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Ludlow Features Some Developing Stories

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Marc Strange calls new and growing businesses “the economic engine that supports our budget.”
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Marc Strange calls new and growing businesses “the economic engine that supports our budget.”

Marc Strange calls new and growing businesses “the economic engine that supports our budget.”

 

It’s called Get Lost in Ludlow.

That’s the theme of a campaign — being promoted in many ways, including a website and streetlight banners — in this town of just over 21,000 residents, encouraging locals and visitors alike to explore the amenities of Ludlow, from local produce, baked goods, and craft beer to scenic outdoor spaces; from historical landmarks to Lusitano Stadium, home of the Western Mass Pioneers soccer team.

“We’re trying to let people know what Ludlow has to offer,” Town Administrator Marc Strange said of the grant-funded campaign, noting that each banner is also visibly sponsored by a local business, “which adds a little bit of placemaking to the area.”

With his deep background in economic development — he came to Ludlow Town Hall in the spring of 2022 following stints as director of Planning and Development in Agawam and selectman in Longmeadow — Strange has been focused on ways to boost business in town and especially draw new business.

One focus over the past few years has been development and infrastructure improvements around the ongoing Ludlow Mills project and along the nearby East Street corridor, as well as expanding the town’s District Improvement Financing area, which had previously covered just the footprint of the mills, to East Street.

“The plaza that I eventually purchased, as you’re crossing over the bridge, it’s just to your right. And it began to look a little outdated and not really well kept up. Businesses started leaving, and I started noticing that.”

“We have some really iconic businesses, but on East Street, we just need to make it welcoming for new businesses,” Strange said, noting, as one example, the arrival in 2024 of BarBurrito, a new eatery from Bill Collins of Center Square Grill fame in East Longmeadow. “We feel like, if we can redo the infrastructure and make it more aesthetically attractive for new businesses, people will come in from out of town.”

As for the ongoing work by Westmass Area Development Corp. and WinnDevelopment on Ludlow Mills — which has added 170 housing units to its mixed-use complex over the past couple of years — “one of the aspects that really attracted me to Ludlow, coming from an economic development background, was seeing the potential of the mills and everything that we can create in the downtown area,” Strange said. “That continues to be our future, and where my mind goes when we talk about economic development.”

Marco Vieira, in front of the new Grit 24 Fitness, says his plaza on East Street can be a key cog in building economic momentum in that area of town.

Marco Vieira, in front of the new Grit 24 Fitness, says his plaza on East Street can be a key cog in building economic momentum in that area of town.

Some of the destination spots in town, such as Randall’s Farm, Vanished Valley Brewing, and Sole Syndicate Brewing (formerly Iron Duke) — have been complimented by new businesses, like Tandem Bagel, which opened near Ludlow Mills last year.

“They’re doing well, and that adds a little bit more to the mills and to Riverside Drive,” Strange said, also noting success stories like the business park on Moody Street that’s typically fully occupied.

“So we have a lot going on. But certainly, any time we think about economic development, it always starts with the mills. It’s our future. It’s our economic engine that supports our budget.”

That’s a budget that’s constrained by Proposition 2½, which restricts how much a town can tax property. “Between the limitations of Prop 2.5 and limited state aid, you really need new growth. It’s really the buttress of our budget.”

“Our parks in town don’t have the best reputation, and I think that’s deserved. We really haven’t invested too much in our parks in terms of new equipment, the turf, the grass.”

Marco Vieira is one developer who sees potential in the area around the mills. That’s why he purchased the plaza on East Street near the Route 21 bridge connecting Ludlow to Springfield, which includes 39,000 square feet of commercial space and nine separate businesses.

“This side of town has struggled over the last decade. It used to be thriving back when the mills were open. Once they shut down, it started to look a little abandoned,” Vieira told BusinessWest. “The plaza that I eventually purchased, as you’re crossing over the bridge, it’s just to your right. And it began to look a little outdated and not really well kept up. Businesses started leaving, and I started noticing that.

“But then when Mill 8 and Mill 10 were built [at Ludlow Mills], they came out beautiful. And this side of town began to look like it was starting to wake up again — they rebuilt this whole riverwalk over here, too. So when that all came to life, it just so happened that the plaza came up for sale, and I jumped on the opportunity to purchase it with a couple of my partners.”

Tandem Bagel on Riverside Drive has been one of Ludlow’s recent success stories.

Anchored by a Walgreens and featuring an array of smaller businesses, the plaza used to be home to a gym, so Vieira’s largest improvement at the site was the design and construction of Grit 24 Fitness, a 24-hour gym that also offers personal training, which opened last year. Vieira said he wanted the atmosphere to evoke a gym that might be found in Miami or New York City in its elements of design, lighting, sound, and equipment.

“We’re trying to create something where we can bring the community together and gather — and it’s also going to help out the businesses in that plaza,” he explained. “East Street has about 20,000 vehicles passing through daily. So it’s not a dead zone. There’s a lot of potential there.”

 

Walk in the Park

The city is also planning infrastructure improvements downtown, including repaving, traffic calming elements, and new sidewalks.

“There’s also a new Select Board member who got elected in March, Anthony Alves, and he’s really prioritized the parks,” Strange said. “Our parks in town don’t have the best reputation, and I think that’s deserved. We really haven’t invested too much in our parks in terms of new equipment, the turf, the grass.

“So with Anthony’s leadership and the board’s support, we’re looking at improving Whitney Park and Veteran’s Park, and then Memorial Park. We really just need new equipment, to give them some attention. Those projects are going to be coming down the pike.”

Whitney Park, which is where the town’s summer camp has been held, includes a baseball field and a football field, he noted. “Years ago, it was very heavily used, but it’s not as attractive as it really needs to be, and the equipment is old; it’s not ADA-accessible. We’ve already gotten quotes for replacing all the equipment, so it can be a more exciting place for kids to go. Hopefully, when we replace the equipment, that’ll drive more traffic. We’re also looking at potentially redoing the tennis courts into something; we’re not quite sure what that’s going to look like yet.”

Meanwhile, “Vet’s Park is where the elementary school used to be, and right now it’s basically just open space, green space. There’s a soccer field there now, and a baseball field, but we’re working with Tighe & Bond on a redesign to put in a full, 11-on-11 soccer field and a 50-yard practice football field because the high school teams don’t really have any place to practice. And we’ll be redoing the softball field that’s over there, but also putting in pickleball and then some awesome playground equipment for the kids.”

In other municipal business, Strange noted that a recent town meeting approved the creation of a Finance Department and the hiring of Ludlow’s first Finance director, likely early next year. The same town meeting also allowed the town to create a capital stabilization fund and a Parks and Recreation stabilization fund.

Ludlow at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1774
Population: 21,002
Area: 28.2 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $17.35
Commercial Tax Rate: $17.35
Median Household Income: $53,244
Median Family Income: $67,797
Type of Government: Board of Selectmen, Representative Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Hampden County House of Correction; Encompass Rehabilitation Hospital; Massachusetts Air National Guard; Kleeberg Sheet Metal Inc.
*Latest information available

“That will allow us more transparency and more more predictability in terms of how we’re spending our money on capital projects in general, but also how we’re spending capital money in the parks. That’s important to us,” Strange said.

The town meeting also approved a noise bylaw, he added. “Throughout the year, we’ve gotten noise complaints about early trash pickups, noise from construction, noise from the pike, noise from some music venues. They were building up, so we felt like we had to do something. There was a lot of discussion on that, and it was a very close vote, but I think it’s necessary to give our Police Department more authority to enforce things.”

 

It Takes a Village

Vieira has always loved building.

“Creation was my big thing, even growing up. My parents didn’t have much money, so if I wanted a toy or something, I’d figure out a way to make it, build it — out of cardboard or paper mache, whatever. I just always loved to build.”

That passion carried over into adulthood, and in 2008, he opened his own building and remodeling company, Vieira Building & Home Improvement, in Ludlow.

“It eventually turned into a lot of additions and new construction, and I slowly got into commercial,” he told BusinessWest, noting that his purchase of the plaza and opening of Grit 24 is just the latest blending of his passions for building, creating, and his town.

“One year, my wife and I went to Florida, and what stood out the most was the gyms in Miami. You could walk in there, and you didn’t want to leave. So we ended up hiring a gym designer out of Miami.”

He said he takes pride in being just one piece of the puzzle downtown.

“In order to bring life back into a section of town, you can’t just depend on one person. You need to depend on the town leadership, the business owners, real estate owners, whether it’s just giving something a makeover or a facelift or opening up a small business — everyone needs to chip in. You can’t depend on WinnDevelopment or Westmass to improve the whole area.”

Strange agrees. “With respect to our downtown area, I feel like that’s the location with the most promise. And economic development is everything. You want an exciting space that people are going to go.”

That’s the idea behind the Get Lost in Ludlow campaign — to let people know there’s plenty to do, and stick around for.

“If you live in another town and you always come to Randall’s to do some pumpkin picking and stuff like that, but you don’t really know what else is in Ludlow, you can go to getlostinludlow.com, and there’s a calendar of events and a listing of businesses with pictures and links to the websites, so you can see what’s going on,” Strange added.

Vieira, for one, is grateful for that sense of connectivity. “It all goes back to everyone helping, helping pitching in and shining a light on the community, on this whole area.”

BusinessTalk with Tony Worden, President and CEO, Greenfield Cooperative Bank

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Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

With new episodes airing every other Monday, BusinessTalk features in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders who offer thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachusetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running. BusinessTalk is sponsored and presented by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

Go HERE to view all episodes

Episode 244: October 13, 2025

Joe Bednar talks with Tony Worden, President and CEO, Greenfield Cooperative Bank

Tony Worden says Greenfield has long been an affordable alternative in Western Mass., but times are changing, and it is becoming far less so.

Tony Worden’s long career in the finance world, most of it in commercial lending, eventually led to his assuming the presidency of Greenfield Cooperative Bank in 2021. There, he continues to grow not only the bank’s business, but its impact on the community. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Tony talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about his passion for community banking and the economic opportunities and challenges he sees on the horizon, but focuses much of the discussion on how his team helps customers understand the risks of cybercrime, check fraud, and other threats, which have become more sophisticated in recent years. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest on both audio and video platforms, and now sponsored by Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

 

 

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Employing People with Disabilities Can Be a True Win-win

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Emily Benoit (left) and Erika Lamere say the Lincoln Street Stop & Shop in Holyoke has strived to cultivate an inclusive workplace.
Features Special Coverage

Hire Calling

Emily Benoit (left) and Erika Lamere say the Lincoln Street Stop & Shop in Holyoke has strived to cultivate an inclusive workplace.

Emily Benoit (left) and Erika Lamere say the Lincoln Street Stop & Shop in Holyoke has strived to cultivate an inclusive workplace.

 

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. But for Lhea Destromp, it’s a year-round effort.

“This isn’t just seasonal. It’s about carving out intentional opportunities and making our workspaces more inclusive. And that’s a slow and thoughtful process,” said Destromp, an employment counselor in Regional Employment Services for the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS).

That said, the increased awareness in October does present an opportunity to create more dialogue around the value that workers with disabilities add to the workforce, the importance of inclusive employment policies, and barriers to employment that people with disabilities may face.

“When I’m talking to employers, I’m talking to them in terms of value and what they’re looking for, so I need to be able to convince them that an individual, or a whole group of people, are reliable and not a risk — because, at the end of the day, business people are thinking about risk. So it’s about putting the facts in front of people so that they can make informed decisions. And a lot of people don’t realize that individuals with disabilities tend to have the greatest longevity in their careers.”

As an example, she connected BusinessWest with the Stop & Shop store on Lincoln Street in Holyoke, where a man with a developmental disability named Michael has been bagging and retrieving carriages — and occasionally other tasks — for the past 35 years.

“Michael has been like a brother to me,” said Erika Lamere, an administrator at the store who has roughly the same tenure at the store. “We grew here together. And he feels like this place is his home because he’s been here so long.”

Emily Benoit, a department head who works closely with Michael, said there are rough days when he’ll get a little overwhelmed.

“Whenever something’s bugging him, like if he had a bad interaction with a customer, he’s able to talk to us and explain what happened and what he’s feeling, and we can kind of direct him — ‘OK, that’s all right, this happens, it’s normal.’ And talking about it helps him and brings him down a level so he’s not overwhelmed.”

That said, Michael’s time at Stop & Shop is marked by mostly good days, and the same goes for Chris, another employee with a developmental disability who mainly bags groceries. They’re popular with customers and — importantly — extremely reliable, Benoit said, something Destromp says is true for many of the clients she works with and helps connect with jobs.

Lhea Destromp

“It’s about putting the facts in front of people so that they can make informed decisions. And a lot of people don’t realize that individuals with disabilities tend to have the greatest longevity in their careers.”

“Why should these people not be included?” Lamere asked. “We’ve had supervisors come through the building that say, ‘what do they do?’ Well, they can do anything anyone else can do if they’re just taught how to do it.

“That’s one thing I love about this place — in all my years here, we have always made sure that everyone is included, no matter what it is: a disability, your race, your sexual preference, I don’t care,” she went on. “Everyone is a person and deserves to work if they want to. And yes, they may not be able to perform all tasks, but that doesn’t mean places shouldn’t hire them. And once they get comfortable, you’d be very surprised with the other things they are willing to do and end up doing.”

And doing well, Destromp added.

“Not only do many of these folks work in their positions for a long time, they’re very reliable, they very seldom call out, and individuals with disabilities have the lowest of workers’ compensation claims. So when we think about how an employer defines risk within the context of an employee, we’re checking all the boxes here.”

 

Meaningful Connections

Destromp, as noted, helps people with developmental disabilities secure meaningful work, and she does this from both sides.

“I work with job coaches on job development with individuals who are looking to get jobs. Typically they have a number of obstacles and barriers that have led to a pattern of instability that has made it so they can’t retain work. So I help create goals and strategies to work with these folks so that they can resolve these issues,” she explained.

“At the same time, on the other end, I’m working with employers and helping to prepare them so that they can embark on this journey. For some of them, it’s an easy job, and it’s just about placement. For others, we’re really carving in — helping them identify roles for people and supports.”

In many ways, she said, her department acts as a training program to determine where the barriers are and what someone needs to overcome them and secure employment.

“It really depends on the individual, almost how you think about physical therapy. If somebody has an issue with their leg versus an issue with their back or their core, they’re going to have a whole different regimen to support them and strengthen what they need. So, for us, it’s really about targeting those areas,” she explained. “We’re working to assess where the deficits are, and then we can identify strategies to support them.”

She’s also busy with engaging different constituencies around the issue of inclusive workplaces and what that means to both job seekers and employers.

“I’m doing more around community engagement and around finding places where folks can be establishing and deepening their skill sets and then connecting them more meaningfully to opportunities in the community, and then also working more closely with employers and helping them figure out ways to establish value and take that leap of faith.”

Jason Randall

Jason Randall

“When they find an employer like ours and get into an environment where they feel accepted and wanted, their loyalty is increased, and their length of service with us is higher than others.”

As one motivation, she directs them to tax incentives for hiring disabled workers. The federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit reimburses 40% of up to $6,000 in wages to any employer that hires disabled individuals certified by a state workforce agency. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Disability Employment Tax Credit provides up to $5,000 or 30% of the wages paid to each qualified employee with a disability in the first taxable year of employment, whichever is less, decreasing to $2,000 or 30% of the wages paid, whichever is less, in subsequent years.

Those are attractive incentives, Destromp said, but they’re not the whole picture — more important is tapping into an employee pool that, as she noted, tends to be longer-tenured and more reliable than workers in general, at a time when businesses of all kinds are struggling with maintaining a workforce.

“It’s smart business, and the data doesn’t lie,” said Jason Randall, executive director of Human Resources at MGM Springfield, another employer that has embraced inclusivity in hiring.

“These employees do have a longer tenure with us. And in return, they find loyalty in a company that is taking a chance on them because other doors get closed on them through various interview processes or companies that don’t want to engage,” he noted. “When they find an employer like ours and get into an environment where they feel accepted and wanted, their loyalty is increased, and their length of service with us is higher than others.”

Randall explained that MGM has partnered with a number of organizations, not only DDS, but also the Western Mass Employment Collaborative, Viability, and ServiceNet — that support individuals with disabilities who are looking for work.

“We have great relationships with these organizations, meet with them frequently, and are very candid up front about the environment that we provide as a workplace as they’re trying to match their constituents to employment,” he noted. “We know that this environment may not be for everybody. Certainly, working front of house with guests isn’t for everybody, and working back of house, without guest contact, isn’t for everybody. So being candid and having dialogue up front helps create an expectation that these agencies can place or help their candidates apply for appropriate positions.”

The partnership doesn’t stop after hiring, onboarding, and training, Randall added, as the casino complex provides employee accommodations when needed, and works with the aforementioned agencies to determine those needs. “We’ve worked with employees who have a variety of disabilities, and some you can notice by sight, and some you don’t know what’s going on in their life, but they do have a disability.”

Destromp noted that employers she works with are never asked to hinder their productivity with a hire that’s not the right fit.

“If you’re accommodating an employee in a way that is impacting the flow of your environment, then that’s not a reasonable expectation, and you, as an employer, are not expected to meet that expectation,” she said. “But, while that will be a difficult conversation, some difficult conversations yield high rewards — you may say to that person, ‘this is not the right role for you. Let’s examine the other things that are going on in our place of business and needs that we have that you may be able to fill.’”

 

Continuing the Conversation

To mark not only the 80th year of National Disability Employment Awareness Month and 35 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the DDS will present a panel discussion on disability inclusion practices in collaboration with the Springfield Regional Chamber, New England Business Associates, Springfield College, and the ADA National Network.

