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For Employers, the Challenges of Managing a Workforce Keep Growing

By
Allison Ebner
Employment Special Coverage

Coping with the Elements

Allison Ebner

Allison Ebner says there is a good deal of tension between employees and employers in the workplace today.

 

Allison Ebner counts herself a fan of the Discovery Channel show Deadliest Catch, which chronicles the lives of crews fishing for king and snow crab in Alaska, with that name effectively communicating just how dangerous a profession this is.

And Ebner, who took the helm at the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast earlier this year, can find seemingly endless parallels between the dangers of crab fishing in the Bering Sea and the perils of managing the modern workplace.

With the former, it’s gale-force winds, rogue waves, ice formations, and dealing with greenhorns. With the latter, well … it’s everything from new regulations like family medical leave to coping with heightened expectations among employees concerning remote work, hybrid schedules, and more, to the demands of the younger generations.

In both cases, things come at leaders quickly and with great force, Ebner said. They must be as ready as they can be for whatever might hit them and then able to cope with the rough seas, whether they’re of the literal or figurative variety.

“It’s difficult … if you’re a Baby Boomer C-suite executive and you’re trying to get your arms around this workforce, it’s a bear,” she told BusinessWest, adding that, over the past few years, there have been even more challenges heaped upon business owners and managers. These include everything from less tolerance of differing opinions (on everything from science to politics) to an apparent gulf between employees and employers when it comes to pre-pandemic levels of production and results, and whether businesses should be back there by now.

“There’s a very, very big Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots thing happening here — there’s tension between employers and employees,” she explained. “First, there was the Great Resignation, then there was quiet quitting, and now there is a great divide: employers’ expectations are coming back to pre-COVID expectations, but employees are not coming back to work with that same mindset.”

“It’s difficult … if you’re a Baby Boomer C-suite executive and you’re trying to get your arms around this workforce, it’s a bear.”

As for that lack of tolerance for differing opinions, it’s showing up in a rise of calls to EANE’s hotline that fall into the broad category of employee relations, said Ebner, who described them this way: “I have an employee who has done, or is doing, this; what do I do about it?”

She noted that “there’s a lot of workplace-respect things happening today; we seem to, as a general society, have lost our ability to get along with one another to some regard. And I think that translates to the workplace; there’s less tolerance for someone who doesn’t think as I do or believe exactly the same things I do.”

As a result, EANE has been doing considerably more workplace-respect and conflict-resolution training these days, but the underlying whitewater remains.

“There’s no happy medium, so there’s a lot of tension,” she went on, adding that, with what is shaping up to be an epic presidential race this year, this tension will only rise as 2024 progresses, probably creating more employee-relations-related calls to the hotline.

Overall, in this climate and at this time of seemingly constant change, employers must put a premium on communication and, especially, training their mid-managers, what Ebner called their “people leaders.”

“These are the mid-level managers that have been ignored for years,” she said. “They’ve been ignored, they haven’t been trained, and they’re just sort of hanging out there. They need to be focused on; this is how organizations are going to be successful. They’re closest to the money — the money is your employees; you can’t function without them.”

For this issue’s focus on employment, BusinessWest talked with Ebner about the forces rocking the boat that is the modern workplace and what can be expected in the months to come.

 

Riding the Waves

Returning to Deadliest Catch, Ebner explained that, while the boat captains captured on the show possess many admirable qualities, flexibility, a willingness to compromise, and even communication are generally not among them.

And these are traits that today’s business managers certainly need, she went on, adding that, without them, life is going to be much more difficult and stressful — as if it weren’t already difficult and stressful enough, for those reasons above, many of which started during, or were accelerated by, the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of workplace-respect things happening today; we seem to, as a general society, have lost our ability to get along with one another to some regard. And I think that translates to the workplace; there’s less tolerance for someone who doesn’t think as I do or believe exactly the same things I do.”

Return to work, or RTW — another acronym that has worked its way into the lexicon — is just part of it.

The larger piece involves who’s holding the cards in the workplace today, she went on, adding that, during COVID and the height of the workforce crisis that followed, it was clearly employees that were driving the boat. Many think they still have the upper hand, but, increasingly, employers believe they are back in control.

And that’s where the rock-’em-sock-’em turmoil comes in.

“With COVID, we kind of dropped all of our performance-management standards, and now, employers are trying to bring those back,” Ebner explained. “They’re saying, ‘you can’t call out four times and violate our attendance policy and still have a job.’ During COVID, you could, and you could post-COVID the past few years because the job market was so tight.

“Now, that’s settled down a little bit, so employers are trying to rein things in a little bit, and employees are very resistant to that,” she went on. “We see it with return to work … you see it nationally with large corporations that are trying to bring their employees back, some more successfully than others. Employees want their work-life balance, they want that flexibility, and they expect it.

“They have higher expectations from their employers because they got more during these past three years and they have more negotiating power, and they want to keep that,” she continued. “But employers are saying, ‘we have a business to run here, the economy’s tough, it’s getting more competitive, and we’ve got to buckle down.’”

This general difference of opinion is contributing to the uptick in employee-relations matters, said Ebner, adding that things have been at a slow boil since last summer, but they’ve been heating up in recent months.

And this is just one of the dynamics creating more challenges in the workplace, adding that relatively new regulations, such as family medical leave and changing demographics within the workforce — with Baby Boomers moving into retirement, Gen Xers on the downside, and Gen Y and Gen Z “taking over” — are among the others.

“They have higher expectations from their employers because they got more during these past three years and they have more negotiating power, and they want to keep that. But employers are saying, ‘we have a business to run here, the economy’s tough, it’s getting more competitive, and we’ve got to buckle down.’”

“We have to be mindful of who’s in the workplace today,” she said. “And if you look at five, 10, 15 years down the road, most companies are doing strategic planning and predicting the future … and it’s Millennials and Zoomers, and that’s a real mindset shift for a lot of the C-suite people we talk to, and they are extremely unhappy about it.”

They’re not happy because what they’ve done for benefits and the larger employee value proposition (EVP) was much different for the work-first, family-second Baby Boomers than it is for the younger generations, who have different priorities and are not shy about communicating them.

“It’s a reality, but it’s also a slap in the face for many,” she said, referring, again, to older, Baby Boom-generation leaders. “But there is no choice; the younger generations are here, they are dominating, and they are the future; we don’t have the robots yet that you can program.”

In this environment, the managers that are thriving (and, yes, that’s a relative term) are those who can communicate with their employees and train those that Ebner calls “people leaders.”

“It’s all about expectations, and the employer who sits down with their team and communicates what is expected will fare better in this environment,” she said.

“The number-one thing employers can do right now to help themselves is train their people leaders; they’re the ones delivering the message inside the organization regarding expectations and performance metrics,” she added. “They are the conduit; they are the veins that run through the organization where everything flows through. Good people leaders have good communications skills, and they help set expectations. And it’s a two-way street now; the employee feedback gets to the leadership of an organization through the people leaders.”

All this points to a need for more professional development in the workplace, she said, adding that employees are asking for it, if not demanding it, and employers should want to provide it.

 

The Sea Suite

Reflecting on the current scene in the workplace, Ebner said that many of the Baby Boom-aged HR professionals she knows say they can’t wait to retire.

“They’re kind of done; they’re ready,” she told BusinessWest. “They’re not ready for the brave new world we’re in.”

Those sentiments speak to how challenging the workforce has become in recent years, a pattern that will likely only accelerate in the future, a reality that brings still more comparisons to Deadliest Catch.

There is nothing easy about catching king crab in the Bering Sea. And these days, there’s nothing easy about managing a workforce. It all comes down to being ready for whatever might come at you.

Mont Marie Meets Rehab Needs Between Hospital and Home

By Contributor
Barbara Chiampa
Healthcare News Special Coverage

Bridging the Gap

By Emily Thurlow

With classic Christmas carols softly emanating from a TV across the room and an Irish wolfhound named Veren panting rhythmically a short distance behind her, Barbara Chiampa pedaled a stationary bicycle on a recent afternoon at Mont Marie Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center’s therapy gym.

With guidance from Reliant Rehabilitation physical therapy assistant Tara McCauley, Chiampa was working on improving her balance and walking. After noting improvement in her gait and movement with a handheld assist, Chiampa paused for a few kisses from Veren, a 2-year-old therapy dog.

The staff at the Holyoke facility benefits from the canine too, said his handler, registered occupational therapist Sylvia Korza of Reliant Rehabilitation. “He comes to work with me, and he loves everybody. He’s great for therapy — even the staff. He helps lift everyone’s mood.”

The gym, which was expanded in 2016, features several pieces of equipment dedicated to improving mobility, including parallel bars and practice stairs. Beyond the machines, the therapy gym offers opportunities for McCauley and Korza to customize regimens that are tailored to the specific needs of patients recovering from medical procedures, injuries, or illnesses.

The therapy offered at the center’s gym is one of multiple subacute rehabilitation care services offered at the 84-bed Mont Marie facility, which was built in 1962 and formerly owned and operated by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 2014, Mont Marie was purchased by Tryko Partners, which is headquartered in New Jersey, and is managed by its healthcare subsidiary, Marquis Health Consulting Services. Mont Marie is one of 10 of Marquis’ facilities in Massachusetts.

In recent years, the licensed nursing facility’s short-term rehabilitation care services have continued to grow, adding new programs and certifications, to meet the growing needs of the community.

A need for subacute or short-term rehabilitative care can emerge after a hospital stay for hip surgery or a stroke, or if an individual needs some physical strengthening or medication management, said Natasha Pieciak, administrator at Mont Marie.

“Baby Boomers are getting older, so as the population ages, there’s more of a demand for supportive services. We’re not a hospital — we’re kind of like a step down; we’re supportive services to bridge that gap between home-care services and the hospital.”

Initially, the 26-bed first floor was dedicated to this service, but it has since expanded to the 29-bed second floor as well. At times, admissions have jumped as high as 50 per month.

“There are a lot of factors that influence this growth,” said Pieciak, who has served as administrator of the center since September 2022. “Baby Boomers are getting older, so as the population ages, there’s more of a demand for supportive services. We’re not a hospital — we’re kind of like a step down; we’re supportive services to bridge that gap between home-care services and the hospital.

“With the aging population, I think these services become more needed out in the community, so we’re here to support people in that way, so they can be successful at home. People want to be at home, so we’re really here to try to support them to get them ready to do that.”

Barbara Chiampa

Barbara Chiampa pedals an exercise bicycle at Mont Marie Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Holyoke.

Through Mont Marie’s partnerships with Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and Holyoke Medical Center, as well as referrals from Mercy Medical Center in Springfield and Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Pieciak said Mont Marie has been made aware of the growing demand for these rehabilitative services.

“We work closely with our partners within the hospital systems; we collaborate,” she said. “With Baystate, for example, we have weekly calls with their accountable-care organization management team, who will follow a patient from hospital to home, and we communicate with them, and they tell us what they’re seeing, what their needs are. We’re just really building that relationship and working with them to help identify and meet the needs that we’re seeing out in the community.”

“The goal of these specialty programs is to educate and train the residents how to manage and live with their conditions.”

In working with Baystate, Pieciak said Mont Marie has become one of two skilled-nursing facilities that have qualified for a waiver for the three-day requirement under the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The waiver eliminates the requirement to have a three-day inpatient hospital stay prior to a Medicare-covered, post-hospital, extended-care service.

What this means, Pieciak explained, is that, if a patient is in a hospital emergency department but don’t have a three-day stay, instead of going back home and potentially falling or fracturing a hip, they could go to Mont Marie as long as they meet a skilled need.

“This is huge because there’s a gap there,” she said. “Residents would go home and could potentially have worse outcomes. What we’re doing is bridging that gap from hospital to home.”

In addition to physical and occupational therapies, Mont Marie’s subacute rehab offers speech therapy up to seven days a week.

 

Life Goals

Within its major focus on subacute rehabilitation care, Mont Marie offers three specialty programs: cardiopulmonary, chronic kidney disease management, and heart failure.

“The goal of these specialty programs is to educate and train the residents how to manage and live with their conditions,” Pieciak said.

Natasha Pieciak

Natasha Pieciak says Mont Marie works closely with its partners within hospital systems.

The cardiopulmonary rehabilitation program is physician-led under the direction of a pulmonologist and focuses on helping patients achieve the most active life possible despite any physical limitations and/or cardiopulmonary diagnoses. The program, which is geared toward individuals with diagnoses of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), post-lung transplants, emphysema, and acute respiratory failure, offers access to lab and radiology services, tracheostomy care and management, nebulizer therapies, bladder scanning, and several oxygen therapies, including liquid nitrogen.

The renal program is focused on reducing symptoms of chronic kidney disease, increasing a patient’s quality of life, and promoting independence. Mont Marie offers onsite dialysis provided by American Renal Associates, consultative visits by staff nephrologists, diabetic management and education, a monthly support group, and health coaching.

In October, Mont Marie received its skilled-nursing facility heart-failure certification from the American Heart Assoc. (AHA). In order to be considered eligible for this certification, facilities must be located in the U.S. or a U.S. territory and implement a heart-failure program that uses a standardized method of delivering clinical care based on current evidence-based guidelines.

“This was a huge accomplishment,” Pieciak said. “There are very few facilities that are credentialed. The American Heart Association has armed us with innovative methods and additional tools so that we can be trailblazers and give our heart-failure patients the best care.”

The vetting provides an evidence-based framework for evaluating skilled-nursing facilities against the AHA’s science-based requirements for heart failure patients, including care coordination, clinical management, quality improvement, program management, and patient and caregiver education and support.

According to the AHA, nearly one in four heart failure patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, and approximately half are readmitted within six months. It has also been suggested that about 25% of readmissions may be preventable.

“We’re trying to get ahead of hospital readmissions,” said Raymonda Sample, the lead for the heart-failure program and unit manager.

With the certification, Mont Marie has been provided with access to centers on treating heart failure and its co-morbidities.

Sample noted that one of the biggest benefits to the staff’s education on the heart-failure program is being able to educate patients on how they can live more independently with fewer flareups of their disease.

To that end, Mont Marie uses what’s called a ‘zone tool.’ The traffic-light color-coded guide indicates an all-clear, or green, when a patient has no shortness of breath; chest pain; swelling of the feet, ankles, legs, or stomach; or weight gain of more than two pounds. It’s time to call a doctor if a patient is in the so-called warning (yellow) zone, when they’re experiencing dizziness; dry, hacking cough; more shortness of breath; uneasy feelings; no energy; difficulty breathing when lying down; swelling of the feet, ankles, legs, or stomach; or weight gain of three or more pounds in one day or five pounds in one week.

A medical alert, or red zone, is when the previous symptoms have been exacerbated and a patient is having a hard time breathing or is experiencing unrelieved shortness of breath while sitting still, chest pain, or confusion.

In addition to this tool, Sample has created an entire guide board for staff that she also uses to educate family members of patients. The tool helps provide a better continuity of care, she explained.

“With this education, we are able to identify how the patient is feeling for the day,” she said. “If say, the patient is in the middle of therapy and they’re feeling short of breath, or telling the therapist maybe they haven’t eaten much in the last couple of days, or not sleeping well — there’s a sort of board out there where you can see the different signs and symptoms of heart failure.”

 

Safe at Home

Even though a patient has a plan in place to be discharged from the facility following treatment at Mont Marie, care doesn’t end at the door.

“When we discharge patients, we do follow-up calls with the patient just to find out how the transition back home goes, the home care services … we make sure they’re seen by their primary-care physician within 10 days, and if they don’t have a scale, we make sure we send them home with one,” Sample said. “This is so both our patients and the staff recognize the signs and symptoms of heart failure, so we can try to avoid rehospitalization.”

EEOC Takes Action Against Associational Discrimination

By Contributor
Law Special Coverage

Guilty by Association

By Trevor Brice, Esq.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment. However, the ADA does not require an employer to assist — or in other words, accommodate — a person without a disability due to that person’s association with someone with a disability.

Still, an employer cannot discriminate against an employee or applicant because of that person’s association with someone with a disability. This is what is called ‘associational discrimination,’ which, in the below case, was due to another’s disability under the ADA.

On Sept. 19, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), announced that it had sued a private school for associational discrimination under the ADA. According to the EEOC’s announcement, the school allegedly discriminated against one of its teachers by refusing to renew her contract over her daughter’s disability.

Trevor Brice

Trevor Brice

“An employer cannot discriminate against an employee or applicant because of that person’s association with someone with a disability. This is what is called ‘associational discrimination.’”

This was “precisely the kind of conduct the ADA’s associational-discrimination provision was intended to prohibit,” said Rosemarie Rhodes, EEOC’s Baltimore Field Office director. On Dec. 15, the EEOC announced that the matter had been settled for just over $85,000 by the private school, with the school to pay $50,858 in back pay, $4,428 in interest on the back pay, and $30,000 in non-wage damages.

This settlement brings associational-discrimination enforcement into the limelight and presents more scenarios for employers to look out for and train their employees on for the new year.

 

Associational Discrimination and the ADA

Associational discrimination based on another’s disability requires “that (1) the employee was qualified for the job at the time of the adverse employment action, (2) that the employee was subjected to an adverse employment action, (3) that the employer knew at the time of the adverse employment action that the employee had a relative or associate with a disability, and (4) that the adverse employment action occurred under circumstances raising a reasonable inference that the disability of the relative or associate was a determining factor in the employer’s decision” (Carey v. AB Car Rental Servs. Inc.).

The EEOC, in its announcement, stated that the school was aware of the teacher’s daughter’s disability and that it decided to not renew the teacher’s contract because it assumed (without investigation, or even asking the teacher) that her daughter’s disability, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, would undermine the teacher’s focus and commitment to her job. The school instead decided to renew the contracts of other teachers who had less experience and tenure than the teacher whose daughter had a disability.

In its complaint, the EEOC pleaded the requirements of an associational-discrimination claim based on disability through the circumstances described in its announcement. The teacher performed her job satisfactorily, according to the EEOC, making her qualified for the job at the time the private school refused to renew her contract. In order to not be qualified for her job, the school would have had to demonstrate the teacher had performance deficiencies or otherwise could not perform the essential functions of her job.

Further, the private school subjected the teacher to an adverse employment action by not renewing her employment contract. An adverse employment action can be any action by an employer that takes away a benefit of an employee’s employment, e.g. taking away a company car, suspension from employment, termination, etc.

“Without both knowledge and a reasonable inference, associational discrimination will most likely be unactionable. Nevertheless, it is important to stress to employees that discrimination and harassment based on protected class is prohibited, no matter the circumstance.”

Finally, the EEOC pleaded that the private school knew of the teacher’s daughter’s disability and allegedly specifically cited that reason for not renewing the teacher’s contract, making for the reasonable inference that the teacher’s daughter’s disability was a determining factor in its decision. As such, the EEOC met its burden for pleading its case of associational discrimination based on disability, which most likely prompted the private school to settle the claims.

 

Pitfalls of Associational Discrimination

As shown by the EEOC’s enforcement action, associational-discrimination claims are actionable claims that can cost employers a substantial amount of money. The pitfalls of these claims are that they are not the easiest to catch. For example, it is comparatively easier to catch when there is direct discrimination (e.g. a racial remark, comment against a disability) than to read into the subtext of a conversation that is deprecating to an associate of an employee who is part of a protected class.

However, there are ways to teach this kind of discrimination and harassment to frontline employees and make them aware enough of an associational-discrimination or harassment issue to report it.

First, employees should be aware that discrimination or harassment based on protected class (e.g. race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, etc.) is prohibited. Along these lines, it is equally prohibited to discriminate or harass another employee based on the protected characteristics of someone with whom the employee associates. For example, it is illegal to use the knowledge that an employee has Jewish friends to discriminate against that employee and subject him to adverse employment actions based on that knowledge.

Second, it is important to stress that it is the knowledge of the employee’s associates’ protected classes that makes associational discrimination actionable. An offhand comment by an employee that happens to relate to an employee’s associates’ or relatives’ protected class will not necessarily implicate associational discrimination, but making the same comment and directly referencing the associate or relative and their protected class will make for this implication. In this sense, if it is discriminatory or harassing to the associate or relative, it will most likely be discriminatory or harassing to the employee.

If cornerstones of associational discrimination like these are taught and enforced, it will be less likely that an employer will be subject to the same fate as the above-referenced private school.

 

Takeaways

Associational discrimination can raise its head in a variety of circumstances, including the contract-renewal scenario above; hiring, termination, and other employment decisions; as well as discriminatory and harassing behaviors from employees.

Though it is more difficult to catch than scenarios in which discrimination or harassment based on protected class is direct, the pivotal elements of associational discrimination are knowledge of the associates’ or relatives’ protected class and the reasonable inference that the knowledge was a determining factor in the adverse employment decision. Without both knowledge and a reasonable inference, associational discrimination will most likely be unactionable. Nevertheless, it is important to stress to employees that discrimination and harassment based on protected class is prohibited, no matter the circumstance.

Further, a related claim to associational discrimination is a retaliation claim for reporting discrimination or harassment perpetrated against another employee. In this scenario, an employee reports that another employee is being discriminated against because of their protected class, and then the reporting employee is subjected to an adverse employment action. This kind of ‘associational’ activity by employees is protected, and an employer can be subjected to legal action if the report is not handled properly.

As associational discrimination and related retaliation can be difficult to detect, it is prudent to contact legal counsel in order to avoid any potential liability and train staff to recognize and report associational-discrimination scenarios.

 

Trevor Brice is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment-law matters at the Royal Law Firm LLP, a woman-owned, women-managed corporate law firm that is certified as a women’s business enterprise with the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office, the National Assoc. of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

BusinessTalk with Canna Provisions CEO Meg Sanders

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 194: January 2024

Joe Interviews Meg Sanders, CEO of Canna Provisions

Meg Sanders

The initial ‘green rush’ is over, and the cannabis industry in Massachusetts faces a host of new challenges, as heightened competition has suppressed prices, driven some shops out of business, and made it difficult for others to survive, let alone thrive. In the meantime, a continued disconnect between federal and state law continues to burden cannabis proprietors with onerous hurdles in the realms of banking, taxation, transportation, and more. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Canna Provisions CEO Meg Sanders talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about where the market in the Bay State is headed, and also about her involvement in a lawsuit against the U.S. government, seeking to block federal enforcement of cannabis prohibition against state-legal activity. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

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BusinessTalk with Garett DiStefano, director of Dining Services at UMass Amherst

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 193: December 26, 2023

George O’Brien Interviews with Garett DiStefano, director of Dining Services at UMass Amherst

Garret DiStefano likes to say that he’s the CFO — that’s chief food officer — at UMass Dining, which has been named the best program in the country eight years running by the Princeton Review. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, contributing writer George O’Brien talks with DiStefano about the many ingredients that go into not just a successful program, but the best program in the country. And also about what it takes to not simply reach the top — something that’s hard enough given the high level of competition from schools across the country — but what it takes to stay there year after year. It’s all must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

Sponsored by:

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Some Concerning Trends Continued in 2023 — but There Was Good News, Too

By
Features Special Coverage

A Year of Challenge and Progress

By Joseph Bednar and George O’Brien

Way Finder CEO Keith Fairey

Way Finder CEO Keith Fairey says the housing crisis has been years in the making and results from several factors, including a lack of investment in new housing.

One one hand, every year removed from the pandemic of 2020 is a step toward normalcy, and, for the most part, business rolled on in 2023 — but the effects of that pivotal year still linger, through persistent challenges like inflation, workforce shortages, the deepening roots of remote work, and behavioral-health crises.

But other trends have emerged as well, from a harsher landscape for cannabis businesses to actual movement on east-west rail, to positive developments in downtown Springfield.

As 2024 dawns, undoubtedly bringing a new host of challenges and opportunities, BusinessWest presents its year in review: a look back at some of the stories and issues that shaped our lives, and will, in many cases, continue to do so.

 

The Housing Crisis Deepens

One of the more poignant stories of 2023 was a deepening housing crisis that is touching virtually every community in this region, the state, and many parts of the country.

“We got here over decades of underinvesting in housing production nationally, and not tuning that production to the needs and demographic changes of communities,” Keith Fairey, president and CEO of Springfield-based Way Finders, told BusinessWest in an interview this fall, adding that a resolution to this crisis won’t come quickly or easily, either.

“One of the things we have to do is make sure Massachusetts remains a competitive state for years to come. And one of the main indicators of whether you are competitive is ‘can people afford to live in this state?”

The major challenges involve not only creating more housing, because not much was built over the past few decades, but housing that fals into the ‘affordable’ category.

Indeed, state Rep. John Velis, a member of the Senate’s Housing Committee, said there are many side effects from the housing crisis, especially when it comes to the state’s ability to retain residents. “One of the things we have to do is make sure Massachusetts remains a competitive state for years to come. And one of the main indicators of whether you are competitive is ‘can people afford to live in this state?’”

 

Inflation and Interest Rates

The Fed was on a mission in 2023 — to tame inflation but without putting the country into recession, as it famously did in the ’80s. By and large, it was mission accomplished.

Indeed, the latest data on inflation showed a 3% increase over last year in November, a significant improvement on the numbers from late last year and early this year. Meanwhile, the country seems to have avoided a recession, with the economy expanding at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 5.2% in the third quarter, after generating 2.2% annualized growth in the first quarter and 2.2% in the second quarter. In short, the economy actually accelerated, rather than slowing down, due to persistently strong consumer spending.

Efforts to stem inflation by raising interest rates were not without consequences, though, as the housing market cooled tremendously, if not historically. And commercial lending cooled as well, as many business owners took a wait-and-see approach with regard to where interest rates were headed.

 

New Challenges for Cannabis

Is the ‘green rush’ over for the cannabis industry in Massachusetts? If so, the Bay State is simply following the pattern of every other state that legalizes the drug.

According to that well-told story, the first dispensaries on the scene are bouyed by a favorable supply-and-demand equation — and long lines of customers. But as the market is flooded with competitors — not only locally, but from across state lines — not everyone survives, as a series of business closings this year demonstrates. In fact, according to the Cannabis Control Commission, 16 licenses in Massachusetts have been surrendered, not been renewed, or been revoked by the agency.

The heightened competition has caused retail prices to plummet for an industry already beset by profit-margin challenges. Unfavorable federal tax laws surrounding the growth, production, and sale of cannabis, coupled with local and state tax obligations and continued federal roadblocks to financing, transport, and other aspects of business have made it increasingly difficult to turn a profit. On the latter issue, federal decriminalization would ease the challenges somewhat, but progress there has been frustratingly slow.

Steven Weiss, shareholder at Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin

Steven Weiss, shareholder at Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, says he’s surprised lawmakers haven’t moved more quickly toward decriminalizing cannabis on the federal level.

Workforce Challenges Continue

While many businesses and institutions, including the region’s hospitals, reported some progress in 2023 when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, workforce issues persisted in many sectors, especially hospitality.

Indeed, across the region, many restaurants have been forced to reduce the number of days they are open, and some banquet facilities have been limiting capacity due to challenges with securing adequate levels of staff.

Those are some of the visible manifestations of a workforce crisis that started during the pandemic and has lingered for a variety of reasons, from the retirement of Baby Boomers to an apparent lack of willingness to accept lower-wage positions in service businesses.

The ongoing crisis has led to stiff battles for help in certain sectors, including manufacturing, the building trades, engineering, and healthcare, among others, resulting in higher wages, more benefits, and greater flexibility when it comes to where and when people work, which brings us to another of the big stories in 2023…

 

Remote Work, Hybrid Schedules Gain More Traction

While some larger employers succeeded in bringing everyone back to the office in 2023, most have decided not to even try. Indeed, there was more evidence in 2023 that remote work and hybrid schedules have become a permanent part of the workplace landscape.

In interviews with employers large and small, a persistent theme on this topic has been the need to be flexible when it comes to schedules, and especially where people work. Many businesses, from banks to architecture firms to financial-services companies, have found that employees can be effective and productive working remotely, with many favoring a hybrid schedule that brings people to the office a few days a week. Such flexibility makes employees happier, they said, making it easier to attract and retain talent.

This pattern is causing some anxiety in the commercial office market amid speculation that companies will be seeking smaller spaces moving forward, but the full impact of the shift to remote work and hybrid schedules may not be known for years.

 

Movement on East-west Rail

This story might continue to inch down the tracks, so to speak, for years before the engine really starts moving, but after many years of debate, planning, and crunching the numbers, actual progress is emerging in the effort to connect Pittsfield with Boston by rail, with stops in Springfield, Palmer, and Worcester, among others.

“We can also make progress in breaking cycles of intergenerational poverty by helping residents complete their higher-education credentials so they can attain good jobs and build a career path.”

The big news this past fall was a federal grant of $108 million to Massachusetts for rail infrastructure upgrades, and Gov. Maura Healey also signed off on $12.5 million in DOT funding in the state’s FY 2024 budget toward the effort.

The additional east-west service would complement passenger trains now running north-south through Springfield’s Union Station, offering access to points from Greenfield to New Haven.

“The facts are simple: improving and expanding passenger rail service will have a tremendous impact on regional economies throughout Massachusetts,” U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said. “That is why we will continue to invest in a project whose framework has the potential to serve as a model for expanding passenger rail service across the country.”

 

Free Community College

Almost 2 million Massachusetts residents are over age 25 without a college degree. MassReconnect aims to change that, by offering free tuition and fees — as well as an allowance for books and supplies — at any of Massachusetts’ community colleges for residents over age 25.

Gov. Maura Healey pitched it as a strategy to generate more young, skilled talent in the workplace at a time when businesses are struggling to recruit and retain employees (more on that later). “We can also make progress in breaking cycles of intergenerational poverty by helping residents complete their higher-education credentials so they can attain good jobs and build a career path,” she added.

New HCC President George Timmons

New HCC President George Timmons says “community colleges are, to me, a great pathway to a better life.”

Holyoke Community College President George Timmons called the initiative “an exciting moment for HCC and all Massachusetts community colleges,” adding that “MassReconnect will enable our community colleges to do more of what we do best, which is serve students from all ages and all backgrounds and provide them with an exceptional education that leads to employment and, ultimately, a stronger economy and thriving region.”

 

New Higher-education Leadership

Speaking of Timmons, he was among the new presidents at the region’s colleges and universities, taking the the reins from Christina Royal, who had been at HCC since January 2017. Timmons was previously provost and senior vice president of Academic and Student Affairs at Columbia Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y.

Meanwhile, Danielle Ren Holley, a noted legal educator and social-justice scholar, became the first Black woman in the 186-year history of Mount Holyoke College to serve as permanent president. Since 2014, Holley had served as dean and professor of Law at Howard University School of Law.

And at UMass Amherst, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy stepped down after 11 years leading the university, to be succeeded by Javier Reyes, who had been serving as interim chancellor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

“You’re not coming in to repair something, but to build on the shoulders of giants — and that is a very attractive opportunity,” Reyes said. “You’re not trying to catch up; you’re really trying to move and set the direction and be a forward leader. It comes with more pressure, but it’s more exciting.”

 

Thunderous Impact for the T-Birds

The Springfield Thunderbirds released the results of an economic-impact study conducted by the UMass Donahue Institute that shows the team’s operations have generated $126 million for the local economy since 2017.

The study included an analysis of team operations data, MassMutual Center concessions figures, a survey of more than 2,000 T-Birds patrons, and interviews with local business owners and other local stakeholders. Among its findings, the study shows that the T-Birds created $76 million in cumulative personal income throughout the region and contributed $10 million to state and local taxes.

The impact on downtown Springfield businesses is especially profound. Seventy-eight percent of T-Birds fans spend money on something other than hockey when they go to a game, including 68% who are patronizing a bar, restaurant, or MGM Springfield. The study also found that median spending by fans outside the arena is $40 per person on game nights and that every dollar of T-Birds’ revenue is estimated to yield $4.09 of additional economic activity in the Pioneer Valley. Meanwhile, since the team’s inaugural season, it has doubled the number of jobs created from 112 in 2017 to 236 in 2023.

 

Big Y Opens Downtown

In fact, despite the speed bump posed by the pandemic, downtown Springfield seems to have some momentum again. One of the more intriguing stories of 2023 was the opening during the summer of a scaled-down Big Y supermarket on the ground floor of Tower Square.

The new Big Y Express

The new Big Y Express represents an imaginative use of ARPA funds, addresses a food desert, and contributes to momentum in downtown Springfield.

The development was noteworthy for several reasons. First, it continued the reimagination of Tower Square, which now boasts the Greater Springfield YMCA, White Lion Brewing, two colleges, and other institutions. It also brings a supermarket to what had been a food desert. And it represents an imaginative, community-building use of ARPA funds.

The store opened its doors in June to considerable fanfare, and early results have been solid, with the store becoming a welcome addition to the downtown landscape. Combined with the Thunderbirds’ success, some of MGM Springfield’s strongest revenue months, and the ongoing residential development at the former Court Square Hotel, there’s a lot to be excited about.

 

New Home Sought for ‘Sick Courthouse’

Not all downtown news emerged from a positive place. Another developing story in 2023 was the ongoing work to secure a replacement for the Roderick Ireland Courthouse on State Street in Springfield, whose dilapidated conditions have been under scrutiny for years and have earned it the nickname the ‘sick courthouse,’ because many who have worked there have contracted various illnesses.

Gov. Maura Healey has called for investing $106 million over a five-year period to construct a new justice center in Springfield, and in November, the Healey administration issued an official request for proposals involving a least two developable acres on which to build a new courthouse. Proposals are due Jan. 31.

While redevelopment of the current site remains an option, Springfield officials are intrigued by the possibility of building not only a new courthouse, but also redeveloping the current site, which is right off I-91 in the heart of downtown.

 

Weather Challenges for Farmers

It’s called the Natural Disaster Recovery Program for Agriculture, and it exists because Mother Nature hit Massachusetts — in particular, its farmers — hard in 2023.

The state program provides financial assistance to farmers who suffered crop losses as a result of any of three natural disasters: the Feb. 3-5 deep freeze that impacted a large amount of peach and stone-fruit production, the May 17-18 frost that impacted a large amount of apple production and vineyards, and the July 9-16 rainfall and flooding that impacted a large amount of vegetable crops, field crops, and hay and forage crops.

