 and 2025, as well as the Family Preservation Project, a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary team that helps families with open child welfare investigations, with the goal of keeping families intact.

“It’s an access-to-justice gap, really, and we try to fill that gap by providing representation to people who can’t afford attorneys,” Ryan said, adding that one of her biggest challenges is coping with the reality that CLA must turn away half the people who apply for help because it simply doesn’t have the capacity.

Active in the community, she serves on the board at Square One, an agency she’s passionate about, most recently as board chair. In addition, she is a board member with the Hampden County Bar Assoc.

Meanwhile, in her day job, she finds all aspects of the work — and fighting those legal battles — immensely rewarding.

“You can really move the needle in a huge way and change people’s lives,” she explained. “Whether it’s defending against a conviction or helping people get services in schools … we win a lot of the time, but even when we don’t, it’s that dignity and representation; they had their fair shake at due process.”

—George O’Brien