The event, to be held on Monday, Oct. 27 from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Springfield College Learning Common, will bring together leading employers to share innovative strategies for building inclusive workplaces — including how companies have successfully carved out roles tailored to employees’ strengths and support needs, creating true win-win outcomes. Panelist topics will include ADA recommendations, universal supports, expanding one’s labor pool and cultivating an inclusive culture, and addressing difficult disability-related questions. Email Tina Macy [email protected] with questions and to register.

“I think that individuals with disabilities have long been an overlooked and undervalued and marginalized group of people,” Destromp said. “I think that’s such a shame because these are people who are so eager to prove their worth, to prove their value, and who deserve just the same as anybody — that opportunity to be able to feel the value and the worth that comes along with contributing to your community.”

She said she was excited to meet Michael at the supermarket in Holyoke. “Everybody’s eyes lit up when they saw Mike — he was like the mayor of Stop & Shop.”

That’s gratifying for Lamere, who appreciates what her employees with disabilities have contributed to the store.

“Michael comes in every day, he stays his whole shift, he is reliable. And Chris is the same way. He was hospitalized recently, but he came right back to work. They’re both very reliable. We’re lucky to have them.”

At the same time, an inclusive workplace helps all employees understand differences, and that’s valuable in itself, she added.

“It gets you to open up and see they are people too, and they’re very capable of doing the things we do if they’re just given a shot. [Employees] learn very good lessons — that if you have the right people showing them and the right people giving them the courage or whatever they need, they end up doing it.”

That said, “some customers can be pretty rough,” Lamere went on. “With Michael, he sometimes will struggle with that because his feelings get hurt easily or he feels like he did something wrong. We’ve had customers call him stupid before. And the second I hear that, I’m flying downstairs, because nobody’s doing that. We try to make sure they feel protected.”

Randall said an inclusive workplace, like MGM Springfield, benefits everyone, including the company as a whole.

“Whether it’s a member of the LGBT community, veterans groups, women in the workplace … having an environment that accepts, promotes, and encourages everyone helps from a retention perspective,” he explained. “When employees feel proud about the workforce they are a part of and the company they work for, they become your recruiters. They’re going to tell their friends or family members the experience that they’ve had, and that brings us more candidates coming in the door.”

Destromp agreed. “I think it’s about shining that light and helping local employers see that value and understanding the many unique characteristics and qualities that individuals with disabilities bring to the table as a whole — and that’s even before we take a step closer and get to know each individual better and unpack their unique qualities.”

North Adams Continues to Redefine Itself

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James Birge says MCLA owes its high ranking among liberal arts colleges to many factors, but especially its strong track record with helping students succeed.
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

 

James Birge says MCLA owes its high ranking among liberal arts colleges to many factors, but especially its strong track record with helping students succeed.

James Birge says MCLA owes its high ranking among liberal arts colleges to many factors, but especially its strong track record with helping students succeed.

Marya Kozik says North Adams is much like its larger neighbor to the south, Pittsfield, in that it is working very hard not to live in the past.

This is a past dominated by massive mills, led by Sprague Electric, that employed thousands; a thriving downtown fueled by payday at those mills; and a population that was significantly larger and much younger, said Kozik, director of Community Development and someone who grew up in the city.

“We’re trying to look forward to new opportunities, whether it be the creative economy or food science and entrepreneurship,” she said, adding that the focus is squarely on the present and the future, and continuing the process of redefining the community known as Steeple City because of the many church spires that dominate the skyline.

Elaborating, she the city is working to build its creative economy, headlined by MASS MoCA, located in the Sprague Electric complex, but including a growing number of art galleries and related businesses, while also trying to attract the many kinds of businesses that will bring young people here — and keep them here.

“The creative economy is taking off,” Kozik said. “We have a lot of artists coming into the community; we have small-scale manufacturing of artistic products and home goods that use the skills of artists who are here and, hopefully, the skills of other people who had left jobs that required that kind of manufacturing skill. There are opportunities coming back, and it’s nice to see new people coming in to the community.”

These efforts comprise many of the storylines now converging in North Adams, a community of roughly 13,000 people. Others include:

• Continued progress at the mill revival initiative known as Greylock Works. The former cotton-spinning mill has been converted into a thriving campus that includes a restaurant, a co-working community, a craft distillery, the Berkshire Cider Project, and event spaces that include the Weave Shed and Engine House, as well as 50 loft condos;

• The reopening last year of North Adams Regional Hospital. Now part of Berkshire Medical Center, the facility, closed after financial problems, was honored with a MassEcon Impact Award earlier this year;

• Progress, in the form of a $17.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program, toward creation of the Adventure to Ashuwillticook trail, a 9.3-mile stretch of shared-use pathway connecting the existing Ashuwillticook Rail Trail to the Williamstown Mohican Path by way of downtown North Adams and the rotary at the MASS MoCA campus;

• The North Adams Steeplecats, a team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (which also includes the Holyoke Blue Sox), which continues to draw fans to Joe Wolfe Field, playing an important role in economic development within the community; and

• Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), one of the city’s largest employers. The school recently maintained its ranking of sixth among the nation’s public liberal arts colleges — marking 11 consecutive years in the top 10.

“This consistency in rankings reflects our core mission — providing an affordable, transformative liberal arts education that empowers students,” MCLA President James Birge said, adding that the school continues to evolve and add new programs and majors — from nursing to ‘music, industry, and production,’ to meet the needs of students and the business community.

 

Progress Report

As she talked about North Adams, what’s been achieved, and the work still be done, Kozik said the city’s evolution from a mill town to a city with an arts- and hospitality-based economy is still very much a work in progress.

MASS MoCA has been a part of this story, she said, noting that, while the facility — the most spacious modern art museum in the world, known for its large-scale installations — has not spurred the kind of economic development that had been hoped, it has become a valuable asset for the city and perhaps the most important piece of an economy now based mostly on tourism, hospitality, and arts-related businesses.

“Do we bring people here when we don’t have all the elements to support them? And how do we create the elements to support them, like restaurants and shopping venues, when we don’t actually have the people to support them?”

Pieces are coming into place, she said, but North Adams, like most all cities trying to attract young people, is facing what she called a ‘chicken-or-the-egg’ scenario.

“Do we bring people here when we don’t have all the elements to support them? And how do we create the elements to support them, like restaurants and shopping venues, when we don’t actually have the people to support them?” she asked rhetorically, adding that the city is essentially working on both sides of the equation simultaneously.

There have been several intriguing additions to the landscape in recent years, businesses created to meet needs and create vibrancy, Kozik noted, citing, as one example, Steeple City Social, a community-oriented bakery, café, and cocktail bar on Eagle Street, launched by a recent transplant to the city, Andrew Fitch.

“He saw a need for what they call a ‘third space,’” she said, meaning a place that’s not home and not the office. “He opened a space that’s a bakery in the morning and a café in the evening; it’s a place to gather, and people have been very supportive.

“Spaces like this build community,” she went on, adding that there have been other additions that fit this description, including several art galleries, many with ancillary products and services, such as tea, that make them more financially viable.

Still, there are considerable challenges to revitalizing the downtown, Kozik said, citing the loss of vitality that came with the loss of all those mill jobs as well as the aftereffects of ’60s-era urban renewal, which essentially left one side of Main Street intact and the other side demolished in favor of a parking lot and mini-mall, plagued by a high vacancy rate in recent years, that has gone by various names, including Steeple City Plaza, the Parkade, and the ‘L-shaped mall.’

“We have one side with beautiful old buildings, and the other side, across a four-lane road, which is unheard of in small cities, two vacant lots,” she explained. “We’re looking to restore the vibrancy of downtown in the storefronts, working with developers who are interested in restoring the top floors into apartments, but we also have these huge vacant lots.”

Meanwhile, outside the downtown, the city is seeing several signs of progress, including adaptive reuse of former mills.

North Adams at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1878
Population: 12,961
Area: 20.6 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $16.71
Commercial Tax Rate: $35.22
Median Household Income: $35,020
Family Household Income: $57,522
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: BFAIR Inc.; Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; North Adams Regional Hospital
* Latest information available

Indeed, Greylock Works has become one of the better success stories in North Adams. The initiative, led by architects and entrepreneurs Karla Rothstein and Sal Perry, who acquired the mill in 2015, has several intriguing elements, the latest being loft condos that will provide another housing option in the community.

Meanwhile, another former mill, the Norad Mill in the Braytonville section of the city, has been repurposed into office space and home for a diverse mix of tenants, including a yarn manufacturer, a dog biscuit baker, a coffee shop, and a candy company.

Overall, the city’s goal is to create more jobs — it will likely never replace all those lost when the mills closed — with a diverse mix of smaller businesses in those mills, and across the downtown.

 

School of Thought

Creating a workforce to support such businesses is one of the overriding goals at MCLA, formerly North Adams State College, which continues to thrive in its category because of its commitment to liberal arts, even as some colleges and universities have been cutting back on programs in that realm.

“There’s an initiative among institutions today to eliminate academic programs or majors that don’t really generate positive revenue streams, that don’t contribute to the overall revenue of the institution; that hasn’t been my approach here,” Birge said. “Because we’re a liberal arts institution, it’s important to have a broad base of academic programs and majors for students to develop critical-thinking skills.

“For example, we offer philosophy and modern language majors that don’t generate lots of tuition revenue for us, but they’re essential to a liberal arts education. We’ve leaned into those things, like history — we think that’s an important element in a liberal arts education,” he went on. “And because of the facility we have, students who major in those departments do very well.”

Elaborating, he said the school is far more likely to add new programs with potentially strong revenue streams so that it can maintain programs like those he just listed, rather than make cuts.

One example of this is the radiological technology program added just a few years ago, but one that has already become one of the most popular majors, along with health sciences and more traditional offerings such as business, education, and psychology.

“Because of the population of students we have — 50% are first-generation college students, and 50% come from families earning less than $38,000 a year — there are some challenges in terms of what they understand college to be and how they can be here, coming from an economically challenged background.”

As it offers such programs, MCLA has put a hard focus on helping its students, many of them the first generation in their families to attend college, succeed with their goals, whatever they may be.

And these efforts take many forms, from various mentoring programs to the school’s Essential Needs Center, which addresses hardships outside the classroom that can become obstacles to student achievement and overall well-being. The space, run by students, offers food, essential items, housing and transportation assistance, seasonal clothes, SNAP applications, and more.

“Because of the population of students we have — 50% are first-generation college students, and 50% come from families earning less than $38,000 a year — there are some challenges in terms of what they understand college to be and how they can be here, coming from an economically challenged background,” Birge explained. “So, as a result of that, we really try to help students through programs that don’t just advise students, but mentor them so that they can be successful with their academic goals.

“And we don’t necessarily define that in a limited fashion as graduation, but also, how do you achieve a certain grade point average? How do you make sure you succeed in a course that’s going to help predetermine what your major will be? How do you make sure that your academic success is meeting the standards in order to be a student leader in athletics, student government, or in the residence halls?” he went on. “A few years ago, we implemented this success coaching model, in addition to our academic advising, to guide students throughout their time here, not just as they’re coming in, but all along the way.”

 

Workaholism Is Surprisingly Common — and Harmful

By Contributor
Healthcare News Special Coverage

The Overlooked Addiction

By Christopher Soderberg and Justin Szwajkowski

Addiction has become a prevalent topic in today’s society, dominating headlines and impacting communities globally. The destructive effects of many of the most common and prevalent addictions are becoming better documented and have led to more open discussions with the younger generation in an effort to deter them from falling victim to their binds.

While the most destructive of these addictions often come to mind when the idea is brought up, many do not consider that the same chemical pathways and environmental factors can be responsible for other forms of addictions.

In recent years, a new form of addiction has risen in frequency: work addiction, sometimes called workaholism. This addiction is defined as a compulsive need to work incessantly, even when it causes harm to one’s physical or mental health. In the relentless pursuit of professional success, it often progresses to the point of burnout, a term that has become quite common in today’s society.

Acknowledging the detrimental effects of burnout on one’s professional performance is the first step towards embracing work-life balance, a strategy that ultimately revitalizes productivity and enhances long-term career success.

 

The Value of Work

In many ways, work is one of the biggest defining characteristics of a human being. What you do for work becomes a large part of who you are, how you see the world, how you live, and what you talk about. Work ethic and personal success have become common status symbols within the community and between peers.

For these reasons, it is easy to see how unhealthy working habits can soon become routine and normalized within one’s own life. While working hard is certainly important, finding a healthy balance between professional success and personal well-being is essential for long-term fulfillment and sustained progress.

In 1989, sociologist Ray Oldenburg shared his ideas on these topics in his book, The Great Good Place, and coined the idea of a ‘third place’ for individuals to help drive this balance. When taking a step back and reflecting on one’s life, an individual’s first two places are obvious — the first place being one’s home, while the second is their workplace.

Christopher Soderberg

Christopher Soderberg

Justin Szwajkowski

Justin Szwajkowski

“Setting boundaries, taking breaks throughout the day, prioritizing your well-being, and the scariest for many — taking vacation time — are all ways you can recharge your mental and physical health.”

These places are where a substantial chunk of one’s life are centered, and in the modern working environment, these places can even become blurred, with the adoption of hybrid work models becoming more common. To effectively manage the stress of these two places, it’s essential to have a third place — a dedicated space outside of these two environments where you can go and relax, recharge, and detach from the ordinary for a moment.

In many cases, the third place can be anywhere or anything you want it to be — the golf course, the gym, the library, even an open field. To truly serve its purpose, your third place should be a space where you can pursue your passions, establish new hobbies, and build meaningful connections. Finding this third place and incorporating it into your schedule will not only help you counteract the effects of workaholism and burnout, but it will help you become a more effective and well-rounded boss or colleague by increasing your overall mental well-being.

When one begins to take the essential steps in addressing their work-life balance, or tendency toward workaholism, they not only restore their own well-being, but also enhance their professional and personal relationships, ultimately leading to increased production and happiness.

On the other hand, when individuals experience burnout from this behavioral addiction, they often begin to experience irritableness, exhaustion, and decreased motivation, which directly impacts the quality and quantity of their work. Most people can probably think about their friends, colleagues, or family and pinpoint an individual who has dropped nearly everything else and worked themselves into the ground in the chase for success.

Luckily, as noted previously, there are steps one can take to both achieve this success and improve quality of life. Setting boundaries, taking breaks throughout the day, prioritizing your well-being, and the scariest for many — taking vacation time — are all ways you can recharge your mental and physical health. These simple remedies lead to renewed focus, increased creativity, and a stronger sense of purpose, ultimately resulting in a significant boost in performance.

It is important to emphasize that the idea of being able to remove yourself from your work is not to say you should not work hard. It is still possible to be the first person into the office, the last to leave, and even put in overtime while still leaving dedicated time for things you enjoy. Short-term compromises can and will sometimes be necessary — issues will pop up, and some weeks may leave less room to visit your third place than others.

Success is a direct result of this kind of hard work and dedication, but that does not mean it has to come at the sacrifice of yourself and those around you. The career ladder is a marathon and not a sprint, and long-term balance offers benefits that outweigh a metaphorical short-term sprint that results in burnout.

 

Bottom Line

In summary, you can still build a successful career while maintaining a balance in life that keeps you energized and well-rounded. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, blocks at least one day off a week to go hiking, per a CNBC interview in 2019. Warren Buffet famously took time out of his days to take ukulele lessons and play regularly, as he admitted to Yahoo during an interview in 2023.

These figures achieved incredible levels of career success, and likely worked harder than most for sustained periods of time. However, they still found hobbies and pursued passions to keep them recharged and balanced in life.

Similar to other addictions, drawing boundaries and making changes to eliminate compulsive or learned behaviors can be challenging. In the long run, however, creating a life of balance will be beneficial not only in life outside the office, but also in career success.

 

Christopher Soderberg is a supervisor, and Justin Szwajkowski is an associate, at the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

Area Architects Face Challenges, but Remain Busy

By
A rendering of an ambitious housing project in a demolished strip mall in Manchester, Conn. being designed by Dietz & Company.
Architecture Special Coverage

Weathering Some Uncertainty

A rendering of a project in downtown Pittsfield, one of many housing initiatives in the Dietz & Company portfolio.

A rendering of a project in downtown Pittsfield, one of many housing initiatives in the Dietz & Company portfolio.

 

A rendering of a public safety facility in Taunton designed by Caolo & Bieniek.

A rendering of a public safety facility in Taunton designed by Caolo & Bieniek.

Lee Morrissette was probably looking for some wood to knock on.

In the architecture industry, he explained, there is chatter about things slowing down and work becoming more difficult to attain, and for several reasons. But at the same time, Morrisette, a principal with Springfield-based Dietz & Company Architects, has a different take.

“The architecture industry has been saying that things have been softening for quite a while — billings are down, and new job starts are down, but we’re just not seeing that,” he said, noting that the firm — which recently opened an office in Cambridge, where Morrissette leads a team of four — has a considerable amount of work on the books.

Especially strong is work within the broad housing sector, he added, noting that the critical need for housing of all kinds, but especially the affordable variety, is a statewide problem that is keeping the firm busy.

“We’ve maintained a consistent stream of work,” he said, noting that housing and housing-related projects — from a new community center and administrative office for the Fitchburg Housing Authority to an intriguing 48-unit housing project in downtown Pittsfield, to redevelopment of a demolished shopping plaza in Manchester, Conn. into 232 units of market-rate housing — are dominating the portfolio.

Others we spoke with agreed, at least to some extent, but noted that there are some signs of slowdown and a variety of forces — from rising prices of materials and labor to tariffs to a slower-than-expected pace of decline in interest rates — contributing to a good amount of uncertainty, which is never a good thing within the broad building trades sector.