But the government wasn’t alone in the effort to help farmers sustain this triple body blow. Area banks and other oranizations created funds, as did philanthropist Harold Grinspoon — a long-time and notable advocate for farmers through his foundation’s Local Farmer Awards — swiftly pledged $50,000 toward flood-relief efforts following the July rains, distributing checks to 50 farmers impacted by the floods.

 

Behavioral Health at the Forefront

In August, Baystate Health and Lifepoint Health celebrated the opening of Valley Springs Behavioral Health Hospital, a 122,000-square-foot, four-story facility in Holyoke featuring 150 private and semi-private rooms for inpatient behavioral healthcare for adults and adolescents.

It’s yet another development — the opening of MiraVista Behavioral Health Center in Holyoke in 2021 was another one — that aims to fill an access gap in behavioral health, at a time when the mental-health and addiction needs remain high. The pandemic caused a spike in both, the effects of which are still being felt today.

Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health, said Valley Springs increases the inpatient behavioral-health capacity in the region by 50%. “Until now, about 30% of behavioral-health patients needing care would have to go outside the region. Valley Springs Behavioral Health Hospital will allow us to provide top-quality care for more patients right here in Western Massachusetts.”

 

Holyoke Celebrates Its 150th

One of the more fun stories of 2023 was Holyoke’s year-long 150th-anniversary celebration. BusinessWest printed a special edition in March to coincide with the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which included stories and photos that celebrated the past and present, while speculating on the future. The many interviews captured the unique essence and character of Holyoke, a close-knit community with a proud history and many traditions.

“There’s been a lot of change over the years, but what hasn’t changed is the spirit of the people,” Jim Sullivan, president of the O’Connell Companies and a Holyoke native, said. “There is a very proud heritage in Holyoke, and it still exists today.”

Said Gary Rome, another native of the Paper City and owner of Gary Rome Auto Group, “there’s a saying … as Holyokers, we can talk bad about Holyoke, but you can’t talk bad about Holyoke.”

Pickup Sales Are, Well, Picking Up Across the Board

By
Ben Sullivan, seen here beside the Chevy Silverado ZR2
Autos Special Coverage

Keep on Truckin’

Ben Sullivan, seen here beside the Chevy Silverado ZR2

Ben Sullivan, seen here beside the Chevy Silverado ZR2 he’s now driving, says demand for trucks is up across the board, especially in the compact category.

Before relocating to the 413 and a job with Balise Motor Sales, Ben Sullivan lived in Texas for 15 years.

In the Lone Star State, he said, one of every four vehicles sold is a half-ton pickup or larger. There, parking lots and parking garages are designed specifically to accommodate large pickups, with wide-open spaces and yellow lines that are farther apart. Pickups, he said, are part of the culture.

“Here, people drive diesel, heavy-duty trucks because they’re pulling a landscape trailer behind them or they’re going to a construction site,” said Sullivan, chief operating officer at Balise. “In Texas, people drive them because they want to look cool.”

Western Mass., and much of the rest of the country, is a long way from Texas — at least when it comes to pickups — but there is considerable movement in that direction, he said, adding that pickups are becoming increasingly popular with just about all age groups, and especially young people.

And part of the reason why is the wide range of options now on the market — from large trucks to the mid-range, half-ton offerings, to a growing number of smaller, modestly priced trucks that are especially popular with active, outdoor-loving young people.

These include Ford’s Maverick, which came out in 2022. This is a compact truck that seats five, boasts hybrid power, and has an XL trim with a base sticker price of $23,400, but also offers a Lariat model with leather seats.

“When you look at the truck market, there’s work trucks, there’s people who need them for towing boats, you have people who use them for leisure activities, and then, you have people who drive them for lifestyle — ‘I like the look of a truck.’”

That makes this an attractive option for people who don’t necessarily want to tow a boat or trailer and don’t work in construction, but do want everything else a pickup can provide, said Mike Marcotte, president of Holyoke-based Marcotte Ford.

“It’s been doing really well since it came out,” he said, adding that it’s become a solid option for many constituencies. “It’s popular with people right out of college, but also with contractors who want a vehicle they can go out and quote with, or people who may not need the size of F-150; it has the capability for multiple purposes.”

Marcotte said he’s selling a lot of Mavericks, but also a number of Rangers (another smaller truck) and F-150s, the ever-popular half-ton truck; the larger 250s and 350s; and even the Lightning, the all-electric version of the F-150, as well. With inventories improving, sales have been strong across the board.

Sullivan, whose company, Balise, sells several different nameplates, concurred, noting that there are a number of increasingly popular truck models on the market, with standard bearers Ford, Chevy, and Ram leading the way, but many others also doing well in this space, including Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda, especially with the smaller models.

Many of these ‘compact’ offerings now come with the descriptive phrase ‘adventure truck’ attached to them, said Sullivan, adding that, when these vehicles are on area lots, they’re usually not there for long.

In many ways, the current scene is reminiscent of the early and mid-’80s, when the market was flooded with smaller truck models.

“There were little trucks everywhere,” he said of those days. “Cheap little trucks, get-around trucks were very, very popular back then, and we’re seeing a return to those times; these smaller trucks are getting a lot of interest from young people.”

Mike Marcotte says Ford’s Maverick, a smaller truck

Mike Marcotte says Ford’s Maverick, a smaller truck, has been a hot seller, but there is demand for trucks in every category.

There are some differences between now and then, though, especially when it comes to accessibility. Indeed, while some makes and models are readily available — Marcotte said he has more than 150 trucks on his lot — others are not.

Indeed, Rob Pion, president of Bob Pion Buick GMAC, said he’s on his fourth year of struggles with truck inventory, especially the larger models needed by contractors and snow plowers, and especially toward year-end, when their accountants are urging them to make such purchases to take advantage of tax incentives, rather than in the new year.

“I have inventory, but not the right inventory,” he said, noting that he has several half-ton models, such as the Sierra 1500, on the lot. These are not what most of his contractor and snow-plowing customers are looking for. Meanwhile, what he does have is generally vanilla when most of his customers want something specific.

He said the market for the 1500 is somewhat soft at the moment, with those vehicles being “more of a want than a need.” Meanwhile, GM continues to struggle to supply him with the trucks for which there is a need, such as the larger 2500s and 3500s.

For this issue and its focus on auto sales, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the burgeoning truck market and what will happen down the road, as they say.

 

Bedding Down

Sullivan isn’t a dealer, per se, but like most executives in the auto-sales business, he takes full advantage of an industry perk — driving some of the latest models with dealer plates attached.

He has a hard and fast rule that he follows, though: “I drive what doesn’t sell,” he said, noting that he’s not going to hamstring any of the GMs at Balise by driving a vehicle that is in demand and could be easily sold.

So right now, he’s driving a white Chevy Silverado ZR2, which is, as they say in this business, fully loaded.

“It has the 6.2-liter engine, the big tires, the big wheels — it gets up and goes,” he said, adding that the price tag is roughly $80,000, which, in these days of higher interest rates and less-readily-available incentives, helps explain why it had been in inventory for more than six months at Balise’s Chevy story in Rhode Island and became a prime candidate for his next ride.

But while this particular Silverado wasn’t moving off the lot, trucks in many different categories (especially the smaller trucks) and across most makes and models are.

That’s because the manufacturers are making models that are, in some cases, affordable, versatile, comfortable, and fun to drive.

Rob Pion

Rob Pion says demand for trucks is growing, but there are still issues with availability.

All those adjectives apply to several Ford models, said Marcotte, adding that he’s enjoying robust sales of the Maverick, the Ranger, the F-150, and most other truck lines put out by Ford, which has been the top seller of trucks for 46 years running, he said — and, with just a few days left in 2023, appears to be headed for a 47th.

Sullivan agreed, noting that, while soaring interest rates and higher price tags — several higher-end models now go for $100,000 or more — have slowed some segments of the market, pickup sales are still strong across the board.

“When you look at the truck market, there’s work trucks, there’s people who need them for towing boats, you have people who use them for leisure activities, and then, you have people who drive them for lifestyle — ‘I like the look of a truck,’” he said, adding that all these elements are fueling sales.

Marcotte agreed. “Trucks are more versatile now — you can use them for multi-purposes,” he said. “You can use them for casual driving or also for work; the F-150 drives like a car these days.”

Meanwhile, many of the incentives that made trucks a ‘value play,’ as he called it, such as low lease rates, attractive financing offers, and more, are coming back — slowly — and availability is improving as well.

Perhaps the biggest growth in this segment is in the mid-size and smaller categories, he went on, adding that these are for people who don’t necessarily use a truck for work or towing, but for adventures and “utilitarian use.”

“They don’t need the big platform and the big motors,” he said, adding that there are many models now in the mid-size category — the Tacoma, Chevy’s Colorado, GMC’s Canyon, Nissan’s Frontier, Ford’s Ranger, and others.

And there is perhaps even more growth in what he called the “compact truck” segment — trucks built essentially on a car platform — with models like the Maverick, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, the Honda Ridgeline, and others, said both Sullivan and Marcotte.

“Those Mavericks sell the day that they land. It’s a small truck, it’s got a hybrid powertrain in it, it can carry stuff in the back, but it’s less expensive, it gets better gas mileage, and it rides better,” Sullivan noted, adding that the same things can be said of other trucks in this category; indeed, there is a lengthy waiting list for Santa Cruzes at Balise’s Hyundai store. “These trucks are a good value play, they’re not overly expensive, they’re good-looking … and there are a lot of young people who like all that they have to offer.”

And given the popularity of this segment, there will certainly be more of them in the future, said Sullivan, adding that Toyota is expected to come out with a smaller truck soon, and other makers will likely follow.

Meanwhile, with the larger trucks, there are still some lingering supply issues, said those we spoke with, citing everything from supply-chain issues — yes, still — to the recent UAW strikes.

For Pion, inventory has been a long-standing problem. He told BusinessWest that, if a customer isn’t too specific with their needs, he can probably find them something on the lot or order it, but the narrower the request, the more difficult it gets.

“If someone’s willing to work with you and just wants a 1500 pickup, you can probably find something,” he said. “But if they want something specific, like a Sierra Denali with a specific motor and a specific package, that can be very difficult to get, still.”

This environment has created great demand — and higher prices — for used trucks, he said, adding that “the value on a used one is almost as much as brand-new one because you can’t find a new one.”

With Ford, availability has greatly improved over the past year or so, said Marcotte, noting that they are, by and large, back to pre-pandemic levels. The recent UAW strikes certainly threw a scare into all dealers, he added, but production seems to already be back to what would be considered normal, meaning there are trucks being delivered regularly.

 

Towing the Line

Referencing the long-standing ‘truck war’ between Ford and Chevy — with Ram a close third — Sullivan said those hostilities took on much quieter tones during the pandemic and its aftermath as availability became a lingering issue.

“During COVID, there was no reason for a pickup-truck war; every truck that they could make — and they could only make some percentage of what they used to make — was sold before it hit the lot,” he said, adding that, as availability improves and the portfolio of in-demand models increases, the truck wars will heat up again.

And that’s only one aspect of a developing story in the truck market, one with some ongoing shifts and movement to a higher gear when it comes to overall interest and the laws of supply and demand.

Western Mass. probably won’t ever be like Texas when it comes to pickups, but there is movement in that direction.

 

How Umbrella Insurance Protects Against Catastrophic Loss

By
Insurance Special Coverage

Shelter from the Storm

Beth Pearson (left, with Alex Bennett) says a dog bite (not from this good boy, of course) could leave a homeowner without proper coverage in a bad spot for a long time.

Beth Pearson loves dogs as much as anyone else.

Working in the insurance world, she also knows people can be careless.

“If you have a dog, and that dog bites a dog walker or bites a child, if you’re sued, that’s a catastrophic impact that can affect your life for a very, very long time,” she said. “Or let’s say a teenage driver gets behind the wheel while impaired, and an accident ensues.”

In situations like this, she added, “I always say one thing: ‘I hope you have an umbrella policy.’ It’s that important.”

An umbrella policy, as its name suggests, essentially sits atop existing auto, home, or commercial insurance policies to deliver an additional layer of protection, especially against catastrophic liability loss, noted Pearson, president of Pearson Wallace Insurance in Amherst and Pittsfield.

Alex Bennett, vice president of Business Development at Pearson Wallace, suggested another example: an inground swimming pool.

“The neighbor’s child comes over, hops the fence, jumps in the pool, and even though he’s not permitted to get on your property, the owner can still be essentially responsible for the death — or responsible for someone who’s badly injured from a diving board, a slide, or any sort of pool-related incident on your premises.”

In short, personal liability coverage of $500,000 or $1 million is simply not enough when real tragedy — accompanied by soaring liability — strikes, said Nathan Lee, a Commercial Lines producer at Rush Insurance Group in Chicopee.

“We live in a litigious environment these days,” he noted. “One million does not go nearly as far as it did five or 10 years ago. It’s not a lot of money these days.”

Bennett said agents on his team look at the property and unique situations of each client and make recommendations based on their general net worth and the specific exposures they might have.

“You have to consider the potential impact of what could happen in a life-changing event, in a lawsuit, when you find yourself in a hole for something that insurance could have protected against.”

“Things can happen to anyone. If someone broke into your house and fell down the stairs, they can sue you,” he said, citing what most people would consider a particularly unfair example of liability. “You have to consider the potential impact of what could happen in a life-changing event, in a lawsuit, when you find yourself in a hole for something that insurance could have protected against.”

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of an umbrella policy is its cost — maybe $300 to $400 per year for $1 million in coverage, with additional layers of coverage available beyond that, typically in increments of $1 million.

“In its most basic form, an umbrella policy is an additional layer of liability insurance,” Lee said. “It’s additional layers above and beyond the primary, underlying policy, and its intent is to protect against catastrophic losses that exhaust that primary policy’s limits.

“If I have, say, $1 million in underlying protection, general liability, and I have an accidental death in an auto claim that comes to be a judgment of $3 million, that would exhaust the primary underlying policy, and I would look for that $2 million above and beyond that. The umbrella policy is really just an additional layer of liability.”

 

Know the Difference

On the commercial side, Lee said, there’s a difference between an umbrella policy and what’s known as an excess insurance policy. Essentially, excess policies provide coverage only when the underlying policy responds to a particular situation, like major injuries or death. Umbrella insurance, on the other hand, does expand terms and provides broader coverage for losses not outlined in the underlying policy. It also covers legal defense costs.

Nathan Lee

Nathan Lee says he recommends umbrella insurance to “absolutely everyone.”

“An umbrella policy is much broader, more comprehensive, and frankly, we don’t see it a lot in the commercial space,” he explained. “Excess liability policies are more common in the high-hazard businesses, like fuel dealers and aircraft machine shops.”

But it’s the unexpected nature of life that should cause all business owners to consider umbrella insurance, Pearson said.

“We know that the cost of insurance is expensive and continues to rise every year. But not having the umbrella is one of the major liabilities of running a business,” she added. “A commercial umbrella gives you excess coverage over the general liability limits, the auto limits, as well as workers’ compensation. If someone is gravely injured by a machine and the underlying workers’ comp is a million dollars, but this person is dismembered for life, it’s important for the umbrella to be in place to reach down and provide an additional million to the liability.”

Lee stressed that he recommends such a policy to “absolutely everyone.”

“It’s really the broker’s job to examine the historical claims of the individual, see where the trends are, and build a program that’s priced conscientiously to the customer around how much excess umbrella they can afford and what they need,” he told BusinessWest. “We make recommendations to the customer — they make their own decisions, but it’s up to us to recommend the overall program.”

Clients can also purchase multiple layers of umbrella insurance, each carrying a less costly premium than the one below it. The key is to make sure the underlying policy limit is high enough to trigger the umbrella with no gap in coverage.

“If the umbrella policy says they need an underlying limit of $1 million and you only have a half-million dollars, it may not respond because of that half-million gap,” Lee said. “In some instances, you can pay that half-million gap personally, but those are very critical components when building a program.”

On the personal-lines side, an umbrella policy sits on top of primary home insurance, primary auto insurance, or other underlying policies, Pearson noted.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small businesses with few employees or an employer with 100 people. Businesses are not exempt from accidents. This can provide coverage against losing everything.”

“Say, for example, you have a car accident and someone is seriously injured in your vehicle and loses a limb or some other body part, and you’re brought into a lawsuit for medical expenses well as any liability issues. If another person is injured and can’t go back to work or has a long-term disability, your auto insurance becomes exhausted in situations like that. The umbrella comes down and covers costs above and beyond those limits, and defense costs as well.”

She agreed with Lee that $500,000 or even $1 million in primary coverage can disappear quickly in a catastrophic event. “When those become exhausted and completely paid out, the umbrella gives additional coverage if they need it.”

Most people, Bennett added, “can’t afford not to have one. It starts at $1 million, but it can go as high as $25 million or $50 million.”

Those numbers may seem exorbitant, he added, but clients should consider what they’re putting at risk without one, especially considering the reasonable cost of premiums.

“With the nature of our world and our country, you can’t have enough of it these days. I think of umbrella insurance as peace of mind and asset protection,” he said. “We look at the account holistically. We want to understand what the net worth is, and we want the umbrella to be equal to, or more than, the family’s net worth.

“God forbid something happens,” Bennett went on. “The question we never want to hear is, ‘why didn’t I have an umbrella policy, if there was a policy that could have covered me?’ In a death or a large lawsuit, all kinds of different things can come into play in a situation. You’ll sleep better at night knowing that you have protection.”

 

Critical Questions

In Massachusetts, most umbrella policies provide coverage for the policyholder and their immediate family members living in the same household, with some exceptions.

Meanwhile, on the commercial side, the nature of the business would impact the risk exposure and, hence, the level of coverage needed. While a $1 million umbrella might be fine for a storefront florist or clothing store, a business owner with a fleet of heavy trucks would likely need more.

In addition, the level of coverage should reflect not only one’s net worth, but future earning potential as well. A doctor who just graduated from medical school and plans a career in brain surgery might have little more than debt to show right now, but a lawsuit could put significant future earnings at risk.

The keys are to “make sure you have minimum underlying limits, and make sure that the excess umbrella policy responds. Those are critical,” Lee said. “And you really need to pay attention to whether it’s an umbrella policy or excess.”

Pearson said business owners of all kinds need to consider their exposure. While a new business might be trying to keep initial costs down, liability can rear its head at any time, and for often-unexpected reasons.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small businesses with few employees or an employer with 100 people. Businesses are not exempt from accidents. This can provide coverage against losing everything,” she said.

“I’ve seen businesses have catastrophic events and not have an umbrella, and it’s a very tough situation to dig out of. This saves money because, even though you’re spending a little extra, you’re protected from the storms that may occur.”

Despite No Changes in Tax Law, It’s Still a Good Time to Craft a Strategy

By Contributor
Accounting and Tax Planning Special Coverage Wealth Management

Planning Is Key

By Kristina D. Houghton, CPA

 

Surprisingly, 2023 was a year with no tax-law changes. Congressional members of both parties introduced major tax policy legislation, but so far, most of those bills were partisan. For Congress to pass tax legislation, it will need to be the product of bipartisan compromise. Any tax-policy legislation should also adhere to core values of fostering domestic economic growth, providing support for workers and their families, and prioritizing fiscal responsibility.

Despite the lack of legislation, year-end is still the optimal time for tax planning. But you must be careful to avoid potential pitfalls along the way.

We have prepared the following 2023 year-end tax article divided into three sections:

• Individual Tax Planning;

• Business Tax Planning; and

• Financial Tax Planning.

Be aware that the concepts discussed in this article are intended to provide only a general overview of year-end tax planning. It is recommended that you review your personal situation with a tax professional.

“If you come out ahead by itemizing, you may want to accelerate certain deductible expenses into 2023.”

INDIVIDUAL TAX PLANNING

Itemized Deductions

When you file your personal 2023 tax return, you must choose between the standard deduction and itemized deductions. The standard deduction for 2023 is $13,850 for single filers and $27,700 for joint filers. (An additional $1,850 standard deduction is allowed for a taxpayer age 65 or older.)

YEAR-END MOVE: If you come out ahead by itemizing, you may want to accelerate certain deductible expenses into 2023. For example, consider the following possibilities:

• Donate cash or property to a qualified charitable organization.

• Pay deductible mortgage interest if it otherwise makes sense for your situation. Currently, this includes interest on acquisition debt of up to $750,000 for your principal residence and one other home, combined.

• Make state and local tax (SALT) payments up to the annual SALT deduction limit of $10,000.

 

Charitable Donations

The tax law allows you to deduct charitable donations within generous limits if you meet certain record-keeping requirements.

YEAR-END MOVE: Step up charitable gift giving before Jan. 1. As long as you make a donation in 2023, it is deductible in 2023, even if you charge it in 2023 and pay it in 2024.

• If you make monetary contributions, your deduction is limited to 60% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). Any excess above the 60%-of-AGI limit may be carried over for up to five years.

• If you donate appreciated property held longer than one year (i.e., it would qualify for long-term capital-gain treatment if sold), you can generally deduct an amount equal to the property’s fair market value (FMV) on the donation date, up to 30% of your AGI. But the deduction for short-term capital-gain property is limited to your initial cost.

 

Higher-education Credits

The tax law provides tax breaks to parents of children in college, subject to certain limits. This often includes a choice between one of two higher-education credits.

YEAR-END MOVE: When appropriate, pay qualified expenses for next semester by the end of this year. Generally, the costs will be eligible for a credit in 2023, even if the semester does not begin until 2024.

Typically, you can claim either the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) or the Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC), but not both. The maximum AOTC of $2,500 is available for qualified expenses for four years of study for each student, while the maximum $2,000 LLC is claimed on a per-family basis for all years of study. Thus, the AOTC is usually preferable to the LLC.

Both credits are phased out based on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). The phase-out for each credit occurs between $80,000 and $90,000 of MAGI for single filers and between $160,000 and $180,000 of MAGI for joint filers.

TIP: The list of qualified expenses includes tuition, books, fees, equipment, computers, etc., but not room and board.

 

Miscellaneous

• Install energy-saving devices at home that result in either of two residential credits. For example, you may be able to claim a credit for installing solar panels. Generally, each credit equals 30% of the cost of qualified expenses, subject to certain limits.

• Avoid an estimated tax penalty by qualifying for a safe-harbor exception. Generally, a penalty will not be imposed if you pay 90% of your current year’s tax liability or 100% of your prior year’s tax liability (110% if your AGI exceeded $150,000).

• Empty out flexible spending accounts for healthcare or dependent-care expenses if you will forfeit unused funds under the ‘use it or lose it’ rule. However, your employer’s plan may provide a carry-over to 2024 of up to $610 of unused funds or a two-and-a-half-month grace period.

 

BUSINESS TAX PLANNING

Depreciation-based Deductions

As the year draws to a close, a business may benefit from one or more of three depreciation-based tax breaks: the Section 179 deduction, first-year ‘bonus’ depreciation, and regular depreciation.

YEAR-END MOVE: Place qualified property in service before the end of the year. If your business does not start using the property before 2024, it is not eligible for these tax breaks.

Section 179 deduction: Under Section 179 of the tax code, a business may currently deduct the cost of qualified property placed in service during the year. The maximum annual deduction for 2023 is $1.16 million, provided your total purchases of property do not exceed $2.89 million.

Be aware that the Section 179 deduction cannot exceed the taxable income from all your business activities this year. This rule could limit your deduction for 2023.

First-year bonus depreciation: The first-year bonus depreciation applicable percentage for 2023 is 80% and is scheduled to drop to 60% in 2024.

 

Qualified Retirement Plans

The new SECURE 2.0 law includes a number of provisions affecting employers with qualified retirement plans.

YEAR-END MOVE: Position your business to maximize available tax benefits and avoid potential problems. Consider the following key changes of particular interest:

• For 401(k) plans adopted after 2024, an employer must provide automatic enrollment to employees. Certain small companies and startups are exempt.

• Beginning in 2023, employers with 50 or fewer employees can qualify for a credit equal to 100% of their contributions to a new retirement plan, up to $1,000 per employee, phased out over five years. The 100% credit is reduced for a business with 51 to 100 employees. This tax break is in addition to an enhanced credit for plan startup costs.

• Beginning in 2024, employers may automatically provide employees with emergency access to accounts of up to 3% of their salary, capped at $2,500.

• Beginning in 2024, an employer may elect to make matching contributions to an employee’s retirement-plan account based on student-loan obligations.

• The new law shortens the eligibility requirement for part-time workers from three years to two years, beginning in 2023, among other modifications.

• Any catch-up contributions to 401(k) plans must be made to Roth-type accounts for employees earning more than $145,000 a year (indexed for inflation).

TIP: This last provision was initially scheduled to take effect in 2024, but a new IRS ruling just delayed it for two years to 2026.

 

Employee Bonuses

Generally, employee bonuses are deductible in the year that they are paid. For instance, you must dole out bonuses before Jan. 1, 2024 to deduct those bonuses on your company’s 2023 return. However, there’s a special rule for accrual-basis companies. In this case, the bonuses are currently deductible if they are paid within two and a half months of the close of the tax year.

YEAR-END MOVE: If your company qualifies, determine bonus amounts before year-end. As a result, the bonuses can be deducted on the company’s 2023 return as long as they are paid by March 15, 2024. Keep detailed corporate minutes to support the deductions.

This special deduction rule does not apply to bonuses paid to majority shareholders of a C-corporation or certain owners of an S-corporation or a personal-service corporation.

TIP: Note that the bonuses are taxable to employees in the year in which they receive them — 2024. Thus, the employees benefit from tax deferral for a year even if the company claims a current deduction.

 

Miscellaneous

• Stock the shelves with routine supplies (especially if they are in high demand). If you buy the supplies in 2023, they are deductible this year even if they are not used until 2024.

• Maximize the qualified business interest deduction for pass-through entities and self-employed individuals. Note that special rules apply if you are in a ‘specified service trade or business.’ See your professional tax advisor for more details.

• If you buy a heavy-duty SUV or van for business, you may claim a first-year Section 179 deduction of up to $28,900. The luxury-car limits do not apply to certain heavy-duty vehicles.

 

FINANCIAL TAX PLANNING

Securities Sales

Traditionally, investors time sales of assets like securities at year-end to maximize tax advantages. For starters, capital gains and losses offset each other. If you show an excess loss for the year, you can then offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income before any remainder is carried over to the next year. Long-term capital gains from sales of securities owned longer than one year are taxed at a maximum rate of 15%, or 20% for high-income investors. Conversely, short-term capital gains are taxed at ordinary income rates reaching as high as 37% in 2023.

YEAR-END MOVE: Review your portfolio. Depending on your situation, you may want to harvest capital losses to offset gains, especially high-taxed short-term gains, or realize capital gains that will be partially or wholly absorbed by losses.

Be aware of even more favorable tax treatment for certain long-term capital gains. Notably, a 0% rate applies to taxpayers below certain income levels, such as young children. Furthermore, some taxpayers who ultimately pay ordinary income tax at higher rates due to their investments may qualify for the 0% tax rate on a portion of their long-term capital gains.

However, watch out for the ‘wash sale rule.’ If you sell securities at a loss and reacquire substantially identical securities within 30 days of the sale, the tax loss is disallowed. A simple way to avoid this adverse result is to wait at least 31 days to reacquire substantially identical securities.

Note that a disallowed loss increases your basis for the securities you acquire and could reduce taxable gain on a future sale.

 

Net Investment Income Tax

When you review your portfolio, do not forget to account for the 3.8% net investment income tax, which applies to the lesser of net investment income (NII) or the amount by which MAGI for the year exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for joint filers. (These thresholds are not indexed for inflation.)

The definition of NII includes interest, dividends, capital gains, and income from passive activities, but not Social Security benefits, tax-exempt interest, and distributions from qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

You may consider investing in municipal bonds (‘munis’). The interest income generated by munis does not count as NII, nor is it included in the MAGI calculation. Similarly, if you turn a passive activity into an active business, the resulting income may be exempt from the NII tax.

TIP: When you add the NII tax to your regular tax, you could be paying an effective 40.8% tax rate at the federal level alone. Factor this into your investment decisions.

 

Required Minimum Distributions

For starters, you must begin ‘required minimum distributions’ (RMDs) from qualified retirement plans and IRAs after reaching a specified age. After the SECURE Act raised the age threshold from 70½ to 72, SECURE 2.0 bumped it up again to 73 beginning in 2023 (scheduled to increase to 75 in 2033). The amount of the RMD is based on IRS life-expectancy tables and your account balance at the end of last year.

YEAR-END MOVE: Assess your obligations. If you can postpone RMDs still longer, you can continue to benefit from tax-deferred growth. Otherwise, make arrangements to receive RMDs before Jan. 1, 2024 to avoid any penalties.

Conversely, if you are still working and do not own 5% or more of a business with a qualified plan, you can postpone RMDs from that plan until your retirement. This ‘still-working exception’ does not apply to RMDs from IRAs or qualified plans of other employers.

Previously, the penalty for failing to take timely RMDs was equal to 50% of the shortfall. SECURE 2.0 reduces it to 25% beginning in 2023 (10% if corrected in a timely fashion).

TIP: Under the initial SECURE Act, you are generally required to take RMDs from recently inherited accounts over a 10-year period (although previous inheritances are exempted). These rules are complex, so consult with your tax advisor regarding your situation.

 

Estate and Gift Taxes

During the last decade, the unified estate- and gift-tax exclusion has gradually increased, while the top estate rate has not budged. For example, the exclusion for 2023 is $12.92 million, the highest it has ever been. (It is scheduled to revert to $5 million, plus inflation indexing, after 2025.)

YEAR-END MOVE: Reflect this generous tax-law provision in your overall estate plan. For instance, your plan may involve various techniques, including bypass trusts, that maximize the benefits of the estate- and gift-tax exemption.

In addition, you can give gifts to family members that qualify for the annual gift-tax exclusion. For 2023, there is no gift-tax liability on gifts of up to $17,000 per recipient (up from $16,000 in 2022). You do not even have to file a gift-tax return. Moreover, the limit is doubled to $34,000 for joint gifts by a married couple, but a gift-tax return is required in that case.

TIP: You may ‘double up’ again by giving gifts in both December and January that qualify for the annual gift-tax exclusion for 2023 and 2024, respectively.

 

Miscellaneous

• Contribute up to $22,500 to a 401(k) in 2023 ($30,000 if you are age 50 or older). If you clear the 2023 Social Security wage base of $160,200 and promptly allocate the payroll tax savings to a 401(k), you can increase your deferral without any further reduction in your take-home pay. Note that SECURE 2.0 further enhances catch-up contributions for older employees after 2023.

• If you rent out your vacation home, keep your personal use within the tax-law boundaries. No loss is allowed if personal use exceeds the greater of 14 days or 10% of the rental period.

• Consider a qualified charitable distribution (QCD). If you are age 70½ or older, you can transfer up to $100,000 of IRA funds directly to charity, free of tax (but not deductible). SECURE 2.0 authorizes a one-time transfer of up to $50,000 to a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity as part of a QCD.

 

CONCLUSION

This year-end tax-planning article is based on the prevailing federal tax laws, rules, and regulations. Of course, it is subject to change, especially if additional tax legislation is enacted by Congress before the end of the year.

Finally, remember that this article is intended to serve only as a general guideline. Your personal circumstances will likely require careful examination.

 

Kristina D. Houghton, CPA is a partner at the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

 

BusinessTalk with Vitek Kruta and Lori Divine-Hudson, owners of Gateway City Arts

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 192: December 18, 2023

Joe Interviews Vitek Kruta and Lori Divine-Hudson, owners of Gateway City Arts

Since opening Gateway City Arts 12 years ago, Vitek Kruta and Lori Divine-Hudson have seen it blossom into a robust center for the arts, live music, and community, and a true destination in downtown Holyoke. They’ve also seen struggles, especially since the pandemic disrupted the model, with ripple effects continuing today. And now, the Race Street property is for sale. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Vitek and Lori talk with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about their experiences at Gateway City Arts, the emotional decision they’ve made, and why they hope the future owner recognizes and continues their vision. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.
 

Sponsored by:

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BusinessTalk with John DeVoie, co-founder of the Hot Table chain of panini restaurants

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 191: December 11, 2023

George O’Brien Interviews John DeVoie, co-founder of the Hot Table chain of panini restaurants

John DeVoie is best known in this region as co-founder of the hugely successful Hot Table chain of panini restaurants. But he is also a driving force in another impactful venture. DeVoie and long-time friend and fellow veteran Jeff St. Jean launched Easy Company Brewing, which pays homage to the famed Band of Brothers made famous by the Stephen Ambrose book and HBO miniseries, while also donating all profits to selected agencies that assist veterans. On the next installment of BusinessTalk, contributing writer George O’Brien talks with DeVoie about this inspiring and powerful story that blends history, entrepreneurship, philanthropy … and beer. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

Sponsored by:

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Scenes from the 2023 Women of Impact Event

By
Special Coverage Women of Impact 2023

Images from the December 7 Celebration

Thank you to our presenting sponsors:  Country Bank and Tommy Car Auto Group,

and partner sponsor: Comcast Business

[Show thumbnails]

To order prints go to Leah Martin Photography

BusinessWest has long recognized the contributions of women within the business community, and created the Women of Impact program in 2018 to further honor women who have the drive and ability to move the needle in their own business, are respected for accomplishments within their industries, give back to the community, and are sought as respected advisors and mentors within their field of influence.

See the 2023 Women of Impact Digital section HERE

The nine stories below demonstrate that idea many times over. They detail not only what these women do for a living, but what they’ve done with their lives — specifically, how they’ve become innovators in their fields, leaders within the community, advocates for people in need, and, most importantly, inspirations to all those around them. The class of 2023 features:

• Fredrika Ballard, president of Aero Design Aircraft Services and Fly Lugu Flight Training

• Carla Cosenzi, president of TommyCar Auto Group

• Arlyana Dalce-Bowie, CEO of Moms in Power

• Sandra Doran, president of Bay Path University

 

• Dr. Khama Ennis, founder of Faces of Medicine and Intentional Health, LLC

• Dawn Forbes DiStefano, president and CEO of Square One

• Amy Jamrog, CEO, of the Jamrog Group

• Michelle Theroux, CEO of Berkshire Hills Music Academy

• Lisa Zarcone, author, speaker, and child and mental-health advocate

 

Photos by Leah Martin Photography

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Presenting Sponsors

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Partner Sponsor

Giving Guide 2023

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Giving Guide Special Coverage Special Publications

Regional Philanthropic Opportunities

When importance of giving to those in need — and to the organizations who help others secure their basic needs — doesn’t take a holiday, and there’s no season of the year when their work is not critical, especially at a time when the pandemic is barely in the rear-view mirror and an uncertain economy continues to pose challenges to so many individuals and nonprofits.