Still, area firms seem to be maneuvering through this uncertainty, mostly through the diversity of their portfolios, the housing crisis, and the fact that many projects are moving forward in some form, though maybe a little later than planned in some cases.

“While some people have hit pause on projects, there’s more of what I’ll call re-evaluation,” said Curtis Edgin, a principal with Chicopee-based Caolo & Bieniek Architects. “People are saying, ‘is this what we really want to do, or do we want to explore a plan B opportunity?’ We’ve seen a little bit of that, and we’ve been fortunate that there’s always been a plan B.

“The architecture industry has been saying that things have been softening for quite a while — billings are down, and new job starts are down, but we’re just not seeing that.”

“We’ve had another good year, and we have good work in the boards for next year,” he continued, adding, again, that diversity of projects — public, private, large, small, long term and shorter term — has been a real asset for the firm.

Kevin Rothschild, principal with East Longmeadow-based Architecture Environment Life (AEL), agreed, but noted there are some forces that will make 2026 somewhat more challenging. These include the end of several pandemic-related programs to fuel the economy, cutbacks to some public sector programs, and other factors.

“Things are a little harder, a little slower,” he told BusinessWest. “We’re seeing the tail end of funding programs like ARPA and ESSER [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] as well as municipal or federal grants that were out there for schools and cities and Green Communities,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of those programs reach their conclusion. The work that we’re exposed to on those projects has had a good run, and we’re seeing a lot of that closing out.”

For this issue and its focus on architecture, we talked to several area firms about what this bellwether sector is seeing, hearing, and experiencing, and what they’re expecting in the months to come.

 

Drawing Conclusions

Morrissette said it was the housing crunch and ongoing efforts to address it that prompted the Dietz firm to expand with its Cambridge office, a small space in the Cambridge Innovation Center, a co-working facility — a step taken after lessons learned from the pandemic about remote work, virtual meetings, and the ability for teams to work effectively even if they’re not all in the same office at the same time.

“We were finding that the housing authorities, particularly the Cambridge Housing Authority and others that we working with … we had enough work with them, and they kept saying, ‘if you had an office here in the Boston area, it would be a lot easier to work on a continuing basis,’” he recalled. “You don’t have to hear that too many times before taking some action.”

And it is housing that continues to broaden the book of business, he said, adding that the firm is involved with several intriguing projects, including the redevelopment of the corner of Linden and Center streets in Pittsfield’s Downtown Arts District. The initiative calls for 48 units of affordable apartment housing through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits — a 30-unit apartment building and two six-unit townhouses designed for passive house certification, the firm’s first such project.

“While some people have hit pause on projects, there’s more of what I’ll call re-evaluation. People are saying, ‘is this what we really want to do, or do we want to explore a plan B opportunity?’ We’ve seen a little bit of that, and we’ve been fortunate that there’s always been a plan B.”

Dietz is also working on an ambitious project in Manchester, Conn. on the site of a razed shopping center. In addition to the 232 units of market-rate apartment housing, plans call for a clubhouse with a fitness center, outdoor pool, and space for community events, as well as a multi-use recreation trail extension, said Morrissette, adding that the project appeared stalled last fall amid uncertainty and higher interest rates, but quickly got back on track.

“We had done some schematics and design-development drawings, and they said, ‘you know what … hold on, we’ll finish out the space, and we’ll see what happens, and if interest rates start to come down, we’ll contact you,’” he recalled. “It didn’t take much of an interest rate drop before they said, ‘OK, it’s looking good enough; we’re moving in the right direction,’ and they re-engaged and got it going again.”

Meanwhile, the firm, with the help of that Cambridge office, has been able to secure work with several housing authorities, including the one in Fitchburg, in the center of the state, where it is designing a new community center and administrative offices.

A rendering of an ambitious housing project in a demolished strip mall in Manchester, Conn. being designed by Dietz & Company.

A rendering of an ambitious housing project in a demolished strip mall in Manchester, Conn. being designed by Dietz & Company.

“We’ve been successful with quite a fair amount of housing authority work, which has been rooting us nicely in this Cambridge office; it’s been good,” Morrissette said, adding that the firm has work in other realms as well, including municipal — the renovated former Chicopee Library, for example — as well as hospitality, education, and office projects.

 

Growth — by Design

Diverse portfolios are also the key to success for the other firms we spoke with.

Indeed, Caolo & Bieniek has been involved with everything from renovations to the clubhouses at Springfield’s two municipal golf courses, Franconia and Veterans, to the new Barry Elementary School in Chicopee; from work at public colleges, including UMass Amherst and Westfield State University, and the municipal library in Richmond to several public-safety projects. That list also includes early-stage work on what will be one of several proposals for a replacement for the troubled Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse in downtown Springfield.

“Our work varies from very long-term projects, like the Barry Elementary School, to the short-term, ‘the roof is leaking; we need to do something’ projects,” Edgin explained. “And that’s what has kept our lights on through the years; we don’t only depend on public sector money. We do some private work, and we have some good private clients as well. And through the years, they appreciate what we we’ve done for them, and they keep coming back, and that’s how we’ve been fortunate.”

The firm has developed a strong niche in the design of public safety facilities, he went on, adding that it has several in various stages of progress in Lenox, Taunton, and Princeton. And, like most firms, it is garnering work in the broad housing sector.

Edgin said his take on the short term, meaning the next several quarters, is one of cautious optimism as the public and private sectors cope with all those challenges listed above and face decisions about whether to proceed with projects, and how.

Curtis Edgin

Curtis Edgin

“We don’t only depend on public sector money. We do some private work, and we have some good private clients as well.”

As he noted, there is usually a plan B.

Rothschild agreed and said his firm still has considerable work on its plate and in the pipeline, but noted that the winding down of several COVID-related programs will certainly be felt within the industry.

He said his firm secured several ESSER-funded, HVAC-related projects to improve ventilation in schools, especially in Holyoke — work that is coming to an end.

Meanwhile, AEL has also garnered some work — lighting, ceiling, insulation, and other initiatives — via the state’s Green Communities program, which provides grants and technical assistance to municipalities to reduce their energy consumption and costs through energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

“That seems to be ongoing,” he said. “But with national trends in support of different policies, obviously there are question marks moving forward.

“Meanwhile, the national trends and the pulse of federal cuts, the changes the federal policy, tariffs, labor, immigration … we’re seeing direct impacts from all that,” he went on. “We’re seeing the availability of labor slowing, we’re seeing the cost of work going up, we’re seeing the availability of materials challenged — even if it’s uncertainty concerning what might be coming, it has an impact.”

Rothschild mentioned a HUD-funded project involving a local housing authority the firm was involved with to get his points across.

“I think we were 90% through the drawings, and that was stopped because the funding was not secure. I think ultimately it was cut, and that project was put on the shelf,” he said. “We’re seeing the impact of what’s happening on the federal level on the private market and the public side as well.”

On the positive side, there is the strong potential for new work through state law now permitting property owners to build one accessory dwelling unit in an area zoned for single-family homes, he said, adding that area communities are adapting the bylaw, and some are seeing requests for permits to build.

Meanwhile, AEL is still seeing a good amount of work on both sides of the ledger, and some pockets of the economy, including the commercial market, show the confidence needed to move forward with projects.

“Everything from people trying to open a dance studio to a carpet business looking to expand to trucking and warehouse facilities — there’s a diversity of work out there,” he said. “It’s still there, it’s just hard. Financing is a challenge, contracting is a challenge — everything seems to take a little longer, and it’s a little harder to get through the pipeline.”

 

BusinessTalk with Rick Sullivan, President and CEO, Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council

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 243: September 29, 2025

Joe Bednar talks with Rick Sullivan, President and CEO, Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council

Rick Sullivan

Rick Sullivan’s 11-year tenure leading the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council has been one of both challenge — the region has dealt with everything from shifting economic tides to a pandemic — and opportunity; indeed, during that time, the EDC has grown, programming has expanded, and membership has doubled. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Rick talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about all that and more, including his advice for the next president and CEO; the organization’s continuing importance in growing the business landscape in the 413; and what he values most from his time serving this region as a mayor, in the governor’s office, and with the EDC. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest.

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Western Mass. Offers Plenty of Autumn Fun

By
Special Coverage Tourism & Hospitality

Cool Happenings

 

Western Mass. is known for its wide range of tourist destinations and attractions, but the fun doesn’t have to end once the weather cools down. In fact, thanks to the perennial popularity of Halloween with families, October is one of the most lively months on the calendar for fun in the 413. Here are eight ways to enjoy the season.

 

 

The Great Halloween Drive-Thru

1911 Poquonock Ave., Windsor, CT

thegreathalloweendrivethru.com

The Great Halloween Drive-Thru is a unique family- and kid-friendly attraction, conveniently located next to Brown’s Harvest Farm in Windsor, Conn., just 15 minutes from Hartford and 25 minutes from Springfield. Visitors stay in their vehicles for a 45-minute journey through a farm full of spooky holograms, projections, and special effects. The Great Halloween Drive-Thru is not scary. There are no live actors and no jump scares, making this an ideal attraction for families with children. Spooky fun without the scare, the attraction draws visitors from all over Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. The Great Halloween Drive-Thru is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in October from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., with the last ticket sold at 9 p.m. Admission is $30 per carload.

 

Hancock Shaker Village

1843 West Housatonic St., Pittsfield, MA

hancockshakervillage.org

With 20 historic buildings and a working farm and garden, Hancock Shaker Village is open April through December for self-guided tours, demonstrations, talks, and programs. Admission is $8 to $20, with children under 12 free. On Oct. 17, 18, 23, 25, and 30, the village offers the Haunted Hancock Tour at 7 p.m. ($30 additional cost). Guests can walk the dark halls of the Brick Dwelling and hear about all the haunted stories of this old building. For the younger set, Haunted Hancock for Kids (Oct. 18 and 25, 5 p.m.) is a tour of Shaker ghosts and mystery especially designed for kids ages 8-12 (and at least one adult companion). The 45-minute walking tour ($10-$15) includes a spooky walk through the Village and a visit to the Brick Dwelling. Finally, included in the Hancock admission is the Halloween Pumpkin Extravaganza at the Village on Oct. 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guests are invited to wear a costume, trick or treat through the Village, meet Valerian the Garden Witch, and decorate a pumpkin.

 

A family enjoys pumpkin picking at McCray’s Farm.

McCray’s Farm

55 Alvord St., South Hadley, MA

mccrays-farm.com

McCray’s always gets its terror on in the fall, and this year’s Fear on the Farm spectacle includes the Monster Mash Haunted Hayride, Massacre Manor, and the Diagnostic, Operations, Nexus Genetic Research Facility (DONGRF). The farm is open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in October. The ticket box office opens at 6:30 p.m., and the haunted attractions open at 7 p.m. General admission is $30, and the fast pass option (to skip to the front of the line) costs $55, available online only. McCray’s also offers pumpkin hayrides every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The ride to the pumpkin patch costs $5, and the pumpkins range in price depending on size.

 

Mike’s Maze at Warner Farm

23 South Main St., Sunderland, MA

mikesmaze.com

Visitors to Mike’s Maze, now celebrating its 25th year as one of the country’s most recognized corn mazes, will encounter activities, games, and amusements to entertain the entire family. Every year, the farm concocts a new maze, along with themed games that will challenge guests to solve puzzles and problems and guide their exploration through the corn. Outside the maze, the attractions include a horse-drawn wagon ride, potato cannons, pumpkin picking, and lunch at the Corn Café. Young kids will enjoy a playground featuring a giant double drain-tube slide, a jump pad, a tractor tire jungle gym, and giant games. Older kids and adults can race around the track in pedal carts at Dave’s Derby. And folks love to check out the view of the maze from the perspective of a giant walk-in camera obscura. General admission ranges from $10 to $14 and is free for kids 4 and under. The site is open through Nov. 2, Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays, Sundays, and Columbus Day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home

2 Plunkett St., Lenox, MA

edithwharton.org

The Mount is a turn-of-the-century home, designed and built by Edith Wharton in 1902. Today, this historic landmark is a cultural center with a robust year-round calendar of events. On the Ghost Tour of the Mount (selected Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in October; see edithwharton.org/visit/ghost-tours for a full schedule and reservations), guides lead guests through the darkened halls of the Mount, sharing tales of the many eerie encounters that have been reported there for years. Ghost Tours last approximately two hours and include a half-mile walk — rain or shine — between buildings on the Mount’s campus. This tour contains adult content that is not appropriate for young audiences, and children under 12 will not be admitted. Fortunately, families may also choose a Ghost Tour for Kids on Oct. 3, 24, or 30.

 

One of the performers lurking in a scare zone at Six Flags New England.

Six Flags New England

1623 Main St., Agawam, MA

sixflags.com/newengland

On weekends and select days through Nov. 9, the annual Fright Fest promises plenty of thrills and scares on weekends and select days through Nov. 2. Fright Fest features more than 20 attractions, including five haunted mazes: Nightmares, Terror Tales, Slasher Circus 3D, Midnight Mansion, and Camp Killamore. Guests will also encounter seven immersive scare zones located throughout the park, where creatures lurk in the fog and sinister performers emerge from the shadows. Each zone delivers its own brand of fear, from a toxic wasteland to a city overrun by demons, and even a carnival of sinister clowns. Live shows include Midnight Uprising, The Awakening, Mort’s Used Coffins, and Love at First Fright. Park admission is $39, and entry into the five haunted mazes is an additional $24.

 

Sonny’s Place

349 Main St., Somers, CT

sonnysplace.com

Halloween at Sonny’s takes place throughout October. In addition to more than a dozen year-round attractions, Sonny’s offers a pair of seasonal highlights. Haunted Mini Golf costs $18 per person and features terrifying themes and live scare actors roaming the course from sundown to 10 p.m. every Friday and Saturday through Nov. 1. In addition, the Trick-or-Treat Trail is a chance for kids to trick-or-treat at Sonny’s. Kids can purchase a bag and punch card ($6) and visit highlighted attractions to collect a prize or candy at each one. The trail is open Friday through Sunday during operating hours.

 

An illustration used in the “Witch Panic!” exhibit at the Springfield Museums.

Springfield Museums

21 Edwards St., Springfield, MA

springfieldmuseums.org

Through Nov. 2, the Wood Museum of Springfield History is showcasing an exhibit called “Witch Panic! Massachusetts Before Salem.” Forty years before the infamous trials in Salem, fear gripped the small settlement of Springfield. Neighbors whispered about Mary and Hugh Parsons as rumors simmered for years, exploding into hysteria that eventually consumed the town. “Witch Panic!” dives into the daily lives of the couple, examining the circumstances that led to their 1651 accusation and arrest for witchcraft. Guests can learn about the folklore surrounding witches, like their association with broomsticks, black cats, and cauldrons; design their own ghoulish familiar, a small creature believed to help witches; and review the evidence of the Parsons’ witchcraft as a member of the jury and determine their innocence or guilt. Admission to all five Springfield Museums ranges from $13 to $25, with children under 3 free.

 

Wistariahurst Museum

238 Cabot St., Holyoke, MA

wistariahurst.org

The 19th-century mansion and gardens at Wistariahurst comprise a cultural center that engages with the community and hosts exhibitions, performances, and private events throughout the year. October offers two seasonally appropriate events. Cemetery Tours at Forestdale Cemetery will take place on Oct. 11. Guests will discover all there is to know about living and dying in Holyoke from narratives of the people who now find solace in these hallowed grounds. Four tours kick off between 3 and 4 p.m., and the cost is $15. Then, on Oct. 15, the Darkened Hallways Tour (5:30 p.m., also $15) is a chance to get to know Wistariahurst Museum after dark as guests are led through its halls by candlelight.

Area Contractors Report Steady Pipeline of Projects

By
A finished project from Sexton Roofing & Siding.
Construction Special Coverage

Looking Up

A finished project from Sexton Roofing & Siding.

A finished project from Sexton Roofing & Siding.

 

The construction industry remains one marked by both challenge and opportunity — and that goes for businesses that have been around for just a few years, or many decades.

In the former group is Sasha Wilde, who bought Sexton Roofing & Siding two years ago and has continued to grow the Hatfield-based business with a mix of residential roofing projects — the company’s bread and butter — and other services, including siding, windows, and exterior doors.

“We’re still doing all of that, making sure we can provide clients with a seamless experience. There’s a huge amount of opportunity,” she told BusinessWest.

“Last year was pretty down across the industry,” Wilde noted. “There was a hangover from COVID. So many people had accelerated home improvement projects during COVID, and last year, it seemed like everyone took a breath. And with the political climate uncertain, they didn’t want to spend as much money. This year, we’ve definitely seen people’s willingness to pull the trigger on projects. That’s been really helpful for us.”

“So many people had accelerated home improvement projects during COVID, and last year, it seemed like everyone took a breath. And with the political climate uncertain, they didn’t want to spend as much money. This year, we’ve definitely seen people’s willingness to pull the trigger on projects.”

In the more venerable category is Mowry & Schmidt in Greenfield, which has been in business for the past 78 years and is also extremely busy.

“I don’t see anything slowing down in the near future, which is a good thing,” co-owner Bob Provost said. “We’re usually trying to finish up some of the big spring, summer, and fall projects before the winter, but we’re just rolling right through. I don’t see a slowdown.”

The firm takes on a robust mix of new construction and renovation work, typically about 60% to 70% on the commercial side, with the rest residential, he explained, a diversity that buffers the company against industry trends.

Mowry & Schmidt is building a new ice hockey arena at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

“The last couple years, we’ve seen a steady flow of new home construction and higher-end kitchens and bath renovations, but the commercial volume is still a little higher. If the economy seems to affect one type of building and not the other, we’ve been able to adapt and make that transformation back and forth. It’s definitely key to staying busy, no doubt.”