Still, there’s no doubt that people think about giving more around the year-end holidays, and that’s why BusinessWest and the Healthcare News publishes its annual Giving Guide around this time: to shine a spotlight on specific community needs and show you not only how to support them, but exactly what your money and time can accomplish.

The 18 profiles below of area nonprofit organizations, are just a sampling of the region’s thousands of nonprofits. These profiles are intended to educate readers about what these groups are doing to improve quality of life for the people living and working in the 413, but also to inspire them to provide the critical support (which comes in many different forms) that these organizations and so many others so desperately need.

These profiles within the Giving Guide list not only giving opportunities — everything from online donations to corporate sponsorships — but also volunteer opportunities. And it is through volunteering, as much as with a cash donation, that individuals can help a nonprofit carry out its important mission within our community.

BusinessWest and HCN launched the Giving Guide to 2011 to harness this region’s incredibly strong track record of philanthropy and support of the organizations dedicated to helping those in need. The publication is designed to inform, but also to encourage individuals and organizations to find new and imaginative ways to give back. We are confident it will succeed with both of those assignments.

Joseph Bednar, Editor
John Gormally, Publisher
Kate Campiti, Sales Manager and Associate Publisher

View the 2023 Giving Guide PDF Flipbook HERE

BFAIR

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County

Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

Glenmeadow

The Gray House

Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley

Hospice of the Fisher Home

JGS Lifecare

Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen

Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services

Michael J. Dias Foundation

Miracle League of Western Massachusetts

Pathlight

Tom Cosenzi Driving for the Cure Charity Golf Tournament

United Way of Pioneer Valley

Way Finders

Western Mass. Elder Care

YWCA of Western Massachusetts

Whittlesey

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What’s Behind Labor’s Surge in Momentum?

By
Education Special Coverage Workforce Development

Striking Results

Jasmine Kerrissey acknowledged that, when it comes to labor and business management, it’s difficult, but not impossible, to chart who’s winning and losing the various types of skirmishes between the two sides and post standings, as they do in sports.

But if they did … labor would be enjoying a sizable lead in the standings as this year comes to a close.

Indeed, there have been some recent — and significant — wins for the labor movement in this country, said Kerrissey, associate professor of Sociology and director of the UMass Labor Center, and co-author of the recently released book Union Booms and Busts: The Ongoing Fight Over the U.S. Labor Movement. She cited recent strikes involving United Auto Workers (UAW), who won 25% wage gains from Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis; employees at UPS; and TV and film actors and writers, among others, as well as union campaigns at large employers such as Amazon, Starbucks, REI, and Trader Joe’s.

In a word, labor is enjoying a large dose of momentum and one of the most pronounced ‘booms’ in recent times, she said.

“The number of strikes, and the number of new types of elections and new union organizing, is much higher than it’s been in the last several decades,” Kerrissey noted. “And many of those elections and strikes are being won by workers.

“Momentum is really important,” she went on. “And we should never underestimate momentum; when other workers see other workers winning, it’s really powerful, and it inspires others to think that they might be able to do the same.”

“Momentum is really important. And we should never underestimate momentum; when other workers see other workers winning, it’s really powerful, and it inspires others to think that they might be able to do the same.”

This momentum was perhaps best exemplified in early September when President Biden joined the UAW picket line at a General Motors plant in Michigan — the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president had done so. (Presidents have traditionally worked to broker deals, not take sides in labor disputes.)

Wearing a UAW cap and toting a bullhorn, Biden said of automakers’ profits after receiving federal assistance, “now they’re doing incredibly well. And guess what — you should be doing incredibly well, too.”

Such sentiments, the notion that workers should be doing as well as the CEOs running these large corporations, are at the heart of labor’s recent surge, said Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle, a labor attorney at the Springfield-based Royal Law Firm, who represents businesses in such matters.

Jasmine Kerrissey says labor is enjoying some real momentum in 2023

Jasmine Kerrissey says labor is enjoying some real momentum in 2023, especially though victories in several recent, high-profile strikes.

Elaborating, she said that, while the 25% wage hikes won by the auto workers during their month-long strike are certainly an aberration, such a figure emboldens workers in other industries and instills what she called “overexaggerated fear” among employers, including those in the 413.

“Those numbers are extraordinary,” she said. “Usually, when you see these union pay increases, we’re talking 3% to 8%, with 8% being the max. These 25% increases … I honestly don’t think we have that to fear locally, but … there is that public sentiment.”

Indeed, workers are further emboldened by seemingly endless headlines concerning the salaries of CEOs — and by the ongoing workforce crunch that is impacting virtually every sector of the economy, putting a premium on retention of talent.

“With the tight labor market, people can’t find workers — people don’t want to do the traditional jobs anymore,” Cannon-Eckerle said. “Employers need employees, so they do have that leverage, that bargaining power. And with this crunch being in the public, workers know it, and they feel it.”

Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently announced new union election rules and issued six significant union- and employee-favorable decisions that, among other things, make it easier for unions to gain the right to represent employees, redefine the standard for what constitutes concerted activity subject to protection under the NLRB, and substantially heighten employers’ collective-bargaining obligations.

“The NLRB has also shortened the period from election time to when to when it actually happens, so it can come hard, and it can come fast. You have one upset employee that you’re tiptoeing around, and before you know it, you have someone who’s asked for there to be a union election, and within 14 days, it’s happening. That’s scary for employers, and it should be.”

“The NLRB has also shortened the period from election time to when to when it actually happens, so it can come hard, and it can come fast,” Cannon-Eckerle added. “You have one upset employee that you’re tiptoeing around, and before you know it, you have someone who’s asked for there to be a union election, and within 14 days, it’s happening. That’s scary for employers, and it should be.”

For this issue and its focus on workforce and education, BusinessWest looks at the momentum that labor is enjoying at present, what it means, and what might come next.

 

Labor Gains

What labor is enjoying now would certainly qualify as a boom, said Kerrissey, who told BusinessWest there have been a number of upsurges and periods of retraction since 1900, the period studied for her book, co-written with Judith Stephan-Norris, professor emerita in the Department of Sociology at the University of California Irvine.

That book was essentially finished before the pandemic, she said, adding that the scene has changed dramatically since it was sent it to the printer.

“When we were writing this book, it was hard to imagine that we would be in a boom period like this, but here we are,” she said. “It has been great timing for this book, and it’s been really exciting to apply some of the historical lessons to the present day.”

Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle

Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle says that, in the current labor climate, the best quality employers can display is transparency.

Kerrissey said booms are defined by momentum on several different fronts. Successful strikes — with success meaning that workers were able to win all or most of what they were asking for when they went to the picket lines — are easily the most visible.

And there have been many of those over this past year and in many different industries, said Kerrissey, citing the UAW strike, the averted UPS strike — a settlement that was reached gave more than 300,000 workers represented by the Teamsters significant wage hikes and new minimums — and the new contracts won by actors and screenwriters. But there have also been “successful” strikes in healthcare — In October, Kaiser Permanente struck a deal with a coalition of unions granting them 21% wage increases over the next four years — and many teacher strikes, including several in Massachusetts, that have garnered higher wages, especially for paraprofessionals.

But momentum is visible in other fronts as well, Kerrissey said, including what she called a “wave” of new union organizing over the past few years, elections that go through the National Labor Relations Board.

“These have stood out, both because it’s more workers doing these elections, but it’s also in industries that have typically not had a lot of union presence,” she said, listing the action at Starbucks as both the most visible and impactful example of such movement, with more than 300 locations across the country now unionized and the total of represented workers approaching 10,000.

But there have been others as well, including Trader Joe’s, Amazon, Chipotle, and REI, the camping and outdoor sports equipment retailer.

“That’s a real shift to have those types of elections in industries that have long been non-union,” Kerrissey told BusinessWest, adding quickly that workers in those industries, while now unionized, have mostly had a difficult time bringing companies to the table to negotiate.

“The bottom line is … if workers are happy, they’re not going to strike. If your employees are happy, they don’t feel like they need to organize. Usually, it’s one or two people that are upset about something and start to gather their forces, and they start nodding their heads and say, ‘yeah, you’re right, we do deserve more.’”

And while some numbers are trending upward, she went on, overall union representation is relatively flat, if not actually declining.

Indeed, according to the NLRB, union petitions increased 3% in fiscal 2023 compared to 2022, with 2022 seeing a 53% increase in union election petitions from the previous year. However, U.S. union membership declined to 10.1% in 2022 from 10.3% in 2021, the lowest on record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although the number of workers belonging to unions increased by 273,000 workers to 14.3 million in 2022, the total number of workers in the U.S. workforce grew by 5.3 million, resulting in the drop in union density.

Those numbers show that, while labor is enjoying momentum, there is still room for more improvement, Kerrissey said.

“The next big hurdle is making the playing field more even for working people, and that comes down to labor policy,” she said. “The labor policy we have in this country is antiquated, and it’s been hard to change; the basic structure is still from the 1930s. But work has changed a lot since then.”

“It’s been quite difficult to make an updated, 21st-century labor policy,” she went on. “And I think some of the strikes are in reaction to that — there are few alternatives.”

Meanwhile, it’s difficult to project what will happen short- and long-term.

“It’s hard to make predictions,” she said. “Historically, when workers are striking and winning, union membership also surges — those two things are correlated. But it’s really hard to look too far into the future.”

 

Labor Pains

While long-term projections may be cloudy, Cannon-Eckerle said it’s rather easy to look short-term and see a time (it’s already here, actually) when it is much easier for unions to gain the right to represent employees, and for an election to come much more quickly.

Indeed, as she recapped the changes made by the NLRB in September, she said they have the potential to be as impactful as any of the recent strikes and could cause some real anxiety among employers.

The NLRB decisions, which came down in one hectic week in late August, bring significant changes to the landscape and essentially enable unions to get faster elections, make it easier to show that individual employee comments or actions constitute concerted activity, and limit past practice as a justification for unilateral changes, she explained, adding that these are all clear wins for employees and unions.

Summing them all up, Cannon-Eckerle said, “my clients are afraid — and they should be. They don’t know what they’re allowed to say or not allowed to say; there’s a gray line about whether you can actually say something to somebody, even if they’re being disruptive to the workplace.

“The fear is, ‘am I not going to be able to police the conduct of my employees, because they’re essentially allowed to say and do whatever they want?’” she went on. “And it just takes that one really upset or really vocal employee to create that pre-storm, if you will.”

That pre-storm is the series of events that can lead to a union election, she said, adding that the NLRB decisions can bring one about faster and more easily than perhaps ever before. In essence, the new rule resurrects what was known as the ‘ambush election’ process, which inhibits employers’ ability to educate their workforces about union representation and adequately prepare for union elections — hence the term.

In such a climate, businesses large and small should be focused on transparency, she said, adding quickly that this doesn’t necessarily mean wide-open books but does mean being open and honest about the financial big picture and a detailed explanation of revenues and expenses.

“If you explain to your workforce, ‘here’s what our budget is, and here’s the cost of each employee,’” she began, noting that this means the full cost of each employee, meaning salary, benefits, training, and more. “Most employees don’t know that; they understand budgets, and they understand what it costs to run their households, most likely, but they don’t fully understand everything that goes into charging $7 for a cup of coffee.”

Overall, Cannon-Eckerle said, business owners and managers should do what they can to impress upon workers that they are valued and heard when it comes to the issues that impact them, meaning everything from wages to working conditions to flexibility around where people work.

“The bottom line is … if workers are happy, they’re not going to strike,” she noted. “If your employees are happy, they don’t feel like they need to organize. Usually, it’s one or two people that are upset about something and start to gather their forces, and they start nodding their heads and say, ‘yeah, you’re right, we do deserve more.’

“The way to control that, first of all, is to right your ship; you have to make sure that your house is in order at your company,” she went on. “If it’s not, maybe there’s justification for the union cozying up to the workforce.”

Hospitals Create Some Momentum, but Stern Challenges Remain

By
Dr. Lynnette Watkins
Healthcare News Special Coverage

Building Blocks for the Future

Dr. Lynnette Watkins

Dr. Lynnette Watkins called 2023 a rebuilding year and a time for “getting back to basics.”

 

As she talked about the relative fiscal health of hospitals, and especially Cooley Dickinson Hospital (CDH) in Northampton, which she serves as president and CEO, and the outlook for the coming year, Dr. Lynnette Watkins looked back on 2023 and described it with phrases often reserved for struggling sports teams — yes, like the one in Foxboro.

“It’s been a very challenging year,” she told BusinessWest. “It was definitely a rebuilding year, with a lot of focus on getting back to basics, and getting to what I would call a new normal.”

While we’re used to hearing those terms in sports, they work in healthcare, and especially when it comes to hospitals, said Watkins and others we spoke with.

Indeed, hospitals are rebuilding from several years of turmoil, falling revenues, rising costs, and struggles with recruiting and retaining a workforce. Many of these issues predate the pandemic, to one extent or another, but COVID certainly exacerbated the problems.

Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of the Baystate Health system, which includes four hospitals — Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield, Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, and Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer — put things in perspective with some eye-opening numbers.

“It’s been a very challenging year. It was definitely a rebuilding year, with a lot of focus on getting back to basics, and getting to what I would call a new normal.”

He said the Baystate system, which also includes the health insurer Health New England, a range of physician practices, and a home-health agency (a $3 billion organization), essentially lost $61 million in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30 — $44 million from health delivery and $17 million from the health plan, which “had a bad year.”

And that’s a significant improvement over the previous fiscal year, when it lost $177 million.

And when it comes to workforce, the Baystate system has roughly 1,400 openings across several different departments, he said, noting that, again, this is an improvement from the peak of more than 2,000 in 2022.

Spiros Hatiras

Spiros Hatiras says HMC has taken aggressive steps on the workforce front, such as large sign-on bonuses and staffing ratios for nurses.

“It’s still more than double what it used to be before the pandemic,” said Keroack, who will be retiring next summer, adding that the system has nonetheless seen progress when it comes vacancy rates, turnover rates, and overall retention through strategies including flex scheduling, workforce-safety initiatives, upward movement on salaries and benefits, wellness programs, career counseling, and more — progress he expects will continue on these and other fronts in 2024.

Dr. Robert Roose, president of Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, agreed there was some improvement in 2023 on several of the fronts on which hospitals are battling, from overall volumes in the ER and with hospital stays (sometimes for the wrong reasons) to decreased use of travel nurses and their sky-high costs.

But there are still formidable challenges in the form of higher costs for everything from labor to equipment to medication; inadequate reimbursements for care (a problem hospitals have been dealing with for decades now); and, most recently, backlogs on the patient floors and the ER resulting from a shortage of nursing-home beds.

Overall, there are still many “mismatches,” as he called them, when it comes to demand in various settings and with specific needs, such as behavioral health.

“Hospitals are at a crossroads,” Roose said, noting that the pressures currently facing them will not likely abate in the years to come. “We have to think about how we focus on three main areas — health equity, system redesign and how we can do things differently, and workforce development.”

When it comes to getting back to basics, that phrase applies to everything to improving access, through initiatives such as an expansion of the ER at CDH (more on that later), to different strategies for recruiting and retaining employees — everything from greater flexibility with hours to a concert to celebrate nurses.

In that latter realm, there is certainly room for innovation and even what amounts to risk taking, said Spiros Hatiras, president and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems, who said he and his team have certainly done so with some aggressive initiatives with bonuses for nurses, staffing ratios, and taking on nursing students right out of college.

“Hospitals are at a crossroads. We have to think about how we focus on three main areas — health equity, system redesign and how we can do things differently, and workforce development.”

Elaborating, he said HMC took some of the federal and state money funneled to hospitals in the wake of the pandemic and “invested” in programs to bolster the workforce through initiatives such as rising pay scales and benefits, ratios, and especially bonuses for nurses, both recent graduates and those with years of experience — initiatives that have generated strong results and eliminated the need for travel nurses, as we’ll see later.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with these hospital administrators about the various forms of progress made in 2023 — and there were several — as well as the stern challenges that remain and the expectations for the year ahead.

 

Working in Concert

They called it Nurses Rock.

That was the name attached to a concert last spring featuring the local cover band Trailer Trash, staged in the former Colony Club space in Tower Square and orchestrated by Holyoke Medical Center. And that name speaks volumes about what this different kind of event was all about.

Indeed, this was a celebration of nurses, said Hatiras, noting that nurses from across the region, not just HMC, were invited. And more than 400 turned out.

Nurses Rock II is well into the planning stage, he went on, adding that the band Aquanett has been secured, and the event has been scheduled to coincide with National Nurses Week in early May.

Dr. Mark Keroack says 2023 was another difficult year

Dr. Mark Keroack says 2023 was another difficult year for hospitals, on several fronts, but it was a vast improvement over 2022.

Nurses Rock is just one example of rebuilding, going back to basics, being innovative, and, yes, thinking outside the box when it comes to the many challenges that are still confronting hospitals, which are, in many ways, still digging out from the fiscal turmoil created by, or exacerbated by, the pandemic.

With that, Keroack returned to those numbers he referenced earlier, such as the posted losses of $61 million system-wide in FY 2023, and put them into historical perspective.

“To really understand this, you need to turn the clock back to before the pandemic,” he said. “Before the pandemic, we would routinely generate margins of 2% to 3%, and we were generally stable; we were rated A+ by Standard & Poor’s, which put us roughly in the top quartile of health systems in New England.

“In 2020 and 2021, we were propped up by some generous federal subsidies from the CARES Act,” he went on, adding that these amounted to roughly $180 million. “They papered over some serious financial problems and enabled us to post 1% to 2% margins those two years.”

But that relief went away in 2022, and the system was still left with a huge bill for contract labor and overtime pay, he continued, adding that, when it comes to that $177 million loss in FY 2022, more than 70% of that came from higher labor costs.

In 2023, Baystate was able to make about $170 million worth of margin improvement, Keroack said, adding that much of this resulted from one-time grants from FEMA and ARPA monies, as well as some revenue-enhancement initiatives, efforts to improve supply-chain expenses, and a reduction of roughly 60 positions from the executive leadership ranks.

“We’re running an extraordinarily lean organization right now,” he told BusinessWest. For example, I used to have six direct reports, and now I have 12.”

What’s more, the system “turned the tide,” as he put it, when it comes to the use of contract labor, while also embarking on a number of joint ventures, such as the new behavioral-health hospital that opened recently in Holyoke, that help avoid capital expenditures, and exiting some small lines of business such as in-vitro fertilization and urgent care, areas where Baystate either couldn’t recruit talent or determined that these areas were not the core mission and were better left to others to handle.

Overall, volumes returned in 2023 across the board, Keroack said, meaning in the ER, surgeries, and discharges. But hospital stays or ‘days’ were considerably over budget because length of stay has increased, often because it’s more difficult to discharge a patient to a nursing home or home care.

“Hospitals are at a crossroads. We have to think about how we focus on three main areas — health equity, system redesign and how we can do things differently, and workforce development.”

“It’s causing a traffic jam,” he explained. “And it results in dozens and dozens of patients being stuck, waiting for a discharge to happen; that jams up the in-patient unit, causes backup in the emergency room, long waits, etc. It’s been stressful, but we’re beginning to get some progress on that.”

Watkins agreed, noting that more progress is needed in 2024 and beyond because there are many consequences as hospital stays lengthen, everything from greater potential for hospital-acquired infections and patient falls to further financial hardship for hospitals because insurers will not reimburse for those longer stays.

Much of the problem results from workforce issues, she went on, noting that “workforce drives access — access to our acute-care facilities, access to our ambulatory clinics, access to our VNA and hospice — and it really drives the value and quality of service that we offer.”

 

Work in Progress

Overall, there has been even more progress on the workforce front, although considerable challenges remain, said all those we spoke with.

Due to a heightened focus on various strategies regarding recruitment and retention, hospitals have greatly reduced their dependence on travel, or contract, nurses, who are paid at rates at least double what staff nurses receive, Watkins said.

At HMC, use of travel nurses has been eliminated altogether, said Hatiras, with a discernable dose of pride in his voice, noting that this was achieved through some rather aggressive risk-taking.

And, overall, the hospital has made itself a good place to work, he said, making it easier to recruit not only nurses but also doctors and other providers as well.

“The main theme in 2023 for us was to really leverage many, many years of work to create a great culture here,” he said. “That work, that culture, enabled us to attract physicians here where otherwise, we would have no shot. And it has essentially enabled us to solve our staffing problem. We have solved it for now — knock on wood.”

The most significant progress has come with attracting and retaining nurses and thus eliminating dependence on travel nurses, he went on, adding this has been accomplished through creation of that culture, but also through large bonuses and staffing ratios, initiatives launched in the early stages of the pandemic that are paying real dividends now.

“We gave the nurses something that no one else wanted to give them — something they really wanted, and something we fought for years not to give them: ratios,” he said. “None of my colleagues like my answer, but it has worked for us.”

Elaborating, Hatiras said that, pre-pandemic, his hospital, and all hospitals, fought hard against ratios demanded by nurses unions, primarily because there was no flexibility built into the equation, and penalties were imposed upon those who did not comply. HMC has injected some flexibility, keeping a 5-to-1 ratio whenever possible.

Meanwhile, rather than spend pandemic-related state and federal assistance on the “middleman,” meaning agency nurses for which the hospital paid $200 per hour, the hospital opted to put it toward retention bonuses and other initiatives for nurses and other providers of care.

“We basically said, ‘you’re here, and you work for us; we don’t want you to leave — so we’re going to pay you $20,000 over the next four years as a bonus, just to stay,’” he said, adding that very few nurses who accepted those terms have left.

Meanwhile, more recently, the hospital decided to make some additional investments, this time in recent college graduates, at a time when fewer hospitals were taking on such inexperienced individuals because of the high cost of training them. HMC offered them the chance to join the staff in May, after graduating, but not take on a full patient load until October.

On top of that, it offered something most “couldn’t say no to” — a $50,000 sign-on bonus for a commitment to stay five years.

“We said, ‘listen, we’ll cut you a check so long as you sign a note that says you’ll come and work for us,’” he said, adding that these bonuses were larger than most being offered and upfront in nature.

And they have worked, with many recent graduates signing on. And while many of his colleagues have questioned his math, Hatiras has told them, as he told BusinessWest, that, in the long run, it’s more cost-effective to incentivize nurses to stay in this aggressive fashion than it is to replace them when they leave. And that same guiding philosophy prompted him to put in place a similar program for experienced nurses, one that offers them $40,000 bonuses if they stay three years.

 

Reality Check

While there has been progress on workforce issues and other fronts, there are still a large number of pain points for hospitals, said Roose, adding that these will certainly continue in 2024.

“The pressures on hospitals have been increasing; they’ve been changing, and the needs of our community have been changing over the past several years, but the pressures have not relented,” he said, noting that the pandemic exacerbated the workforce crisis and compounded a financial crisis for hospitals across the country.

“Those various elements lead to pressures on everything from access to care for patients through traditional models that we’ve had for the past several decades, to having enough colleagues to provide care to meet the demands in different kinds of settings, to how to continue to invest in resources to innovate and grow to where healthcare is going.”

Moving forward, he said the healthcare system must continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of the public and continue to provide access to care, especially amid an ongoing shift toward more care being provided in outpatient settings.

“Hospitals and healthcare systems are evolving, but perhaps not quick enough to best meet those needs,” he went on. “We need to provide access points of care that are the most convenient, that are readily available, at the right level of care when needed, and with a high level of excellence.”

Watkins agreed, but noted that, while 2023 was certainly a time of ongoing challenge and duress for hospitals, it was also a period for rebuilding and, at CDH, celebrating such things as the 10th anniversary of the hospital’s partnership with Mass General Brigham, an expansion and renovation of the hospital’s labor and delivery suites, and the advancement of plans for expanding the ER, a project that will greatly enhance the delivery of care in that unit.

Ground will be broken on the new facility shortly, she said, adding that work to enlarge and redesign the ER brings into focus many of the pressing issues in healthcare today — everything from access to care to workplace conditions to retention of talent.

All are addressed in a design that adds 7,000 square feet of space but also improves safety through an overall configuration that enhances lines of sight while also improving staff satisfaction.

“They want to be in an environment that is pleasing to them, that they can move around in, because we spend a lot of the day at work,” Watkins said. “All of these things come back to workforce, which is going to be the key driver as we move into 2024.”

 

Bottom Line

As he talked briefly about his pending retirement and tenure at Baystate, Keroack joked that it has “never been dull.”

That’s an understatement and a rather polite way of summing up the past few years in particular.

It’s been a time of extreme challenge, but also intriguing and sometimes even exhilarating work to confront those challenges and find solutions.

As for what is to come and the outlook for 2024, hospitals will continue to rebuild and stress the basics. And, like any struggling sports team, they’ll look forward to the new year with optimism.

That’s the best you can do when you’re at a crossroads.

Tech Foundry CEO Tricia Canavan Is Excited About Latest Project

By
Tricia Canavan (far left) and HCC President George Timmons (far right) in the Tech Hub digital classroom with Tech Foundry graduates (and current Tech Hub fellows) Lasharie Weems, Shanice McKenzie, and Anelson Delacruz.
Special Coverage Women in Businesss

Promising Pipeline

Tricia Canavan (far left) and HCC President George Timmons (far right) in the Tech Hub digital classroom with Tech Foundry graduates (and current Tech Hub fellows) Lasharie Weems, Shanice McKenzie, and Anelson Delacruz.

Tricia Canavan (far left) and HCC President George Timmons (far right) in the Tech Hub digital classroom with Tech Foundry graduates (and current Tech Hub fellows) Lasharie Weems, Shanice McKenzie, and Anelson Delacruz.

 

Tech Foundry was launched in 2014 with a specific goal: to increase the technology workforce in Western Mass. at a time when employers were struggling to attract and retain talent.

“Since then, we’ve grown and really have focused on working with low- to moderate-income people and also people from non-traditional backgrounds who may be underrepresented in the tech sector,” said Tricia Canavan, who came on board as Tech Foundry’s CEO last year.

The nonprofit does so by offering professional development, technical career training, career coaching and internships, and job placement in order to connect people to existing IT opportunities, she added. “We’re very proud of the fact that our alums access living-wage jobs and are on these great career pathways.”

If anything, she noted, the need for Tech Foundry is stronger than ever. Recent studies of the workforce environment in Massachusetts suggest up to 400,000 people need to be attracted, recruited, or reskilled in order to keep business in the Bay State humming at optimal levels — many of those in the broad realm of IT.

“There has been a talent shortage in the tech sector and in other sectors, even pre-pandemic, but since the pandemic, we’ve seen those trends accelerate.”

“We all know that the tech sector is on fire, and there are lots and lots of opportunities for growth, and you don’t always need a college degree to access those things,” Canavan said of Tech Foundry’s innovative model that lets students stack certifications to help them get their foot in the door in IT and then progress up the career ladder.

“There has been a talent shortage in the tech sector and in other sectors, even pre-pandemic, but since the pandemic, we’ve seen those trends accelerate,” she added.

The reasons are varied, from mass retirements of Baby Boomers — which means the departure of much senior and middle management, as well as rank-and-file IT workers, from the workforce — to fewer children in the K-12 pipeline.

“Just by sheer numbers, we have fewer kids that are going to be graduating from high school and entering the workforce and/or going to college — that’s fewer kids to engage as young professionals once they complete their education. Also, some of the forecasts that I’ve seen have upwards of 60,000 young professionals projected to move from Massachusetts,” she added, for reasons ranging from cost of living to a housing shortage.

“It’s sort of this perfect storm of economic conditions that are creating persistent needs in the workforce for workers of all types, but there is absolutely a need for more workers in the tech sector.”

Tricia Canavan says Tech Hub is a way to address the region’s digital divide.

Tricia Canavan says Tech Hub is a way to address the region’s digital divide.

The core, 18-week Tech Foundry program has helped produce more of those workers locally, but the nonprofit is equally excited about its newest initiative, called Tech Hub, a broad collaboration that also includes Holyoke Community College (HCC), the Western Massachusetts Alliance for Digital Equity, the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, the Accelerate the Future Foundation, Comcast, Google, Bulkley Richardson, and other partners.

“This has been created as part of the Western Mass. Alliance for Digital Equity’s efforts to address digital equity, and the digital divide here in Western Mass.,” Canavan explained. “We, as part of the consortium working on the digital divide in Western Mass., identified an opportunity to be able to support digital-equity efforts while also continuing professional-development training for our staff, students, and alums.”

Located at 206 Maple St. in downtown Holyoke, Tech Hub, which opened to the public on Oct. 26, offers basic and intermediate digital-literacy training, with an eye on enabling people to access jobs of all kinds, not just specifically in IT.

“It starts off as basic as, ‘do you know how to use a mouse? Do you know how to use a trackpad? This is how you get on the internet,’ all the way up to exposure to things like Google Sheets, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Excel, that sort of thing. We want to help people access the basic digital literacy that they need to thrive at work, at school, in healthcare, and connecting to others in the community.”

That’s the first leg of the Tech Hub stool, she explained; the others are providing computers free of charge to eligible people, and providing technical support and one-on-one troubleshooting services to people in the community.

“Everybody probably has someone in their family that uses technology but maybe is not an expert. When they have a problem, where do they go? So we envision providing that support for the community through Tech Hub.”

 

Confidence Restored

As a single, stay-at-home mother with young boys, Lasharie Weems often felt overwhelmed — particularly when it came to technology.  “My 5-year old was probably more digitally literate than I was,” she said.

The remote instruction her children required during the pandemic proved even more baffling, she added. “My older two sons go to a science and technology school. I struggled to even help them with their homework.”

“We want to help people access the basic digital literacy that they need to thrive at work, at school, in healthcare, and connecting to others in the community.”

After enrolling in Tech Foundry’s free, 18-week program, she said her confidence was restored, and it actually brought her family closer together.

Weems now works for Tech Foundry. She told her story at the grand opening of Tech Hub, where she will be serving as an American Connection Corps fellow.

“Today is an exciting occasion for all of us,” Weems she told the crowd assembled outside Tech Hub’s digital classroom. “But for me, it’s a personal achievement as I celebrate the journey it took to get me here. Tech Hub is my opportunity to pay it forward, to help countless others identify and bridge the gap in digital equity.”

Canavan said connections like that are important.

“What was exciting to us about this project was the ability to expand the impact of Tech Foundry, but we’re also staffing Tech Hub in part with alums of Tech Foundry through a one-year professional digital fellowship program,” she explained. “They work under the guidance of Tech Foundry staff to provide the training and technical support services. In addition, we will have students who will be doing co-op and internship work while they’re in the program.”

From left: Tech Hub fellow Shanice McKenzie, Tech Hub manager Shannon Mumblo

From left: Tech Hub fellow Shanice McKenzie, Tech Hub manager Shannon Mumblo, and Tech Foundry deputy director Michelle Wilson in the Tech Hub digital classroom.

HCC President George Timmons said it was fitting for Tech Hub to be based at the Picknelly Adult & Family Education Center (PAFEC), one of the college’s satellite campuses in the heart of the city, which also houses HCC’s Adult Learning Center as well as other community programs, including the Holyoke High Opportunity Academy, an alternative public high-school program. 

“The mission of Holyoke Community College is to educate, inspire, and connect,” he said. “Through this initiative, we hope to promote access to technology and connectivity, digital literacy, and education, while giving individuals the tools they need to be successful.”

Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia agreed, noting that four students who attend the Holyoke High Opportunity Academy at PAFEC have already signed up to be part of the Tech Hub program. 

“I think we can all agree that digital literacy in 2023 is as vital as reading literacy was 50 years ago,” the mayor said. “Whether it’s filling out a job application, communicating with a customer, maintaining accessible records, or even booking a flight, digital fluency is a necessary life skill.

“But the Tech Hub mission recognizes something else: that there exists a digital divide that is the result of inequities in access, opportunity, housing, income, and schooling,” he went on. “The free training and support that will take place at this site and at community partner locations is going to be a liberating game changer.”

 

Opportunity Knocks

Meanwhile, important work continues at Tech Foundry, Canavan said, and applications for the next cohort of students are open at thetechfoundry.org through December.

“We work very intentionally to engage with the community to get the word out about TechFoundry, and there are a lot of different strategies that we use to do that,” she noted, including social media, referrals from community organizations, and partnering with schools to make students aware that Tech Foundry can be a career-development option for them.

“I think it’s a really good option for people because the training is excellent,” she added. “It’s really an intensive training with a great track record of people accessing employment in the tech sector after they graduate, and it’s at no cost.”

Canavan, who has a deep background in nonprofit management and was also president of a staffing agency, United Personnel, said it’s gratifying to see people come through the Tech Foundry program and improve their lives, and she’s hoping for similar impact from Tech Hub.

“I was eager to return to the nonprofit world after selling my business a couple of years ago and felt very fortunate when this job was open at Tech Foundry. I think it’s a great opportunity for me to use my background in recruiting and staffing and also leverage the workforce and economic-development work that I was doing in that role in the nonprofit world, in partnership with residents and community partners and employers,” she told BusinessWest.

“I love this job because it’s pragmatic and solutions-focused,” she added. “There’s tons of opportunity right now, so how do we work together to help residents of Western Mass. access those opportunities? It’s exciting.”

Construction Firms Acclimate to a Changing Landscape

By Contributor
Construction Special Coverage

Building Momentum

By Emily Thurlow

With the federal COVID-19 public-health declaration coming to an end this past May, the once-global pandemic may seem all but a distant memory. For many businesses, however, its impact certainly hasn’t vanished from sight.

Challenges in obtaining materials and equipment continue to vex general contractors in the construction industry in Western Mass. and across the nation. This extended period of uncertainty — in both duration and scope — has left many feeling uncertain about the future beyond 2023, but there are positive signs, too.

Rising building costs and higher interest rates have been of particular concern to Kevin Perrier, president and CEO of Five Star Building Corp. After work in the Easthampton company’s largest sector — aviation — was essentially grounded for the past two years, Perrier says he was expecting business to be on the slower side.