Two of Mowry & Schmidt’s more interesting current projects are the construction of an ice hockey arena at Northfield Mount Hermon School and the renovation of the historic Leavitt-Hovey House — the former home of Greenfield Public Library — into a location for Greenfield Savings Bank.

“That’s a historical building, so there are a lot of facets there,” Provost said. “You get ready to go in a direction, then hold up, wait a little bit to get clarifications from the historical society, wait for approval, continue on. But it’s going well. It’s a nice property to work on.”

Clearly, despite challenges ranging from supply costs to workforce needs, contractors in Western Mass. are finding plenty of opportunities to grow their business.

 

Growth Opportunities

One of those is Keiter, a 17-year-old firm based in West Springfield that recently announced it is expanding into Berkshire County with a physical presence in that region, specifically the Clock Tower Business Center at 75 Church St. in Pittsfield. This marks the company’s second expansion in two years.

The move made sense, CEO Scott Keiter said, with past clients in the Berkshires including Mass Audubon Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, Bousquet Sport, Premium Waters, Berkshire Medical Center, the town of Lenox, Saint Patrick and Raphael Church, as well as several residential clients. 

“Since we started doing a more regimented and strategic interview process, we’ve been able to find better people. We’ve weeded out the folks that look good on paper but are maybe not so aligned with the way we think.”

“For several years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with incredible clients and professionals throughout the Berkshires, and it felt like the right time to officially set roots,” he noted. “We’re proud to continue to grow in a region where we’ve already begun to build strong partnerships.”

Wilde said trying to grow her company is complicated by a tight potential worker pool, a persistent problem across the construction field.

“The home improvement business has been great, but not without its challenges, since we are trying to grow and scale this business. Scaling sometimes comes with its own set of challenges, one of them being just finding great people to add to the team,” she said, adding that she’s dealt with some “hiccups” in that area, but still saw her staff expand to nine this year, in addition to the subcontracting teams.

“I tried hard to get referrals from people we know, and we listed on the major sites like ZipRecruiter and Indeed. But it really comes down to the interview process,” Wilde told BusinessWest, adding that the way she handles that process has changed in positive ways.

Sasha Wilde (right) has grown her team to nine at Sexton Roofing & Siding — and wants to grow it further.

“The first interview anyone does with the team, I wind up talking about our company’s mission and core values, and whether they’re a cultural fit with us,” she explained. “Since we started doing a more regimented and strategic interview process, we’ve been able to find better people. We’ve weeded out the folks that look good on paper but are maybe not so aligned with the way we think.”

And finding talent that will stick is important in an industry where retirements continue to outpace young, incoming talent, she noted. “When I think about fellow business owners in construction, their people are approaching retirement age, and from what I can tell, there’s a shortage of actual people to do the work.”

Provost said Mowry & Schmidt typically employs between 13 and 15 people in the field and three or four more in the office.

“We’re pretty fortunate. We’ve got our employees that have been with us for quite some time. But it does create some challenges looking down the road. When we have to bring in new people, the new hires just aren’t there. I still have to rely on subcontractors, and you want them to be a good extension of what you’re offering in-house; you want to make sure that the subcontractors you bring in are equally good as our employees. There’s a definite shortage of construction trade workers out there.”

To that end, Provost has been involved with Franklin County Technical School to cultivate young talent and interest them in construction careers.

“We’ve brought in some work co-op kids. It’s a way to start them at a young age and keep them going. But it’s rough. Kids come out of school, and they’re not sure what they want to do.”

The other major challenges of the past few years, supply costs and availability, have settled down to an extent, Provost added, although tariffs have thrown in a new wrinkle.

“Supply of materials has gotten better,” he said. “Windows and doors and cabinets have caught up, but it can be challenging depending on certain materials.”

One new challenge is private equity firms moving into roofing, Wilde said.

“In prior years, they were focused on other trades, but they are now honing on roofing. We’ve had a couple of new competitors this year backed by private equity, and we’re trying to stay relevant and outmaneuver them in this market. But they have an unlimited marketing spend — I can’t spend that kind of money.”

One key is focusing on the local angle — not just being based in Western Mass. and doing projects here, but being involved in the community, she said.

“That’s how I think we’ll maintain our competitive edge over those companies. Western Mass. wants to take care of Western Mass. and support people who are here. We are your neighbors.”

 

Spreading the Word

Another key to growth is improving internal processes and communication with clients, so everything turns out the way the client expects with no surprises, Wilde noted.

“We’ve had a lot of learning around what documents to create to make sure that the jobs are communicated very clearly, to translate what’s in the homeowner’s head to what they’re building, and making sure that happens. We’ve done a lot of improving in this area.”

The team also tries to communicate with customers’ neighbors about work on their street, which is another chance to make connections; meanwhile, Sexton gives a discount on projects when the client keeps its yard sign up for four months — another way to raise the company’s visibility in an increasingly competitive market.

Provost said he takes pride in having a good base of repeat customers, which is essential to landing opportunities and responding to demand.

“We’re fortunate to be going strong here. We’re facing some uncertainties, but there’s a lot of work out there,” he said. “People are being more selective in the process of who’s going to do the work for them. Customers are more savvy these days, and they’re looking to make sure that the people that are working for them are qualified.”

Key Considerations for S Corporations in Year-end Payroll Reporting

By Contributor
Accounting and Tax Planning Special Coverage

Fringe Benefits

By Lauren Foley, MSA

As Dec. 31 approaches, an important consideration for employers is proper payroll reporting. W-2s must be sent to employees by Jan. 31, resulting in a very short window in which to ensure that final payroll is correct for tax reporting. In addition to compensation, employers must be sure that benefits are properly reported, including fringe benefits.

Fringe benefits are considered compensation and included in employee wages, unless they qualify for exclusion (i.e., are nontaxable and omitted from employee wages). However, if the recipient is a ‘2% shareholder’ (i.e., an owner and employee) of an S corporation, fringe benefits that otherwise qualify for exclusion are included in wages.

 

What Are Fringe Benefits?

A fringe benefit is a form of pay, including cash, amounts paid on behalf of an employee (e.g., health and life insurance, retirement and health accounts), or in-kind (e.g., property, meals, company cars), in addition to stated pay for the performance of services.

The Internal Revenue Code provides that fringe benefits are taxable, excluded, or partially taxable, depending on the type of benefit. If a fringe benefit is excluded or partially taxable, it must be ‘qualified,’ i.e. meet strict requirements to qualify for this preferential tax treatment. Even if excluded or partially taxable by employees, employers may deduct the cost of fringe benefits.

Lauren Foley

Lauren Foley

“The Internal Revenue Code provides that fringe benefits are taxable, excluded, or partially taxable, depending on the type of benefit. If a fringe benefit is excluded or partially taxable, it must be ‘qualified,’ i.e. meet strict requirements to qualify for this preferential tax treatment.”

 

What Are S Corporations?

Qualifying corporations that make S elections under the Internal Revenue Code are not separately taxed, as regular (C) corporations are. S corp status allows corporations to avoid double taxation by passing income, losses, and deductions to its shareholders, who report these items directly on their tax returns. Often, S corp shareholders are also employees.

Fringe Benefits and S Corp 2% Shareholder Employees

Due to the overlap between owner and employee status, special rules apply to S corp shareholder employee fringe benefit taxation and reporting. These rules apply to shareholders owning 2% or more of S corp stock (2% shareholders). Even if excludable by regular employees, 2% shareholder benefits are generally taxable and must be reported on the shareholder’s W-2. The following benefits are treated differently for 2% shareholders:

• Health insurance premiums are taxable and included on 2% shareholder employee W-2s. Regular employees’ W-2 wage does not include the employer paid portion of their health insurance.

• Retirement plan contributions are subject to self-employed contribution rules for 2% shareholder employees. These rules allow contribution of 25% of net earnings from self-employment. Retirement plan contributions for regular employees are non-taxable if they are within limits.

• Dependent care assistance from an employer is tax-free up to $5,000 for regular employees, while all dependent care benefits are taxable to 2% shareholder employees.

• Group term life insurance is entirely taxable to 2% shareholder employees, while life insurance is tax-free up to $50,000 coverage for employees.

• Health savings accounts are tax-free to regular employees but taxable to 2% shareholder employees.

• Unlike regular employees, 2% shareholder employees cannot participate in flexible spending accounts.

In addition, family members of 2% shareholders (e.g., spouse, children, parents) are also treated as 2% shareholders for fringe benefit purposes. That means any benefits they receive must follow the same tax and reporting rules as the ones given to the actual shareholder.

“Many S corporations are unaware of these rules and may face IRS adjustment if fringe benefits are not properly reported. If fringe benefits are omitted from W-2 reporting, the IRS may disallow related deductions, resulting in increased taxable income and potential penalties.”

Compliance and Planning

Many S corporations are unaware of these rules and may face IRS adjustment if fringe benefits are not properly reported. If fringe benefits are omitted from W-2 reporting, the IRS may disallow related deductions, resulting in increased taxable income and potential penalties.

If you are an S corp, planning to start an S corp, or a 2% shareholder employee, it’s important to review all the shareholders’ ownership percentages to determine the correct tax treatment of shareholder employee fringe benefits. The S corp should decide which benefits to offer and clearly communicate this information to its payroll provider, especially regarding shareholder benefits. Be sure to consult your CPA or refer to the IRS website for fringe benefit guidance.

 

Lauren Foley, is a senior associate at the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. This material is generic in nature. Before relying on the material in any important matter, users should note date of publication and carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness, and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.

Wilbraham Looks to Build on Recent Momentum

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Developers are planning to transform the former Lakeside Inn into a boutique hotel and restaurant.
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Developers are planning to transform the former Lakeside Inn into a boutique hotel and restaurant.

Developers are planning to transform the former Lakeside Inn into a boutique hotel and restaurant.

 

Christal Russo acknowledged that Wilbraham hasn’t historically enjoyed a reputation for being ‘open for business,’ as communities like to say.

And that’s understandable given its rural nature and status as one of the more desirable of Springfield’s bedroom communities.

But it has always welcomed businesses that enhance the quality of life there and meet the needs of its residents, said Russo, the recently named chair of the town’s resuscitated Economic Development Committee. And now, it is even more so, she noted, adding that the community has many strong selling points, ranging from a single tax rate to some developable parcels along busy Boston Road, to a recent vote to squelch a proposed meals tax.

And there’s two developments to either side of the town — new development on the site of the former Eastfield Mall and a planned rail station in nearby Palmer as part of planned east-west rail — that can be added to that list.

Meanwhile, the town has seen some real momentum when it comes to new business in recent years, from a Delaney’s restaurant and Domino’s Pizza to a new development in the center of town featuring a pizza restaurant, brewery, and several apartments, to the recent announcement by developers of plans to transform the former Lakeside Inn (which was home to several other restaurants in recent years and is now used as office space for a transportation company) into a boutique hotel that will include a high-end restaurant (more on this later).

“And we want to keep that momentum going,” said Russo, a project manager at MassMutual, adding that the Economic Development Committee, resurrected a few years ago, is committed to promoting the town’s assets and growing its business community.

“What we want to do as a committee is let the public know is that Wilbraham is open for business and we support our businesses,” she said, adding that the community is poised for additional growth. “We’re looking to better understand what we can do and what our businesses need so we can support them.”

Jim Rooney, chair of the town’s Planning Board, agreed, noting that the single tax rate and other measures taken recently — or not taken, in the case of the meals tax — should help efforts to sell the town to business owners.

“We have a few open storefronts and some land available for additional development. We’d love to be able to fill those spaces and bring some businesses here to develop some of our open parcels.”

As for redevelopment of the Eastfield Mall, a project called Springfield Crossing, a planned mix of retail, service businesses, and, eventually, housing, should create more traffic on Boston Road, which will not only benefit existing businesses there and elsewhere in town, but inspire more business owners and entrepreneurs to give Wilbraham a hard look, Rooney said.

“We would definitely think that, with the increased traffic, someone will be driving down and thinking, ‘this would be a great place for my business.’”

For this latest installment in its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Wilbraham and the many forms of momentum being seen in the community.

 

Delivering Results

Paul Robbins remembers driving past the site of Post Office Park on Boston Road while it was under construction a quarter-century or so ago. “I was thinking to myself, ‘who’s going to want to move in there?’”

Well … he did.

Indeed, not long after the facility opened, Robbins, a principal with the marketing firm Paul Robbins Associates, left his offices in downtown Springfield after 20 years there and relocated to the park. It was a move of convenience, he told BusinessWest, adding that he had moved his family to Wilbraham a few years earlier, and it just made sense to put his business there as well, especially since there was a new business park in town. (He recently relocated his business to the Brewer-Young mansion in Longmeadow.)

Getting back to his original commentary and skepticism about the park, it was grounded in the notion that Wilbraham was somewhat of a remote outpost, business-wise, hard to get to from Springfield — and many other parts of the 413.

And it still is.

But Wilbraham and, more specifically, the Boston Road corridor have become home to a growing number of businesses across several sectors, including hospitality, retail, and the broad realm of health and wellness, bringing people from several nearby communities into town.

A redeveloped Eastfield Mall is expected to boost existing businesses in Wilbraham and perhaps inspire more entrepreneurs to want to call it home.

Indeed, the park has made the community more of a destination, as it now hosts a post office (hence the name), the Scantic Valley YMCA, Monson Savings Bank corporate offices, a few medical offices, a hair salon, a shredding company, and other ventures. Looking at what’s happened, Robbins said the park has helped the community shed that ‘outpost’ label, and there have been many new developments along that stretch since.

And there’s land at the site for additional development, said Russo, adding that new businesses along that corridor, and the prospects for more, are one of the main forms of momentum in the community.

Perhaps the biggest are the announced plans for redeveloping the former Lakeside Inn. Built on Nine Mile Pond in the 1940s as an inn and restaurant, it was always a popular destination, drawing diners and guests from neighboring communities and well beyond.

Wilbraham at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1763
Population: 14,613
Area: 22.4 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $17.88
Commercial Tax Rate: $17.88
Median Household Income: $65,014
Median Family Income: $73,825
Type of government: Board of Selectmen, Open Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Baystate Wing Wilbraham Medical Center; Friendly Ice Cream Corp.; Big Y; Home Depot; Wilbraham & Monson Academy
*Latest information available

The hope is that the planned boutique hotel and restaurant — conceived by unrelated business owners Joe Sullivan and John Sullivan, owners of several ventures in the area, including Nathan Bill’s Bar & Restaurant and Boulevard Tavern and Grill in Springfield and East Village Tavern in East Longmeadow — will do the same.

“This is a really exciting development for the community,” Russo said. “It’s going to bring new life to a true landmark.”

Rooney agreed. “We’re extremely excited to see this come back as a restaurant — they’re looking to have lakeside dining — and a boutique hotel, small rooms to support activities like when parents come in for events at Wilbraham Monson Academy,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to this happening; it will be a great addition to the landscape.”

Plans call for a restaurant on the main floor, with eight guest rooms on the second floor and another six on the basement level. If all goes as planned, both components of the business should be completed by the fall of 2026.

 

You Can Get Here from There

Overall, Wilbraham, its officials, and its town meeting voters have taken several steps that are making the community more business-friendly, said Rooney, listing everything from that vote to reject a meals tax, which will provide a boost for the town’s growing roster of restaurants, to a measure allowing used car sales (something not allowed in town previously) as an accessory to an existing business.

The latter is a nod to changes in that business, Rooney noted, adding that most of the business involving the sale of used cars is done online, reducing the need for large lots full of cars.

“This measure will allow that kind of business to flourish in Wilbraham,” he noted, adding that it is indicative of efforts to facilitate business growth in the community.

And while such growth will largely be limited to the Boston Road corridor and the center of town, as it has been historically, there is room for more, said those we spoke with.

“We have a few open storefronts and some land available for additional development,” Russo explained. “We’d love to be able to fill those spaces and bring some businesses here to develop some of our open parcels.

There is already ample motivation for doing so, said Russo and Rooney, but those twin developments mentioned earlier — the reimagined Eastfield Mall, known as Springfield Crossing (just a few hundred yards from the Wilbraham line), and the planned rail stop in Palmer — might provide additional incentives.

Construction is well underway at Springfield Crossing, a 360,000-square-foot strip mall that will include Target, BJ’s, Hobby Lobby, PetSmart, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and other regional and national retailers. It expected to make that corner of Springfield a more popular destination, as it was decades ago when the mall was thriving, said Rooney, bringing traffic from all directions, including east, through Wilbraham.

As for the rail stop, it is expected to make the eastern portion of the 413 more accessible, and more attractive, to potential residents — and also to business owners looking to create ventures to support those residents.

These are just some of the reasons why Wilbraham is enjoying some momentum, and why leaders there believe it can generate more in the years to come.

BusinessTalk with Nate Costa, President, Springfield Thunderbirds

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 242: September 15, 2025

Joe Bednar talks to Nate Costa, President, Springfield Thunderbirds

The Springfield Thunderbirds enter their 10th season next month riding a series of highs — soaring attendance that has the team selling out the MassMutual Center on a regular basis and season ticket sales that have exceeded expectations, a robust program of community outreach, the opening of a new parking garage and event space outside the arena, and more. But team President Nate Costa says there’s always room to improve, both on the ice (not only wins and losses, but the fan experience) and off. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Nate talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about all that and more, including his own experience leading this franchise for the past decade, and the T-Birds’ cultural and economic importance to Springfield’s downtown and the entire region. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest.

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MassHire Merger Streamlines Services for Employers, Job Seekers

By
Executive Directors Sarah Wilson (left) and Maura Geary
Features Special Coverage

Making It Work

Executive Directors Sarah Wilson (left) and Maura Geary

Executive Directors Sarah Wilson (left) and Maura Geary

 

To explain why the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board merged their operations in July, Maura Geary first explained how the MassHire network is set up.