But to his pleasant surprise, he was wrong. Quite wrong.

“We really saw the aviation sector rebound this year. It makes up for essentially two years of no growth and no construction,” he said. “Honestly, this was one of our busiest years I can remember.”

And Five Star isn’t alone. In fact, despite ongoing resource constraints, construction firms like Laplante Construction Inc. in East Longmeadow and Sweitzer Construction LLC in Monson are reporting an increase in the volume of their work, while Fontaine Bros. Inc. in Springfield calls 2023 the firm’s best-ever year for revenue.

“We really saw the aviation sector rebound this year. It makes up for essentially two years of no growth and no construction. Honestly, this was one of our busiest years I can remember.”

“This year has been good. It’s been steady,” said David Fontaine Jr., CEO of Fontaine Bros. “I think our efforts to work really hard to deliver our projects on time and on budget have really strengthened our relationships with our clients because they’ve seen that we’re still getting things done, successfully, no matter how difficult the climate is.”

Reflecting back on those unprecedented times, BusinessWest spoke with several companies in the region who shared how they have been constantly rolling with the punches by being as strategic as possible when planning out projects and seeking alternatives in design, materials, or vendors when applicable, and, above all, maintaining the safety of everyone involved.

 

Gaining Altitude

Within two weeks of the national shutdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, Perrier estimates that Five Star lost “millions upon millions of dollars worth of work.” Initially, projects were put on a temporary hold, but shortly thereafter, the majority of those projects were canceled, he said.

Laplante Construction recently completed this new home build in East Longmeadow.

Laplante Construction recently completed this new home build in East Longmeadow.

This year, the company, which has been working up and down the East Coast in the aviation sector for the past 13 years, has more than made up for that lost time working with clients like Delta Air Lines and HMSHost International, a U.S. highway and airport food and beverage service company that is a subsidiary of the Italian company Autogrill SpA.

Some of the projects Five Star has completed include the new Gachi Sushi House in Terminal C at Boston Logan International Airport, as well as a Hudson store, offering food, beverages, and travel amenities, in the Terminal B/C connector, and a Hudson Nonstop at Charleston International Airport in South Carolina.

More recent projects underway at Logan include a new hangar roof for Delta Air Lines, some infrastructure work in the lower levels of the airport, and building the new Fox & Flight Restaurant in Terminal A for travel retailer and restaurateur Paradies Lagardère. Perrier said the new restaurant is slated to be the largest restaurant at the airport.

“I think our efforts to work really hard to deliver our projects on time and on budget have really strengthened our relationships with our clients because they’ve seen that we’re still getting things done, successfully, no matter how difficult the climate is.”

“At any given time, we usually have six to 12 projects going in the aviation sector, primarily at Logan,” he said. “The new Terminal E expansion at Logan kept us very busy; it generated quite a bit of work for us to the point that we were actually turning down bids out there. We just kind of reached our capacity for the summer because it was such a push all at once.”

Combined with several mixed-use projects, Five Star had its hands full, he added.

Meanwhile, Laplante Construction and Fontaine Bros. also share glowing reports for their work in the residential and commercial sectors, respectively.

Since expanding his business three years ago to Cape Cod, specializing in mid- to high-end home building and remodeling, Bill Laplante, president of Laplante Construction, says he hasn’t seen any kind of slowdown as a result of increased interest rates. Approximately 80% of the company’s business involves residential projects.

“So the Cape market has been very, very good. There’s an awful lot of work out there,” he said. “I just think there are fewer people out there that are relying on mortgages and are self-financing, or they’re paying cash for work to be done out there.”

For Fontaine Bros., projects that have been publicly funded have remained more consistent than privately funded or developer-driven projects.

Recently, the company completed the three-story DeBerry-Swan Elementary School project on Union Street in Springfield, which opened in the fall. Fontaine is also currently working on school-building projects in Westfield, Worcester, Tyngsboro, Walpole, Fitchburg, and East Brookfield, as well as the UMass Amherst campus.

Pat Sweitzer, operations manager of Sweitzer Construction, also described 2023 as an especially good year. She said that she and her husband, Craig Sweitzer, who co-own and operate the company, attribute this year’s successes to their employees and partners.

Sweitzer Construction has developed an expertise in dental-office construction

Sweitzer Construction has developed an expertise in dental-office construction, including this project for Alliance Dental Care in East Longmeadow.

Pat also offered praise to her sons, Brian and Michael Sweitzer, as both have taken on leadership roles as the firm is in the process of transitioning into a second-generation company.

On the smaller end of projects, the company repaired some buildings at Smith College’s campus and built a new dental office at 265 Benton Dr. in East Longmeadow. One of the larger projects on the company’s docket this year was the conversion of a 19th-century mill building in Northampton into Cambium Analytica’s safety-compliance lab for cannabis products. The new sterile testing lab, which hasn’t opened yet, is located at 320 Riverside Dr., at the site of the former Northampton Cutlery Co.

“Taking a former very old factory building and turning it into a sterile testing lab … the outcome is just remarkable,” Sweitzer said.

Mark Sullivan, president and executive project manager for D.A. Sullivan & Sons Inc., called 2023 the Northampton company’s “first normal year” in several years, adding that things started to stabilize, in a post-COVID sense, during the second half of 2022, and that momentum has carried through 2023.

 

Strength Amid Challenges

While supply-chain issues have dramatically improved across the board since the middle of the pandemic, almost every contractor BusinessWest spoke to has highlighted challenges with electrical components and equipment like meter sockets, switch gears, generators, and transformers. The demand for transformers has been exacerbated by the lack of available domestic manufacturers to meet the increased need.

“Some of those electrical items still have ridiculously long lead times,” Laplante said. “We built a house — literally finished the house a year and a half ago — and there was supposed to be a ground-mounted transformer for the electric service to the house, and they didn’t have them.”

While waiting for the transformer to come in, he said the electric company has supplied the customer with temporary power. “That transformer has been on back order for a year and a half, and we probably won’t see it for another year. When it comes in, we’ll swap it out.”

For the most part, customers have remained understanding, he added. Other materials that continue to be difficult to source in a timely manner include mechanical equipment, like rooftop units for healing and cooling equipment.

“It seems like anything that has a manufacturing process that has a lot of little pieces and parts that are coming from all over continues to be difficult,” Fontaine said. “And for things like, say, a chiller or a piece of switchgear, they won’t start the manufacturing process until they have every little piece or part of what they need at the facility where they put it together.”

Highlighting a similar concern, Sweitzer said her company has made efforts to order products ahead of time. On Nov. 28, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for one of its projects, Embr Springfield, a $2 million dispensary on Boston Road. At nearly the same time, Sweitzer Construction was ordering the rooftop heating and cooling unit.

“We’re just digging the foundation now, and we already ordered the rooftop unit because it will take that long for it to come in,” she said. “The long lead times are a challenge.”

Sullivan noted that, because lead times for electrical components and mechanical equipment are still driving the overall work schedule for D.A. Sullivan & Sons, the firm’s focus has been on pre-construction services and identifying items they feel may trip up their plans.

Another niche facing long lead times is luxury appliance brands like Wolf and Sub-Zero, according to Laplante. Under current lead times, both brands are averaging roughly 12 months to arrive once ordered. Similar to the transformer problem, Laplante said both manufacturers are providing small, temporary refrigerators until the one that was ordered arrives.

“A lot of the appliance companies and the manufacturers are doing the best they can to provide a temporary fix until the final product is delivered,” he said.

 

View to the Future

As the end of the year beckons, many of the companies BusinessWest spoke to are feeling cautiously optimistic about 2024.

Sweitzer has a number of projects on the books, including a few with new partnerships with other contractors like Kleeberg Sheet Metal Inc. in Ludlow.

Sullivan said his firm is wrapping up some municipal work and starting some new projects at libraries, fire stations, and safety complexes, and even has a few projects at local universities and colleges in the queue for next year.

“Next year and beyond, we have the biggest backlog we’ve had in over 10 years,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fontaine Bros. has secured a healthy amount of public-education work for next year and is positioning itself to be ready for other projects on the horizon.

“I think, generally speaking, the industry is always changing. It’s always exciting,” Fontaine said. “It’s been a challenging couple of years, for sure, but it’s something new and exciting to wake up to every day, and we’re thankful that we’ve continued to be able to be successful through it. So hopefully, 2024 and on will get easier, but whatever happens, we’ll be ready to tackle it.”

Though the residential trend of smaller luxury homes looks to continue, Laplante said there are also a number of very large-scale luxury home builds on the books.

“We’ve seen people downsize and go from a large, two-story home to a high-end, smaller ranch with very, very nice amenities on one-floor living, but interestingly enough, we also have some very large homes in the pipeline for next year,” he said. “This is particularly interesting because, generally speaking, over the last five years, there’s been a trend to reduce the overall size of the homes that are being built to single-story living.”

As for Five Star, Perrier says the new year still holds a lot of question marks for him as the aviation sector tends to be a little more unpredictable. Though there are infrastructure and retail build-out projects on the books, higher fuel costs and tightening budgets can often bump jobs at the last second, he explained.

“What tomorrow brings, I don’t know. I guess I’m still going in with the same hesitation I had for 2023,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll be pleasantly surprised again.”

BusinessTalk with Ashley Batlle, owner of Beauty Batlles Lounge in Chicopee

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 190: December 4, 2023

Joe Bednar Interviews Ashley Batlle, owner of Beauty Batlles Lounge in Chicopee

Ashley Batlle wasn’t sure where she wanted to take her cosmetology degree 20 years ago, but she’s certainly found her place today as owner of Beauty Batlles Lounge in Chicopee, a cutting-edge spa that aims to build clients’ self-confidence by making them look and feel their best. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Ashley talks withBusinessWestEditor Joe Bednar about the growth of Beauty Batlles since its 2018 opening; its recent move to a larger space, allowing her to expand into more wellness services, including cryotherapy; and the many ways in which she uses her platform to support and uplift her community. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

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BusinessTalk with Local Entrepreneur Myke Connolly

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Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 189: November 27, 2023

Joe Bednar Talks to Local Entrepreneur Myke Connolly

Myke Connolly says he learned marketing at age 9, reselling candy to classmates in the Bahamas. As an adult, his entrepreneurial spirit and belief in the value of hard work have led him into many ventures, from Stinky Cakes — which turned diapers into gifts for new parents — to a business training and networking entity called Marketing and Cupcakes, to a rolling electronic billboard called Stand Out Truck. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Myke talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about what’s next for his enterprises, how he’s been impacted by mentors and strives to do the same for other aspiring entrepreneurs, and much more. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

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Monson Celebrates Its Rural Character

By
Craig and Pat Sweitzer
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Craig and Pat Sweitzer

Craig and Pat Sweitzer at the recently unveiled mural in the center of Monson.
Staff Photo

“Sophisticated rural.”

That’s how Craig Sweitzer, who has lived and worked in Monson for more than 40 years now — and served on the town’s Planning Board for most of that stretch — chose to describe this community of almost 9,000 people on the eastern edge of Hampden County.

By that, he meant that this town is certainly small and rural, but, as he put it, “you don’t have to leave town to eat.”

Indeed, the community’s downtown boasts several restaurants and, at last count, three coffee shops, said Sweitzer, who, with his wife, Pat, owns and operates Sweitzer Construction, a design-build firm that specializes in medical facilities (especially dental offices) and, more recently, cannabis operations of all kinds.

Indeed, the arrival of the cannabis industry has brought work across all aspects of that sector, Sweitzer said, from dispensaries to production facilities; from testing labs to an armored-car operation in Belchertown created to handle the large amounts of cash generated by these businesses.

“After you get your feet wet in something, you master it, and it leads to more work in that area,” he said, adding that the same is true of dental offices (his firm has now built more than 200 of them), and it is now true with cannabis facilities. “And when you do design/build, you offer the whole package — the architecture, the financing, the site selection … and we’ve done the same thing with cannabis.”

The Sweitzers made Monson their home and the base for their business back in the ’80s, and they’ve watched it grow and evolve. A little.

“Monson still has its rural quality — we still don’t have a traffic light,” Craig said, adding that the town has not changed much over the past four decades, and for those who live there, this is mostly a good thing; sophisticated rural is an attractive quality, one that many are seeking, especially post-pandemic.

Indeed, the town has seen a slight rise in population in the wake of COVID and the manner in which it prompted some living in large population centers to seek more rural areas in which to both live and work.

“Post-COVID, flexible work and hybrid models became very attractive, and so did communities like Monson, because obviously it costs much less to buy a house out here then it does in the Boston area,” said Dan Moriarty, president and CEO of Monson Savings Bank, who grew up in town and thus admitted to some bias, adding that, if the proposed east-west rail project becomes reality, Mosnon and communities like it will become even more attractive to those looking to work in Boston but not necessarily live there.

“There’s still that sense of small-town feel and community here in Monson, and that’s very attractive to many people,” he went on. “It’s a nice place to live, and I get the best of both worlds because I work there as well.”

He said Monson is close enough from Springfield and Worcester to be an attractive landing spot for those working in those metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, it has its own economy in a way, with those aforementioned restaurants and coffee shops, a supermarket, several service businesses, and some ventures that accentuate its rural personality while also making it a destination.

That list includes Silver Bell Farms, a multifaceted enterprise that features everything from Christmas-tree sales (although not this year as the farm builds up inventory for the future) to many different kinds of events, to a new lighting display called Silver Bell Nights.

“There’s still that sense of small-town feel and community here in Monson, and that’s very attractive to many people.”

Michael Moore, who runs the operation with his wife, Laura, said Silver Bell Nights is an intriguing addition to a portfolio of events and attractions that brings more than 50,000 people to the farm each year, with activities running year-round and especially in the fall and then around the holidays.

“This is something we’re really excited about — it’s a dazzling outdoor lighting display,” he told BusinessWest, adding that the lights were turned on amid considerable fanfare on Nov. 18, and the show will go on until the new year. “We’re looking forward to many new visitors discovering the farm and all that we have here.”

For this the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest visited Monson to get a feel for what sophisticated rural is all about.

 

The Nature of Things

Craig Sweitzer said that, during his long period of service on the Planning Board, the largest housing project to come before that body has been a subdivision of no more than 12 homes.

“Monson is quite hilly, and we have a lot of land that’s tricky to build on,” he said, adding that this topography helps explain why, unlike some of its neighbors, and especially Belchertown, it has not seen large-scale residential development.

What it has seen is slow but continuous growth, one or two homes at a time, on existing roads.

Michael Moore says Silver Bell Nights is an exciting new addition

Michael Moore says Silver Bell Nights is an exciting new addition to what has become a year-round destination.
Staff Photo

“Although there are no massive subdivisions, there’s always a steady flow of new lots being created from existing road frontage,” Sweitzer explained, adding that any growth has been incremental and not (like Belchertown) explosive.

What the new residents encounter, and what those already living there thoroughly enjoy, is a town that’s both isolated and accessible at the same time, one with a small yet thriving downtown, a lively arts community, some intriguing new businesses, and nature.

“There’s a lot here … it’s a quiet, vibrant town with its own personality,” said Pat Sweitzer as she walked with BusinessWest on Main Street. “There’s a lot to like here.”

All of this is captured in, and manifested in, a mural adorning the wall of Adams Hometown Market on Main Street. The byproduct of a project led by local artists Melissa Stratton-Pandina and Shara Osgood and unveiled in September, the mural is titled “Past, Present and Future.” It depicts town landmarks; some of its history, including its granite quarries and involvement in the Civil War; and rural nature — there’s an image of a mountain lion that has become part of town lore, said the Sweitzers, who believe they’ve seen the cat.

The mural, created with large amounts of feedback from the community, effectively tells the story of a town that celebrates its past — including the recent past and a still-ongoing recovery from the June 2011 tornado that roared through Main Street — as well as its present.

And there is much to celebrate, including a high quality of life; a stable, still-evolving downtown; a vibrant arts community thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Monson Arts Council; annual gatherings such as Summerfest and a popular food-truck festival; and what both Moriarty and the Sweitzers called an entrepreneurial spirit that has yielded a number of intriguing new business ventures in recent years.

Dan Moriarty says the broad goal in Monson is to attract new business

Dan Moriarty says the broad goal in Monson is to attract new business while maintaining the community’s rural look, feel, and personality.
Staff Photo

Overall, the business community is quite diverse, said Moriarty, and includes many ventures in the broad realm of tourism and hospitality. These include the restaurants and coffee shops downtown; small bakeries and specialty food producers, such as Cookies by Ray and Happy Hen Farmstand, which sells everything from eggs (hence the name) to a variety of baked goods; and agriculture-related businesses such as Echo Hill Orchards and Winery, Bryson’s Maple Syrup, and Silver Bell Farms, a relatively recent addition that continues to evolve.

Indeed, what started as a Christmas-tree farm roughly a decade ago has become a site for events and activities year-round, said Moore, listing everything from private events such as birthday parties to an Easter egg hunt, Christmas in July, a fall corn maze, barrel-train rides, tractor-pulled wagon rides, and even interactive theater productions.

There are plenty of holiday-season happenings and programs as well, including Santa story time, wreath decorating, and a farm store that sells everything from Christmas ornaments to cider donuts.

The big addition this year is Silver Bell Nights, the holiday light experience that features a number of different displays throughout the property.

Monson at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1775
Population: 8,865
Area: 44.8 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $15.86
Commercial Tax Rate: $15.86
Median Household Income: $52,030
Median Family Income: $58,607
Type of Government: Select Board, Open Town Meeting
Latest information available

Moore said the initiative represents a sizable investment, but one that will make Silver Bell more of a holiday destination — and tradition — for area residents, and a vehicle for continued growth at the farm.

Moriarity said Monson’s challenge moving forward — and it’s the same challenge facing many smaller towns — is to promote growth of the business community while maintaining the rural quality that makes it so attractive.

“Like most small towns, we try to be open-minded,” he told BusinessWest. “I’m very passionate and hopeful for continual pro-business decisions in town, where we can bring in some small-business opportunities for people, because I think that, for the town to be viable, we must be open to new business opportunities, while at the same protecting the open space and beautiful landscape the town has.”

 

Getting a Feel for It

Getting back to that mural, it tells a story — and it is quite a story.

A story of a community that is continually looking for ways to build on an already-attractive landscape and create more reasons for people to want to live and work there.

That’s the big picture in Monson — figuratively, but also quite literally.

Noonan Energy Builds on a 135-year Tradition of Growth and Evolution

By
Fifth-generation president Ted Noonan
Building Trades Special Coverage

It Runs Hot and Cold

Fifth-generation president Ted Noonan

Fifth-generation president Ted Noonan says the company continues to grow and diversify its products and services.

 

Going back nearly 135 years, Ted Noonan says, the company now known as Noonan Energy has been defined by ambition, innovation, entrepreneurship, diversification, and, perhaps most importantly, the willingness — and ability — to adapt to changing times.

And these qualities continue to describe Noonan today, he said, noting that the company started by his great-great-grandfather in 1890 as an ice-delivery venture continues to evolve and create new business opportunities.

Indeed, Noonan, which moved on from ice after the advent of refrigeration and morphed over more than a half-century into a leading provider of oil and HVAC services, has added two new divisions in recent years, electrical and plumbing services, that give it the ability to provide more services to existing and potential customers — and intriguing growth opportunities.

“We added these new divisions because there was so much synergy with our other services,” he explained. “We were constantly needing an outside plumber or an outside electrician to pull permits and do work, so we said, ‘since we’re hiring one all the time, why don’t we just bring one on and create a new division?’”

The plumbing division was added in 2011 with the hiring of master plumber Mark Gadourey, and the electrical unit was introduced in 2018 with the addition of master electrician Daniel Rollend, said Noonan, adding that both continue to grow, as do other aspects of the broad operation.

“We were constantly needing an outside plumber or an outside electrician to pull permits and do work, so we said, ‘since we’re hiring one all the time, why don’t we just bring one on and create a new division?’”

“We’ve had some nice growth in both of those divisions over the past five to 10 years, and on the service and installation side as well,” he told BusinessWest, noting that the company installs everything from oil tanks and oil burners to air-conditioning systems, heat pumps, and mini-splits, while also undertaking home-energy audits and creating comfort plans. “We have a whole host of … everything.”

As fifth-generation owner, Ted Noonan continues many traditions, if they can be called that, of the owners who came before him. Being entrepreneurial is one of them. Growing up in the business and learning all aspects of it first-hand is another — Noonan recalled riding with the delivery men in his youth and unwinding hose. And filling in, especially in a pinch, is yet another.

“I still drive today when we get really busy in the winter,” he said. “I enjoy it … I always say that it’s therapy for me; I get out of the office, I shut my phone off — or try to — and make deliveries. I’ve pretty much done every territory we handle, so if we get a couple of call-outs in the winter, I’ll step in.”

Mostly, though, he is involved in short-term and long-term planning, creating additional opportunities, and exploring new avenues for growth and expansion. He noted that a trend toward consolidation within the industry, one that has fueled the dramatic growth of this company over the past 50 years, continues, especially as the Baby Boomer owners of smaller oil-delivery and HVAC service companies move into retirement.

Ted Noonan (right) and his father, Ed

Ted Noonan (right) and his father, Ed, have continued traditions of innovation laid down by T.F. Noonan back in 1890.

“We’re still looking at acquisition opportunities and expansion opportunities, while also keeping an eye on what might create great synergy from a diversification standpoint,” he noted, adding that, at present, the company is focused on “shoring up” those new divisions and growing those aspects of the business.

For this issue and its focus on the building trades, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Noonan Energy, exploring its rich history, the continuing of a tradition of entrepreneurship, and the question of what might come next.

 

Freeze Frame

Flashing back more than a century to company lore that he is well-versed in and relates often, Noonan marveled at how the venture known as T.F. Ice Dealer (named for his great-great-grandfather, Timothy F. Noonan) cut huge blocks of ice from Lake Massasoit (Watershops Pond) in Springfield and, using sawdust as an insulator, kept it relatively cold all through the year for delivery to customers in the Greater Springfield area.

And he continues to be awed by the insulating properties of sawdust.

“We’re still looking at acquisition opportunities and expansion opportunities, while also keeping an eye on what might create great synergy from a diversification standpoint.”

“We have a small barn at our house, and we have sawdust for the horses,” he noted. “You’ll go two months after cold weather, and if we’re digging in the sawdust, we find snowballs. And that always brings me back to how this company started.”

While some things haven’t changed — like sawdust’s ability to keep ice cold — the Noonan company certainly has. Its history is told through a huge photo display in the lobby of the company’s offices on Robbins Road, in the shadow of a 2-million-gallon oil tank. That lobby is also home to an oil-delivery truck circa the 1930s — it was rescued several years ago, refurbished, and painted with the Noonan colors (green and white) to resemble trucks the company had on the road 80 or so years ago.

Providing a quick history lesson, Noonan said the company, while it has remained in the same family, has changed names a few times and added new products and services on a consistent basis.

The first name change came in 1911, when T.F. decided to put ‘Massosoit Lake Ice Company’ over the door and on the side of the horse-drawn wagons. He would sell the company to his son, Edward J. Noonan, in 1923. The entrepreneurial second-generation owner would add kerosene and home heating oil to the products delivered by the company, additions that would prompt a name change to Massasoit Lake Ice and Fuel Co.

Second-generation owner Edward J. Noonan inaugurated the company name Massasoit Lake Ice and Fuel Co.

Second-generation owner Edward J. Noonan inaugurated the company name Massasoit Lake Ice and Fuel Co.

By 1939, with refrigeration chipping away at the ice business, Ed Noonan diversified by opening a gasoline station at the corner of King Street and Eastern Avenue in Springfield, one that also sold paint and wallpaper, which many of those facilities did at that time.

In 1958, Ed Noonan sold the business to two of his sons, Timothy and William, who ran a company that would take the name Noonan Oil Co. Inc., a venture that would slug its way through the oil embargo in 1973 and manage to expand sales and develop new markets. Timothy would become sole owner in 1981.

“We see a bright future … it’s going to be different, certainly, than it was five, 10, or 50 years ago, but everyone is always going to need warming and cooling, and we’ll be there to provide it.”

His son, Ed, would launch his own career in the business by acquiring Palmer Coal and Oil in 1973, while his father continued to grow Noonan Oil. (The two companies were in friendly competition for several years.) Ed Noonan doubled the size of his company with the acquisition of Leonard Oil Co. of Monson in 1978 and continued to grow with other acquisitions, including Dulude Oil Inc., Palmer Oil Co., City Oil in Springfield, Marquis-Rivers in Holyoke, and Tinco Fuel in Ludlow.

He would eventually put all those brands under one name, Noonan Energy, in 1985, and in 1985, Noonan Oil Co., still owned by Ed’s father, Tim, would become part of Noonan Energy as well. In the ensuing years, many other smaller oil-delivery and service ventures would be acquired, including Better Heat Inc., Bolduc Fuel, Royal Heating, National Heating, Canary Oil, Hampshire Oil, Hillside Oil, Davis Fuel Co., Hadley Fuel Co. … the list goes on.

Ted Noonan, Ed’s son, joined the company in 1998, became its president in 2009, and was named a member of BusinessWest’s Forty Under 40 class of 2017.

 

Hot Takes

During his tenure, one during which Tim has remained active with the business, Ted Noonan has continued his father’s tradition of aggressive acquisition of smaller fuel-oil and service businesses.

In 2011, the company acquired the assets of Whiteley Fuel Oil Co. in Chatham; in 2011, it purchased Ray Kelley & Son of Palmer; in 2013, it acquired East Springfield Oil Co; and, most recently, it added Borsari Oil of West Springfield, Chudy Oil in Three Rivers, and Westfield Fuel to the fold.

All these acquisitions give the company something very much needed in this day and age — size, said Noonan, adding that they also give it a presence in several different markets across the region.

Indeed, the Noonan footprint, or service and delivery area, now stretches to the edge of the Berkshires to the west, several of the border communities of Connecticut to the south (penetrating further into the state is difficult, Ted said), into Franklin County to the north, and into Worcester County to the east. With that acquisition of Whiteley Fuel Oil, it also serves a dozen communities on Cape Cod. Locations in the 413 are in Springfield, Westfield, Amherst, and Palmer.

Noonan Energy is known for heating and HVAC services

Noonan Energy is known for heating and HVAC services, but has become a player in electrical and plumbing work as well.

Beyond these acquisitions and the accompanying territorial expansion, the company has achieved additional growth though expansion of its product and service portfolio, said Noonan, adding that, in addition to the new plumbing and electrical divisions, the company also added a home-energy audit division under the leadership of his sister, Kara Noonan, in 2012.

He said these new divisions, and especially the plumbing and electrical units, were natural additions that came about as need became evident, especially as plumbers and electricians retire in large numbers, and as customers looking for those services continued to ask people from Noonan — who were delivering oil, servicing a boiler, or installing central air conditioning — if they knew a good plumber or electrician.

After years of offering referrals if it could, the company made the entrepreneurial decision to change its answer to those questions to ‘yes … that’s us; we can handle that.’

“It’s similar work to what we do, and it’s a niche we can fill,” Ted Noonan said, adding that the ability to give that answer puts the company in a position to offer a portfolio of services that few, if any, of its many competitors can match. Noonan said many still just deliver oil, while others will also handle installation and service of HVAC systems. Meanwhile, some handle plumbing and HVAC, but not electrical or oil delivery. But very few cover all those bases.

The new divisions enable the company to further diversify and better position it for a future where there will certainly be less dependency on fossil fuels, said Noonan, adding that the company is already making strides in that direction through steps such as the blending of biodiesel and traditional heating oil to create bioheat, continually increasing the blend so it is less carbon-intense.

“We see a bright future … it’s going to be different, certainly, than it was five, 10, or 50 years ago, but everyone is always going to need warming and cooling, and we’ll be there to provide it,” he said, adding that the ability to change with the times — and sometimes see around the corner and anticipate what’s coming next — has kept Noonan viable since Benjamin Harrison was patrolling the White House.

And these qualities will continue to serve it well into the future.

 

Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners Marks 75 Years of Change

By
Vice President Vinny Magnano (left) and President Jeff Noble.
Architecture Special Coverage

Something to Build On

Vice President Vinny Magnano (left) and President Jeff Noble.

Vice President Vinny Magnano (left) and President Jeff Noble.

Western Mass. is home to dozens of architecture firms. And engineering firms. And land-surveying companies.

Not too many can say they’re all three.

But over its 75 years in business — it celebrates that milestone early in 2024 — Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners Inc. has evolved into a entity that can manage all those aspects of a project. And President Jeff Noble says that broad expertise sets Hill apart in its field — or, more accurately, fields. It’s also a strong buffer against shifting economic tides.

“We’re organized in three departments — architecture, engineering, and civil surveying — and it’s seldom that you get all three of those going gangbusters all at once,” Noble explained. “Sometimes we’re very fortunate, but other times, one might wane a little bit, while the other two are going well. That diversity of services has carried us along, so we’re able to sustain the level of employment and the types of services we offer. That’s been a big benefit.”

The company’s roughly 40 employees reflect that range: architects; structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers; civil engineers, land surveyors, and survey technicians; and project managers, designers, and drafters in all three niches.

For instance, “we did a brand-new facility for Standard Uniform Services. We started with the permitting, the site development, the architecture, the engineering, and designed that whole facility for them,” Noble explained, adding that it contracted with Forish Construction on the build. “That range of services has allowed us to provide all that, though it’s not always necessary that you need all those services together.”

“A lot of architectural firms are just architectural firms, and they have to go to get an engineer for structural, mechanical, electrical, civil … that’s not part of their company. In Western Mass., very few of those have combined engineering and architecture — and certainly not land surveying besides.”

Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners was established by William T. Hill in 1949 to provide mechanical-engineering design services to the robust paper industry of the Berkshires. It has called Dalton, a small town just east of Pittsfield, its home since its opening.

“Mr. Hill was a paper-mill engineer for Crane & Co. here in town, and he evolved from there,” Noble said of the company’s founding. “He grew little by little and did structural engineering, electrical, and mechanical engineering, strictly for the pulp and paper business.”

Vice President Vin Magnano came on board in 1975, and the company’s work and client base started to expand beyond paper into a wide range of commercial and industrial clients — still primarily engineering, but moving gradually into some design work.

“Then it just started to evolve organically to include more architectural work,” Noble added. “And we had engineering here to offer as backup for an architectural project, so it made a lot of sense.”

This Berkshire Family YMCA project

This Berkshire Family YMCA project includes a pool, court, elevated track, and fitness room.

Magnano recalled that “when I came here — I was just a kid, in my 20s — the only architecture we did was to put up a building that covered the machinery; that’s all they cared about. But we started changing after I was here a few years.”

In 1980, a group of five employees purchased the fixed assets of the founder and changed the company’s name to Hill Engineering Inc., and the company began to expand its footprint further in the fields of architecture, engineering, and surveying. In 1986, the company’s leadership contacted Noble, who had worked there before, to head up the growing architectural group. He was intrigued by Hill’s new model.

“I said, ‘yeah, that sounds like a good opportunity,’ and it turned out it was,” he told BusinessWest, adding that, as an architect, “I always appreciated having engineering in-house. A lot of architectural firms are just architectural firms, and they have to go to get an engineer for structural, mechanical, electrical, civil … that’s not part of their company. In Western Mass., very few of those have combined engineering and architecture — and certainly not land surveying besides.”

The company name was changed again in 1987 to Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners, Inc. to better reflect these expanded areas of service.

“We still do an awful lot just like we always have: we listen to our clients and respond to their needs. They come to us with a problem to solve, and we solve the problem, and move on to the next one.”

“We just started growing the architectural side of the business, doing more commercial work and some residential, institutional, recreational … lots of different types of projects that weren’t industrial. We added staff, and the company has grown over the years.”

 

Industrial Evolution

Over the decades, Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners has performed work for dozens of the most recognizable names in Western Mass., including General Dynamics, General Electric, Berkshire Health Systems, Union Carbide, Solutia, Kanzaki, and Smith & Wesson, as well as numerous colleges and universities; several Berkshire County municipalities; recreational, religious, and commercial entities; cultural institutions like Berkshire Museum, MASS MoCA, the Clark, and Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center; and land subdivisions throughout the region.

“When the architecture started to evolve from the paper mills, it was still industrial-based, no commercial; we hardly ever did banks or colleges or any of that,” Magnano said. “It was really driven in the industrial.”

Today, the firm boasts many long-time clients in all those sectors above, some for 40 years or more, he added.

Its acquisition of West Stockbridge Enterprises became an opportunity to get into the land-surveying and civil-engineering aspect, Noble added. “It, again, broadened our range of services that we can provide to our clients, whether it was strictly a subdivision survey or supported an architectural project. Clients say, ‘hey, I want to build something,’ and they’ve got to go through all the permitting aspects, site design, maybe find a site, do site analysis. All that started to become services we could provide for our clients.”

Meanwhile, in the engineering group, Magnano said, “we still do pretty much every discipline except fire protection; we partner with a company in Albany for all our fire-protection work.”

The Weidmann Electrical Technology facility in St. Johnsbury, Vt.

The Weidmann Electrical Technology facility in St. Johnsbury, Vt. is among the firm’s largest projects.

The firm’s radius of work is typically about 50 miles, though it has done major projects outside that, including a major expansion of Weidmann Electrical Technology’s paper mill in St. Johnsbury, Vt., one of that region’s largest employers, a little over a decade ago — about 35 years after Hill first worked on a project for Weidmann.

“They were losing their edge in the market, in the industry; Germany and other places were building new, high-tech stuff. So they spent $40 million doing a new addition on the old addition. We did everything, right from the site work,” Magnano said. “That was probably one of the most unique jobs we’ve done, and we were literally in there from day one — about four years. That was a big one.”

Over the decades, Hill has seen a number of changes, from technology to the way projects are bid. For one thing, there are fewer long-term, local relationships with clients because of consolidation, with clients being purchased by larger entities all the time. “So your companies that used to be local are now owned by a company that’s out of Springfield, Illinois or something,” Noble said. “You don’t have the same relationship, unfortunately.”

Meanwhile, codes and regulations have become more challenging, and an emphasis on energy efficiency and sustainability has impacted how projects are designed, he added. “But we still do an awful lot just like we always have: we listen to our clients and respond to their needs. They come to us with a problem to solve, and we solve the problem, and move on to the next one.”