“There are 16 workforce areas in the state of Massachusetts, and every area has one workforce board and at least one career center,” she noted. “And the career center has two customer bases. One is job seekers; one is employers. We work with employers to find out what jobs they have, how we can help them find the talent they need, and we work with job seekers to find out what barriers they may have to employment in the jobs that exist in our region, and how can we help them overcome the barriers so that they’re prepared with the skills they need to enter the workforce.”

Meanwhile, the Workforce Board is more of a “30,000-foot view,” Sarah Wilson said. “We’re looking at regional trends, labor market information for the region. We’re convening employers. We’re bringing all this information to the Career Center, which does more on-the-ground work.”

Until July 1, Geary headed up the Career Center, while Wilson helmed the Workforce Board. But today, they’re co-executive directors of the first MassHire operation in the state to merge their operations into one, simply called MassHire Franklin Hampshire.

“Having the labor market information and understanding what trends are happening, we ask, ‘what are the challenges that exist in our region? Where are there opportunities? How can we bring in more resources to support the workforce that we have or the economy that we have?’” Geary told BusinessWest. “This merger really helps us align even more closely with the big picture of the region and the strategies that exist.”

When the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board announced the merger, they characterized it as a strategic unification and a significant milestone in the region’s efforts to deliver more coordinated, efficient, and impactful workforce development services across Franklin County, Hampshire County, and the North Quabbin region.

“They basically have paid internships at local businesses, where the grant pays for the wages of the participants. Employers get that labor, and they also have the opportunity to expose their businesses and their career pathways to the next generation of the workforce.”

The newly merged organization aims to streamline operations and enhance services for job seekers, employers, training providers, and community partners by combining the strategic oversight and policy leadership of the Workforce Board with the direct services and employer engagement expertise of the Career Center.

The merged organization will continue to operate offices in Greenfield and Northampton; its headquarters are still in the Greenfield Corporate Center, where the two halves formerly had separate space on the same hallway but now operate out of shared space.

“We were sort of set up for this in some ways because we were already co-located; the Workforce Board used to be just across the hall,” Wilson said. “And we shared resources — besides the space, we also shared HR and IT. And we’d been working hand in hand for many years.

“But this really solidifies it, and it brings together disparate teams and disparate strategies,” she went on. “I had my own thing on the Workforce Board, and Maura had her own thing in the Career Center. We would collaborate, but it wasn’t as structured as it is now. The communication between teams is now streamlined, so we can really streamline the work. This makes it much more efficient.”

The two MassHire Franklin Hampshire divisions were both located in separate offices at Greenfield Corporate Center, and now share space — and operations — as a single entity there.

The two MassHire Franklin Hampshire divisions were both located in separate offices at Greenfield Corporate Center, and now share space — and operations — as a single entity there.

Allison van der Velden, chair of the MassHire Franklin Hampshire board of directors, agreed.

“The merger is a natural next step in the evolution of our work,” she said when the merger was announced in June. “It strengthens our ability to deliver results and ensures that public workforce dollars are used efficiently, effectively, and equitably.”

 

Early Exposure

Another example of how the merger makes sense has to do with its young adult programs, Geary said.

“There’s separate funding for three different young adult programs, major funding that we oversee. Some of that funding was directed to the Workforce Board, and some of it was available to the Career Center. But now that we’re under one roof, we have completely merged all three of those programs into one unified program.

“When they existed between the Workforce Board and other providers and the Career Center, we were not maximizing those funds,” she went on. “So there’s a lot of opportunity to integrate programs on the ground, and we weren’t able to do that before because of the artificial silos that were in place.”

Mass Hire Franklin Hampshire’s state-funded YouthWorks programs are, in fact, among its most robust offerings; the organization receives about $530,000 in funding over both a summer cycle and a year-round cycle, and serves youth from ages 14 to 25.

“For the youngest participants, we’re going into the schools during the year and setting up after-school programs or different ways to engage them so they are learning about what career pathways are available. So the earliest contact is really about career awareness,” Geary explained. Meanwhile, the second tier serves 16- to 18-year-olds with paid work experiences.

“It’s the future of workforce development — it makes us more streamlined, more efficient. I think it’s better for the customer as well, whether that’s an employer or a job seeker.”

“They basically have paid internships at local businesses, where the grant pays for the wages of the participants. Employers get that labor, and they also have the opportunity to expose their businesses and their career pathways to the next generation of the workforce.”

Young people can also access a curriculum that delivers work readiness skills, financial literacy, and other competencies needed to enter the workforce.

“And with our oldest participants in YouthWorks, we actually are paying for them to enter into training programs and get their first job,” Geary went on, giving as one example a partnership with Greenfield Community College (GCC) to help young people earn clean energy HVAC certifications.

Meanwhile, from a Workforce Board perspective, MassHire convenes employers to learn about the different needs of the region, Wilson said. “But we can also think of training opportunities, grant opportunities, how we can bring funding into the region to help support some of those needs. It’s not just connecting to the workforce, but determining how we can go about that.”

One strategy is through on-the-job (OTJ) training and registered apprenticeships.

“Both of those get money to the employer, and they are also paid training opportunities. With OJTs, we can reimburse the employer up to 50%. And we’ve been doing that for manufacturing over the past year.

“We’re starting to get into registered apprenticeships, but there’s a tax credit that could be applied to that,” Wilson added. “It really helps with retention for the employer because they’re investing in that employee. There’s a structured training program and wage boosts that are built into that. There’s mentorship. So we see a lot of positives other than just the tax incentive.”

Much of MassHire Franklin Hampshire’s funding targets workforce training in its priority industries of education, healthcare, and manufacturing, Geary explained, while helping job and career seekers find a path that works for them.

“One of the models that we’re moving toward is recognizing that most people, when they’re looking for a job, can’t afford to go to training. It’s a paid training, and that’s amazing, but most people can’t take 12 or 16 or more weeks in a free training without having an income. So we’ve been promoting, with our employers, models where people are getting paid while they’re in the training. That’s something we’re excited about.”

 

Ready to Learn

Geary noted that, when MassHire surveys employers about what they’re looking for, they often say they can give people the technical training needed to do this job, but too often, prospective employees are coming in without professional skills or soft skills — what she and her team more commonly call ‘work readiness skills.’

“So we have a workshop team here developing content that is specific to different trainings. We’ll go into a training program and deliver the work readiness workshops and make sure that we’re preparing people across multiple industries to just be ready to be good employees.”

Speaking of training, MassHire Franklin Hampshire also has a strong relationship with GCC.

“We’re really lucky that GCC is a community college that is really interested in being innovative and responsive to the employers in our region,” Geary said, adding that the college has expanded and invested in its workforce training programs on campus over the past few years.

“If you look at their website, you’ll see they have really comprehensive career pathway programs that match our priority industries and engage employers and students. So we partner with them all the time. When they have a new grant-funded training program, we help them recruit students. We help provide the work readiness.”

MassHire is also expanding its business services team that works directly with employers, she added. “We want to make sure that, when GCC has any training program ending, we have employers who are in that industry lined up to receive them. So we’re doing more events early on, helping people prepare for the employers that are going to come to a job fair that are specific to that training cohort.”

Besides key sectors like education, healthcare, and manufacturing, MassHire Franklin Hampshire also keys in on industries that are particularly relevant to its region, including clean energy, outdoor recreation, and agriculture.

“We are seeing, nationwide, a decrease in the agricultural industry. But in Massachusetts, we’re seeing a slight increase. And Franklin Hampshire holds about 20% of the state’s agricultural industry right here,” Geary said. “So we’re really looking at what we can be doing with small and mid-sized farms. It’s a lot of small businesses, so we want to have an industry sector partnership where we do some of the legwork and say, ‘what do you need? Let us help you design some strategies that will meet your workforce needs.’

In the realm of clean industry, she noted that GCC has partnered with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which funds clean energy grants and workforce training, among other things.

“They’re really developing a comprehensive career pathway and training program, and we’re working on engaging young adults, but also the adult population, to get trained in that industry as we’re seeing more and more employers start to pop up in our region.”

It’s a region that has unique challenges in that it has the largest geography of any of the 16 workforce areas, but with relatively few residents.

“We’re serving 50 cities and towns in Franklin, Hampshire, and the North Quabbin, and a lot of it is rural. So we have fewer funds than other workforce areas that have larger populations. And some of the challenges of the rural communities that impact the workforce are the same challenges as everywhere else, like transportation and childcare, but they have a little different flavor up here,” Geary explained.

“So those are really difficult barriers to overcome when we have people trying to get to jobs over this 1,400-square-mile region, and there’s not really any transportation infrastructure to speak of.”

 

One-stop Shop

The majority of MassHire’s funding comes through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which brings up another current challenge: the general uncertainty organizations of all kinds are feeling about federal funding.

“That’s very much up in the air. We don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Wilson said. “So coming together gives us a little more stability to be able to weather that. But it’s also setting us up for the future, no matter what. It’s the future of workforce development — it makes us more streamlined, more efficient. I think it’s better for the customer as well, whether that’s an employer or a job seeker.”

Geary said that speaks to something she hears all the time from clients on both sides.

“Once they’re engaged with our services, they all inevitably say, ‘oh my gosh, I had no idea I could get so much help by working with you. I didn’t know you existed.’ We hear that all the time, so streamlining our messaging helps with that, too. We don’t have to get into that confusing conversation — ‘you’re going to work with them over here for that, and then you’re going to come to us for this over here.’”

Instead, she said, “we can eliminate that point of confusion and just say, ‘come to MassHire Franklin Hampshire, and we’re going to help you solve your workforce needs.’”

Navigating the Insurance Landscape

By Contributor
Insurance Special Coverage

Industry Sees Stabilizing Markets, but Ongoing Challenges

By John Dowd

Over the past several years, the insurance industry has faced tremendous pressure. Inflation, supply chain issues, and natural disasters have all contributed to higher reinsurance costs for carriers, which in turn led to higher premiums for individuals and businesses alike. Many policyholders have experienced year after year of increases, often without fully understanding why.

As we move through the second half of 2025, there are signs of relief. While certain industries continue to experience higher-than-average costs, in most sectors, hard market conditions are beginning to subside. Insurance companies are now pricing new business more aggressively, which creates opportunities for savings, if insureds know how and where to look.

That said, not every line of coverage is easing. Homeowners insurance remains volatile, and social inflation is reshaping how individuals and businesses must think about liability protection. Understanding these trends is key to navigating today’s insurance environment.

 

The Market Is Softening

The good news for most policyholders is that many insurance markets are stabilizing. For several years, the combination of high inflation, costly rebuilding expenses, and catastrophic weather events forced insurers to raise rates significantly. Now, as conditions improve, competition among carriers is returning.

“In many sectors, premiums are finally easing, creating opportunities for insureds to save money. Yet challenges persist, especially for homeowners in high-risk regions and for those facing the ripple effects of social inflation.”

This shift has led to more aggressive pricing for new business. For consumers and business owners, it means there are real opportunities to lower premiums, especially if you are proactive about comparing options rather than automatically renewing your current policy.

 

Homeowners Insurance Remains a Concern

The one major exception to this trend is homeowners insurance. Rates continue to climb, particularly in areas vulnerable to severe weather or wildfire. Some insurers have even chosen to stop writing new policies in high-risk regions altogether.

Several factors keep homeowners insurance challenging:

• Natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, and convective storms are both more frequent and more severe, leading to higher claims costs.

• Construction costs remain elevated, with materials and skilled labor continuing to drive up the price of rebuilding.

• Catastrophic events, like the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year, are tempering what might otherwise be a broader reduction in property premiums.

For homeowners in higher-risk areas, this reality underscores the importance of shopping carefully, exploring mitigation measures like home hardening or installing smart sensors, and considering higher deductibles to balance affordability with adequate protection.

 

The Rising Impact of Social Inflation

While inflation in materials and labor has eased somewhat, social inflation remains a growing challenge. This refers to the increasing cost of claims due to larger jury awards, more aggressive litigation, and the legal environment in Massachusetts that favors claimants against insurance companies.

One result is the rise of so-called nuclear verdicts, extremely large jury awards that far exceed traditional expectations. For insureds, this trend has important implications. The $1 million liability limit built into many standard policies is no longer as protective as it once was. Individuals and businesses should re-evaluate their underlying liability coverage and consider umbrella policies that extend protection beyond standard limits.

For business owners, management liability coverage has become increasingly important as well. Social inflation has heightened the potential exposure for directors, officers, and executives, making it critical to identify and eliminate potential coverage gaps.

 

How Consumers Can Save

Despite ongoing volatility in certain sectors, there are practical steps consumers can take to find better rates and strengthen their protection:

• Compare quotes. Carriers are pricing aggressively for new business, so shopping around, especially at renewal time, can uncover meaningful savings.

• Bundle policies. Combining auto and home coverage under one insurer often unlocks significant discounts.

• Adjust deductibles. A higher deductible reduces your premium, but only if you can comfortably manage the increased out-of-pocket cost in the event of a claim.

• Leverage technology. Usage-based auto insurance programs reward safe driving, while smart home devices, such as water leak sensors or fire detectors, can qualify homeowners for discounts.

 

A Balancing Act

The insurance market is cyclical, and after several difficult years, signs of stabilization are emerging. In many sectors, premiums are finally easing, creating opportunities for insureds to save money. Yet challenges persist, especially for homeowners in high-risk regions and for those facing the ripple effects of social inflation.

The best path forward is a proactive one: review your coverage carefully, shop the market, consider higher limits where liability risks are growing, and embrace risk management practices and technology that can both reduce claims and make you more attractive to insurers.

By taking these steps, both individuals and businesses can strike a healthier balance between protection and affordability in 2025 and beyond.

 

John Dowd is president and CEO of the Dowd Insurance Agencies.

 

Springfield Celebrates New Parking Garage, Activity Space Downtown

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The new garage replaces a half-century-old structure that was torn down in 2022.
Commercial Real Estate Special Coverage

On a Roll

The new garage replaces a half-century-old structure that was torn down in 2022.

The new garage replaces a half-century-old structure that was torn down in 2022.

 

As dignitaries gathered for a celebration of the recently opened Convention Center Carpark in downtown Springfield — and a ribbon cutting for the Landing, a neighboring plaza that will host gatherings, activities, and performances directly across Bruce Landon Way from the MassMutual Center — Nate Costa took it all in and considered what it means to the Springfield Thunderbirds.

“I think the Landing is going to be an extension of the arena. That’s the idea behind it,” the hockey team’s president told BusinessWest. “We’re hoping this is going to add that Yawkey Way type element to what we do here.

“It’s not going to be a drive-through street anymore,” Costa went on. “We’re just hoping this is a place that people come and congregate before games. I think we’ll be doing some food trucks and some other activations and live music — really trying to have it be an extension of what we do in our building, night after night. We want to find ways to program this space and drive people to our games and around our games.”

Those who spoke at the ceremony also drew parallels to Yawkey Way in Boston, which is packed with activity before Red Sox games, with fans eating, shopping, and having fun.

“I can see this place just lit up in a good way, with so many activities and parties,” Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said. “And what they’re going to do is much of the stuff you’ve seen done at Fenway Park. They’re going to gear it to whatever events are going on here, so people can come out, pre- and postgame, and go to other establishments in downtown Springfield.”

Dignitaries gather to cut the ribbon for the Landing, which is nestled between the MassMutual Center and the Convention Center Carpark.

The Landing opens at a time of momentum for the MassMutual Center itself, said Sean Dolan, the facility’s general manager.

“We just concluded fiscal year 2025 with the highest revenue growth in the convention center that the building’s ever had. And we’re going into fiscal year 2026 with the highest amount of revenue on the books that the building’s ever had,” he told the assembled crowd, touting events like WWE Monday Night Raw, which descended on the arena on Sept. 15, and, of course, the Thunderbirds, who averaged 6,369 fans last season, in a bowl that seats only 6,700. Fridays and Saturdays are typically sellouts.

“The MassMutual Center is a cornerstone of Springfield’s economy — a place that drives opportunity, brings people together, and supports the growth of this entire region.”

The Landing, then, “allows us to not only program and feed off of the 220 events we do in a year, but allows us to book stand-alone events out here that serve the community, that make this a space to gather and build that pride in Springfield,” Dolan said. “Everybody that had something to do with this here, thank you so much for believing in Springfield. Thank you for making it look like it looks.”

 

A New Era Downtown

The former Civic Center Garage at Harrison and Dwight streets, built in 1971, had fallen into disrepair by the early 2020s; sections of more than one level had closed due to safety issues before the garage was closed and demolished in 2022. The new Convention Center Carpark opened to the public this past April, and construction was completed later in the spring.

The 350,000-square-foot structure includes more than 800 parking spaces, as well as electric vehicle charging stations. Unlike the former garage, which opened only onto Harrison, it features entrances onto both streets.

That development was a big deal for the Thunderbirds franchise, which had to endure multiple seasons with no garage on site.

From left, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno credits the contributions of MCCA CEO Marcel Vernon Sr. and MassMutual Center General Manager Sean Dolan.

“It’s been a long time coming for us,” Costa told BusinessWest. “It’s been tough sledding for us getting through that, so it’s fantastic to have it open.”

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) hosted the Aug. 27 gathering both as an official celebration of the garage and a grand opening of the Landing, an event featuring live music, food, games, and several speakers.

“The MassMutual Center is a cornerstone of Springfield’s economy — a place that drives opportunity, brings people together, and supports the growth of this entire region,” said Marcel Vernon Sr., CEO of the MCCA. “We are proud to be part of this community. The carpark and the Landing represent more than just two new facilities. They symbolize three important things: more jobs, more economic opportunity, and more vibrant, thriving downtown business activity. We are proud of these investments, but we are even more proud of the partnerships that have made them possible.”