 

Welcome Mat

One negative trend that has impacted businesses of all kinds has been recruiting and retaining talent, and Noble said Hill has been able to maintain a steady staff, but it’s not always easy, especially with engineers.

“You don’t see people applying. It used to be people would come in, knock on the door, send a résumé pretty routinely. Now we can’t even solicit them. We go out and try to get them, and no responses,” he told BusinessWest, adding that Hill’s headquarters in the Berkshires can be a problem for some. “Our location just doesn’t seem to have the attraction for younger people. They’d rather go to the cities where there’s potential for maybe more glamorous or high-profile types of work.

“Students are still enlisting in engineering and architecture schools, but they don’t tend to come back here,” he added. “They go to UMass or Boston for college, but then they won’t come back to the Berkshires to work. That’s what we see as the issue.”

Still, the firm has managed to attract employees from the Pioneer Valley and the Albany, N.Y. areas, and it has also maintained relationships with trade schools to bring young people in for co-op experiences, some of which have resulted in hires over the years.

“You don’t have to necessarily get a master’s in such-and-such; you know you can come out of trade school and go to work as a computer operator here, and we’ll put you to work,” Noble explained. “You can learn on the fly, but under the tutelage of professional engineers.”

Magnano added that “we’ve been fortunate enough to get some individuals whose roots are in Dalton, or close by, and wanted to come back to Dalton. Over the last five to 10 years, we’ve really brought in another whole generation that hopefully will keep it going.”

NUPRO plastic-fabrication factory in South Deerfield

Here, the envelope and siding go up on the NUPRO plastic-fabrication factory in South Deerfield.

Hill-Engineers, Architects, Planners has been community-minded in other ways as well, Noble said, by supporting local nonprofits, social organizations, churches, and other causes in a number of ways.

“The [Dalton] Community Recreation Association is one, whether we do our work at a reduced fee or we support them through ads in their programs, or we sponsor a basketball team or baseball team.”

The firm also supports the Pittsfield YMCA, for which it just completed a major $12 million renovation, including a pool, court, elevated track, fitness facilities, and more. Often, Hill is able to provide services to nonprofit clients at a lower cost, or in an in-kind way, he said. “It works both ways. We get good experience out of it, and the client gets the service at a more affordable level.”

The firm’s leadership and employees also sit on boards and are encouraged to volunteer in the community, Noble added.

 

Shovels Out

As part of its 75th-anniversary year, the team at Hill is planning to bury a time capsule that includes, among other artifacts, some tools of the trade in 2023, and then unearth it 25 years from now, at the company’s centennial, to see how much their industry — sorry, industries — have changed.

Things have certainly changed plenty since 1949.

“I think we’re just very proud of having carried on Mr. Hill’s legacy here for 75 years,” Noble said. “I think he’d be really happy to see where we’re at. And who knows? Maybe we’ll keep it going for another 75.”

BusinessTalk with Ashley Kohl owner of Ohana School of Performing Arts

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 188: November 20, 2023

Joe Bednar Interviews the owner of Ohana School of Performing Arts, Ashley Kohl

It’s no wonder Ashley Kohl has adopted a philosophy of author Gabby Bernstein: “obstacles are detours in the right direction.” Because Ashley, the owner of Ohana School of Performing Arts, has encountered more than her fair share of obstacles. But by turning them into triumph, she’s created a growing space for people of all ages and abilities to discover dance — and themselves — in a safe, uplifting environment. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Ashley talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about her career journey, the importance of creating positive experiences through dance, and where Ohana is headed next. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

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BusinessTalk with Tech Foundry CEO Tricia Canavan

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Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 187: November 13, 2023

Joe Interviews Tech Foundry CEO Tricia Canavan

Since its launch almost a decade ago, Tech Foundry has trained hundreds of students and partnered with scores of employers across Western Mass. to get people trained for good IT careers and help businesses grow with local talent. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Tech Foundry CEO Tricia Canavan talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about how the organization continues to play a key role in the region’s high-tech ecosystem — and how its new partnership with Holyoke Community College, called Tech Hub, promises to help even more people navigate the digital world and improve their job prospects. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

 

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Law Marketing, Now Essential, Continues to Evolve

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Law Special Coverage

Getting Their Message Across

Seth Stratton wasn’t belittling what he does. He was just stating what most would consider the obvious — “business law isn’t what you would call sexy.”

Usually.

Indeed, when the state Supreme Judicial Court overturns a $3.5 million settlement awarded to a couple living next to a golf course after 651 stray golf balls hit their property, frightening their young child and forcing them to confine themselves indoors for fear of injury — which it did almost a year ago — that’s business law that tumbles into the ‘sexy’ category. (The case became front-page news in the Boston Globe and other large daily publications.)

Understanding this, and also understanding that his firm, East Longmeadow-based Fitzgerald Law, P.C., has a few golf courses in its portfolio of business clients and would like to add more, Stratton posted this item on LinkedIn:

“Interesting SJC decision worth noting in the context of golf course neighboring residential developments. In essence, the SJC overturned a $3.5 million verdict in favor of the neighboring homeowners on the basis that the jury needed to consider the reasonableness standard in connection with an easement for the ‘reasonable and efficient’ operation of a golf course. Always a good sign when courts emphasize reasonableness in trial decisions.”

He then attached a link to a Mass Lawyers Weekly article on the case.

While the post falls into the category of education, it can also be considered marketing and building brand awareness, said Stratton, adding that the item speaks to how the marketing and advertising of legal services, something first permitted 46 years ago, has certainly changed over that time, even over the past 10 years or so, and certainly since the days when the yellow pages, and especially the back page of the phone book, were at the top of the list of options for many firms and sole practitioners.

“We’re not trained for this; they didn’t teach it when I was in law school. In fact, it was the opposite — they were teaching you how to be thoughtful about what you do, while marketing is sort of shouting from the rooftops, ‘we’re greater than sliced bread.’ And they still don’t teach it now.”

“That post took me five minutes to prepare and share,” he told BusinessWest. “Twenty years ago, firms would spend hours on a client alert, color, printing, and mass mailing.”

With that, he explained how a LinkedIn post can reach a large audience quickly, efficiently, and at minimum expense, and how social media has become a larger force in an equation that has many components — and questions to be answered.

Indeed, there are many aspects to be considered with marketing, said Tim Mulhern, a partner with the Springfield-based firm Shatz, Schwartz & Fentin, noting, as others we spoke with did, that marketing isn’t something law students typically study.

Amy Royal

Amy Royal says the importance of law marketing continues to grow, as does the number of options for law firms to consider.

“We’re not trained for this; they didn’t teach it when I was in law school. In fact, it was the opposite — they were teaching you how to be thoughtful about what you do, while marketing is sort of shouting from the rooftops, ‘we’re greater than sliced bread,’” he said. “And they still don’t teach it now.”

So lawyers and firms have had to learn as they go, he said, adding that there is much to learn as the methods for getting a message across have evolved. Meanwhile, firms have to decide if they want to do it themselves — many have marketing committees comprised of lawyers — or hire a marketing director or an outside PR firm, an expensive step (one that didn’t have to be taken years ago), which many of them have taken.

And the job descriptions for these marketing directors have certainly changed as the times have.

“When I began my career in legal marketing in 1995, law firms were just starting to introduce websites as a tool to differentiate themselves from the competition,” said Jennifer Jacque, head of Marketing and Business Development for Springfield-based Bulkley Richardson. “Responsibilities of marketing professionals in law firms were limited to tasks such as writing bios and planning events. Since then, law firms have expanded their core portfolio of marketing services to include branding, public relations, advertising, social media, digital marketing, market research, communications, accolades and awards submissions, and more.”

Meanwhile, the importance of marketing and building brand awareness has grown steadily, said Raipher Pellegrino, managing partner of Springfield-based Raipher, P.C., which specializes in personal injury, medical malpractice, and related fields. He cited several reasons why.

Competition is one of them, he said, noting that firms in this market now compete against regional and national giants that open small offices in markets like this one — and they have for some time now. More recently, there is increased competition from firms from Boston and other large markets who can take advantage of shifts brought on from COVID — especially Zoom calls with clients and Zoom court hearings instead of the in-person variety of both — to take cases in this market that previously would have been prohibitive.

These same shifts bring down the cost of client representation, Pellegrino went on, making it possible for a potential client to hire a firm in a larger market that might previously have been out of their price range (more on this later).

All of this points to the importance of marketing and business development and the need for firms to stay on the cutting edge, said those we spoke with — whatever that might be.

 

Case in Point

As he talked about marketing and the many changes that have come to the profession and the legal landscape, if you will, in Western Mass., Mulhern noted that, among other things, the names of many of the firms are shorter — in some cases, much shorter.

“Years ago, if you added a new partner, you added their name to the firm,” he said, noting that some firms had six, eight, or even more names on the letterhead and sign over the door.

Shorter names are, for the most part, a function of marketing and branding, he said, adding that there are myriad other parts of this equation, from a strong web presence to involvement in the community, such as with his firm’s charitable foundation.

Indeed, as Jacque noted, marketing and business development covers areas ranging from PR to submitting nominations for the many ‘best of’ awards that lawyers can put on their résumés, the press releases for which start flooding the inboxes of media outlets each fall, when the announcements are made.

The world of law marketing changed dramatically in June 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, essentially striking down prohibitions against advertising by attorneys.

Tim Mulhern

Tim Mulhern says that, while law marketing has certainly evolved, word-of-mouth referrals are still effective.

Until then, marketing was a function of signage on a building or office door, networking — everything from joining the Rotary Club to being active with the local chamber of commerce — and word-of-mouth referrals, all of which, and especially the last two, are still very important pieces of the puzzle and perhaps the most important, said those we spoke with.

Indeed, Stratton said he and other lawyers at Fitzgerald are very visible, attending a number of business functions (the recent Developers Conference in Springfield is a good example) and fundraisers for area nonprofits. Meanwhile, word of mouth has long been perhaps the most effective way to build a book of business.

“Word of mouth has always been important,” said Mulhern, who specializes in business organizations, estate planning, and real estate. “My favorite way to get a new client is to have another lawyer say, ‘Tim knows how to do this stuff.’”

But while advertising was frowned upon by many in the business for years after the 1977 ruling, the many aspects of marketing and brand building have become more accepted and increasingly important over the years, for those reasons mentioned earlier. The questions have always concerned how to market.

And the answer usually depends on what type of law one specializes in and what audiences they are trying to reach.

“Marketing of law firms comes down to messaging — and then targeting who you want to be receiving this message,” said Jacque, noting that the work of targeting takes many forms and involves different mediums.

Amy Royal, founding partner of the Springfield-based Royal Law Firm, agreed, noting that her firm, which represents and counsels businesses on all aspects of labor and employment law, focuses on that specific audience.

That’s why she never took out ads in the yellow pages — she was solicited annually but always said no — and instead focused on business publications like this one.

“We’ve also expanded over the years into the digital space — and while we don’t do advertising, we do brand awareness on social media,” she said, adding that some firms have gone to platforms ranging from Facebook to Instagram and even TikTok to get their message out with videos, articles, links to reports on recent rulings, and more. Doing so enables them to reach large audiences inexpensively.

“Now, in order to be competitive, you have to advertise in some form. But you have to figure out what works for you.”

Meanwhile, the firm’s web page has become a valuable asset, especially since the start of the pandemic, for introducing people to the firm and its lawyers, and also disseminating information through a blog, articles, and links to articles, such as the ones Royal’s attorneys write regularly for BusinessWest.

 

Weighing the Facts

Overall, Royal said law firms often need to use several vehicles, including traditional forms of media, depending, again, on the audience they want to reach and the messages they want to send.

Pellegrino, who uses billboards, television, print, and other mediums, agreed, but added that, for many lawyers, especially those who specialize in different areas, targeting specific audiences can be more challenging.

“Now, in order to be competitive, you have to advertise in some form,” he told BusinessWest. “But you have to figure out what works for you; it’s a very difficult business to advertise in. If you were selling engagement rings, you’d target the 19- to 30-year-old audience. But who gets in accidents? What type of clientele are you targeting? Personal injury is a very difficult business to advertise.”

Meanwhile, measuring return on investment from whatever forms of marketing are used is more difficult with legal services than other products or services, Pellegrino went on.

“There’s no guarantee of what you’re going to get in return,” he said, adding that, while it’s like this for all industries, it’s especially true with the law and especially personal-injury law, where the goal is to get the higher-end cases with bigger returns.

Despite these challenges, he said marketing is ever-more important because the level of competition continues to increase, with regional and national firms specializing in personal injury moving into this market — and making their presence known.

And the advent of virtual hearings and client meetings enables firms in other markets to woo clients in the 413.

“Before, the Boston lawyers didn’t want to take cases in Western Mass.,” he said. “But now they do because they can do a lot of the hearings by Zoom, so they don’t have to drive out here; it’s more cost-effective, and it’s really good for the consumer. And it means that it’s more important to advertise.”

Stratton agreed, noting that, overall, success in this industry is about forging relationships and continually strengthening those relationships. This is accomplished by staying visible and front of mind — in every way imaginable, be it by attending functions, being active in the community, writing articles to be published in BusinessWest, or, yes, sending links to articles on developments and cases like the one involving that couple living just off the golf course.

Doing so helps show that, while business law isn’t sexy — usually — it’s important, especially to those in business.

Legal advertising usually isn’t sexy, either, but it’s equally important, and while the landscape has changed dramatically since June 1977, and even over the past five years, the basic mission remains the same — to build a brand and put one’s best foot forward.

Country Bank Creates Strategies to Build Its Brand, Enter New Markets

By
Banking and Financial Services Special Coverage

Signs of Progress

Country Bank’s display at Polar Park in Worcester has given many businesses what Paul Scully calls “sign envy.”

Paul Scully didn’t want to say how much Country Bank has invested in that 60-foot-long sign that sits atop what is known as the Worcester Wall at Polar Park (that facility’s version of Fenway’s Green Monster), easily the most visible manifestation of the bank’s partnership with the WooSox.

Instead, he offered a gracious “you can ask…”

But he certainly did want to say that he considers the overall investment in this sponsorship, and especially that sign, well worth it.

Indeed, it is certainly an attention getter, at all times but especially at night — it’s one of the few illuminated signs at the home of the WooSox and the second-largest after the one for the beverage company that bought naming rights.

Scully told BusinessWest that he has talked with a number of business owners in Worcester, Springfield, and in between who are suffering from what he called “sign envy.” Meanwhile, upon introducing himself at various occasions, he said he’s been greeted with the response “that’s the bank with the big sign at Polar Park.”

So the display is doing what is was designed to do, although fully leveraging it and other aspects of the partnership with the WooSox is an ongoing learning experience in a different kind of branding exercise (more on that later). And it’s merely one of many signs of progress, growth, and expansion — figuratively but also quite literally — at the Ware-based institution.

Another would be the bank’s business center on the 17th floor of Tower Square in downtown Springfield, opened in 2022. There’s only a small sign at the office, but the facility gives the bank a much larger presence at this end of Hampden County. Meanwhile, Country is adding some new products, including a WooSox debit card, and it recently completed a comprehensive digital upgrade on both its consumer and business banking platforms.

Still another sign, this one not of the visible variety, is the bank’s resiliency during what has been a challenging year for all financial institutions amid skyrocketing interest rates and a sagging housing market, due in large part to those soaring interest rates, but other factors as well.

Overall, Scully said Country Bank remains in a growth mode and, like other institutions, understands the value of size to continued success. The bank is looking at where to bring its brand next, he said, adding that there are many opportunities within its current footprint between Springfield and Worcester and perhaps beyond.

And there are, obviously, many factors to consider when it comes to where to go, when, and in what fashion.

Indeed, the 3,000-square-foot branch with a few drive-up lanes is largely a thing of the past, he said, adding quickly that while customers, and especially the younger generations, have fewer reasons than ever to visit a branch, they still serve a purpose. Actually, several of them.

“What we continue to look at are smaller footprints that will provide several things; getting your name on a building or a storefront is a form of marketing and the ability to get our name and our brand out there,” he said, adding that the bank’s broad strategy will be to maximize both brick-and-mortar facilities and digital banking platforms — often at the same address.

The team at Country Bank’s business office

The team at Country Bank’s business office at Tower Square in Springfield, another sign of the bank’s continued growth and expansion.

As to what additional addresses might become reality in the future, he said that’s one of many questions to be answered in the years to come.

For this issue and its focus on banking and financial services, BusinessWest engaged in a wide-ranging discussion with Scully, who addressed everything from broad strokes in the bank’s business plan to the outlook for the year ahead when it comes to the economy, interest rates, and other factors; from the bank’s adjustments to a changing workforce to that big green sign in downtown Worcester.

 

Home Field Advantage

Like the famous Citgo sign outside Fenway, the Country Bank sign at Polar Park is always on, Scully said, adding that he can see it outside the apartment he has in the city.

“They do great things at the park and with the city to keep it going year-round,” he explained, noting that the bank’s visibility certainly doesn’t end when the games stop in September. “Whether it’s a Holy Cross football game or the charity walks that are constantly going on … every time the park is being used, or whether you’re in the DCU Club, a beautiful function venue at the park, that Country Bank sign is right in your face.”

And having his bank’s name in lights — big lights — is just one component of the bank’s partnership with the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate, Scully said, noting that it will soon be introducing a WooSox debit card — ‘the official debit card of the Worcester Red Sox.’ Meanwhile, the organizations collaborate on a ‘teacher of the month’ program, a ‘community heroes’ initiative, and other endeavors, he noted, adding that the investment in the team and its ballpark continues to pay dividends.

And the key to a successful partnership in such cases is effective leveraging of the signage and other elements of the collaboration, he said, adding that, in many respects, this remains a learning experience for the bank. And he used the DCU Center, the indoor arena in Worcester, to get his point across.

“I was with someone a few years ago, and I said something about DCU, noting that this was Digital Credit Union,” he recalled. “And she looked at me and said, ‘that’s what that stands for?’ So you need to make sure that, if you’re going to do something like this, you have to figure out what it’s going to get you.

“And you have to really work at leveraging it,” he went on. “Whenever you take a new approach to how you market your brand, you have to do the research, and you have to know when to shift gears. Clearly, it’s not just about turning on a sign; it’s about how you leverage that to be an expansion and an awareness of your brand.”

He said the bank’s marketing team spends a lot of time with the marketing personnel at the WooSox to develop strategies for how to fully leverage the partnership between the organizations.

Elaborating, he said the bank does this in various ways — through visibility from the sign, obviously, but also with the debit card, ticket giveaways, work with the WooSox Foundation, and being on the field for promotional events, such as the police-fire charity baseball game staged at the park in September.

“We were there, and we were a big sponsor of that event,” he went on, “and that allows you to reach out into various mediums of people and get your brand out there, so they get to understand what the brand is and what it stands for.”

 

Covering His Bases

Overall, the brand stands for many things, Scully said, noting that Country is a community bank that is large enough to provide the services required by its commercial clients and consumers, but small enough to deliver a personalized brand of service, qualities that have served the bank well during what has been a year of challenge for most all financial-services institutions.

Indeed, Country has enjoyed what Scully called a “decent year,” not on par with those that immediately preceded the pandemic, but solid from an earnings perspective and in most areas, including the mortgage side of the ledger and home-equity loans.

“We’re one of the most highly capitalized banks in the Commonwealth — our capital ratio is over 15%, and we’re quite profitable,” he said, adding that such stability bodes well at a time when not all banks can make such claims.

As for the mortgage business, Scully said it was definitely more vibrant than he would have expected over the past year, adding quickly that there are challenges within certain sectors of the market, especially the first-time homebuyers.

“They got the double whammy — the pricing of housing went up, and now interest rates have gone up,” he said. “There’s that segment of the population that’s looking to buy a home, but they can’t find it within their price range because their price range has been altered by the increase in interest rates.

“But we’re seeing people who have sold a home and are buying another one and trading up who don’t seem fazed by interest rates,” he went on. “Part of it is because a large percentage of the mortgages we are doing are adjustable-rate; they’re at a lower rate than a fixed rate, and I think the thought process is, ‘I’ll get an adjustable, and then, when rates come down, whether that’s in 12, 24, or 36 months, I’ll just refinance.’”

Overall, consumers continue to spend, despite the higher interest rates and historically high inflation.

“We see a younger segment seemingly unfazed by interest rates,” he told BusinessWest. “If the debit card works … they have a good time for themselves; that’s what’s happening.”

Things are slower, overall, on the commercial side of the ledger, Scully noted, adding that many business owners are fazed by higher interest rates. Meanwhile, with commercial real estate, many potential investors are waiting and seeing what’s happening with the office market, he said, adding that that the shift to remote work and hybrid schedules, seemingly permanent in the eyes of many, have brought a hesitancy to many investors.

Country Bank is one of those companies that has embraced a hybrid approach — and Scully is one of those who works remotely at least a few days a week on average.

He said these strategies have better enabled the bank to recruit and retain talent and, overall, become what he called “an employer of choice.”

“It’s really understanding evolution — an evolution of the workplace and an evolution of the economy,” he said, “and being able to adapt to it.”

 

Knowing the Score

Scully was quick to note that his office is not equipped with a crystal ball, but he said there are many signs, especially on the employment side, that the economy is still chugging along. Companies are hiring, he noted, and this trend generally yields sufficient levels of optimism among consumers.

And with interest rates, he projects they will stay pretty much where they are — a level that is considerably higher than what has been seen over the past decade, but, from a historical perspective, acceptable in most respects.

“We need some stabilization to get a sense of what real is these days,” he said. “The rates were so low for so long, but were those rates real? That’s the big question. If we step back 10 or 15 years ago, if you were getting a mortgage at 6%, that was pretty darn good.”

The other lingering question about 2024 concerns what will happen on the business and commercial real-estate sides of the ledger, he said, noting that there is a great deal of uncertainly when it comes to the future of retail — and the office.

“We’re hybrid, and we have a lot of office space,” he said. “We don’t have plans to condense it, but I’m sure there are companies that are looking at that. What will that do to the prices of things? That’s what we’ll start to see in 2024.”

As he talked about possible opportunities for expansion and bringing the Country Bank name (and green sign) to different communities, Scully acknowledged that the bank already has a rather large footprint, one that includes the state’s second- and third-largest cities and the territory between them.

There is the banking center in downtown Springfield and full-service branches in Belchertown, Brimfield, Charlton, Leicester, Ludlow, Palmer, Paxton, Ware, West Brookfield, Wilbraham, and two in Worcester, including a recently opened facility in Tatnuck Square. That footprint covers three counties — Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester — and communities large and small.

The bank has been steadily growing its presence in Worcester, he went on, adding that it has always had a strong commercial-lending book of business, and has gradually increased its visibility and its overall presence with branch locations.

“We’re looking for opportunities throughout the Central Mass. and Western Mass. area,” he said, acknowledging that this certainly covers a considerable amount of real estate.

With the exception of that business office in Tower Square, the bank does not have a physical location west of Ludlow, he noted, adding that Country is certainly looking at opportunities to change that equation.

But the opportunity has to be right, he added quickly, noting that the bank isn’t interested in expansion for expansion’s sake.

“We continue to look at both markets, Worcester and Springfield, and say, ‘what opportunities are there in towns that are not already overbanked?’” he said. “We don’t want to be the 10th bank in the town.”

Getting back to those businesses he mentioned with ‘sign envy,’ Scully said they’re going to have to live with that condition for the foreseeable future.

“That’s their problem because we’re going to be there for a long time,” he said, using that phrase to refer to the sign, but also the bank’s presence across an ever-wider stretch of the state. This is an institution that is hitting it out of the park — in all kinds of ways.

Valley View Farm Blends History, Nature, and Hard Cider

By
Suzy Fortgang
Holiday Party Planner Special Coverage

It’s Become a Venue of Choice

Suzy Fortgang

Suzy Fortgang in the Yellow Barn at Valley View Farm.

 

Suzy Fortgang says it took four full years to acquire the horse barn on the grounds of the Berkshire Hills Music Academy in South Hadley, disassemble it, and put it back together at what is now known as Valley View Farm in Haydenville.

“We were looking for a barn, we found it, and we took it down piece by piece,” she recalled. “It was a laborious process; every piece, some of them 40 feet long, was tagged, taken apart like a LEGO, and moved … luckily, we had drawn a good diagram so we could put it back together.”

And when asked about the price tag for doing all that, she said simply, “I don’t want to think about it; I never wanted to add it up.”

But she thinks often about how that cost, and all that hard work, were certainly well worth it.

Indeed, what’s known as the ‘Yellow Barn,’ built by the son of silk magnate William Skinner for his daughter, has become the centerpiece, — figuratively, but also quite literally — of a multi-faceted operation at the farm, shaped over the past several years by Fortgang and her husband, David Nehring, and especially its thriving weddings and events business.

“It was a laborious process; every piece, some of them 40 feet long, was tagged, taken apart like a LEGO, and moved … luckily, we had drawn a good diagram so we could put it back together.”

Fortgang, a psychotherapist by trade, said the venue hosts roughly 80 weddings a year, in addition to a variety of other events, from fundraisers for nonprofits to retirement and birthday parties to a few holiday gatherings, with the obvious goal of doing more of all of the above.

The site has become an increasingly popular venue for weddings, drawing couples from an ever-wider geographic circle, but especially from across New England, New York State, and, increasingly, New York City.

Indeed, as she talked with BusinessWest, Fortgang recapped a wedding the previous weekend involving a couple from Brooklyn, with most family and friends coming from in or around Gotham.

“They don’t get to experience this much — being outdoors and being in nature and eating local food,” she said, referring to the broad experience that Valley View provides. “It’s a gift that you can give to your guests.”

Valley View

Valley View is a working farm, but also a true destination and venue for many different kinds of events.
Photo by Aleksandr Verbetsky

Indeed, those hosting these events — and those who attend them — are treated to a site that blends scenic beauty with some history, especially in the form of that barn (more on that later), hard cider (another important piece of the business plan), and some spectacular views.

“We now make a living hosting weddings and other events,” said Fortgang, adding that this component of the business started coming together just seven years ago. “And I think we’ve risen to become one of the most popular venues in New England.”

As noted earlier, this is, indeed, a multi-faceted operation. Fortgang and Nehring grow a number of crops, from apples and peaches to blueberries and a variety of vegetables. They also produce maple syrup, raise chickens and sell eggs. And several years ago, they started making hard cider and eventually opened the Muse Cider Bar, a destination unto itself that is open to the public on nights when there are no events.

“We now make a living hosting weddings and other events. And I think we’ve risen to become one of the most popular venues in New England.”

For this issue and its focus on holiday party planning, BusinessWest visited Valley View Farm and gained a full appreciation for how it has become a true destination, and in many different respects.

 

Story Material

Getting back to that barn…

It’s not just the painstakingly laborious process of taking it down and reassembling it that makes its new home and purpose so significant, although that’s a remarkable story in its own right. It’s also where it’s located.

Indeed, the farm now sits just a few hundred yards from where the original Skinner silk mill was located in Haydenville, then known as as the Unquomonk Silk Company. That mill, which was uninsured, was destroyed by the Mill River Flood of 1874, with Skinner eventually rebuilding in Holyoke in what became one of the best business comeback stories ever recorded.

“It just felt right to bring it back to Haydenville,” said Fortgang, adding that the barn had been condemned and was due to be demolished by Berkshire Hills when she and Nehring, who previously owned a small engine-repair shop in Northampton, stepped in to rescue it.

That was a few years after they had acquired the property in 2013, outbidding, by a dollar, a developer who planned to build condominiums on the site.

“We bought it with the intention of farming,” she recalled. “We wanted land … we both loved the outdoors. He wanted to farm — he grew up on a farm.”

Originally a dairy farm but also an orchard, the property had not been farmed for many years, she went on, adding that they gradually added facilities, crops, and revenue streams. The farm is now home to more than 250 fruit trees, including vintage apple trees with heirloom varieties. Maple sugaring and cider production were soon added, and while doing all that, Fortgang and Nehring conceptualized and advanced a secondary plan to convert the property into an events venue and destination.

The Yellow Barn at Valley View Farm

The Yellow Barn at Valley View Farm, carefully deconstructed and put together at the scenic property in Haydenville, has become a popular wedding venue.

“When we bought the land, it was in my mind to do all of this,” she said, gesturing with her hand to indicate everything from the main event space to a smaller barn converted into a pavilion, to the cider bar. “Because I interviewed all the farmers, I knew about how to make a living farming, and I couldn’t quite figure out how to do that without the history and the infrastructure.”

And the Yellow Barn become the focal point of that plan.

Featuring high ceilings, huge windows to let in sunlight and moonlight, and tables and chairs fashioned from boards from a secondary floor, it is open for events year-round — it’s heated and air-conditioned — and blends history and culture with today’s conveniences.

“It has all the amenities of a modern venue, but it also has the history and charm of being an old horse barn,” said Fortgang, adding that it also features some unique spaces, such as the ‘Love Nest.’ Located on the second floor of the barn, it’s a private suite, decorated with antique furniture collected by Fortgang’s parents, that is used for photos, hair and makeup, and as a “romantic getaway.”

This blend of old, new, and historical, coupled with everything else on the property, from the views to the horses grazing in the nearby pasture to the hard cider, has quickly made Valley View a destination of choice for couples looking a different kind of wedding venue.

Fortgang said that perhaps 30% of the weddings involve people from this area. The rest are from across New England and New York and well beyond, making tiny Haydenville what could be considered a destination-wedding spot.

“We’re happy to get to know more people and share this beautiful place with them. This has become a place to come and celebrate … and we know how to throw a good party.”

Indeed, wedding parties and guests will often stay a night or two in hotels in neighboring Northampton and other communities, making Valley View an economic engine of sorts.

“They all stay in Northampton, they take a bus up here, and they spend the day here,” she explained. “Sometimes it’s kids who grew up here, but now they live in other parts of the country. We have New Yorkers, we have a lot of Brooklyn couples.

“Couples these days … when they’re looking for this aesthetic, they get on the internet, and they’re considering Vermont and Maine and Rhode Island, and all of New England, really,” she went on, adding that their search now often ends in Haydenville because of word-of-mouth referrals and the venue’s strong track record for excellence.

Indeed, 2024 is essentially sold out as far as weddings are concerned, she said, while bookings for 2025 and beyond are quite solid. The venue generally does three each weekend, with the pace of business slowing in the winter months, obviously.

Beyond weddings, Valley View also hosts different kinds of private functions in its various spaces — the Yellow Barn for larger gatherings, as it can accommodate up to 200 people, and a pavilion and patio (moved from the historic Hemenway Hill Farm a few miles away) and Muse Cider Bar for smaller functions.

It has hosted wedding anniversaries, bridal and baby showers, nonprofit fundraising events, retirement parties, family reunions, and some holiday parties as well, said Fortgang, adding that the business plan calls for building this side of the operation by creating more of those word-of-mouth referrals.

“We’re happy to get to know more people and share this beautiful place with them,” she went on. “This has become a place to come and celebrate … and we know how to throw a good party.”

 

Bottom Line

During COVID, when the wedding business screeched to a halt, Fortgang and Nehring still managed to put their facilities to use, creating a cocktail bar, called the Farm Bar, in the Yellow Barn, and actually handing out drinks through the windows to visitors from across the region — many of them desperate for something to do — before eventually moving the operation outdoors.

“It became a thing,” she said, adding that the farm became such a popular gathering spot for the public, it was decided to open the Muse Cider Bar on nights when there are no events.

“We’ll have a food truck down there and serve cocktails and cider,” she told BusinessWest, adding that this is just one of the ways in which Valley View has gone from being a celebrated part of Haydenville’s past to being a huge part of the community’s present and future.

And a destination — in every sense of that term.

Strategies Evolve to Counter Troubling Opioid-overdose Trends

By
Christine Palmieri
Healthcare News Special Coverage

Stemming the Tide

Christine Palmieri

Christine Palmieri says economic tides, particularly around housing availability, have exacerbated the opioid epidemic.

When BusinessWest visited the Mental Health Assoc. (MHA) in Springfield last fall, Christine Palmieri reported what she called a “troubling” trend locally: more deaths by overdose, over the previous year or two, than she’d seen in her entire career.

She wishes she had different news to report now.

“Anecdotally, it hasn’t improved. We’ve lost a number of individuals over the course of this year to opioid overdose,” Palmieri, vice president of Recovery and Housing at MHA, said this month.

Earlier this year, the state reported a similar lack of positive news. Specifically, opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts increased by 2.5% in 2022 compared to 2021, with 2,357 such confirmed and estimated deaths in 2022.

Breaking it down further, the data showed that non-Hispanic Black men saw their opioid-related overdose death rate increase 41%, from 56.4 to 79.6 per 100,000, while the rate for non-Hispanic Black women increased by 47%, from 17.4 to 25.5 per 100,000.

Some of the broader trends may track back to the isolation and loss of connection people were feeling during the pandemic, Palmieri said, but economic tides are more significant factors right now, from access to work to higher costs of food, transportation, and especially housing — key social determinants of health that hinder recovery.

“It’s a difficult environment to try to get better in now,” she told BusinessWest, noting that the state Department of Public Health (DPH) has begun investing significantly in housing programs for people experiencing substance abuse. Using funds from the state’s Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund, DPH expects to increase low-threshold housing units — housing provided in conjunction with supportive recovery services — statewide from 394 to 761 this year.

“MHA and a lot of our colleagues have been benefactors of that funding, which helps get people off the street into a warm and safe place and on the path to recovery,” Palmieri said. “It’s hard to do the work of recovery if you don’t have a safe place to lay your head. Getting people off the streets into safe housing is critical. It’s the first step on the path to recovery.”

“It hasn’t improved. We’ve lost a number of individuals over the course of this year to opioid overdose.”

Among MHA’s transitional and permanent housing programs are three residences in its GRIT program, for individuals with co-occurring substance-abuse and mental-health diagnoses, which require no time limit on a stay as long as a resident is benefiting and engaging in the program.

“Housing is the biggest barrier for us in the mental-health world,” she added. “The thing that keeps people in programs longer than anything else is the lack of affordable housing. We don’t discharge people into homelessness; we help them land somewhere — sober houses, transitional houses, re-housing programs.

“That’s why funding from the state is so crucial. It allows us to subsidize housing costs for people with very low incomes who experience substance-use issues,” Palmieri added, noting that MHA also has relationships, often spanning decades, with local landlords. “When a unit becomes available, they’ll call us because they know the rent will get paid and that we’ll be there to support them with whatever they experience.”

Dr. Katie Krauskopf

Dr. Katie Krauskopf says everyone should have access to naloxone, the only intervention that can reverse an overdose.

Dr. Katie Krauskopf, medical director of Substance Use Disorder Services at MiraVista Behavioral Health Center in Holyoke, said her organization has expanded outpatient substance-abuse treatment services — both programs and operating hours — as well as broadening an effort to treat patients with co-occurring mental-health and substance-abuse issues through its inpatient psychiatric services.

“The work definitely continues,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re still seeing overdoses at high rates — and any overdose is too many. We’re also seeing an adulterated drug supply.”

And it’s not just fentanyl, she noted; the new additive on the street is a tranquilizer called xylazine, which is being detected in an increasing number of drug-overdose deaths.

“To address the opioid crisis, we need to prioritize overdose death prevention while simultaneously investing in comprehensive supports for those dealing with substance-use disorder, to ensure they have every opportunity for recovery,”  Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh said when the DPH report was released. “We have to lean into the disparities we see in impacts on Black residents and target our interventions accordingly. Challenges like housing, hunger, and accessing education, behavioral-health treatment, and transportation need to be addressed in concert with substance-use treatment in order to turn the tide of this epidemic.”

 

Instant Intervention

To save lives while an overdose is in progress, the state, its municipalities, and organizations like MiraVista and Tapestry Health have worked in concert to make naloxone, also known as Narcan, more widely accessible, in order to reverse the deadly effects of an overdose as it’s happening.

For instance, the city of Greenfield recently announced that four naloxone boxes have been installed at Energy Park, Hillside Park, and the two Greenfield City Hall public restrooms, and the boxes will be refilled weekly by Tapestry.

This effort, spearheaded by the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin, Tapestry, the North Quabbin Community Coalition, and Boston Medical Center, is part of the National Institutes of Health’s HEALing Communities Study, which began in 2019 with 16 Massachusetts communities that qualified based on opioid overdose fatality rates.

The new naloxone boxes are part of the $800,000 the local task force received to finance opioid-related fatality-reduction strategies in Greenfield, Athol, Montague, and Orange. In addition, the task force and Tapestry continue to host virtual overdose-prevention and Narcan trainings.

“The city welcomes the opportunity to be a partner with Tapestry and the Opioid Task Force in this effective, life-saving, harm-reduction effort by allowing naloxone boxes to be available in our City Hall and public parks,” Greenfield Mayor Roxann Wedegartner said.

According to the DPH, Massachusetts has already exceeded, and plans to expand upon, federal naloxone ‘saturation’ goals, providing communities with enough naloxone to prevent overdose deaths that may occur from a lack of medication access. Since 2020, DPH has distributed close to 300,000 naloxone kits to harm-reduction programs, opioid treatment providers, community health centers, hospital emergency departments, and county houses of correction, with distribution increasing about 40% each year.

In 2022, the DPH launched the Community Naloxone Purchasing Program with the aim of increasing distribution of free naloxone through organizations to the community. Meanwhile, this past spring, in response to the rise in opioid-related overdose deaths, DPH issued an advisory urging healthcare providers to increase availability of naloxone kits and train staff to administer naloxone to anyone who may need it, and retail pharmacies to continue to dispense it without a prescription as part of a statewide standing order.

“Narcan is the only intervention we have to reverse an overdose. And if you have a medication that does that, everyone should have access to it. It does save lives,” Krauskopf said.

Roxann Wedegartner

“The city welcomes the opportunity to be a partner with Tapestry and the Opioid Task Force in this effective, life-saving, harm-reduction effort by allowing naloxone boxes to be available in our City Hall and public parks.”

Meanwhile, since August 2022, DPH has increased its distribution of rapid fentanyl test strip kits at no cost to providers and community organizations. Single-use fentanyl test strips help reduce the chances of overdose by allowing people who use drugs to test their supply prior to consumption to determine if it is tainted with fentanyl.

Other recent innovations in battling substance abuse range from medical — such as Sublocade, a long-acting injectable that has helped many patients keep off opioids — to regulatory, such as a move during the pandemic to allow patients to take home medications they could not previously, Krauskopf added.

Palmieri noted that the Western Mass. region — and the organizations within it that deal with addiction — do a good job of providing a wide spectrum of residential and outpatient services, from acute detox centers to medication-assisted treatment to recovery coaching.

“It’s vitally important that the community has options to meet everyone’s needs,” she added. “No one size fits all, and there are many different pathways to recovery.”

 

A Slowing Trend?

There is also, perhaps, some good news from the DPH’s recent study, which reported that, according to preliminary data, there were 522 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths in the first three months of 2023, a 7.7% decrease (and an estimated 44 fewer deaths) from the same time period in 2022.

“Too many Massachusetts families, particularly families of color, have been impacted by this crisis,” Gov. Healey said at the time, “and in order to effectively respond, we need to address the gaps in the system by advancing long-term solutions that include housing, jobs, mental healthcare, and more resources for our cities and towns.”

And addiction doesn’t discriminate by the size of those cities and towns. According to the DPH report, the most rural communities in Massachusetts had the highest opioid-related overdose death rate in 2022 at 36.1 deaths per 100,000 residents.

However, Springfield was among the cities and towns that experienced notable increases in opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022 compared with 2021; others high on that list included Lawrence, Leominster, Lynn, Waltham, Weymouth, and Worcester.

“We know overdose deaths are preventable,” DPH Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein said. “The pandemic has had a devastating impact on mental health and substance use, especially among marginalized communities. We are working to reverse these troubling trends by continuing to build on our data-driven and equity-based approaches toward responsive support and treatment.”

There Are Plenty of Reasons — and Ways — to Shop Local

By Contributor
Michelle Wirth says the Feel Good Shop Local
Shop Local Special Coverage

Gifts for Every Season

By Manon L. Mirabelli

Michelle Wirth says the Feel Good Shop Local

Michelle Wirth says the Feel Good Shop Local website gives area merchants access to many more shoppers.

The gift-giving season is quickly approaching, and the business of everyday life can make it difficult to find the perfectly thoughtful gift. Fortunately, the 413 is full of good ideas.

Michelle Wirth, founder and CEO of Feel Good Shop Local — and a believer in the importance of supporting local retailers — has been working with area merchants since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic halted business as we knew it.

A successful marketing executive and entrepreneur, Wirth — who, with her husband, Peter, brought Mercedes-Benz of Springfield to the region — said she has always been passionate about supporting local, independent businesses.

“People today are busy and don’t have time to do research to find small businesses,” she said. “But we can’t have a vibrant downtown if we don’t support small businesses throughout the year so they can survive.”

Wirth established Feel Good Shop Local (FGSL) and its website, www.feelgoodshoplocal.com, to support independent merchants and empower conscientious consumers by offering a simple online solution for those who want to shop locally and/or to support small businesses, she explained.

“Small business is the backbone of any thriving community, and FGSL wants to create an elevated online experience so shopping locally becomes the go-to solution when trying to find great products easily.”

Not only does FGSL support local commerce, the nonprofit organization also increases sales for small-business merchants by making its online store available to them to sell their goods. The concept behind the website is to offer consumers an alternate shopping stream while boosting sales for the businesses.

The website, Wirth noted, gives merchants access to a significantly greater number of shoppers. It started with 20 businesses and has increased to 50 this year, offering consumers a wide array of shopping options.

“Our online e-commerce website shop is a one-stop shop that gives small, local business access and exposure to new consumers who would not otherwise know about the business,” she said. “We’re giving these businesses access to sales, vitality, and exposure. We’re doing the heavy lifting for business and the consumer.”

As a busy mom of four and business owner, Wirth understands the challenges consumers face when balancing the need for convenience and the desire to make value-driven purchasing choices. She personally curates a selection of the best products from independent merchants and local makers.

The shopping convenience and variety of choice, as well as the benefits to business owners, make up just some of the bigger economic picture. The importance of shopping locally benefits the long-term success of any community’s downtown offerings and can make the difference between a stagnant town center and one that thrives with activity.

“It’s important to shop local,” Wirth said. “We all want a vibrant downtown community. When people shop local, they are voting with their wallets and making dreams come true for the business owner.”

Just as important, the consumer benefits by having the opportunity to purchase unique items, she added. “There is a higher propensity of finding something unique while providing economic growth in the community. We pride ourselves on providing a personalized experience. We know the owner, remember what you like, and the money is going to a person, not a faceless corporation. We offer a higher level of customer experience.”

Claudia Pazmany, executive director of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, echoed Wirth’s sentiments on how critical supporting local business owners can be to a community’s success.

“They create the fabric of our community. Entrepreneurship is soaring since the pandemic, and as a result, Amherst alone has an array of new retail offerings and many new restaurants and food establishments,” Pazmany said. “When you support local, you are directly investing in positive social and economic impact. We developed our Amherst Area Gift Card program to showcase local and remind our community that these small businesses should be your first place to turn for gift giving.”

For our annual Shop Local Gift Guide, BusinessWest offers up 18 such options, whether you’re looking for a physical gift to wrap up, a service, or an always-welcome gift card.

Arts Unlimited Gift Gallery
25 College St., South Hadley
(413) 532-7047
www.arts-unlimited.com
Arts Unlimited was founded with one goal in mind: to provide customers with a high-quality, smart, and reliable gift shop. Offerings include a wide variety of art, accessories, and decorations, and gifts for birthdays, retirements, weddings, holidays, and more.

The Baker’s Pin
34 Bridge St., Northampton
(413) 586-7978
www.thebakerspin.com
This extensive kitchen store carries a wide range of cookware, cutlery, electric devices, bakeware, kitchen tools, home goods, cookbooks, and food products as well. But it also offers an array of cooking classes, both online and in person, exploring different foods and techniques appropriate for the season.
 
Berkshirecat Records
63 Flansburg Ave., Dalton
(413) 212-3874
www.berkshirecatrecords.com
Berkshirecat Records is an independent record store located inside the Stationery Factory building, selling quality vintage and new vinyl records of classic rock, blues, jazz, psychedelic, garage rock, folk, indie, pop, and metal recordings.

The Bookstore and Get Lit Wine Bar
11 Housatonic St., Lenox
(413) 637-3390
www.bookstoreinlenox.com
The Bookstore, a fixture in Lenox for more than 40 years, was actually born in the neighboring town of Stockbridge, in the living room of a small rented house behind an alley that housed a then little-known café that later came to be known as Alice’s Restaurant. The bar is open whenever the bookstore is, and the bookstore stays open later some nights when the bar is open as well.

The Closet
79 Cowls Road, Amherst
(413) 345-5999
www.thecloset.clothing
The Closet’s mission goes beyond connecting shoppers to the perfect black dress or favorite pair of shoes. Environmentally conscious, the shop wants to do its part to prevent clothing from being thrown away. Buying previously loved apparel stops the further use of natural resources and prevents clothing from wasting away in landfills.

Fresh Fitness Training Center/Fresh Cycle
320 College Highway, Southwick
(413) 998-3253
Fresh Fitness is a new, full-service, state-of-the-art gym with brand-new equipment and training for all fitness levels, from beginner to advanced, and is located in the same building that houses Fresh Cycle, one of the region’s premier indoor cycle studios, with more than 25 classes per week led by certified instructors.

Glow Studio Suites
2260 Westfield St., West Springfield
(413) 579-8455
Glow Studio Suites features individual beauty experts in one location. Walk in the door and find a lash artist, nail technician, esthetician, and injector. In addition, spray tan and waxing services are available.

Highlands Cards and Gifts
303A Springfield St., Agawam
(413) 315-3442
www.highlandscardandgift.com
Highlands Card and Gifts features a large selection of Irish and Celtic products, Irish knit sweaters, and Irish saps year round, as well as Celtic jewelry, Emmett glassware, Irish and Celtic themed sweatshirts and tees, wool capes, handbags, mugs, teapots, wall hangings, lamps, Irish foods, and much more.

Julie Nolan Jewelry
40 Main St., Amherst
(413) 270-6221
www.julienolanjewelry.com
Julie Nolan’s work blends traditional techniques of wax carving, diamond setting, and goldsmithing with a modern sensibility for design and composition. She sells her own handcrafted, one-of-a-kind heirloom pieces by hand in her studio and boutique, alongside a curated selection of home and gift items by Western Mass. makers.

Pilgrim Candle
36 Union Ave., Westfield
(413) 562-2635
www.pilgrimcandle.com
Pilgrim Candle Co. opened its doors in 1992 and expanded its already-busy operation in 2000 by acquiring Main Street Candlery. In 2007, Pilgrim expanded into private-label manufacturing. Since its first sale more than 30 years ago, Pilgrim Candle has developed a high-quality line of scented candles for candle lovers all around the world.

Pioneer Valley Food Tours
(413) 320-7700
www.pioneervalleyfoodtours.com
This enterprise creates walking food tours that explore local flavors from Northampton and around the region. It also creates gift boxes sourced from the region’s fields and farms, as well as Pioneer Valley picnic baskets of selections ready to bring on an outdoor adventure. Choose a pre-set tour itinerary, or create a custom tour to suit your tastes.
 
Pottery Cellar
77 Mill St., Westfield
(413) 642-5524
www.potterycellar.com
Located in the Mill at Crane Pond, the Pottery Cellar offers the largest selection of authentic Boleslawiec pottery in New England. From holiday-themed seasonal pieces to full dining sets, Pottery Cellar is a regional destination for authentic Polish pottery.

Renew.Calm
80 Capital Dr., West Springfield
(413) 737-6223
www.renewcalm.com
Renew.Calm offers an array of both medically based and luxurious spa treatments, with services including skin care, therapeutic massage, nail care, body treatments, yoga, hair removal, makeup, and lashes. Multi-treatment packages make great gifts.
 
The Shot Shop
722 Bliss Road, Longmeadow
(413) 561-7468
www.ssmedspa.com
The Shot Shop medical rejuvenation spa offers medical rejuvenation treatments for a wide variety of needs. Anyone feeling run down and tired, noticing visible signs of aging, or with other concerns that need to be addressed may find a medical rejuvenation treatment here that will help.

Springfield Thunderbirds
45 Bruce Landon Way, Springfield
(413) 739-4625
www.springfieldthunderbirds.com
A great deal for big-time hockey fans and folks who simply enjoy a fun night out with the family, Thunderbirds games are reasonably priced entertainment in Springfield’s vibrant downtown. The AHL franchise plays home games through April at the MassMutual Center, with a constant stream of promotions.

Springfield Wine Exchange
1500 Main St., Springfield
(413) 733-2171
Located on the ground floor of downtown Tower Square, the Springfield Wine Exchange offers customers local select craft beers and wines imported from around the world, providing a wide array of options for any occasion.

Visual Changes Salon
100 Shaker Road, East Longmeadow
(413) 525-1825
www.visualchangesinc.com
With more than 30 years dedicated to all dimensions of the hair industry, salon owner Mark Maruca is widely respected for his innovative approach hair styling. Services and products are individualized to suit client needs.

Zen’s Toyland
803 Williams St., Longmeadow
(413) 754-3654
www.zenstoyland.com
Zen’s Toyland sells a variety of items ranging from baby teethers to adult puzzles, including high-quality, unique items that aren’t available elsewhere. All the toys are handpicked, and the shop also has a playroom for children to ‘test drive’ items.

BusinessTalk with Dakin Humane Society executive director, Meg Talbert

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 186: November 6, 2023

Joe Bednar talks with Meg Talbert, Dakin Humane Society executive director

During the first eight months of 2022, Dakin Humane Society cared for 1,830 animals. During the same eight months of 2023, the number was 3,007. In short, demand for Dakin’s services — which include spay/neuter and parvo clinics, pet food aid, a ‘kitten street team,’ pet-loss support groups, and much more — have, quite simply, exploded. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Dakin’s executive director, Meg Talbert, talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about how the Springfield-based nonprofit is meeting these needs with the help of a dedicated team, hundreds of volunteers, and individual and corporate generosity. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

 

Sponsored by:

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BusinessTalk with Maria Rivera executive director Hospice of the Fisher Home

By
Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 185: October 30, 2023

Joe Bednar interviews Maria Rivera, executive director at Hospice of  the Fisher Home

Hospice care has been a great source of comfort to individuals and families facing a difficult time of life, yet not everyone knows exactly what services are available and how they can access them. Maria Rivera has spent more than a decade guiding people through this process at Hospice of the Fisher Home, including the past three years as its executive director. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, she talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about the importance of hospice care at a time when the population is aging, why this work is so personally gratifying to her, and why she’s excited about a capital campaign to raise funds to meet some critical needs. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented byBusinessWestand sponsored by PeoplesBank.

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New Owners Writing Next Chapters in History of 1441 Main St.

By
Jeb Balise, left, and Jack Dill
Commercial Real Estate Special Coverage

It’s Business, Not Nostalgia

 

Jeb Balise, left, and Jack Dill

Jeb Balise, left, and Jack Dill

 

Jack Dill likes to say he’s been involved with the building at 1441 Main St. in Springfield since “before it was a hole in the ground.”

Indeed, Dill, now a principal with Colebrook Realty Services, was an employee at Colebrook back in the late 70s, when it was the real-estate arm of Springfield Institution for Savings (SIS), and was assigned to take the plans for building the bank a new headquarters at that address — plans that had been on the drawing board for some time but unable to move forward — and make something happen.

Dill looks back at that assignment, given to him by the bank’s then-President and CEO John Collins, with fondness, pride, and a large amount of self-deprecating humor.

“I don’t know how they ever let me do this,” he recalled. “John said, ‘look, we’ve spent a lot of money on this; we don’t think it’s going to work. We’re not paying you very much; take six months … before we throw the plans away, see what you can do.”

Long story short, he made it all work.

Dill recalls that the city of Springfield wanted some retail at that location (that sector was still a huge force in the downtown at the time, although not for much longer, as we’ll see), and the bank, as noted, wanted a headquarters building. He conceived something that served both masters.

And with the help of a $4 million Urban Development Action Grant from the Carter administration, the $20 million project did move off the drawing board. When finished, the complex boasted several stores and a few restaurants. Meanwhile, SIS had a large presence, and there were dozens of other business tenants in the office ‘tower.’

“I don’t know how they ever let me do this. John said, ‘look, we’ve spent a lot of money on this; we don’t think it’s going to work. We’re not paying you very much; take six months … before we throw the plans away, see what you can do.’”

Dill, as a principal at Colebrook, which became a private company in 1999, would go on to manage and lease the property for decades, steering it through changes in the business and commercial real-estate landscapes. And today, he does largely the same, but through a different lens and with a much-different title: co-owner.

Dill, his partners at Colebrook (Mitch Bolotin and Kevin Morin), and Jeb Balise, president of Balise Motor Sales (soon to be based in Springfield, on the third floor at 1441 Main St.) partnered to acquire the 12-story office building in early 2022.

The ‘birdcage,’ erected in 1986 to camouflage closed retail at 1441 Main St.

The ‘birdcage,’ erected in 1986 to camouflage closed retail at 1441 Main St., will soon be coming down, one of many changes coming to the downtown office complex.

They came together, they said, to bring the property under local ownership and make some changes to bring more vibrancy. The fact that Balise’s company has a new home for much of its operation (and roughly 55 employees) was always on the table, he said, but not a deciding factor in his participation in this venture.

“I went in with an open mind, and it was enticing, but I really had to do my homework, and one of the things I did was move my own office here and do a test drive,” he said, borrowing a term from his industry. “And what we found is that the location is incredibly convenient to all the places we go, between banks, attorneys, accountants, architects, and engineers that we deal with locally.”

That convenience extends all the way to Riverdale Street in West Springfield, where Balise has a handful of dealerships, he went on, noting that, because Riverdale is a divided street, employees can get to many of those dealerships from 1441 Main St. as quickly as they could from the current headquarters at Doty Circle, just off Riverdale.

Since taking ownership, the partners have undertaken several initiatives, including improvements to the elevators and recruitment of a new restaurant — Mykonos, one of the displaced tenants in the Eastfield Mall — with more in the planning stages, including replacement of an escalator (a remnant of sorts from the building’s retail roots) and extensive renovations to the mezzanine level, specifically the removal of its wooden façade and what Dill not-so-affectionately refers to as the ‘birdcage’ (more on that later).

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, BusinessWest talked with Dill and Balise about their acquisition of this downtown stalwart and what will likely come next for the property.

 

Building Momentum

Dill recalls with some fondness, and more of that humor, the first time he met Jeb Balise.

It was in 1976. Dill was 24 and looking for a new car, specifically a Camaro, a four-speed with a V8 engine. Balise was 17 and in his second year working as a salesman at the family’s Chevy dealership on East Columbus Avenue.

Dill liked the car, and the car liked him, but the sticker price was beyond his means at the time. So he stayed in his Volkswagen, the one with 112,000 miles on it and no heater.

Four and a half decades later, he did buy a car from Balise — a Volkswagen GTI, one of the few cars still on the market with a manual transmission, he noted. (Jeb stayed on the sidelines for that transaction.)

Over the years, Balise Motor Sales has been a client of the Colebrook company, and the parties have worked together on several projects. Meanwhile, at 1441 Main St., a succession of banks that had come into ownership had looked into selling the building, but ultimately decided not to, said Dill, because of the relatively low cost of owner occupancy; in short, being in that building was cheaper per employee than leasing space elsewhere.

But ultimately, TD Bank decided to sell what was the last building it owned, said Dill, adding that it went on the market in the spring of 2021. Soon thereafter, a unique and decidedly local buying group came together.

“Jack and his team approached me and said, ‘TD is probably going to put the building on the market, and we think it’s a great opportunity,’” Balise recalled. “I remember them being specific: Jack’s vision was, ‘we’d like to see it be Springfield-owned, and we’d like you to be a part of it.’”

It was at that point, he went on, that he first learned the story of how Dill had been involved in the building of SIS’s new home as a young employee of the bank.

“It was a great history lesson for me, and a fun history lesson, because I was reliving where I was at that time, and where Springfield was,” he went on. “So the way I would sum it up is … Jack, as the consummate sales pro, romantically lured me into wanting to be Colebrook’s partner.

“Jack and his team approached me and said, ‘TD is probably going to put the building on the market, and we think it’s a great opportunity. I remember them being specific: Jack’s vision was, ‘we’d like to see it be Springfield-owned, and we’d like you to be a part of it.’”

“I think it’s a timeless, beautiful building,” Balise added, “and I loved the notion of keeping it locally owned and jointly doing our part to help Springfield grow and prosper.”

Dill agreed, and stressed repeatedly that, despite his long history with the building, nostalgia was not a factor in this decision. Ultimately, this was a business deal.

“Obviously I’ve been involved with the building for a very long time, but we tried not to have an emotional decision,” he recalled. “We thought that having a good and reliable partner was a real plus; we’ve been in business a long time, and we’re friends; he’s a great partner.”

Elaborating, he said those at Colebrook and Balise were of one mind with regard to the property — that this would not be a buy-to-flip scenario, and that they were in it for the long haul, with Jeb Balise providing an invaluable “new set of eyes,” as Dill put it.

 

Signs of the Times

As he looked back on those 45 years of involvement with the property at 1441 Main, Dill jokes that there have been many times when he wished that he was in the sign business.

Indeed, the name over the front entrance and high on the façade has changed many times, usually taking on the name of the bank that owned the property. And that’s a long list, courtesy of a continuing wave of mergers and acquisitions in the financial-services industry that started in the early ’90s.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve had at least five or six signs on this building,” he said, listing Family Bank, First Massachusetts Bank, Banknorth, TD Banknorth, and then TD Bank. He admitted that it was hard to keep track, even for someone who managed the property.

But the letters on the building are not the only thing to have changed over the years.

Indeed, the retail component of the building collapsed, as it did across the street at Tower Square, a byproduct of the malls, especially the one at Ingleside in Holyoke, said Dill. The property’s owners adjusted, converting a mezzanine that was retail into back-office space for the bank and erecting, in 1986, the ‘birdcage’ — a wooden façade that looks like … well, a birdcage — as “camouflage, so it wouldn’t look like closed retail,” he explained.

A framed portrait of John Collins

A framed portrait of John Collins, the man who gave Jack Dill the assignment of making 1441 Main St. a reality, is now displayed in the lobby of the building.

The Colebrook team answered an RFP, and the property eventually became the home of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC) soon after it was created in 1996. Meanwhile, space formerly devoted to retail — a Falcetti Music store and a CVS, among others — was soon occupied by several agencies, ranging from the Springfield Regional Chamber to the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau to the entity now known as MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board.

Over the years, it also became home to several prominent nonprofits, including the United Way of Pioneer Valley and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

The office tower, meanwhile, has become home to several federal and state agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Office of the Attorney General, and others.

When the Colebrook/Balise partnership acquired the property, the occupancy rate was roughly 85%, said Dill, adding that it is now closer to 90%, with additions including a temporary office for Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, the general contractor for construction of the parking garage taking shape across Harrison Avenue.

That number won’t change when Balise moves its headquarters to the property early next year, but the number of people working in the building will, Dill said, noting that the 55 or so employees from Balise will bring more vibrancy to the property and more foot traffic to downtown service businesses, bars, and restaurants.

That includes Mykonos, which will occupy space on the first floor, Dill noted, adding that additional restaurants are certainly possible.

Meanwhile, on the second floor, to attract more office tenants, the new owners are opening up the back of the space, which faces the park where the Steiger’s department store once stood, by putting in a bank of large windows. There are also plans to remove the ‘birdcage’ and take out the escalator and replace it with a new staircase.

“With these new windows and the removal of the birdcage, we’ll have a lot more natural light on the second floor and first floor,” he said. “And we have some other ideas on new design and a new visual identity for those two floors.”

Looking long-term, both Balise and Dill believe they can retain current office tenants and add new ones, even at a time when work is in flux and the future of office buildings is more clouded than at any time in recent memory.

“Work is a social activity, and we’re seeing a lot of companies bringing people back,” said Dill. “Maybe not five days a week, 40 hours, but they’re coming back to the office, because work is a social activity.”

 

Bottom Line

Not long after the acquisition of 1441 Main St., Dill placed two portraits on easels in the building’s lobby, one of Richard Booth, another former president and CEO of SIS, and the other of John Collins; he considers both mentors and major influences in his life and career.

It was Collins who handed Dill the assignment to build a new headquarters building all those years ago. It led to what amounts to a lifetime of work stewarding the building through decades of change and positioning it for the decades to come.

Now, this work takes on new meaning and new urgency, because he has ownership of the matter — both literally and figuratively.

 

Brewery Follows in Footsteps of the Band of Brothers

By
Jeff St. Jean, left, and John DeVoie, co-founders of Easy Company Brewing
Features Special Coverage

In Good Company

Jeff St. Jean, left, and John DeVoie, co-founders of Easy Company Brewing

Jeff St. Jean, left, and John DeVoie, co-founders of Easy Company Brewing

It will be called ‘Brécourt.’

And like the beers that came before it — and the ones that will likely come after it — this one celebrates a chapter in the powerful story of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, known simply as Easy Company. This was the ‘band of brothers’ whose exploits during World War II are famously chronicled in the Stephen Ambrose book and HBO miniseries that both took that name.

Brécourt Manor is a town about three miles southwest of Utah Beach in Normandy, France. It was the location of a German artillery battery that was disrupting landing forces of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division on D-Day. Easy Company’s assault on the Brécourt Manor, led by First Lt. Richard Winters, is one of the unit’s more noted accomplishments, and there were many.

“They charged that gun nest and took all four guns out, saving countless lives,” said John DeVoie, co-founder of the growing Hot Table chain of panini restaurants, who has long been entranced by the story of Easy Company. So much that, when he and his longtime best friend and fellow veteran Jeff St. Jean — they both served with the 104th Tactical Fighter Group at Barnes Airport, and St. Jean still does — decided to create a beer label and donate all the profits from the sale of those products to agencies that assist fellow veterans, the name came easily — although not much else has, as we’ll see.

Easy Company Brewing, branded simply as ‘E,’ plans to introduce Brécourt, what’s known as a keeping ale, in the coming months. It will join two labels already available in many liquor stores, bars, and restaurants: Currahee American Lager, named in honor of the hill the men of Easy Company had to run up daily while in training in Toccoa, Ga., and Ald-Borne, a new English IPA, named after Aldbourne, the tiny village in the south of England where the unit would begin the preparations for D-Day.

“We thought, ‘why don’t we just give it all back?’ We’d model it after Newman’s Own and give 100% of the profits to charities that support veterans.”

DeVoie and St. Jean, both beer lovers themselves, could hardly contain their excitement as they pondered what might come next for beers as their venture continues to follow the story of Easy Company as the war progressed. Indeed, the unit took part in the ill-fated Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands, famous for its beer, and also in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, equally famous for its beer, then were in several operations in Germany, including occupation duty at Berchtesgaden, home to Hitler’s famous Eagle’s Nest, at the German-Austrian border.

the brewery’s offerings follow the story of Easy Company

Starting with American and English ales, the brewery’s offerings follow the story of Easy Company through World War II, with beers from France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany to come next.

“The next stop is Holland … and these guys captured Eagle’s Nest, so we may use that name when we get to making a German beer — or not; there are plenty of options from Germany,” DeVoie said, noting that, in honor of Dick Winters, famously a teetotaler, they may make a non-alcoholic beer.

But the two are even more excited about where this venture could go in terms of what it can do for veterans.

Launched just before Memorial Day in 2022, Easy Company Brewing did not turn a profit its first year due to the high operational costs involved with getting the venture off the ground, but the two partners wrote checks anyway to several well-vetted nonprofits that assist veterans, including Operation Second Chance, the Special Operations Warriors Foundation, and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

The brewery is expected to turn a small profit this year, and there is considerable optimism about where all this might be down the road.

In a word, the story of Easy Company Brewing and its mission “resonates,” said St. Jean, adding that most all those who hear the story, or just see the name, want to know more and support the effort in some way.

That goes for everyone from the thousands who sampled the Easy Company’s offerings at the Big E to Donnie Wahlberg, who played First Lt. Clifford Carwood Lipton in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers — and who, upon becoming acquainted with the venture and its mission when St. Jean and DeVoie met him briefly at Foxwoods at the opening of a new Wahlburgers restaurant, posted on Instagram a picture of himself with a large class of their brew and the words “my new favorite beer!”

Donnie Wahlberg, who played one of the men of Easy Company

Donnie Wahlberg, who played one of the men of Easy Company in the Band of Brothers miniseries, shows his support for the venture in an Instagram post.

For this issue, and with Veterans Day approaching, BusinessWest talked with DeVoie and St. Jean about their venture, the veterans (and especially the members of Easy Company) who inspired it, and how they intend to make what is now a local story into a national phenomenon.

 

Lager Than Life

As they talked with BusinessWest earlier this month, St. Jean and DeVoie were making plans to head to Newport, R.I. the following weekend for a reunion involving descendents of the men of Easy Company.

There are no living members of that unit, but the reunions, which started in 1946, the year after the war ended, have continued, said DeVoie, adding that he met the granddaughter of William ‘Wild Bill’ Guarnere, a staff sergeant in Easy Company, recently, and she invited the partners to this year’s gathering.

“We’re going there almost with reverence — we’re going to share our beer with them and tell our story,” he went on, adding that, given their mission and the way it honors those in Easy Company, they were to be “guests of honor” at the event in some ways.

In most all other ways, the two consider themselves merely stewards of the Easy Company name, and they have made it their mission to use it to both honor those men and to help those who have served their country — as they have themselves.

Indeed, they served together as mechanics in the 104th’s engine shop, servicing the A-10 Thunderbolts that flew over Barnes — and served in tip-of-the-spear operations in many parts of the world, including both Gulf wars. Nicknamed the Warthog, the plane was not pretty to look at, but, then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

St. Jean, still serving in an administrative role with the 104th, likes the A-10 much more than the F-15s currently flown by that unit, and DeVoie said simply, “everybody thought it was ugly; I thought it was beautiful.”

DeVoie left the 104th after 11 years, but he and St. Jean have remained good friends, getting together often. One of their favorite spots is the Student Prince in downtown Springfield, and it was there that the story of Easy Company Brewing began.

Indeed, while enjoying a few Spatens at the bar there in 2018, and thinking about all the beer-making countries where the men of Easy Company had been, that they started discussing the notion of creating a beer label that would pay homage to that unit.

They quickly decided that, while this was a good concept, they could not, in good conscience, profit off the names of the men of Easy Company, many of whom died in combat.

So they shelved the concept, only to revisit it later and ultimately decided to honor those from Easy Company and … not profit. To be more specific, they would profit, but then turn those profits over to select organizations assisting veterans.

“We decided that we were going to try to do it on our own; I just read anything and everything I could about brewing, I bought books, read articles, watched a ton of videos, and just started experimenting.”

“We thought, ‘why don’t we just give it all back?’” said DeVoie. “We’d model it after Newman’s Own and give 100% of the profits to charities that support veterans.”

Elaborating, St. Jean said that, as good stewards of the Easy Company name, the brewery and the foundation created to distribute its profits are very selective when it comes to the nonprofits they support.

“We reached out to several charities, but we decided we would only reach out to those charities that gave more than 85 cents on the dollar back to veterans,” he said, adding that they have found several that met this standard.

a location at the recent Big E.

Easy Company Brewing has maintained a consistent presence in the region, including a location at the recent Big E.

While the partners knew they had a good idea, and also knew a lot about business — Hot Table will soon be opening its 12th, 13th, and 14th locations — as well as the story of Easy Company, they didn’t know a lot about brewing or the growing, immensely competitive brewing industry.

So they, and especially St. Jean, set about learning.

“We tried to think of ways we could work with an established brewer to develop recipes, but there are a lot of barriers to entry there,” he said. “So we decided that we were going to try to do it on our own; I just read anything and everything I could about brewing, I bought books, read articles, watched a ton of videos, and just started experimenting.

“I brewed a ton of recipes in my basement, and we enlisted the help of some friends in the area and in the industry to help us taste the beer, develop the flavor profiles, and give us feedback, essentially, until we settled on what we thought we wanted to brew,” he went on, adding that the partners brought the recipes to a contract brewer, Brewmasters Brewing Services of Williamsburg, which scaled them up commercially.