Xiomara Albán DeLobato, an MCCA board member and vice president and chief of staff at the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, expressed pride, as a lifelong Springfield resident, in signs of downtown progress like this development.

“The reason why this is so exciting for us is because of the amount of impact this type of development has for our region. We have direct spending in our restaurants, our hotels, our shops, our museums. They receive direct impact when visitors come to the area, when tourists come to the area, and it’s instrumental for the progression of our economy.

“When you bring thousands of people down here, they’re feeling good, vibrant, they’re having a good time, right? That means they spend money — money in your businesses, folks. And then they leave the city saying, ‘gee, you know what? I had a pretty good time.’ You can’t put a price tag on that.”

“The other piece that sometimes we don’t think about is that ripple effect that happens when we have billions of dollars that funnel into our area, into our region. It impacts our workforce, it impacts our supply chain, it impacts our transportation companies, and all of the other stakeholders that are critical to the entire ecosystem of our economy here in the region. And when that ripple effect continues to move, it impacts our schools, it impacts our parks, it impacts our neighborhoods. The hospitality and tourism industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the Commonwealth, and we see and feel it in Western Mass. So I’m thrilled about this.”

Sarno added that “this is important to the the business community in the city of Springfield to have this first-class parking. And here’s the other thing — when you bring people to downtown Springfield, which is a neighborhood, when you bring thousands of people down here, they’re feeling good, vibrant, they’re having a good time, right? That means they spend money — money in your businesses, folks. And then they leave the city saying, ‘gee, you know what? I had a pretty good time.’ You can’t put a price tag on that.”

 

Working Together

Sarno noted that the $80 million project — including the garage, the Landing, and other improvements — is a smart investment of state and local funds.

“There have been a number of naysayers, within the city of Springfield and in Massachusetts, who say, ‘what do you expect from Springfield?’ And I’ve always said, ‘why not Springfield?’ And this is another project under my administration team, working with the state, that they say would never get done. But it’s gotten done.”

State Rep. Carlos González agreed, touting the project as forward momentum for the city. “We have so much to celebrate, and yes, we have some issues that we have to resolve, and we’re doing that on a daily basis, but with the bright stars like MGM and so many others, the hospitality industry, we’re going to continue to succeed here in the city of Springfield.”

Albán DeLobato emphasized the importance of the city and state working in tandem.

“This type of development — and this is just the first of many that we’re going to see — is successful because of this local and state partnership. We cannot make this happen without the stakeholders at the table together, being thoughtful with their decision making, being able to forecast how this is going to impact our economy at the present and in the future.”

Hadley Faces Challenges, Decisions

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Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Paragus Strategic IT has become a regional success story from its Route 9 headquarters in Hadley.

Leaders and business owners in Hadley know the value of Route 9, which accounts for the vast majority of non-farm commerce in this community otherwise dominated by agriculture. Roughly 100,000 cars traverse Russell Street every day, but they’ve been slowed — and business owners have been frustrated — by a massive project to widen and reconstruct about 2.5 miles of the thoroughfare.

But relief in in sight, as the project is expected to wind down by next spring, and most agree the end result will be worth the trouble.

At the same time, Hadley residents are also being asked to make tough decisions about the town’s budget and its impact on their property tax bills.

Specifically, they’re being asked to consider a Proposition 2½ override. Proposition 2½ is a 1980 Massachusetts law that limits the amount of property tax revenue a municipality can raise. Each year, a community’s levy limit can increase by 2.5% of the previous year’s limit in addition to added value from new construction, renovations, and other property improvements.

To raise taxes above this limit, a community must seek voter approval through an override. By passing an override, the town can raise taxes beyond the automatic 2.5% annual increase and new growth allowed under Proposition 2½. This results in a permanent increase to the levy limit, meaning the approved amount becomes part of the tax base in all future years.

Ed Augustus

Ed Augustus

“This funding round is about more than bricks and mortar, it’s about people.”

As BusinessWest went to press on this issue, a Sept. 9 town meeting loomed in Hadley to determine whether two measures make it to a Sept. 29 special election: a $2.25 million general override to cover various operating expenses for town and school departments, and a $300,000 capital stabilization override to pay for various assets and infrastructure.

The larger measure stems from several budget needs in town, including $579,435 for an around-the-clock fire department; $824,404 for increased operational expenses, including town and school budgets and a mid-year health insurance increase; and $846,785 to cover free cash that was used to balance the budget approved by a town meeting in May.

Should both measures pass, the town’s property tax rate would increase from $11.63 to $13.57 per $1,000 valuation. That would mean a $679 difference in the annual tax bill for a house assessed at $350,000, $873 for a $450,000 home, and $1,067 for a $550,000 home.

Then there’s the search — currently paused — for a new town administrator. Carolyn Brennan stepped down from the role in December after more than four years in the chair, and Police Chief Michael Mason has been serving in that role on an interim basis. In June, the Hadley Select Board postponed the search for a permanent replacement after members decided not to offer the job to either of the two finalists — Nate Malloy, an Amherst senior planner, and Nick Caccamo, Williamsburg’s town administrator — who conducted in-depth interviews.

“There’s work that needs to be done on the Russell School. However, it is a strong building, one that is ripe for redevelopment, and one that we think should have a future in this town, from our perspective.”

Select Board members cited the Proposition 2½ matters and the looming town meeting as circumstances making it difficult to focus on hiring a permanent town administrator, and determined to resume the effort soon. In all, the search committee reviewed 16 applications and interviewed five semifinalists before narrowing the list to two and, ultimately, turning both down.

 

No Place Like Home

Affordable housing remains an issue in Hadley, as it does in most communities in Western Mass., and while it’s far from a broad solution, one state-funded project aims to make a dent.

On July 31, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced $182 million in low-income housing tax credits and subsidies to 21 rental housing developments that will create or preserve 1,245 homes across Massachusetts.

Paul Kozub

Paul Kozub

“This anniversary is not just a celebration of V-One’s growth, but also of the passion and vision that have driven us since day one.”

One of those projects will be the EconoLodge redevelopment in Hadley, the adaptive reuse of a closed hotel as permanent supportive housing. The nonprofit sponsor is Valley Community Development Corp. The completed project will include 50 units for individuals or small households earning less than 60% of area median income (AMI), with 31 units further reserved for individuals or small households earning less than 30% of AMI. The completed project will primarily serve homeless individuals.

These awards were made possible in part through the Affordable Homes Act and by Gov. Maura Healey’s tax cuts package, which raised the low-income housing tax credit to $60 million annually, a $20 million increase that allows the state to support more affordable housing production.

“Our administration is working on all fronts to build more reasonably priced housing and lower costs for everyone,” Healey said. “These awards are creating thousands of apartments that people can actually afford. This is helping seniors age independently and close to their families and helping workers afford to live in the communities where their jobs are.”

Other Western Mass. projects receiving funding from the program include Ferry Street, a new construction project in Easthampton, which will offer 96 units on a site including former mill buildings; South Holyoke Homes Phase 3, a new construction family housing project in the Paper City that will offer 40 total units; and Eagle Mill Phase II, a new construction project adjacent to Eagle Mill Phase I, a mill conversion project now underway in Lee; Phase II will offer 44 units.

“This funding round is about more than bricks and mortar, it’s about people,” Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said. “Whether it’s a formerly homeless individual in Boston, a senior in Topsfield, or a working family in Easthampton, the homes we’re supporting will change lives.”

In Hadley, housing is one option being considered for the iconic, 131-year-old Russell School, which has been vacant since 2015. A reuse study has identified several alternatives, including keeping the property as a municipal building and renovating it and creating a public-private partnership.

Pulse Café, a popular vegan restaurant, is among the many eateries located along Route 9 in Hadley.

This past spring, Architectural Heritage Foundation (AHF) Boston, working with Allegrone Companies of Lenox, completed a report on the 1894 building at 131 Russell St. That feasibility study determined that the structure can be rehabilitated into micro apartments, office space, or classrooms and art studios for less than $10 million. The study and resulting 24-page report were funded by the town and the Community Preservation Act.

“There’s work that needs to be done on the Russell School. However, it is a strong building, one that is ripe for redevelopment, and one that we think should have a future in this town, from our perspective,” said Jake Sanders, project executive for the nonprofit AHF Boston.

Hadley at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1661
Population: 5,325
Area: 24.6 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential Tax Rate: $11.63
Commercial Tax Rate: $11.63
Median Household Income: $51,851
Median Family Income: $61,897
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting, Board of Selectmen
Largest Employers: Super Stop & Shop; Evaluation Systems Group Pearson; Elaine Center at Hadley; Home Depot; Lowe’s Home Improvement
* Latest information available

“In our research, we have found the Russell School is an ideal candidate for housing or a community use,” he added, noting that options range from active use to repairs to demolition. “We have a path forward for the town.”

 

Something to Celebrate

Meanwhile, business owners along Russell Street continue to anticipate the finish line of the road project — and they are myriad, from law firms, restaurants, and car dealerships to big box stores at Hampshire Mall and Mountain Farms, to well-established local success stories like Paragus Strategic IT and V-One Vodka, which, in fact, just marked 20 years since opening its doors in Hadley.

“This anniversary is not just a celebration of V-One’s growth, but also of the passion and vision that have driven us since day one,” owner Paul Kozub said.

And while Hadley has plenty on its plate, grappling with budgetary realities, leadership discussions, housing, and more, it’s also a town on the move — and hoping to move a little more quickly down Route 9 next spring.

BusinessTalk with Gene Cassidy, President and CEO, Eastern States Exposition

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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 241: September 1, 2025

BusinessWest contributing writer George O’Brien talks to Gene Cassidy, President and CEO, Eastern States Exposition

Gene Cassidy understands that the Big E generates traffic jams outside the fairgrounds — and sometimes traffic jams inside the grounds as patrons flock to new attractions and food vendors. What he can’t understand is why some can’t look past those ‘good problems to have’ and see the annual fair as a true economic engine for the region, bringing money into the 413 and helping several sectors of the economy directly. This is one of many points he made in a wide-ranging discussion with BusinessWest contributing writer George O’Brien on the next episode of BusinessTalk. He also talks about the weather (as it pertains to the fair’s bottom line), the prospects for the 2025 edition, and what’s new — and old — for the show this year. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest.

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The Craft Beer Industry Is Definitely Flat

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Ray Berry (left) and Mike Yates at White Lion Brewing in downtown Springfield.
Features Special Coverage

Tapped Out?

Ray Berry (left) and Mike Yates at White Lion Brewing in downtown Springfield.

Ray Berry (left) and Mike Yates at White Lion Brewing in downtown Springfield.

Mike Yates says it’s a matter of simple math.

“People aren’t drinking as much, and when they do drink, they have a lot more options,” said Yates, brewmaster and business partner with Ray Berry in Springfield-based White Lion Brewing, adding that this math presents a challenge for area craft brewers, and it has for a while now.

Berry agreed, noting that, while they didn’t do it single-handedly, it was the Millennials that provided the foundation for the craft beer industry to build and boom. And now, those in that generation, the oldest of which are in their mid-40s, have more and different responsibilities and are thus spending less time at brew pubs and buying fewer cans and growlers.

“Ten, 15 years ago, it was the Millennials that propped up the craft beer trade and provided the enthusiasm,” Berry explained. “As those 10 to 15 years have gone by, the Millennials’ palates have changed, they have different work-life challenges, they may have children and the children are getting older … there are different priorities.

“So they’re not visiting the breweries as often as they used to,” he went on. “And the generation that stands behind them, the Gen Zs, are not as inclined to visit craft breweries as the Millennials were, nor are they as loyal.”

Meanwhile, as noted by Yates, there are more options for Millennials and everyone else — a still-dizzying number of craft beers, domestics, distilled spirits, hard seltzers, cannabis, and more. On top of all this, there are other pain points that range from inflation to workforce issues (including cost and availability) to post-COVID realities, such as fewer workers in their offices to support brew pubs in business districts — like White Lion.

“Ten, 15 years ago, it was the Millennials that propped up the craft beer trade and provided the enthusiasm. As those 10 to 15 years have gone by, the Millennials’ palates have changed, they have different work-life challenges, they may have children and the children are getting older … there are different priorities.”

All this prompted Brewers Assoc. President Bart Watson to sum up 2024 with the single word ‘painful,’ a nod to statistics showing a 2% decline in overall craft beer production and more breweries closing last year (399) than opening (335) — a sharp reversal from just a few years ago.

All this adds up to more challenging times and the need to adjust and pivot.

Which explains paint-and-sip nights at Skyline Brewery in Westfield, where participants can get a painting lesson and a cold brew, or a glass of wine, on the side, said Lisa Lafreniere, co-owner with Dana Bishop. It also explains Skyline’s popular trivia nights, live music, full food menu, wine, ciders, slushies, homemade sodas, and back patio area, which comes complete with stunning views of the farm below.

“People have to have a bigger dynamic than craft beer — the people who are struggling now are places just relying on their beer and not much else,” said Lafreniere, who, like Bishop and everyone else in this business, has noticed not-so-subtle changes in the landscape and what people are calling a ‘maturation’ of the industry.

It’s been marked, as noted, by consolidation and closures of some operations and declining sales overall and that need to pivot and offer more than pilsners, sours, IPAs, and stouts.

Dana Bishop and Lisa Lafreniere, co-owners of Skyline Brewery, say today’s craft brewers have to offer customers much more than beer.

Dana Bishop and Lisa Lafreniere, co-owners of Skyline Brewery, say today’s craft brewers have to offer customers much more than beer.

At White Lion, for example, its Pridelands on Mane event destination in Tower Square Park, across the street from its brew pub, recently hosted a puppy pool party that attracted a few dozen four-legged participants and their owners. A few days later, it hosted a seafood festival and has plans for a wine-tasting event and also a town meeting of sorts featuring candidates for Springfield City Council.

Such programs are designed to fully activate the space (complete with custom-designed shipping containers), give area residents more opportunities to sample White Lion brews, and provide more of an experience than simply sampling the latest offering.

It’s not a recent phenomenon, to be sure, but it is becoming more critical with each passing year, if not each passing quarter.

“The days of going out of your way to visit a brewery for a pint or two and then maybe spinning off to another brewery for a pint or two … that still happens, but not to the extent that it did,” Berry said. “So now, you have to create an additional experience.”

 

Pint of View

Over the past 30 years or so, BusinessWest has chronicled the rise of the craft beer sector in this region, from its infancy to an impactful presence in communities across the 413.

The names of these businesses have become part of the landscape — Tree House, 7 Railroads, Hot Plate, Abandoned Building, Vanished Valley, Barrington Brewery, Skyline, White Lion, and many more.

These ventures are still thriving, but several breweries have closed in this region and across the state, including some big players, such as Cambridge Brewing.

Pioneer Valley Brewing in Turners Falls was a recent local casualty, closing its doors on May 31, for all the reasons listed above.

“Expenses have gone through the roof,” co-owner Steve Valeski told the Greenfield Recorder. “The last two years have been devastating. Prices went up, everything’s gone up. It’s the market, it’s the economy. People aren’t going out as much. Shipping’s more expensive. Cans are more expensive. Everything is more expensive. We just can’t keep charging more and more for a glass of beer. It gets to a certain point where you have to say no.”

Most area brewers are still saying yes, but success is not coming as easily as it did a few decades ago, or even five years ago.

“People have to have a bigger dynamic than craft beer — the people who are struggling now are places just relying on their beer and not much else.”

There are many reasons for this, said Bishop, noting those demographic changes mentioned earlier, but also rising costs of everything from barley and malt to labor. In response, Skyline has taken steps to bring many products in-house, such as soda, while also implanting strategies to manage the skyrocketing cost of yeast.

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle, majority owner of Brew Practitioners in East Longmeadow, summed it up succinctly and effectively: “there’s fewer butts in seats.”

Elaborating, she said her brewery, which does not serve food and focuses exclusively on beer and other beverages, tracks business performance in several ways, from overall visitation to new customers to spending, and the numbers tell a story.

“From last year to this, we’ve seen a decrease in the number of people coming in the door,” said Cannon-Eckerle, an employment lawyer by day and brewer … well, the rest of the time. “Spending per person has been about the same, but the number of people has changed.”

She wasn’t about to put it all on Millennials, although she has seen that maturation of the market in Western Mass. and beyond, and less overall enthusiasm for breweries and craft brews.

“This academic or intellectual pursuit of all things craft beer and it becoming cool to visit all the breweries … has that gone by the wayside? Maybe it’s not as popular with the younger drinkers,” she acknowledged, adding quickly that there is still a healthy thirst for beer, and it’s up to individual brewers to maintain a buzz for their products.

Lafreniere agreed, noting that, overall, there is less enthusiasm for craft beer, an observation that extends to everything from sales to the buzz once generated when a local brewer would roll out a new brand.

Two of the guests at White Lion’s recent puppy pool party.

Two of the guests at White Lion’s recent puppy pool party.

“People just don’t line up for a beer release — you don’t see that anymore,” she said. “They know it’s out, they know they’ll get down there; the hype, the excitement about the business is much lower.

“The bubble has burst — there’s far less buzz,” she went on. “We are friends with a lot of people who own local breweries, and we talk all the time about what is gone and the struggle to get people in the tap rooms. We’ve seen a lot of our friends that were wicked busy pre-COVID, and now, somewhat after COVID … it’s night and day.”

The challenges facing the industry were made clear at a Massachusetts Brewers Guild annual conference in Framingham 18 months ago, said Berry, where Watson, then the chief economist for the Brewers Assoc., painted a challenging picture for brewers.