The partners started where Easy Company started, with an American Lager named Currahee, and officially launched, with ceremonies at the Fort, in May 2022. Since then, the learning curve — involving everything from brewing to distribution to marketing — has continued, and they’ve been climbing their own steep hill to profitability.

 

Mission Focused

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation was launched to honor the life and work of New York firefighter Stephen Siller. He had just finished his shift on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he got word over his scanner of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He abandoned his golf plans and returned to Brooklyn’s Squad 1 to get his gear.

He drove his truck to the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and, upon finding it closed to vehicular traffic for security reasons, ran the full length of the tunnel with 60 pounds of equipment on his back. He reached the Twin Towers, where he died while trying to save others.

Today, the foundation carries on a number of programs, including the Smart Home initiative, which builds mortgage-free smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders, and the Gold Star Family Home Program, which honors the legacy of fallen veterans by providing mortgage-free homes to surviving spouses with young children.

That mission certainly resounded with St. Jean and DeVoie, who have made the foundation one of five charities to which the Easy Company foundation will distribute profits from the brewing operation.

The profits are expected to grow as the venture continues to scale up and expand, geographically and otherwise. There are still some considerable hurdles to clear — it’s costly and difficult to expand into new markets in this state, let alone into other states and other regions — and there is immense competition.

“We can throw a rock and hit Connecticut from here, but we haven’t been picked up by a distributor yet,” said DeVoie. “Each state is different, all the laws are different … it’s very complicated.”

But the partners have two big things working for them — the name Easy Company and the mission they have taken on. As noted earlier, both resonate with constituencies ranging from beer drinkers to veterans groups to the business community.

This was made clear to the partners — not that they really needed more affirmation — at the Big E, where they had a presence at the Local Brewers Showcase and other locations where their beer was sold. And it’s been made clear in the feedback and offers of support they’ve received, not just locally, but nationally and even internationally.

“Quite often, people from across the country and even around the world, particularly Europe, will inquire about us and our beer. People will say, ‘hey, can we get your beer in the UK?’ And we hear that in Ohio and California and all over.”

“We don’t see this is as just another local brewery — there are so many great breweries in every city and town now,” said DeVoie. “We see this as really a national brand.

“When we tell people this story, they get excited about it,” he went on, adding quickly that the story has spread rapidly with the help of social media. “Quite often, people from across the country and even around the world, particularly Europe, will inquire about us and our beer. People will say, ‘hey, can we get your beer in the UK?’ And we hear that in Ohio and California and all over.”

Right now, they can’t get the beer, but they can buy swag, in the form of Easy Company Brewing T-shirts, hoodies, hats, koozies, and other items, which are selling well and raising some revenue, said St. Jean, adding quickly that the beer is the heart of this operation, and the obvious long-term goal is to sell it in more places and to more people.

Already, Easy Company’s beers are in many liquor stores and several taverns and restaurants, including the Student Prince and those at MGM Springfield, and its reach has extended across this region and into Central Mass. thanks to a partnership with distributor Quality Beverage. The goal is to continually add more distribution points and eventually expand well beyond the current markets.

DeVoie summed it up poignantly by saying their mission now is to “sell a lot of beer and give away a lot of money.”

 

Easy Going

Getting back to Brécourt, the new label that will be coming out soon, St. Jean and DeVoie acknowledged that, while the French are known mostly for the production of fine wine, champagne, and cognac, they said they also make some very good beers.

And so do the Dutch, the Belgians, the Germans, and the Austrians.

Which is why the partners are looking ahead with such enthusiasm to how they will continue to tell the story of Easy Company through beers that reflect the countries where the band of brothers made history together.

But more than that, they’re looking forward to making that mission much broader and more impactful.

Filmmaker Joany Kane Brings Her Next Project to Massachusetts

By
Joany Kane says her directorial debut
Creative Economy Special Coverage

Merry, Scary, and Coming Soon

Producer and director Joany Kane.

Producer and director Joany Kane.

Will Barratt, cinematographer

Will Barratt, cinematographer for A Merry Scary Christmas Tale.

If you enjoy all those Christmas movies the Hallmark Channel cranks out every holiday season, you can thank Joany Kane for her part in that.

That’s because she wrote the first one, The Christmas Card, which broke cable-TV ratings records when it aired in 2006 and garnered an Emmy nomination for its star, Ed Asner — to date, Hallmark’s only Emmy nod.

It also helped kick-start a holiday-movie craze on Hallmark that Kane, a Western Mass. native, appreciates — not only because she’s written and produced about a dozen of them, but because she loves them.

“There was no Hallmark Channel, no Christmas movies on TV” before she started writing The Christmas Card, Kane noted. “You had to go to a theater to see a Christmas movie, and even those were scarce. I wanted to see more Christmas content.”

So she did something about that, and she still is — in fact, her next effort, A Merry Scary Christmas Tale, will shoot in Western Mass. next spring, with plans for a fall 2024 release. Not only is it Kane’s directorial debut, it’s her first foray into a hybrid holiday flick, with one foot planted in the Christmas tradition, and the other in Halloween.

“On Christmas Eve at a remote Massachusetts B&B, a disenchanted candlemaker must survive an evening of sinister merriment in order to find her missing artist aunt,” the film’s pitch reads. Kane said it will be “atmospheric, mischievous, and eerie,” a gothic fable that melds the spirits of Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro.

“In the fall of 2024, we’d like to do a limited-release run, especially in Massachusetts; we can target local theaters and use the screenings for fundraisers for local nonprofits, so we can help the community as well.”

“It’s got Hallmark moments and Conjuring moments,” she said, the latter a reference to the popular horror-film franchise. She stressed, though, that her movie won’t be too scary. “We’ll have jump scares, but also Christmas carols. It’s great fun.”

But amid the fun comes a lot of work, planning, and raising funds.

“Our goal is to raise some local financing and have some investors come in,” Kane said, explaining that the firm has a high-end budget of $811,000 (which does not reflect 25% tax incentives from the Commonwealth), but could be made for half that if necessary. “If we raise at least $300,000 to $400,000 locally, we can bring in a distribution company from Hollywood who will finance the rest for us. They’ll only do movies over $700,000 on the lower end.”

Joany Kane says her directorial debut

Joany Kane says her directorial debut will have “jump scares, but also Christmas carols.”

Anyone who invests gets an executive-producer credit, and is also promised their money back plus a 20% return on investment, and also potential profit sharing, not only from the initial run, but in future years.

“It’s a quick turnaround to return their initial investment; then, after that, it’s like getting residuals every time the movie plays somewhere or plays on a streamer or DVD or downloads, depending on how much they’ve invested,” she explained.

Once the movie is filmed in the spring, it will be edited through the summer, with plans to hit the fall convention circuit — Comic Cons and other conventions that cater to genre content, she added.

“We’ll start building a buzz, and then, in the fall of 2024, we’d like to do a limited-release run, especially in Massachusetts; we can target local theaters and use the screenings for fundraisers for local nonprofits, so we can help the community as well.”

That would be followed by a short video-on-demand period in early November and then a premiere on a channel or streamer Thanksgiving weekend, then screening events during December.

All the while, she said, the team would maintain an active social-media presence, airing shorts on TikTok about some of the legends touched on in the script, from Krampus to Pukwudgie, a Native American legend Kane believes will become a popular character due to her movie.

In addition, she’s planning for ‘online happy hours’ building up to the premiere, where she’ll host interviews with cast and crew as well as featuring guests speaking from the holiday or paranormal perspective — or both. She’s also looking to film a ghost-hunting documentary at one or more of the film’s allegedly haunted locations, as well as selling merchandise.

The ongoing actors’ strike could alter some actors’ schedules, but as an independent production, Kane has applied for a waiver that would at least allow the production to proceed — once she gets 50% of the financing in place.

Right now, the confirmed cast included Amanda Wyss and Julie McNiven, along with tentatively planned appearances from Boston-based actor Paul Solet, as well as David Dean Bottrell, Michael Hargrove, Lance Henriksen, Cooper Andrews, and Dee Wallace.

In addition, Jeff Belanger is on board to play himself in the movie, sharing creepy and legends with guests at the film’s Harkness Manor. Belanger is the lead writer on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures and a celebrity in the paranormal world, Kane noted, and his song “My Christmas Tree Is Haunted” will be included on the soundtrack.

 

Local Promise

That’s a lot — cast, crew, financing, filming, and marketing — to juggle, especially for someone sitting in the director’s chair for the first time.

Which is an important milestone for Kane, a 1983 graduate of Northampton High School who got her start in filmmaking during the 1990s, working for the documentary production company Florentine Films (co-founded by Ken Burns) and serving as associate producer on several Emmy-winning PBS documentaries.

“I want to make sure we use as many Massachusetts locations, and place as many Massachusetts products, as we can. It’s sort of a love letter to my history and my home neighborhoods.”

Her first completed screenplay was an office comedy, not unlike Horrible Bosses more than two decades later, that drew interest from some Hollywood players, including Bette Midler, who offered Kane “sage advice,” she recalled. To pay her bills around this time, during the late ’90s, she was also working for Lashway Law in Williamsburg.

Kane’s breakthrough success in Hollywood soon followed, as she finished the script for The Christmas Card in 1999 and optioned it to a producer in 2003, who brought it to Hallmark, where it “launched the current Christmas-movie craze we now have,” she told BusinessWest.

Since her success with The Christmas Card, she has optioned or sold more than two dozen screenplays and has had more than a dozen movies made. In 2013, she came up with a streaming service dedicated to turning romance novels into movies and series; she coined the name Passionflix, purchased the domain, and in 2016 formed a partnership to launch the streamer. Passionflix debuted in September 2017.

She’s excited to shoot A Merry Scary Christmas Tale in Western Mass., hoping to get started in early spring, when the exteriors can still be made to look Christmas-y, but the night shoots won’t make the cast and crew freeze.

Movie and TV veteran Amanda Wyss

Movie and TV veteran Amanda Wyss will play one of the leads in A Merry Scary Christmas Tale.

“We’re doing it independently so we have complete control over quality and creation, and I want to make sure we use as many Massachusetts locations, and place as many Massachusetts products, as we can. It’s sort of a love letter to my history and my home neighborhoods.”

Will Barratt, the film’s cinematographer, is best-known for shooting and producing the Hatchet films, including Frozen, Spiral, Chillerama, and Digging Up The Marrow. He won two Emmy awards in 2002 and was nominated for the 2014 BloodGuts UK Horror Award for Digging Up the Marrow.

Co-producer and co-director Mary Fry specializes in producing feature films and series for an international market, Kane said. Fry has worked on more than 60 feature films and 12 series with award-winning actors such as Kate Hudson, Michael Shannon, Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, Snoop Dogg, and Danny Glover; collaborated with Russell Carpenter, who won a Best Cinematography Oscar for Titanic; and produced romantic comedies for Passionflix, Nasser Entertainment, and Caliwood Pictures.

She shares Kane’s vision for a scary Christmas movie — an idea that used to be more common than it is now.

“Telling scary stories by the fireside was at one time a cherished Christmas tradition. That’s how the world got A Christmas Carol. Scary stories at Christmas were as treasured as Hallmark Christmas movies are today,” Kane said, noting that Charles Dickens wrote his classic tale for a Victorian audience that liked to be scared at Christmas. “The cinematic holiday content we enjoy today started with a ghost story.”

With A Merry Scary Christmas Tale, Kane is hoping to revive the once-beloved tradition of telling scary stories at Christmastime — and hopes that, like A Christmas Carol, her film becomes a classic that’s rewatched each holiday season, generating profits to pour into more movies.

“Hopefully this will become like Paranormal Activity or the Conjuring series — a little movie that does insanely well. Then we can have a base in Western Mass., a production company to crank out a lot of fun content that honors the area and its communities.”

 

Looking Ahead

Kane’s affection for Halloween fare is reflected in other ways; she recently launched Coven Cons with the goal of hosting conventions that celebrate the witch in pop culture.

And her love for her home state is even more deeply ingrained.

“Massachusetts is such a magical state — so much beauty, history, and a lot of cool legends. The people are fun to hang out with, and there’s a lot of great ingenuity in Massachusetts.

“So it’s great to bring all that together and make really cool movies,” she went on, adding that she’s interested in drawing on Massachusetts-based writers who have penned scary stories, including greats like Edith Wharton. “We’d love to turn those into movies. My goal is to focus on stories that would be great to premiere any time from September to December.”

Viewers will have that experience as soon as next fall — that is, if the coming year’s efforts prove more merry than scary to Kane and her team. Anyone interested in investing in the project should email [email protected].

Introducing the Super 60

By
Special Coverage Super 60

Reconfigured Program Recognizes Businesses, Nonprofits in Five Categories

After almost 40 years, Super 60 was in need of a change. This year, it got one.

The Springfield Regional Chamber revamped its popular business-recognition program in 2023 to honor companies and organizations across five categories, not merely the traditional ‘Revenue’ and ‘Growth.’

The new categories are ‘Start-Up,’ ‘Give Back,’ and ‘Non-Profit.’ The Start-Up category recognizes businesses that have achieved remarkable success during their early years of operation, the Give Back category recognizes businesses that made significant contributions to local communities and organizations, and the Non-Profit category recognizes organizations that have displayed selfless dedication to serving the community through exceptional programming and support.

These additions have successfully invited many new businesses to the podium for the awards ceremony, to be held on Nov. 9 at the MassMutual Center, said chamber President Diana Szynal.

“What we want to accomplish with these new categories is recognition that there are different measures of success,” she told BusinessWest. “And it’s a way to award more members across various sectors for their success.”

This year’s winners represent numerous communities across many industries, including dining, automotive, manufacturing, finance, sports, and many more.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the incredible diversity and innovation within our business community through this year’s Super 60 program,” Szynal said. “Small businesses are the heart and soul of our region, and we’re excited to celebrate so many nonprofits that make a difference in our community. As we continue to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to shine a light on the accomplishments and unwavering resilience of our local businesses and nonprofits.”

Save the Date

The awards program — sponsored by Health New England, WWLP-22 News, bankESB, Stand Out Truck, Marketing and Cupcakes, the Republican, and Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. — will feature keynote speaker Ashley Kohl, president and founder of Ohana School of Performing Arts, and emcee Rich Tettemer, WWLP anchor.

Tickets for the event — $60 for chamber members and $75 for non-members — can be purchased at springfieldregionalchamber.com. Tables of eight and 10 can also be reserved.

The event attracts more than 500 business leaders each year. The honorees, 12 per category, are:

Revenue:


Whalley Computer Associates Inc.
Mercedes Benz of Springfield
Tighe & Bond Inc.
Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding Inc.
American Environmental Inc.
Baltazar Contractors Inc.
Baystate Blasting Inc.
Braman Chemical Enterprises Inc.
Freedom Credit Union
Golden Years Homecare Services
Keiter Corp.
L&C Prescriptions Inc.

Growth:


Springfield Hockey LLC
The Coating House Inc.
Link to VR
Ace Asphalt Maintenance Inc. 
Court Square Group Inc.
Jack Goncalves & Sons Inc. 
Monty’s Motorsports LLC 
Tobiko Sushi 
Tavares and Branco Enterprises Inc./Villa Rose
Vanguard Dental LLC 
Vanished Valley Inc. 
Yellow Ribbon Trucking Inc.  

Start-Up:


Monsoon Roastery LLC
Something Royal Party Co.
Mango Fish Art / Proud of U Jewelry
Ludlow Animal Clinic Inc.
Western Mass Heating, Cooling & Plumbing Inc.
Link to VR
Upscale Socks
Rozki Rides
1636 North
Colorful Resilience
Bridge2Homecare LLC
Feel Good, Shop Local 

Give Back:


Anderson Cleaning
Appleton Corp.
Focus Springfield Community TV
Gary Rome Hyundai Inc.
Keiter Corp.
Mercedes Benz of Springfield
MGM Springfield
Pioneer Valley Financial Group
Polish National Credit Union
Springfield Hockey LLC
Stand Out Truck
Tavares and Branco Enterprises Inc./Villa Rose  

Non-Profit:


Springfield Partners for Community Action Inc.
Valley Opportunity Council Inc.
413 Elite Foundation
Second Chance Animal Services Community Veterinary Hospital
The Horace Smith Fund
Hampden County Career
Center Inc.
Caring Health Center
WestMass ElderCare Inc.
Springfield Rescue Mission
Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts
Revitalize Community Development Corp.
Clinical & Support Options Inc.

REVENUE Category

Whalley Computer Associates Inc.

One Whalley Way, Southwick, MA 01077

(413) 596-4200

www.wca.com

Michael Sheil, President

Whalley Computer Associates offers data-center services, cloud backup, managed services, training, desktop services, network services, and staff-augmentation services. The company focuses its work in the corporate, finance, healthcare, K-12, higher education, retail, and SMB industries.

Mercedes-Benz of Springfield

295 Burnett Road, Chicopee, MA 01020

(413) 624-4100

www.mbspringfield.com

Peter and Michelle Wirth, Owners

Mercedes-Benz of Springfield serves the Springfield area from its Chicopee facility filled with the latest Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The dealership also includes an expert service center, parts center, and tires center. Factory-certified experts offer professional service, maintenance, and repairs, including one-hour express service.

Tighe & Bond Inc.

53 Southampton Road, Westfield, MA 01085

(413) 562-1600

www.tighebond.com

Robert Belitz, President and CEO

Tighe & Bond offers engineering, design, planning, and environmental-consulting services, with focuses in building, transportation, water and wastewater engineering, coastal and waterfront solutions, environmental consulting, GIS and asset management, landscape architecture and urban design, civil engineering, and site planning.

Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding Inc.

160 Old Lyman Road, South Hadley, MA 01075

(413) 536-5955

www.1800newroof.net

Adam Quenneville, CEO

Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding offers a wide range of residential and commercial services, including new roofs, retrofitting, roof repair, roof cleaning, vinyl siding, replacement windows, and the no-clog Gutter Shutter system. The company has earned the BBB Torch Award for trust, performance, and integrity.

American Environmental Inc.

18 Canal St., Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 322-7190

www.amerenviro.com

Charles Hughes, President

American Environmental is a family-owned business providing services like asbestos abatement, structural demolition, boiler removal, commercial lead abatement, concrete cutting, floor preparation, interior demolition, water-jet blasting, roll-off service, and shot blasting. It has worked with property managers, schools, universities, hospitals, churches, stores, industrial sites, and public facilities.

Baltazar Contractors Inc.

83 Carmelinas Circle, Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 583-6160

www.baltazarcontractors.com

Paulo Baltazar, President

Baltazar Contractors is a heavy civil construction company with services in utility construction, roadway construction, site work and development, culvert and bridge construction, earth support and shoring, and trenchless technology. The company has remained family-owned over three decades in business.

Baystate Blasting Inc.

36 Carmelinas Circle, Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 583-4440

www.baystateblasting.com

Dinis Baltazar, President and CEO

Baystate Blasting offers services in ledge and rock removal, rock blasting, and rock crushing. It performs large and small construction-site preparation, road and highway work, line drilling and trench work, quarry shots, and residential work such as foundations and in-ground pools. It is federally licensed as both a dealer and user of explosive materials.

Braman Chemical Enterprises Inc.

147 Almgren Dr., Agawam 01001

(413) 732-9009

www.braman.biz

Gerald Lazarus, President

Braman has been serving New England since 1890, using state-of-the-art pest-elimination procedures for commercial and residential customers, and offering humane removal of birds, bats, and other nuisances through its wildlife division. The company has offices in Agawam, Worcester, and Lee, as well as Hartford and New Haven, Conn.

Freedom Credit Union

1976 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 739-6961

www.freedom.coop

Glenn Welch, President and CEO

Freedom Credit Union is a credit union that offers banking and loan services to businesses, the cannabis industry, and individuals. It also offers insurance plans for individuals and an investment-services division. The institution celebrated its centennial in 2022 and regularly involves customers and the community in philanthropic outreach.

Golden Years Homecare Services

16 Shaker Road, East Longmeadow, MA 01028

(413) 209-8208

www.goldenyearsusa.com

Cesar Ruiz Jr., President and CEO

Golden Years Homecare is dedicated to providing exceptional, in-home care to clients, offering peace of mind, dignity, and comfort. Comprehensive and personalized care meets the needs of clients and their families through the careful matching of client and caregiver. Golden Years offers programs including aroma, music, and laughter therapies, as well as specialized veteran and dementia care.

Keiter Corp.

35 Main St., Florence, MA 01062

(413) 586-8600

www.keiter.com

Scott Keiter, President

Keiter Corp. is a construction-services company working with clients on residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects of all sizes. The firm is divided into four divisions: Keiter Builders (commercial and institutional construction), Keiter Homes (residential construction), Hatfield Construction (excavation, site work, and structural concrete), and Keiter Properties (real estate and rental).

L&C Prescriptions Inc.

155 Brookdale Dr., Springfield, MA 01104

(413) 781-2996

www.medibubble.com

Dr. Kara James, President

L&C Prescriptions, the parent company for Louis & Clark Pharmacy, provides medication solutions to individuals, healthcare providers, and assisted-living, independent-living, and memory-care communities, and offers online prescription refills, MediBubble pre-packaged pills, blister packs to manage daily medications, vial synchronization, consultations with registered pharmacists, and a delivery service.

 Growth Category

Springfield Hockey LLC

1 Monarch Place, Springfield, MA 02110

(413) 746-4100

www.springfieldthunderbirds.com

Nathan Costa, President

Springfield Hockey LLC, better known as the Springfield Thunderbirds, is the local affiliate of the St. Louis Blues and and the American Hockey League’s 2021-22 Eastern Conference champion. Playing its home games at the MassMutual Center since its inception in 2016, the team gives back to the community in multiple ways, like the Thunderbirds Foundation, Stick to Reading school programs, Hometown Salute, Frontline Fridays, and more.

The Coating House Inc.

15 Benton Dr., Suite 14, East Longmeadow, MA 01028

(877) 987-3100

www.thecoatinghouse.com

Kim Casineau, President

The Coating House is a fastener and hardware supplier and authorized Loctite service center, allowing it the ability to serve customers in a wide range of industries. The company has been sealing and locking fasteners, fittings, and bolts since 1980 and is a woman-owned company and a pioneer in the pre-applied process.

Link to VR

501 Boylston St., 10th Floor, Boston, MA 02116

(617) 588-2109

www.linktovr.com

Edward Zemba, CEO

Link to VR is an XR media agency that helps organizations implement growth-based solutions using the VR/AR platform. It offers in-house development and partnership opportunities to enterprise customers ready to leverage the transformative technology of spatial computing. Whether it’s on-boarding leadership teams or designing custom XR solutions, it strategically positions clients to realize the full potential of this computing platform.

Ace Asphalt Maintenance Inc.

63 Doyle Ave., Springfield, MA 01104

(413) 537-6156

www.aceasphaltco.com

James Gordon, Owner

For more than 20 years, Ace Asphalt Maintenance has been a premier paving company serving Western Mass. and Northern Conn., offering a one-year warranty on all driveway installations. Services include asphalt driveways, commercial sealcoating, commercial paving, crack filling, patching, and asphalt milling.

Court Square Group Inc.

1350 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 746-0054

www.courtsquaregroup.com

Keith Parent, CEO

Court Square Group is a leading managed-service technology company with a focus exclusively on life science. Its business-focused approach has supported many life-science startups as well as some of the largest life-science companies. The team’s expertise provides technical, compliance, and audit-readiness support.

Jack Goncalves & Sons Inc.

172 Munsing St., Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 583-8782

Joquin Goncalves, President and Treasurer

Jack Goncalves & Sons primarily operates in the excavation and grading and building construction industry, and has been in business for more than a half-century.

 

Monty’s Motorsport LLC

1 Arch Road, Westfield, MA 01085

(413) 642-8199

www.montysmotorsports.com

Monty Geer, Owner

Monty’s Motorsport is a parts, sales, service, and gear store for motorsport vehicles, such as four-wheelers, dirt bikes, motorcycles, electric bikes, street bikes, and more. It offers new and used vehicles, with financing options available, as well as services such as winterization, battery inspections, accessory installations, chain adjustments, oil and filter changes, and full engine rebuilds.

Tobiko Sushi

110 Airport Road, Westfield, MA 01085

(413) 642-8155

www.tobiko-sushi-sushi-restaurant.business.site

Sokharun Yim, Owner

Located in the terminal building at Westfield-Barnes Airport, this eatery opened as Papps Bar & Grill in 2014. A change in ownership brought a new focus, and Tobiko Sushi now specializes in sushi, ramen, and hibachi. Taking advantage of its close-up airport location, large windows offer views of the Barnes complex and the landscape beyond.

Tavares and Branco Enterprises Inc./Villa Rose

1428 Center St., Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 547-6667

www.villaroserestaurant.com

Tony Tavares, Owner

Tavares and Branco Enterprises owns and operates the Villa Rose Restaurant, lounge, and banquet hall, specializing in Portuguese and American cuisine. With a capacity of 150, the facility caters for parties, funerals, and weddings of 30 people or more. Villa Rose also offers breakfast and brunch for those who are looking to book a shower, seminar, business meeting, corporate functions, and more.

Vanguard Dental LLC

1876 Boston Road, Wilbraham, MA 01095

(413) 543-2555

www.vanguarddentistry.com

Dr. Yogita Kanorwalla, Owner

Yogita Kanorwalla, DMD, has more than 15 years of experience in dentistry. She utilizes the latest technology and techniques, with services including dentures, cosmetic dentistry, root-canal therapy and endodontics, extractions, same-day crowns, restorative dentistry, sedation dentistry, periodontics, dental implants and restorations, teeth whitening, Invisalign, sports guards, dry-mouth therapy, patient forms, and laser snoring treatment.

Vanished Valley Inc.

782 Center St., Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 610-1572

www.vanishedvalley.com

Mike Rodrigues, Restaurant Owner;

Josh Britton, Brewery Owner

Vanished Valley Inc. is a small-batch brewery that is family- and pet-friendly and holds events in its taproom and beer garden. The restaurant menu includes appetizers, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, and barbeque. On tap, the brewery offers IPAs, seltzers, lagers, ales, and stouts, as well as wine and spirits.

Yellow Ribbon Trucking Inc.

265 Bay Road, Hadley, MA 01035

(413) 320-2644

www.yellowribbontrucking.com

Chris Omasta, Owner

Yellow Ribbon Trucking was established to fill the need of large trucks and heavy hauling services for local construction. It specializes in assisting general contractors and paving companies in facilitating the transportation of materials to and from job sites. It offers trucking, light excavations, landscaping, and snow-removal services, and works with homeowners, businesses, and contractors on the state and federal levels.

 START-UP CATEGORY

Monsoon Roastery LLC

250 Albany St., Springfield, MA 01105

(413) 366-1123

www.monsoonroastery.com

Tim Monson, Owner

Monsoon is an environmentally conscious community coffee roaster with the goal of helping people drink better coffee both at home and on the go. It offers a walk-up, espresso bar where customers can order coffee drinks to enjoy on an outdoor patio, or coffee cans to take home. It also offers an array of local treats from neighboring businesses.

Something Royal Party Co.

Agawam, MA

(413) 334-2548

www.somethingroyalpartyco.com

Alexandria Holbrook, Owner

Something Royal Party Company was established in 2021, aiming to bring joy and magic to even the smallest of events. This party company specializes in live character interactions, including additional add-on services to customize an event to bring a child’s dream to life. Something Royal provides high-quality costumes, wigs, and other materials, and its characters look and act as if they walked directly out of their movies and storybooks.

Mango Fish Art / Proud of U Jewelry

Easthampton, MA

(833) 446-2646

www.mangofishinc.com

Lori Novis, Founder

By weaving creativity with social responsibility, Mango Fish aims to empower and address women living in poverty through employment opportunities and mentoring. Founder Lori Novis later realized that the jewelry business she started while living in the Caribbean could be scaled up to showcase and highlight the official colors of educational institutions and sororities, and created the Proud of U. gift collection.

Ludlow Animal Clinic Inc.

200 Center St., #13, Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 583-4222

Dr. Eva Rodriguez, Owner

Ludlow Animal Clinic offers a variety of services to dogs and cats. It provides on-site dental treatment, vaccinations, parasite prevention, surgery, radiology, geriatric medicine, hematology laboratory services, and end-of-life counseling. Dr. Eva Rodriguez has an interest in general wellness, preventive medicine, internal medicine, and dermatology.

Western Mass Heating, Cooling & Plumbing Inc.

4 South Main St., Suite K, Haydenville, MA 01039

(413) 268-7777

www.westernmassheatingcooling.com

Scott Cernak, CEO

For more than two decades, the team behind Western Mass Heating & Cooling serviced the residential market in Western Mass. under M.J. Moran. Spun off as a separate company in early 2020, the company has a wealth of experience in the residential HVAC and plumbing sectors. Services include indoor air quality, heating systems, cooling systems, and plumbing services.

Link to VR

501 Boylston St., 10th Floor, Boston, MA 02116

(617) 588-2109

www.linktovr.com

Edward Zemba, CEO

Link to VR is an XR media agency that helps organizations implement growth-based solutions using the VR/AR platform. It offers in-house development and partnership opportunities to enterprise customers ready to leverage the transformative technology of spatial computing. Whether it’s on-boarding leadership teams or designing custom XR solutions, it strategically positions clients to realize the full potential of this computing platform.

 

Upscale Socks

Springfield, MA

(413) 219-3088

www.upscalesocks.com

Lenny Underwood, Owner

Upscale’s collection of socks includes colorful, vibrant, fun, and meaningful styles for the entire family. The socks are made from 80% combed cotton, 17% spandex, and 3% nylon. Since its inception, it has supported local nonprofit organizations and schools with its Suit Your Soles campaign, matching a sock donation for every purchase. Upscale has also given away college scholarships to a deserving scholars.

Rozki Rides

Springfield, MA

(413) 314-3154

www.rozkirides.com

Jessica Rozki, Owner

Rozki Rides provides professional, reliable transportation services for children and teens. With door-to-door service along a diverse range of locations ranging from school to virtual learning facilitation programs to grandma’s house, Rozki gets children safely to their destination. The company also offers charter services for trips and transportation to wedding parties, showers, and other special events.

1636 North

220 Worthington St., Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 785-4025

www.1636north.com

Julie Molinary, Owner

Touting ‘elevated dining,’ 1636 North offers on-site dining (including outdoor seating) as well as catering services. Reflecting a variety of culinary influences, entrees range from herb-crusted New Zealand lamb chops to blackened lemon pepper salmon to Caribbean jerk chicken.

Colorful Resilience

201 Park Ave., Suite 9, West Springfield, MA 01089

(413) 213-2979

www.colorfulresilience.com

Mayrena Guerrero, CEO

Colorful Resilience is an outpatient mental-health services office that provides therapy (primarily, but not exclusively) to BIPOC, LGBTQ+, first-generation, and immigrant individuals. Due to a lack of clinical representation and cultural competency in the mental-health field, these communities have historically been underserved, and Colorful Resilience hopes to remedy such disparity.

Bridge2Homecare LLC

120 Maple St., Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 285-7755

www.bridge2homecare.net

Jessica Dennis, Owner

Bridge2Homecare is a healthcare agency specializing in a wide range of skilled-nursing services. Its goal is to help patients overcome an illness or injury and regain independence and self-sufficiency. It offers services for individuals who need assistance with skilled-nursing services, memory care (for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease), orthopedic recovery care, post-surgery recovery care, and more.

Feel Good, Shop Local

www.feelgoodshoplocal.com

Michelle Wirth, Founder

Fueled by the COVID-19 crisis, Michelle Wirth founded Feel Good Shop Local in 2020 to ensure that local small businesses would not be left out of the online shopping and discovery experience. Focused on selling consumer lifestyle goods and services, it has brought local small businesses and artisans of Western Mass. and Northern Conn. to one online marketplace for customers to discover, shop, and have items shipped to their door.

GIVE BACK CATEGORY

Anderson Cleaning

103 Wayside Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089

(413) 306-5053

www.andersoncleaning.com

Anderson Gomes, President and CEO

Anderson Cleaning’s commercial services include office cleaning, healthcare cleaning, janitorial cleaning, supply management, day porter services, post-mortem cleaning, consulting services, biohazard remediation, and green cleaning. Its portfolio includes healthcare facilities, offices, retail stores, and industrial businesses. It earned Green Seal Certification, emphasizing its dedication to eco-friendly cleaning.

Appleton Corp.

800 Kelly Way, Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 536-8048

www.appletoncorporation.com

Matt Flink, President

Appleton Corp., a division of the O’Connell Companies, provides property, facilities, and asset-management services, along with accounting and financial services, to managers and owners of commercial and residential properties across New England. Its services include transportation management, real-estate services for nonprofits, troubled-asset and repositioning services, and development analysis.

Focus Springfield Community TV

1200 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 241-7500

www.focusspringfield.com

Stephen Cary, Interim Executive Director

The mission of Focus Springfield is to improve quality of life for Springfield residents by stimulating economic development, community building, education, training, and promoting the benefits of living, learning, and working in the city. The station showcases the cultural and educational achievements of local citizens and provides training to encourage individual and community-based programming.

Gary Rome Hyundai Inc.

150 Whiting Farms Road, Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 536-4328

www.garyromehyundai.com

Gary Rome, President

In its 26 years of operation, Gary Rome Hyundai, offering new and used vehicle sales, service, and parts, has become one of the most successful Hyundai dealerships in the U.S., and was named TIME magazine’s Dealer of the Year for 2023. Recognized in many ways for his dealership’s community involvement and support of local organizations, Gary Rome was also named a Difference Maker by BusinessWest earlier this year.

Keiter Corp.

35 Main St., Florence, MA 01062

(413) 586-8600

www.keiter.com

Scott Keiter, President

Keiter Corp. is a construction-services company working with clients on residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional projects of all sizes. The firm is divided into four divisions: Keiter Builders (commercial and institutional construction), Keiter Homes (residential construction), Hatfield Construction (excavation, site work, and structural concrete), and Keiter Properties (real estate and rental).