“He was monitoring the trends nationwide, and the trends were either flat and going sideways or going down in particular areas of operation,” Berry told BusinessWest, returning to the notion of pivoting and providing more of an experience.

“It just cannot be a location where people come and get a beer,” he explained. “You can get a beer anywhere; you can get a beer in your backyard. What experience are you driving?”

 

Head Games

Berry said last month’s event was the second puppy pool party. The first was pre-COVID, and the second edition drew maybe 30 dogs (puppies and adults alike) and provided another opportunity to grow the brand.

“There’s 30 people that we had an opportunity to engage that we may not have been able to engage otherwise,” he noted, adding that the same is true of the seafood festival (the third annual) and the town meeting featuring City Council candidates.

“It’s about creating new experiences that people appreciate and that may keep them coming back or, at minimum, pay attention to what the city of Springfield has to offer,” he went on, adding this is what breweries must do now if they want to succeed.

Lafreniere and Bishop concurred.

“Getting people in now … it has to be a party,” said Bishop, adding that this explains Skyline’s many efforts to draw visitors, which also include a strong focus on food, initiated in 2024.

“For us, it’s a lot of food; we found that the beer drinkers are here, but we need to have the food be very exciting for them,” said Lafreniere, which is why they’ve gone from pretzels and flatbreads to a full menu that includes everything from chicken sandwiches, lobster rolls, and quesadillas to pulled pork from their own smoker.

Beyond food, there needs to be other ingredients that add up to an experience, they said, adding that trivia nights are part of the equation, as are paint-and-sip nights that draw maybe 12 to 15 people.

“The days of going out of your way to visit a brewery for a pint or two and then maybe spinning off to another brewery for a pint or two … that still happens, but not to the extent that it did. So now, you have to create an additional experience.”

“It’s not going to save us, but it helps,” said Lafreniere, adding that the collective efforts to bring more people to the brewery are paying dividends.

Cannon-Eckerle, meanwhile, stressed that, while breweries are fun — many started as hobbies and evolved into businesses — they are, in fact, businesses. And like all businesses, owners must pivot and adjust, but also focus on building their brands and differentiating themselves from the others.

“As in any business, you have to keep your ear to the ground and watch for market trends and where consumer spending is moving,” she explained.

Operations like Brew Practitioners, which are strictly breweries and focus almost exclusively on beer, have fewer opportunities to diversify and adjust, but they still must do so, and her business has, adding mocktails and other non-alcoholic beverages to meet the demands of younger customers.

“We sell quite a few of them,” she said. “The costs on them are pretty high, but it’s a pivot that we had to do to meet market demand.

“It’s about how we engage the individuals to come see us,” Cannon-Eckerle went on. “Before, when it was super cool and everyone went to see every new brewery, and whenever you went to a new town, the first thing you wanted to was check out the breweries, it was a lot easier. The question now is, how do we adjust to all that? It’s just not enough to hang out your shingle and say you’re a brewery.

“Spending is in flux right now — we don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring,” she continued. “People are being choosy about where they spend their money on a $7, $8, or $9 beer, and it better be good.”

Berry agreed. “If you don’t make adjustments, if you try to stay in a singular lane,” he said, “you will not survive, especially in this trade.”

 

Even as Federal Incentives Dry Up, Contractors Tout Value of Solar Energy

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PV Squared workers install solar panels on a house.
Green Business Special Coverage

Power Play

PV Squared workers install solar panels on a house.

PV Squared workers install solar panels on a house.

 

 

“I’m frustrated — and, frankly, I’m disgusted.”

Those words open a blog post written recently by Greg Garrison, president of Northeast Solar, about the One Big Beautiful Bill — specifically the provision that ends, on Dec. 31, federal tax incentives for people who have solar energy installed in their homes.

The rest of that post is more measured, and even optimistic when it comes to the future of solar energy, but Garrison’s dismay is real.

“I had written some posts previous to that where I said, ‘you know, this could happen,’” he told BusinessWest during a recent visit to the company’s Hatfield headquarters. “When it actually came about, I was disappointed because that’s real money that the federal government is putting in the hands of local homeowners here, and it stays here.”

But only for a few more months. The only solar tax credits extended by President Trump’s bill are for third-party solar installers, and that goes to a corporate entity, not the homeowner, Garrison noted. “So this one core thing they could have done to make the middle class and American households a little bit stronger in this economy, they took away.”

Indeed, Northeast sells its equipment outright to the customer; some other companies operate under a third-party ownership agreement where the business owns the array and sells the power back to the homeowner; these companies will continue to benefit from federal tax incentives through 2027.

“This one core thing they could have done to make the middle class and American households a little bit stronger in this economy, they took away.”

For homeowners now calling Northeast to take advantage of solar installation before the end of 2025, well, they’re out of luck, as the company is fully booked through the end of the year. But that bad luck extends only to the federal tax incentive; Garrison’s mission now, as it has been all along, is to show people that solar energy carries long-term savings no matter what tax breaks they’re getting.

“The way this legislation cuts the production tax credits instead of incentivizing domestic manufacturing is not great policy, so the One Big Beautiful Bill will make it harder for a domestic renewable energy supply chain to be successful,” said Alex Peterkin, president of PV Squared, a Greenfield-based, worker-owned cooperative solar installation company.

Still, he told BusinessWest, the elimination of the federal solar incentives for customers is a bigger concern nationally than it is in New England, where the cost of electricity is relatively high, particularly in communities that don’t have municipal utilities. In Western Mass., he added, solar power still makes sense, and the long-term savings should still be attractive.

“When you remove the investment tax credit that homeowners were able to access, it doesn’t significantly change the long-term energy saving that they would have access to by installing solar in their homes,” Peterkin said. “It’s still an excellent choice for homeowners and businesses to get solar energy in their homes and in their businesses.”

Greg Garrison says the loss of federal solar incentives, while disheartening, shouldn’t deter homeowners from considering other ways solar energy saves them money in the long term.

Greg Garrison says the loss of federal solar incentives, while disheartening, shouldn’t deter homeowners from considering other ways solar energy saves them money in the long term.

While timetables vary for full payback of the initial investment, homeowners who install solar can typically expect their rate savings to pay for it in six to eight years. Taking away the federal incentives doesn’t change that by more than a couple years, Peterkin explained.

“This equipment is designed to last decades — 30 years, even 40 years for some equipment. A slightly different payback schedule isn’t significant when you’re going to be producing energy for 40 years.”

 

Watts Happening

Garrison said Northeast Solar has grown from a very small outfit to 24 employees today.

“We don’t grow any faster than our installation capacity — so it’s been nice, steady growth. And I would say a lot of the initial growth was from the incentives that were out there, both on the state and federal sides, with the intention of building more capacity in the state, getting more solar installed, and then making it more competitive and driving down prices.”

That has largely come to pass, he added. “When I first started in solar 15 years ago, [installation] was around $10 a watt. So if you wanted a 10-kilowatt system, it cost you $100,000. There were incentives and rebates to do to help you pay for that, but that’s what it cost. Today, it’s less than $3 a watt. So what used to be $100,000 is now less than $30,000.”

All that means the annual savings solar customers see over other forms of energy have shrunk the payback timetable, which, as noted, is typically around six to eight years.

“We’ve never offered leases. We’ve always offered direct buy, so the money stays here,” Garrison noted. “And as far as the incentives and rebates, like the federal tax credit, I looked at that money as an incentive for communities to develop better solar policies, better permitting policies, to get solar to be something that everyone would want or could afford. So every time that we put a system on someone’s roof and that 30% tax credit came back, that was money that’s going right into the economy.”

Meanwhile, both he and Peterkin said, it’s much easier to install solar capacity than increase fossil fuel generation at a time when the region — and the country — needs more production.

“It’s especially important to build solar energy on your homes or your businesses because then your energy costs are locked in. You’re not subject to increasing rates.”

“The Massachusetts DPU expects energy requirements are going to be much higher in the coming years,” Peterkin said. “And it’s difficult to have new generation created in Massachusetts. The cheapest way to get electrons onto the grid is with solar power. Other energy sources cost a little bit more; some cost quite a bit more. It’s so expensive to build a coal-fired plant. It’s so expensive to build a natural gas plant. But it’s so cheap to build solar power. And it’s frustrating to see that the best option to meet this quickly growing need is being disincentivized.”

Solar power can put downward pressure on everyone’s utility bills, noted Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports who specializes in energy and transportation. “Conserving energy is almost always cheaper than building new infrastructure to supply increasing demand,” he noted in a recent article. “Unfortunately, the premature elimination of energy efficiency programs can have the opposite effect, potentially increasing utility bills for all Americans.”

Garrison noted that Massachusetts utility rates are currently around $0.32 per kilowatt hour and rising about 3% annually. But solar costs are around $0.133 per kilowatt over the system’s 25-year lifespan — approximately 58% cheaper than the current utility rate.

“It’s especially important to build solar energy on your homes or your businesses because then your energy costs are locked in,” Peterkin added. “You’re not subject to increasing rates.”

The team at PV Squared, a worker-owned cooperative.

The team at PV Squared, a worker-owned cooperative.

As a workers’ cooperative, he explained, about 30 PV Squared employees own the company together.

“And the mission that we share — which is that we share the success together — has driven us to grow and increase employment priorities in the renewable energy sector and share the success with as many people as possible,” he said, while helping clients ranging from homeowners to factories to nonprofits like the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, for which it recently completed a major project.

“With this recent legislation and recent treasury guidelines, there are definitely challenges that make it harder for regular people to achieve energy independence,” Peterkin told BusinessWest. “But the core of it is still so strong. We’re optimistic about our business because people need to lower their energy costs, and this is the cheapest and best way to do it. So we see a bright future ahead.”

 

Shine On

Northeast Solar performs mostly residential work, with a few commercial projects mixed in. And Garrison noted that Massachusetts homeowners can still take advantage of a $1,000 state tax credit.

“The state has also maintained, with the utilities, a net metering policy. That’s where, if you export your power, you get that credit back to your bill. That’s an important part of solar. If you didn’t have that way of storing those energy dollars so you could use them later, solar would be a lot different.”

While incentives have no doubt drawn many customers to the solar side, Garrison said he relies on educating them with the savings figures.

“It’s going to take a while, and we’re going to have to go through that curve of education. But when you put solar on your roof of your home, you are fixing the cost of your electricity going forward. We call it the levelized cost of energy. You don’t have to worry about the fluctuations in energy, and you increase the home value right off the bat by putting solar on it.

“We try to get people to understand that they have an option to control their own energy, and solar is the cheapest form of energy you can buy,” he added before waxing philosophical about the power of the sun.

“It really is a simple technology that people just don’t fully understand. All the energy that we use on this planet, every bit of it, from the oil, gas, and everything else, all of it is derived from the sun. Without that power plant we have out there, we wouldn’t have any of it, because oil was created by the original plants. We’re just cutting out the middle.”

Elm Electrical Advances in the Realm of Robotics

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A robotic palletizer tackles a load of boxes.
Special Coverage Technology

Armed with Automation

A robotic palletizer tackles a load of boxes.

A robotic palletizer tackles a load of boxes.

 

No one likes loading boxes onto a pallet. But machines don’t seem to mind.

Mike Holmberg noted as much as he pointed to a neatly palletized pile of boxes from a liquor distributor. In a non-automated facility, he said, someone would be loading those by hand.

“They’re making the different spirits, and then they put them in a bottle, put the bottle inside a case, then the case comes down a conveyor, and some person is picking up each one of these, and they’re stacking it in this stack, all day long. It’s not a fun job,” said Holmberg, senior vice president at Elm Electrical in Westfield.

“So we developed a solution for a robotic palletizer,” he said, pointing to the robotic arm and related equipment on Elm’s engineering floor. “It will now take the box as it’s coming off the conveyor, pick it up, and build this pallet. That’s called robotic palletizing.

“It’s a huge labor saver. And it’s about safety, too. It’s backbreaking. And it’s also work that people don’t want, so they don’t last. And in today’s day and age, it’s hard to find employees,” he went on. “Customers, manufacturers in particular, are having difficulty keeping those kinds of jobs filled. You’ve got to train them, they have to go through all the safety protocols, and then they come in and work for a few days and go, ‘hey, I don’t want to do this,’ and they’re out of here. Now you have to start over.”

On this recent afternoon, Holmberg led BusinessWest on a tour of the floor where it builds, programs, tests, and demonstrates robotic equipment in a growing automation division that serves clients in a number of fields.

“We essentially procure robotic arms from them, and then we integrate them. We do the programming, and we come up with the end-of-arm tool, which is like the robot’s hand. We develop that solution, and then we teach the robot to do whatever task it needs to do.”

Elm Electrical’s journey into automation was gradual, he explained, as the company originally specialized in electrical contracting and eventually moved into programmable logic controller (PLC) systems, which automate and control electromechanical processes, becoming a Rockwell Automation integrator.

“We integrated their product, and we use their product to develop solutions. And over the years, we’ve morphed into supporting different market segments, whether it’s water or wastewater, food and beverage, machining, material handling. And as automation started to grow, we started to get involved in robotics,” Holmberg explained.

To that end, Elm is an authorized FANUC robotics integrator, partnering with FANUC, a global leader in robotics and automation products.

“They make the robotic arms — that’s an arm that’s programmed to pick and place and move things. So we essentially procure robotic arms from them, and then we integrate them. We do the programming, and we come up with the end-of-arm tool, which is like the robot’s hand. We develop that solution, and then we teach the robot to do whatever task it needs to do.”

This FANUC robotic arm is set up to demonstrate its capabilities for an Elm Electrical client that makes wine racks.

This FANUC robotic arm is set up to demonstrate its capabilities for an Elm Electrical client that makes wine racks.

One arm on display was being used to nail together components of a wine rack. “The wood gets put down in this fixture, and now the robot holding the nail gun can go and build this for them,” Holmberg said. “And so you can rotate this on a table, rotate the next one in, build the next one. That frees the operator up from doing this tedious task all day to focus on quality control or doing some other portion of the business — more high-value tasks.”

 

Behind the Scenes

Holmberg noted that he brings that arm to trade shows to demonstrate opportunities for robotics.

“Behind the scenes, there’s a controller, which is essentially a computer that’s controlling that robot, telling it what to do,” he said, pointing out the physical capabilities of the arm and potential tools that can be attached to it. “There’s a motor in each one of those, and it can move in six different directions — it can spin, or it can move forward and backward. And those little motors have to be controlled.

“So we build control panels to hold all those controls, and we give the operator a touchscreen interface to make it easier to operate. Behind the scenes, here at Elm, we wire this; we put in all the technology to make that robot run. We design the control panel, we’ll connect it to the robot, then our engineers will program it to make it work.”

The robots can also be “set up for vision,” as he explained by using a set of multi-colored dice, which the arm can sort.

“Let’s say I want all the blue colors to be picked up. Well, it’ll roll them until it sees a blue color, and then it’ll pick it up and put the blue over here. That’s to show that, in the world of automation, there are times where random parts are coming down a conveyor, and I need to pick those random parts up. That illustrates to a customer that we can do vision-guided robotics. There are industries that would support.”

Whatever the capability, Holmberg continued, “we do all the programming, we do all the testing here, and then we take it to their site, install it, and then train their operators. We do the whole thing.”

While there has always been negative talk about robots replacing workers, Holmberg said this technology can be a positive for both employers and employees.

“Automation sometimes can be a taboo thing because people say, ‘well, it’s eliminating jobs.’ But in some cases, it’s creating opportunities for clients that can’t find laborers to do the work anymore. So in some instances, without automation, they’re not going to survive because they can’t do the work. This allows companies to be able to differentiate themselves and do things less expensively because they can do things faster. This doesn’t take a break, doesn’t go home sick, it doesn’t do any of that stuff because it’s running all the time.

“But I also look at it as an advancement for the employee,” he went on. “If I’m the employee that was doing that tedious task of picking something up and placing the round peg in the round hole all day long, now I get to operate the robot that’s doing that. And maybe I’m operating several robots. So I’m able to achieve a higher value at a job by learning the robotics, learning those skills, and now I have a much different career.

“I envision it as creating opportunities for people in the technology space. If they’re operating the robots, they get a little higher-tech job, and it’s much easier than the backbreaking work they were doing before.”

“So I envision it as creating opportunities for people in the technology space,” he added. “If they’re operating the robots, they get a little higher-tech job, and it’s much easier than the backbreaking work they were doing before.”

 

Complete Package

Holmberg explained that Elm Electrical has long operated as a four-legged stool, so to speak — its construction division (the main business, which launched the company), an automation group, a service group that provides 24/7 support service for companies, and its control panel business.

“So, ideally, we like to sell a solution that has all four of the legs in the stool. If we can sell an automation solution where we get the after-market support service, that’s great. If we can do our installation, our construction group can install it and put it in place. And if it has control panels in it, now we’ve sold all four legs of the stool. That’s what we try to do.”

Most electrical contractors don’t offer all four niches, he added. “Typically, they would have the service business unit and the contracting division, but they don’t have a panel shop where they build the control panels; they would typically farm that work out. And most integrators doing the automation work like we do, that’s all they do, and they would hire an electrical contractor to do the installation. So it’s rare to find somebody that has all four legs and be able to supply that complete turnkey solution.”

While automation is a growth industry, he added, it also requires significant investment up front, which can be a challenge for potential clients.

“There’s not a manufacturing facility that can’t leverage automation. They want to do something to make their job easier and to make their products faster. They want to open up capacity. They want to make it higher-quality. Now, whether or not they can afford to do that is the next question. Do they have the capital to do that? That’s an investment.”

He acknowledged that further growth is complicated by uncertainty in manufacturing around the economy, tariff impacts, and other factors, but the overall potential remains.