Mercedes-Benz of Springfield

295 Burnett Road, Chicopee, MA 01020

(413) 624-4100

www.mbspringfield.com

Peter and Michelle Wirth, Owners

Mercedes-Benz of Springfield serves the Springfield area from its Chicopee facility filled with the latest Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The dealership also includes an expert service center, parts center, and tires center. Factory-certified experts offer professional service, maintenance, and repairs, including one-hour express service.

 

MGM Springfield

One MGM Way, Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 273-5000

www.mgmspringfield.mgmresorts.com

Chris Kelley, President and COO

MGM Springfield recently celebrated five years of operation in downtown Springfield, offering a host of slot machines and table games, numerous restaurants, a hotel, and entertainment at Symphony Hall, Roar! Comedy Club, ARIA Ballroom, the MassMutual Center, and an outdoor plaza.

Pioneer Valley Financial Group

535 East St., Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 589-1500

www.pvfinancial.com

Charles Meyers, Edward Sokolowski, and Joseph Leonczyk, Founding Partners

Pioneer Valley Financial Group is a financial-planning service, offering services in retirement planning, business planning, asset growth, college funding, estate planning, tax planning, and risk management. It serves retirees, professionals, service members, young adults, and small and medium-sized businesses.

Polish National Credit Union

46 Main St., Chicopee, MA 01020

(413) 592-9495

www.pncu.com

James Kelly, President and CEO

Since its inception in 1921, Polish National Credit Union has grown to meet the needs of its communities, offering personal, business, insurance, and investment services. As a full-service community credit union, it now boasts eight branches located in Chicopee, Granby, Westfield, Southampton, Hampden, and Wilbraham.

Springfield Hockey LLC

1 Monarch Place

Springfield, MA 02110

(413) 746-4100

www.springfieldthunderbirds.com

Nathan Costa, President

Springfield Hockey LLC, better known as the Springfield Thunderbirds, is the local affiliate of the St. Louis Blues and and the American Hockey League’s 2021-22 Eastern Conference champion. Playing its home games at the MassMutual Center since its inception in 2016, the team gives back to the community in multiple ways, like the Thunderbirds Foundation, Stick to Reading school programs, Hometown Salute, Frontline Fridays, and more.

Stand Out Truck

98 Lower Westfield Road, Suite 120, Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 356-0820

www.standouttruck.com

Mychal Connolly, President and CEO

Stand Out Truck is an advertising company with a marketing mindset and a love for traffic. Its digital mobile billboard trucks spread clients’ messages to commuters and at events. Mobile ads on the truck launch businesses, share creative projects, and tell businesses’ professional stories, and the impact is significant; vehicle advertising can generate up to 70,000 daily impressions.

Tavares and Branco Enterprises Inc./Villa Rose

1428 Center St., Ludlow, MA 01056

(413) 547-6667

www.villaroserestaurant.com

Tony Tavares, Owner

Tavares and Branco Enterprises owns and operates the Villa Rose Restaurant, lounge, and banquet hall, specializing in Portuguese and American cuisine. With a capacity of 150, the facility caters for parties, funerals, and weddings of 30 people or more. Villa Rose also offers breakfast and brunch for those who are looking to book a shower, seminar, business meeting, corporate functions, and more.

 NON-PROFIT CATEGORY

Springfield Partners for Community Action Inc.

721 State St, Springfield, MA 01109

(413) 263-6500

www.springfieldpartnersinc.com

Paul Bailey, Executive Director

Springfield Partners for Community Action’s mission is to utilize and provide resources that assist people in need to obtain economic stability, ultimately creating a better way of life. It does so through home and energy services, income-tax assistance services, money-management services, transportation services, veterans’ services, and youth and family services.

Valley Opportunity Council Inc.

35 Mount Carmel Ave., Chicopee, MA 01013

(413) 552-1554

www.valleyopp.com

Stephen Huntley, Executive Director

The Valley Opportunity Council (VOC) is the largest and most diverse community-action agency in the region. It offers a network of support and collaborative services that include energy assistance, nutrition, early education and childcare, adult education, senior services, housing, money management, and transporation.

413 Elite Foundation

393 Belmont Ave., Springfield, MA 01108

(413) 354-8326

www.413elite.com

SirCharles Evans, Owner

The 413 Elite Foundation’s mission is to create a winning community through the game of basketball. Its purpose is to provide mentorship, education, and coaching for a broad community where children and young adults can develop life and leadership skills, and it does so by nurturing endowment, encouraging philanthropy, and promoting efficiency in the management of funds.

Second Chance Animal Services Community Veterinary Hospital

67 Mulberry St., Springfield, MA 01105

(413) 739-2343

www.secondchanceanimalservices.org

Sheryl Blancato, CEO

Second Chance Animal Services is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that operates community veterinary hospitals in Springfield, North Brookfield, Southbridge, and Worcester; subsidized rates are provided to underserved communities. Last year, Second Chance helped more than 44,000 pets through full-service veterinary care, spay/neuter services, adoption services, community and educational outreach programs, training, and a pet-food pantry.

The Horace Smith Fund

16 Union Ave., Suite 2K, Westfield, MA 01085

(413) 739-4222

www.horacesmithfund.org

Josephine Sarnilli, Executive Director

For more than a century, the Horace Smith Fund has helped Hampden County students finance their dreams of higher education. Award opportunities are available to residents of Hampden County who have graduated from eligible local secondary or private schools. This year, the fund awarded a total of $316,000 to local students in scholarships and fellowships.

Hampden County Career Center Inc.

850 High St., Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 532-4900

www.careerpointma.com

David Gadaire, President and CEO

Since 1996, Hampden County Career Center Inc., now doing business as MassHire Holyoke Career Center, has been serving the workforce and economic-development needs of individual job seekers, social-service agencies, and the business community throughout Hampden County and beyond, offering a seamless service-delivery system for job seeking, career training, and employer services.

 

Caring Health Center

1049 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103

(413) 739-1100

www.caringhealth.org

Tania Barber, President and CEO

The mission of Caring Health Center is to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity by providing accessible, value-driven healthcare for diverse, multi-ethnic communities in Western Mass. The organization provides a wide range of health services at eight locations in and around Springfield.

WestMass ElderCare Inc.

4 Valley Mill Road, Holyoke, MA 01040

(413) 538-9020

www.wmeldercare.org

Roseann Martoccia, Executive Director

This agency’s mission is to preserve the dignity, independence, and quality of life of elders and disabled persons desiring to remain within their own community. It offers services for elders, their families and caregivers, and people with disabilities. Programs and services include supportive housing, home care, options counseling, adult family care, nutrition programs, elder mental health, family caregiver support, and health-insurance counseling.

Springfield Rescue Mission

10 Mill St., Springfield, MA 01108

(413) 732-0808

www.springfieldrescuemission.org

Kevin Ramsdell, Executive Director and CEO

The Springfield Rescue Mission is a leader in meeting the needs of the poor and homeless in Greater Springfield. As an emergency shelter, mobile feeding program, rehabilitation and transformation center, and transitional living facility, it provides food, shelter, clothing, medical attention, Christian counseling, literacy training, and advocacy, free of charge.

Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts

1160 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108

(413) 737-4313

www.jewishwesternmass.org

Nora Gorenstein, CEO

The Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts cares for Jews in need and creates vibrant Jewish life in Western Mass., Israel, and around the globe. Through its community-building and fundraising efforts, the federation supports vital educational and social-service programs locally and globally.

Revitalize Community Development Corp.

240 Cadwell Dr., Springfield, MA 01104

(413) 788-0014

www.revitalizecdc.com

Colleen Loveless, President and CEO

Revitalize CDC performs critical repairs on homes of low-income families with children, the elderly, military veterans, and people with special needs. It improves community health by addressing poor housing conditions, performing assessments and interventions for adults and children with asthma, making home improvements that allow seniors to safely remain in their homes, and working with healthcare partners to address food insecurity and chronic health conditions.

Clinical & Support Options Inc.

8 Atwood Dr., Suite 301, Northampton, MA 01060

(413) 773-1314

www.csoinc.org

Karin Jeffers, President and CEO

CSO’s mission is to provide responsive and effective interventions and services to support individual adults, children, and families in their quest for stability, growth, and a positive quality of life. Services include crisis and emergency services; outpatient mental health; family-support programs; community-based programs; and shelter, housing, and homelessness efforts.

Federal Law Continues to Pose Problems for Cannabis Industry

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Cannabis Special Coverage

The Constant Disconnect

 

 

 

Scott Blumsack is a general manager of Society Cannabis Co., a licensed retailer, wholesaler, and producer of cannabis products in Massachusetts. He oversees 16 full-time employees and directly serves cannabis products to customers.

He filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts over time. But the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts denied his repayment plan and dismissed his bankruptcy case.

Why? Because, while Massachusetts law permits the retail distribution of marijuana, it’s still a Schedule I controlled substance, illegal to manufacture, dispense, or possess under federal law. And when Blumsack petitioned for bankruptcy under Chapter 13, he sought to fund his plan with income from his $75,000-a-year job with Society.

Judge Elizabeth Katz agreed with the Bankruptcy Court that, because he is employed in a federally illegal activity, Blumsack could not access Chapter 13 to restructure his finances.

“This banking act has been proposed by bipartisan senators for the last six, seven, eight years, and this is the first year it made it through committee; it’s supposed to get a vote on the Senate floor.”

“There’s just an enormous disconnect between what’s allowed under Massachusetts law and what’s allowed under federal law, and the Blumsack case is a perfect example of this,” said attorney Steven Weiss, a shareholder with Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin in Springfield.

“He was dealing with a controlled substance; that’s where his income was coming from,” he went on. “This guy is doing something that’s perfectly legal in Massachusetts, and yet he’s barred from being entitled to federal bankruptcy relief.”

Steven Weiss

Steven Weiss says he’s surprised lawmakers haven’t moved more quickly toward decriminalizing cannabis on the federal level.

Weiss said Katz, who had taken an oath to uphold federal law, essentially found no way around this nagging disconnect between state and federal law. The case, which has made waves nationally, is being appealed.

This disconnect has thrown a number of wrenches into cannabis businesses, which, among other hurdles, grapple with an onerous tax burden since they can’t write off many of the costs other businesses can. Or, a driver with federal Department of Transportation certification could conceivably lose that license if he transports products across state lines. And attorneys have worried about taking on clients in the cannabis sector, as they are technically advising clients to break federal law.

“Even for me, as a bankruptcy trustee, what would happen if someone suggested I should be appointed trustee or receiver of a marijuana-based business? I don’t know if I could do that, even though it’s legal under Massachusetts law,” Weiss said. “If there’s a change in the presidential administration and someone decides they’re going to enforce the marijuana laws, and there’s a five-year statute of limitations on selling marijuana, am I now a dealer?”

Then there’s banking; most cannabis companies have been all-cash businesses because banks operate under federal statutes.

“The vast majority of Americans live in states with laws that depart from federal law on this issue and where thousands of regulated Main Street businesses are serving the legal cannabis market safely and responsibly.”

But that’s one area that could be changing.

Last month, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved the Safe and Secure Enforcement and Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act. The legislation (see story on page 40) would allow financial institutions to do business with the legal cannabis industry without fear of crossing federal banking regulations.

“This banking act has been proposed by bipartisan senators for the last six, seven, eight years, and this is the first year it made it through committee; it’s supposed to get a vote on the Senate floor,” said attorney Scott Foster, a partner with Bulkley Richardson in Springfield. “It’s not law yet, and it may not even get through the House, but you’re definitely seeing little steps moving this forward.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued an official recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration calling for marijuana to be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III status in the federal Controlled Substances Act.

A Schedule I classification is reserved for substances with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, while a Schedule III classification is reserved for substances having a legitimate medical use and a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.

Despite this difference, cannabis would still be considered a controlled substance, illegal without a valid prescription, so a reclassification wouldn’t change the law around adult-use cannabis — but it would be a small move in that direction.

Scott Foster

Scott Foster says the disconnect between federal and state laws have contributed to making cannabis “a challenging place to be. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

“Moving cannabis to Schedule III could have some limited benefit, but does nothing to align federal law with the 38 U.S. states which have already effectively regulated cannabis for medical or adult use,” said Aaron Smith, CEO of the National Cannabis Industry Assoc. “The only way to fully resolve the myriad issues stemming from the federal conflict with state law is to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and regulate the product in a manner similar to alcohol.”

Will the federal government ever do that? Stay tuned.

 

Green Wave

Laws to make cannabis legal for adults have passed in 23 states as well as the District of Columbia, and 38 states have laws regulating medical cannabis. Almost 80% of Americans live in a state where the substance is legal in some form.

“The vast majority of Americans live in states with laws that depart from federal law on this issue and where thousands of regulated Main Street businesses are serving the legal cannabis market safely and responsibly,” Smith said. “It’s long past time for Congress to truly harmonize federal policy with those states.”

And there has been some thawing around the edges of the state-federal disconnect. For one thing, more banks, and larger ones, are edging into the cannabis sector.

For example, calling it an underserved industry, Berkshire Bank recently launched a cannabis banking unit that provides tailored banking solutions for businesses. In a partnership with Green Check Verified, a cannabis compliance software company, Berkshire is promising clients a seamless integrated platform that includes an application process, transaction monitoring, compliance, and funds movement.

Foster said he spoke with an executive at Berkshire Bank only 18 months ago who doubted such a move could happen. “They went from ‘absolutely not’ to ‘our doors are open to cannabis.’ That’s a huge shift for a major bank in the region.”

And as more states come around to legalizing cannabis within their borders, there might eventually come a tipping point that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. can’t ignore.

Foster happened to be on a plane recently with a state senator from South Carolina, and they struck up a conversation about their respective jobs.

“He said, ‘we’re considering legalizing medical cannabis in January. Don’t you see a lot of crime?’ I said, ‘No.’ ‘Homelessness around dispensaries?’ ‘No. Quite the contrary.’

“I told him, ‘you’ve got people in your state right now who are growing cannabis. They’re very good at it. They know their stuff. They know the different strains. In my state, those people are employed at cannabis dispensaries. They have respectable jobs, they’re not underground, there’s no risk of them going to jail. In your state, they still can.’”

Weiss told BusinessWest he’s surprised at the lack of movement on decriminalizing cannabis at the federal level, if only because there’s so much money to be made by banks and other businesses that typically have the ear of lawmakers.

“It’s legal in 38 states. Even small banks are looking at opportunities to make loans or investments in the marijuana business,” he said. “And when Wall Street can make money on something, the law will change. That may be a cynical view of the world, but I’m sort of surprised that marijuana hasn’t become at least quasi-legal federally right now. Right now, the way the industry is operating, the government just turns a blind eye to it.”

Until someone like Blumsack gets caught in the crossfire, or until cannabis business struggle under the weight of much higher business costs and much greater challenges than other sectors when it comes to real estate, transportation, security, or any number of other factors.

“I don’t know all the ways that’s going to shake out,” Weiss said. “That inconsistency is a problem for everybody. If somebody wants to change the law, that’s up to Congress.”

A Congress that, if anyone hasn’t noticed, doesn’t like working in a bipartisan way on very much these days.

 

The Next Generation

The landscape on some of these matters may still shift. Foster cited a recent decision from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in which a cannabis business, the Hacienda Co. LLC, was able to obtain bankruptcy protection, but only after transferring its cannabis assets to a third party. “The decision by the court could be seen as a roadmap for other companies seeking bankruptcy protection,” he noted, “but only for a complete liquidation, not a restructuring.”

Meanwhile, Foster believes federal decriminalization is coming … eventually.

“We still have octogenarians running parts of the government, and they grew up with ‘drugs are bad,’ and that’s something that’s difficult to overcome,” he told BusinessWest. “Twenty, 25 years from now, it will probably be legal, and everyone will look back and say, ‘that was kind of silly.’ But right now, people have ideas deeply ingrained in them by their church, society, family, personal experience, and they’re not going to get over that. They’re just not.”

Until they are — or a new generation of leaders emerges — the juxtaposition between state and federal law will continue to cause problems in this still-nascent industry.

“It’s still a challenging place to be,” Foster said. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Rewarding Insurance Agency Grows into New Space, New Services

By
Rewarding Insurance Agency owners
Insurance Special Coverage

Selling Peace of Mind

 

Rewarding Insurance Agency owners

Rewarding Insurance Agency owners Lidia Rodríguez and Miguel Rivera.

 

 

 

While their insurance agency has been serving clients in Greater Holyoke for the past several years, Miguel Rivera and Lidia Rodríguez’s story in this sector goes back further than that.

“We started in the insurance business in 2009 in Puerto Rico,” Rivera said. “My wife and I were both insurance agents on the island. I used to sell cars, but I was tired of working six to seven days a week. So I found the insurance industry, and we fell in love with it.”

Their main focus — life and health insurance, mainly for an older clientele — was born from tragedy.

Back in 2009, “we were having a difficult time because my uncle died with cancer. And my aunt died with kidney failure two years later,” Rivera explained. “And I realized that I wasn’t doing my job, because my cousins ended up living in three different places because they didn’t have life insurance.”

So the couple became students of life insurance, and when they moved to Massachusetts, they started selling it in 2016, and it became a key niche when they launched Rewarding Insurance Agency in 2018.

They had no business office at first, and in late 2019, they began renting space at the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. But that was never going to be a long-term solution, especially as the agency grew to more than 1,000 clients.

“We want to be the most complete Latino-owned life, health, auto, home, and business insurance agency in the region; that’s what will make us a unique agency.”

So, earlier this month, Rivera and Rodríguez celebrated another milestone, opening their own office and storefront on Maple Street in downtown Holyoke, which the chamber marked with a ribbon-cutting event.

“It is so incredible to have seen the growth from Miguel and Lidia since they began working in our office,” said Jordan Hart, the chamber’s executive director. “Being the only bilingual insurance agency in downtown, where many residents are native Spanish speakers and live nearby, they recognized the need to accommodate their growing elder Latino customers with life insurance, notarizations, and health insurance, and completely pivoted their business, and now we can welcome them at their own space.”

Rewarding Insurance has its own downtown office

After more than three years sharing office space with the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce, Rewarding Insurance has its own downtown office and storefront.

Indeed, Rivera said, “first, we started selling life insurance, and then we added Medicare Advantage, which is health insurance for seniors. And we are planning to add auto, home, and business insurance in January.”

Rivera said Rewarding is a relatively unique agency in that it serves mostly Hispanic seniors, which he feels has been an underserved population.

“We love our community. Our goal is to educate them in a way that they can understand what it means to have life insurance, because there is a lot of misunderstanding out there; they feel comfortable coming here and asking questions. And we also go to their house or their apartment to orient them about the insurance,” Rodríguez added. “And if something happens to them, the beneficiary can come here and ask questions. We don’t leave them alone in the process. We are with the family during the whole process.”

 

Planning for a Crisis

Rodríguez noted that ‘final expenses’ insurance, as it’s known, is an affordable type of life insurance that many people aren’t aware of.

“A funeral is really expensive; we’re talking $12,000 to $15,000. So how do they find that kind of money?”

Rivera agreed. “We encourage people to have life insurance so the family doesn’t have to collect donations and or do GoFundMe or things like that,” he said, adding that anyone can qualify for final-expense insurance. “People think that if they are too old, they don’t qualify for life insurance, but they do qualify for final expenses.”

That’s important during times of crisis, Rodríguez said. “It gives them peace of mind so that, ‘OK, I can focus now on healing because I have the financial cover. Let the insurance company cover all this for me.’”

On both the life- and health-insurance side, Rewarding Insurance has established contracts with leading insurance carriers to provide a diverse range of options, Rivera said. “When we meet with a client, we find the best plan for them.”

The agency’s focus on older clients came about organically, he added, based on the needs of the community.

“It was word of mouth; people want to do their life insurance and health insurance in the same place, so we’re trying to make it simple for our clients. And with the health-insurance plans, we give them access to services that help them have a better quality of life — access to durable equipment, food, over-the-counter medications. We help them save money on co-payments and deductibles. We find transportation for them.

“People love to come here and find the best health insurance plan that they can qualify for,” he went on. “We have access to CCA, Fallon Health, UnitedHealth, Health New England, Aetna, all those plans that are the top carriers here in Massachusetts. And depending on the doctor’s network and depending on their Medicare status, we find the best plan for them. We make sure their doctors take the plan they’re enrolled in. That’s the main focus.”

The agency also offers critical-illness insurance, a supplemental product that puts money in one’s pocket in case of an illness or an accident.

“So we are protecting families in case of illness or death or an accident,” Rivera said, adding that Rewarding also does 401(k)-to-IRA rollovers and helps clients make retirement-planning decisions around that savings vehicle. “So we help them protect their families financially with health, life, critical illness, and also their assets with IRAs.”

Jordan Hart

Jordan Hart

“It is so incredible to have seen the growth from Miguel and Lidia since they began working in our office.”

Those services, as noted earlier, will expand further with the addition of home, auto, and business insurance to the practice at the start of 2024.

“We want to be the most complete Latino-owned life, health, auto, home, and business insurance agency in the region; that’s what will make us a unique agency,” Rivera noted. “We will be a one-stop shop for all your insurance needs.”

 

Community Focused

Having grown into a new space and with new services on the horizon, Rodríguez said she expects more growth and a bigger agency in the future. And the couple both said their niche serving the area’s Hispanic community has been personally fulfilling.

“Holyoke is about 50% Hispanic, and about 90% of our clients are Hispanic — not because that’s what we wanted it to be, but that’s how it ended up being,” Rivera said, noting that Rewarding Insurance serves English- and Spanish-speaking clients with equal effectiveness.

“The Latino community feels very comfortable coming here,” he added. “English-speaking people have many insurance agencies to go to, but Latinos don’t have too many places here in this region where they can go and feel comfortable. We take time with them, explaining to them how everything works.

“We love it here. This is is the space we were looking for,” he added. “We can have meetings and workshops here. We have all the resources we need here. And the people feel comfortable coming here. They don’t want to leave.”

That was one of the goals, Rodríguez added: to create a comfortable, home-like environment for talking about critical issues of insurance and life planning.

“This is for them. This is their place where they can come and ask questions. We answer the phone, and now they know where to find us, too,” she told BusinessWest. “And we love our senior community, but we want to serve their families, too. We know that, once the family knows what we do, they’re going to do other kinds of life insurance with us. That’s what we want to do — not only serve them, but serve their sons, their granddaughters, everyone in the house.”

Rivera said it’s gratifying to get positive feedback in the community.

“My wife was at the supermarket the other day, and a client said, ‘hey, tell your husband I’m thankful because we’re saving money in co-payments and deductibles.’ So people are thankful, and we are glad.

“We just want to thank the community for their support,” he added. “Holyoke has been very welcoming. People say stuff about Holyoke, and Holyoke is not perfect, but we feel welcome here. We love the diversity here in Holyoke, and we are glad that we are in a good position and expanding here.”

Rodríguez agreed. “It’s satisfying when families come here and say, ‘thank you for everything you do.’ That is our goal: to continue to provide services that our community needs.”

Sturbridge Benefits from Being at the Crossroads

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Robin Grimm says Sturbridge appealed to her for many reasons
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Robin Grimm says Sturbridge appealed to her for many reasons

Robin Grimm says Sturbridge appealed to her for many reasons, from its beauty to its sense of history to its enthusiastic celebration of that history.

Officials in many different communities like to say they’re ‘at the crossroads’ — of their region or even New England.

In Sturbridge … they mean it.

Indeed, this community of just under 10,000 people sits at the intersection of the Mass. Pike and I-84, which begins in the town and winds its way southwest through Hartford and into New York and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Route 20, a state highway, and the main east-west corridor before the Pike was built, runs through the town and forms its main commercial artery.

Most area cities and towns also like to say that they have ‘something for everyone.’

In Sturbridge … they mean it.

There are hotels, restaurants, and taverns, as well as campgrounds, hiking trails, and kayaking on the Quaboag River. There’s shopping and antiques (Brimfield is right next door, and there are many shops in Sturbridge itself). There are a few brewpubs, a distillery, and even axe throwing. There’s foliage (many tours of New England’s fall colors end here) and the famous shrine at St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish.

“If you were the Mass. association of anything, Sturbridge is ideal, because we’re dead center — it’s equidistant from the Berkshires to Hyannis. And it’s less expensive than Marlboro or going even closer to Boston.”

Between the accessibility and the all the things to do — and the two qualities are obviously very much related — there are always considerably more than 10,000 people in Sturbridge at any given time.

Some visitors get off those aforementioned roads on their way to somewhere else and often shop, eat, or both. But, more importantly for the town, the region, and the businesses within, many stay for a night or two … or three.

They come for business meetings and conventions; to look at foliage; to camp or park RVs at the two RV parks; to take in the three Brimfield Flea Markets in May, June, and September; for the annual Harvest Festival, staged earlier this month; and to converge for the Pan-Mass Challenge, the bike ride to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which features a route that starts in Sturbridge and winds 109 miles southeast to Bourne.

Terry Masterson says Sturbridge’s trails, campgrounds

Terry Masterson says Sturbridge’s trails, campgrounds, and RV parks are an often-overlooked but important element in the town’s status as a true destination.

And they come for weddings.

Neither Town Administrator Robin Grimm nor Terry Masterson, the town’s Economic Development and Tourism coordinator, know exactly how many, but they know it’s a big number.

“Weddings are a cottage industry here,” said Grimm, noting that a combination of venues (such as the Publick House Historic Inn and Country Lodge and the Sturbridge Host Hotel & Conference Center), beauty, and position in the middle of the state (and the middle of New England, for that matter) make Sturbridge a popular wedding location.

Alexandra McNitt, director of the Chamber of Central Mass South for the past 17 years, agreed. She told BusinessWest that the community’s location, in the very middle of the state and on major highways, makes it a logical choice for meetings and conventions involving state associations, business groups, and families planning reunions and other types of get-togethers.

“If you were the Mass. association of anything, Sturbridge is ideal, because we’re dead center — it’s equidistant from the Berkshires to Hyannis,” she said. “And it’s less expensive than Marlboro or going even closer to Boston.

“And with families and friends getting together … I can’t tell you how many times we get people who call us and say, ‘I live in Maine, I have some friends coming up from New York or Pennsylvania, and they’re coming to Sturbridge because it’s halfway for both of them,’” she went on. “It happens all the time. So we benefit from this location on the personal level, with small-meeting groups and any kind of state clubs or associations.”

Overall, between the hotels, RV parks, Old Sturbridge Village, the Brimfield antique shows, and the weddings, events, and meetings, Sturbridge draws more than a half-million visitors a year.

And those who find the town will now be able to more easily find out about all there is to do there, and in the surrounding region, with the opening of a new home for the chamber, one that includes a visitors center on River Road, just off exit 5 of I-84 (more on that later).

Meanwhile, there is another potential new draw for this already-popular destination with the planned opening of a combination truck stop and what’s being called an ‘electric-vehicle discovery center,’ said Masterson, where motorists can learn about EV ownership and potentially test-drive vehicles from various manufacturers.

For this installment of its ongoing Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Sturbridge and how it takes full advantage of its accessibility, beauty, and increasingly diverse business community.

 

Staying Power

Grimm, formerly a town administrator in Stoughton, just south of Boston, and administrator or assistant administrator in several communities in Rhode Island, where she grew up, told BusinessWest that she wasn’t exactly looking for a job when Sturbridge posted for a town administrator early in 2022. But there were many things about the position that appealed to her, from its beauty to its sense of history to its enthusiastic celebration of that history.

“Sturbridge has always been a favorite community for me — there isn’t a kid in Rhode Island who doesn’t take a visit to Old Sturbridge Village,” she said. “I love rural communities, and when an opportunity to work in this part of Massachusetts came up, my ears perked up.

“Sturbridge is particularly unique,” she went on, “because it’s an unusual combination of the beautiful, rural, foothill feel that you get as you start moving west in Massachusetts, and what happens when you have the reality of the intersection of two major highways.”

Masterson, who came to Sturbridge in 2020, has a somewhat similar story. Formerly an Economic Development administrator in Northampton, he said he came to Sturbridge and a similar post there because of that same blend of history and business development. “I enjoy history, so the job posting piqued my interest, and I came and interviewed.”

Masterson said the importance of tourism, hospitality, meetings, and conventions to Sturbridge, and the manner in which all this dominates the local economy, becomes clear as he breaks down the tourism business base, which includes nearly 100 businesses of all sizes.

Visitors to Sturbridge

Visitors to Sturbridge will find information on the community’s many attractions and tourism-related businesses at the new visitors center.

Indeed, there are 11 hotels located in the community, which together boast roughly 1,000 rooms, he said. There are 24 ‘eating establishments,’ three coffee and tea houses, six dessert or ice-cream shops, six brew pubs, five wineries, three orchards, three wedding venues, 17 specialty shops, four RV parks and campsites, five nature trails covering 35 miles, and two golf courses.

All this explains why Sturbridge, which boasts a rich history — Grimm says the Revolutionary War is still a big part of the town’s “culture” — has become such a destination.

Masterson noted that its popularity as a stop, for a few hours or a few days, is made clear in statistics regarding spending on meals; the town has been averaging $63 million annually since 2017, with a high of $72 million in 2022. By comparison, Northampton, a community well known for its stable of fine restaurants, averages $93 million annually.

The hotels have high occupancy rates in spring, summer, and fall, said McNitt, adding that they, and the restaurants, get a huge boost from the Brimfield antiques shows, the first of which, in May, is the unofficial start to the busy season. “That first May show is a huge shot in the arm for the hotels and restaurants; that kicks off the season, and then we’ll be flying until Thanksgiving.”

These numbers, and those regarding overall visitorship, obviously make Sturbridge a popular landing spot for tourism- and hospitality-related businesses, said Masterson, adding that there has been a steady stream of new arrivals in recent years, including several this year.

“Sturbridge is particularly unique, because it’s an unusual combination of the beautiful, rural, foothill feel that you get as you start moving west in Massachusetts, and what happens when you have the reality of the intersection of two major highways.”

They include everything from Wicked Licks, an ice-cream shop that opened on Route 20 near the entrance to Old Sturbridge Village; Tutt Quanti, an Italian restaurant; Heal and Local Roots, two cannabis dispensaries along Route 20; D’Errico’s, an upper-end meat purveyor taking space in the Local Roots facility; and Teddy G’s Pub & Grille, which is occupying the former Friendly’s location on Route 20.

 

Meeting Expectations

In addition to its meeting, convention, and wedding business, Sturbridge and the surrounding area boasts a number of historical and cultural attractions, parks, orchards, trails, golf courses, and other forms of recreation.

Topping that impressive list, of course, is Old Sturbridge Village, one of the nation’s oldest and largest living-history museums, with 40 restored antique buildings, a working farm, two covered bridges, and much more. OSV draws 250,000 visitors a year and hosts hundreds of school field trips, as it has for decades.

There’s also Sturbridge Common, the picturesque town founded in the 1730s, which was, during the Revolutionary War, the site of militia drills and the collection of military supplies, as well as St. Anne Shrine, which has been welcoming pilgrims praying for physical and spiritual healing since 1888.

Sturbridge at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1738
Population: 9,867
Area: 39.0 square miles
County: Worcester
Residential Tax Rate: $18.07
Commercial Tax Rate: $18.07
Median Household Income: $56,519
Family Household Income: $64,455
Type of government: Town Administrator, Open Town Meeting
Largest Employers: OFS Optics, Old Sturbridge Village, Arland Tool & Manufacturing Inc., Sturbridge Host Hotel & Conference Center
* Latest information available

Perhaps less well-known, but increasingly popular — and important to the business community — are the trails, campgrounds, RV parks, and open spaces in Sturbridge.

“We have more than 450 RV pads, which I conservatively estimate will draw more than 100,000 people a year between April and October,” said Masterson, adding that the RV parks, as well as the trails and campgrounds, enabled Sturbridge to continue to draw large numbers of visitors during COVID.

The new chamber office and visitors’ center will help provide more information to those who come to Sturbridge for all those reasons listed above, said McNitt, adding that the town had such a facility years ago, saw it close, but recognized the need to resurrect it.

And many of the businesses and venues that it spotlights helped make this move possible, including the donation of a building for the facility.

“The community has really come together to support this initiative,” McNitt noted, adding that a painting-business owner has volunteered time and talent to paint the facility, while the Publick House donated landscaping, and other businesses have chipped in as well. “It’s definitely been a community effort; they wanted this to come back.”

As for the planned service center and EV discovery center now nearing the finish line, it is one of several such facilities being developed by partners Michael Frisbie and Abdul Tammo, co-owners of Hartford-based Noble Gas Inc. The two partners are building what they tout as a new generation of larger service centers, complete with high-speed electric-vehicle charging stations and a host of other amenities, including an ice-cream shop and outdoor picnic areas.

“If you have an electric vehicle, it’s not like filling your gas tank,” said McNitt, explaining the concept as she understands it. “It doesn’t happen in three minutes; even with a high-speed charger, it takes 20 to 30 minutes, so they’re trying to create an environment that’s friendly toward that.”

It’s just one more way Sturbridge is creating an environment friendly to all kinds of recreation seekers who arrive here at the crossroads.

BusinessTalk with Jody Hagemann, senior director of Sales Engineering for Comcast Business

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Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 184: October 23, 2023

Joe talks with Jody Hagemann, senior director of Sales Engineering for Comcast Business

Everyone has heard of cybersecurity, but not every business knows exactly what it takes to keep them protected. The most effective defenses not only incorporate the latest technology, but emphasize employee education, training, and plain old common sense to reduce the chances of human error — which is a factor in far too many breaches. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Jody Hagemann, senior director of Sales Engineering for Comcast Business, talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about the multi-pronged strategy Comcast relates to its clients, why more companies are taking data threats seriously — and why they should. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

 

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BusinessTalk with Keith Fairey, president and CEO of Way Finders

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Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 183: October 16, 2023

George O’Brien talks with Keith Fairey, president and CEO of Way Finders

The housing crisis gripping Western Massachusetts and most of the Bay State has deep roots and a broad impact, affecting everything from homelessness in area communities to the region’s ability to effectively compete with other states and regions for talent and jobs. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Keith Fairey, president and CEO of Way Finders, talks with writer George O’Brien about how we got here, how the crisis has impacted area communities, and how the region recovers from decades of underinvestment in new housing in nearly all categories. It’s must listening, so tune in to BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest and sponsored by PeoplesBank.

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