“I feel like automation is a place to be. Think about it — today, everybody wants something now, they want it tomorrow, they don’t want to wait. You can order something on Amazon, and it’s delivered that day,” Holmberg said. “That mindset means you’ve got to build it faster, you’ve got to have it ready faster — and all that is going to take automation.”

At the end of the day, he told BusinessWest, “we want to help customers solve their problems. That’s what we hope to do. We want to develop solutions. That’s the business we’re in — developing solutions and helping customers solve a problem.”

And those customers aren’t choosing from pre-designed models, he added. “Everything we do is custom. We develop it for you. It ends up being your solution for your project. So we like to be a partner with our clients. That’s how we get more work — by doing good things for good people.”

Many West Side Stories Are Converging

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Eileen LaMountain has been managing the giant slide at the Big E for nearly 40 years.
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Eileen LaMountain has been managing the giant slide at the Big E for nearly 40 years.

Eileen LaMountain has been managing the giant slide at the Big E for nearly 40 years.

 

Eileen LaMountain says she’s getting too old to handle the waxing duties at the Big E’s Giant Slide, so she leaves that to her younger co-workers.

That waxing detail generally involves the upper portions of the 46-foot-high attraction, she noted, followed by repeated runs down the slide to spread the wax across its full length.

“That’s why I tell them to hire young people,” she said with a laugh. “A lot of the people I have are not that young, and they can’t go back and forth 10 times.”

But she still handles every other duty involved with managing that popular attraction, which she’s been doing since 1987. She essentially took over for her husband, who had done it the previous five years before moving over to handle admissions, which he did until he officially retired last year after working 58 years at the Big E.

The LaMountains are prime examples of area residents who return each year to work the 17-day fair and become part of a workforce of more than 1,000 people, said Gene Cassidy, president and CEO of Eastern States Exposition.

“Pre-COVID, we retained about 90% of our staff, and post-COVID, we retain about 80% of our staff,” he explained, adding that the fair needs to hire about 200 people for this year’s edition — to handle assignments ranging from parking lot attendant to landscaper to cashier — and is well on its way to doing so.

“I was all in favor of knocking it down originally and building something nice and new and modern. But on the other hand, that’s more expensive. Maybe we can do it with a remodel, but this is probably the last time in my lifetime that we’ll build a police station, so we want to do it right and give them what they need.”

Assembling the workforce is one of the many storylines for the 110th edition of the fair, which will start Sept. 12 and have a very difficult act to follow.

Indeed, 2024 was a banner year for the Big E. Attendance records were set (1,633,937 people came through the gates, breaking the previous mark by seven-tenths of a percentage point) and it was the fair’s most profitable year ever, with more than $6 million in net income.

“And all $6 million will be put into the facility,” Cassidy said, adding quickly that it will make just a very small dent in what he estimates to be $250 million in deferred maintenance on grounds dominated by buildings more 100 years old.

The Big E’s new season is one of many storylines unfolding in West Springfield. Others include:

• Movement toward creation of a new police station at the site of the former Walgreens location on Route 20, which was acquired by the city. A preliminary study by a design team will determine whether the best course is to renovate the facility, just a few feet from City Hall, where the police are currently headquartered, or demolish it and build new, Mayor Will Reichelt said;

• Ongoing infrastructure work on both of the city’s main retail arteries — Memorial Avenue and Riverdale Street — with the former entering the “final stretch,” as Reichelt called it, and the latter in its earlier stages;

• Little movement to create new housing despite critical need, said the mayor, citing a lack of developable land, the high cost of building, and the relative scarcity of funding assistance from the state as the primary reasons why. There is an 11-unit subdivision in the works off Piper Road, as well as 40 to 50 over-55 condos now under construction off Birnie Avenue and continued talk of new housing at the site of a former nursing home off Route 20, but little else on the drawing board;

• More new development on Riverdale Street, which is in a seemingly constant state of change, including the demolition of a few older hotels, including a large portion of the Clarion, and plans to build new ones, as well as a new Balise Honda store taking shape in the parking lot of the existing facility (more on this later);

• A new breakfast and lunch restaurant, the Roundabout, at the Route 20 and Elm Street rotary, another sign, said Reichelt, of how investments in that area, which also include new sidewalks, lighting, and other improvements, are paying dividends in the form of new businesses; and

• Preliminary discussions about creation of a new master plan for the city, one that will provide a blueprint to take the community to 2050 and beyond.

“Our master plan is 16 years old now, give or take, and we’re finishing up a lot of what’s in it,” the mayor explained. “We want to look out 25 years — not to predict the future, but to examine what the retail world will look like, for example, and whether we’re ready for potential changes that could impact Riverdale Street.”

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the many converging West Side stories.

Alex Balise says the new Balise Honda store will better serve customers.

Alex Balise says the new Balise Honda store will better serve customers.

 

Progress Report

Reichelt noted that West Springfield is perhaps the last city in Western Mass. that still has its police station within City Hall — a throwback to when this was a much smaller community, but a situation that has lingered for decades as the city has searched for a suitable site.

It found one when Walgreens closed its Route 20 location in 2024 as part of a larger scaling-back initiative, leaving another question — renovate or build new? And Reichelt can look at two neighboring communities for some possible insight.

Indeed, Westfield is building new on Union Street, and Agawam is nearly done renovating the former Hub Insurance building on Suffield Street into its new headquarters.

“Agawam spent like $30 million less than Westfield’s going to spend” said Reichelt, adding that renovation of the Walgreens, which has a full basement in addition to its spacious retail floor, could be a less expensive option.

“I was all in favor of knocking it down originally and building something nice and new and modern,” he explained. “But on the other hand, that’s more expensive. Maybe we can do it with a remodel, but this is probably the last time in my lifetime that we’ll build a police station, so we want to do it right and give them what they need.”

In either case, the new headquarters will be downtown — which won’t be the case in either Westfield or Agawam — which has its advantages, the mayor noted.

Beyond the plans for the new police station, infrastructure work remains one of the main storylines in the city, especially on those two retail arteries, said Reichelt, adding that there is some light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the work at Memorial Avenue, which recently entered a new, more visible phase with completion of the Complete Streets initiative set for early 2027.

“Until recently, most of the work has been replacing the water main, sewer main, stormwater … the underground stuff,” he explained. “But now, as you come onto Memorial from the rotary at the Memorial Bridge, they’re redoing the road layout, adding new granite curbing, and changing the actual look of the road to get ready for the new pavement.”

On Riverdale Street, infrastructure work, due to be completed in 2027, is in earlier stages, and will include new sidewalks, off-street bike paths, and some repaving, the mayor continued, adding that, longer-term, the state has plans to improve Route 20.

Meanwhile, the new Honda store at the east end of Riverdale Street is starting to take shape.

And for those thinking the existing store isn’t very old … you’re right. It was just 2010 when Balise Motor Sales completed an extensive renovation of the former Yale Genton clothing store and a 20,000-square-foot addition. But Honda is changing the look of its dealerships, with a nod toward less square footage and a design that features a new-look façade and is modular and flexible, and the Balise store will be at the forefront of these changes, said Alex Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for Balise Motor Sales.

“The existing dealership is fully functional, but we have plans to grow,” she explained, noting that talk of building a new store began in 2023. “And to do that, and better serve our needs, we needed a new dealership.”

She said the new facility will be easier to navigate and be very similar to what was done at the chain’s Lexus dealership further down Riverdale Street in terms of easier access to the service area.

A portion of the existing dealership will be salvaged and used for a state inspection center, calibration services, parts distribution, and used-car reconditioning, she went on, adding that the remainder will be demolished and used for parking. The project is on track to be completed in mid-December.

 

Fair Assessment

Cassidy’s attention to detail, especially when it comes to the weather, has been well-chronicled. Indeed, each day of the Big E, he takes detailed notes about what the conditions were, almost hour by hour, entries that help explain attendance figures.

So when he said it didn’t rain much last year, he didn’t generalize. He went right to the book.

“Let’s see … the second Thursday, the 26th, we had light rain late morning and mid-afternoon, but it didn’t really have any impact on our attendance … that was it,” he said, adding that this rainfall total was a big change from 2024, when it rained on several days during the fair, and it goes a long way toward explaining the record attendance and record profits.

West Springfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1774
Population: 28,835
Area: 17.5 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $14.87
Commercial Tax Rate: $30.28
Median Household Income: $40,266
Median Family Income: $50,282
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Eversource Energy, Harris Corp., Home Depot, Interim Health Care, Mercy Home Care
* Latest information available

Those numbers will be tough to repeat, let alone surpass, in 2025, he acknowledged, noting that the weather will likely not be as good this year. But with a shrug of the shoulders, he indicated that anything is possible.

For the most part, he stuck to what is likely, which — again, weather permitting — will be another solid year. He noted that fairs like this one are not entirely recession-proof, but they’re close.

“Fairs represent tradition, and people, at this time in our history, are hungry for that; they desire that,” he said. “And for that reason, fairs tend to be insulated from inflation. People might defer on taking a trip to Disney, but they’re going to come to the fair because that’s their family tradition.”

This explains why many recent fairs have done well, said Cassidy, citing the Wisconsin State Fair, which was on pace to shatter attendance records until heavy rains and some flooding, as one example.

As for the 2025 Big E, like most of the 109 that have come before it, this one will feature ‘new and old,’ a phrase that covers everything from attractions to food to the brews in the many beer gardens.

The ‘new’ this year includes the return of Navy Week programming as a lead up to the nation’s 250th birthday, including performances by the Navy Band Northeast and the Navy Windward Quartet, as well as Collector Car Live: Race Day, a car show featuring race vehicles and NASCAR driver Ryan Preece, and increased ‘strolling entertainment,’ including Fritzy One Man Circus and strolling musician Freddie Marion.

‘New and old’ also refers to the music lineup, which includes everything from ZZ Top and Foreigner to Five for Fighting, Train, Busta Rhymes & Rick Ross, and TLC with Big Boi.

As for the ‘old,’ that would include the giant slide, which has been part of the Big E since 1969. It stretches 135 feet, and LaMountain knows every inch of it, although, as noted earlier, she’s not out there waxing it anymore.

When asked how those applying the wax to those higher areas do so without gravity taking hold, she said “very carefully.”

In addition to supervising the waxing, LaMountain, 73, makes sure the slide is properly staffed (it takes a half-dozen people to operate it) and that the various procedures are followed, including protocols when it rains — it shuts down immediately when drops start falling.

Overall, more than 100,000 people will go down the slide over the course of the 17 days, she said, adding that maybe 9,000 will visit the attraction on a busy Saturday. That adds up to long days, but she endures — and she comes back every year.

“It’s fun. It’s a long day, but … it’s the people you see every year,” she explained, adding that that the money earned over the course of the fair pays for a vacation or some extras, with some going in the bank. “We have a good time, and I would really miss it if I didn’t do it.”

With that, she spoke not only for people who work at Big E, but for everyone who visits each year.

BusinessTalk with Emily Carlson, Owner, We Do Travel Right

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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 240: August 18, 2025

Editor Joe Bednar interviews Emily Carlson, Owner, We Do Travel Right

Emily Carlson was a teacher who decided to make the jump in 2022 into a new career: travel — specifically, helping other people arrange great vacations. As the owner of We Do Travel Right, she has grown the agency to have a nationwide reach, connecting clients with destinations across the globe, with a particular specialty in Disney trips. Her philosophy — life is short, take the trip — was born from the losses people experienced, and the isolation they felt, during the pandemic, and her belief that the time to enjoy life is now. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, Emily talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about why travel agents are still important in the internet age, how she tries to provide deluxe experiences with a local feel, and why it’s gratifying to help people have a magical day. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest.

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Consider These Common Myths That Get Employers Sued

By Contributor
Law Special Coverage

Can I Fire Someone for That?

By Michael Lewis, Esq.

Employers regularly wonder: “can I fire someone for that?” You might assume the answer is simple, especially in an at-will state like Massachusetts. But the reality is more complex. Missteps can land your business in court. Here’s how to avoid them and keep your company focused on growth, not litigation.

 

Myth: At-will Means Any Reason Goes

At-will employment allows termination without contractual cause. Yet, anti-discrimination laws and retaliation protections still apply. Even a valid reason, like poor performance, becomes risky if the employee recently complained about harassment, requested an accommodation, or reported a safety issue. Terminating soon after a complaint invites legal trouble.

For example, you want to fire Sarah for repeated tardiness. But what if she reported sexual harassment a few weeks earlier? Timing alone can create exposure. So document performance issues as they arise.

Also, check if the employee recently returned from Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) or Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML). A Springfield auto repair shop faced a claim after firing a worker the day after he returned from PFML to care for his newborn. The company blamed tardiness, but the timing triggered months of legal headaches.

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis

“At-will employment allows termination without contractual cause. Yet, anti-discrimination laws and retaliation protections still apply. Even a valid reason, like poor performance, becomes risky if the employee recently complained about harassment, requested an accommodation, or reported a safety issue.”

Myth: No Documentation Needed

Some employers assume that no paperwork is necessary under at-will rules. That approach creates unnecessary risk. Without records, even lawful firings appear questionable. Weak evidence damages credibility.

Imagine Tom, a low performer who never received formal feedback. If you fire him after years of positive reviews, expect scrutiny. Always provide timely written warnings and accurate performance evaluations. Keep emails, attendance records, and coaching notes. Would your records persuade a jury that the termination was justified?

 

Myth: We Treated Everyone Fairly

Fair treatment requires consistency. If one employee is fired and another is only warned for the same violation, questions follow.

Consider two salespeople, Mike and Jose, both caught inflating sales numbers. Mike receives a warning. Jose gets fired. If Jose claims racial bias, inconsistent discipline strengthens his argument. Review prior disciplinary decisions. Can you show a clear record of equal treatment?

 

Myth: We Can Share the Reason Widely

Managers sometimes explain a termination too broadly, believing transparency protects the company. In reality, public disclosure creates legal risk.

An employee fired for theft sued his employer after leadership announced it to the entire staff. Even truthful statements, shared excessively or with ill will, can spark defamation claims. A local example: a Chicopee retailer emailed all employees, naming a worker fired for alleged cash shortages. That email became exhibit A in court. Limit disclosure to those who truly need to know.

 

Avoiding Retaliation Claims

Retaliation is the most common Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim. Firing someone after they complain about discrimination, request leave, or raise pay concerns often leads to lawsuits. Subtle actions can count, too — cutting hours, assigning undesirable shifts, or excluding them from meetings.

Did Lisa report a wage issue last week? If she now gets the worst shifts, her attorney will call it punishment. Train managers to pause and ask: “does this look like payback?” In one Springfield restaurant, a server who complained about tips was fired days later for “attitude.” The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination viewed the timing as retaliation, and the case settled quickly.

 

Managing the Termination Meeting Professionally

How you fire someone matters. Keep the meeting short and calm. Speak plainly. Avoid debate. Bring a neutral witness, usually HR. Disable system access and collect company property immediately. For remote workers, coordinate IT to end access during the call.

Have you prepared your team to stay composed when an employee gets angry or upset? A concise, professional exit reduces emotion and litigation risk.

“You can prevent most legal problems with proactive steps. Train managers to document consistently. Encourage employees to raise concerns early, and respond appropriately when they do.”

Reducing Risks Before They Occur

You can prevent most legal problems with proactive steps. Train managers to document consistently. Encourage employees to raise concerns early, and respond appropriately when they do.

Also, follow Massachusetts requirements: final wages and accrued vacation must be paid promptly, sometimes the same day. Missing or delaying a payment can trigger penalties. Review whether your managers apply standards uniformly. Track disciplinary trends by department or supervisor. In one Holyoke warehouse, inconsistent discipline across shifts led to multiple claims that could have been avoided with routine audits.

 

Quick Pre-termination Checklist

• Document the issue in writing.

• Confirm whether the employee recently exercised protected rights (complaint, FMLA, PFML, workers’ compensation).

• Ensure similar cases were handled consistently.

• Complete a fair investigation and allow the employee to respond.

• Prepare final pay and unused vacation in compliance with Massachusetts law.

 

Bottom Line

Employee terminations happen. Legal trouble does not have to. Careful documentation, consistent actions, and thoughtful communication protect your business. Before acting, stop and ask: “have we done this right?”

Taking these steps helps you confidently answer, “can I fire someone for that?” That answer should never rest on guesswork.

 

Michael Lewis is an attorney at the Royal Law Firm who helps employers resolve workplace challenges. He counsels and defends businesses across Massachusetts and Connecticut, handling matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour claims, restrictive covenants, and breach of contract. His practice includes litigation in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies.

Lindsay LaBonte Wants to Help Clients — and the Community — Thrive

By
Lindsay LaBonte
Special Coverage Women in Businesss

Lessons Learned at Home

Lindsay LaBonte

 

Lindsay LaBonte recalls how she felt growing up, watching her father, who owned an independent mortgage broker company, help people get into homes.

“He always came home from work so satisfied with being able to help people reach the American dream and own a house,” she said, adding that she decided early on that she wanted to do the same. “I knew I had to go to school and get that done, but I really wanted to work. So when I was 16, I started as an intern with him, and the rest is history. I worked my way up, got licensed as a loan officer, happened to be good at it — and I enjoy it.”

These days, LaBonte enjoys that work as branch manager of the Applied Mortgage team at the Northampton branch of HMA Mortgage, the most recent national company Applied Mortgage has been affiliated with.

“We’ve had different parent companies. In the mortgage world, it’s a franchise model, where branches often run as a team name and feed up to a larger parent company,” she explained. “So we’ve had different parent companies over the decades, but always the same Northampton-based Applied Mortgage team.”

Her father entered the business in 1987, and LaBonte’s success over the past two decades — she’s one of the top loan originators in Western Mass. — has turned this family success story into a multi-generational one.

“For people who are buying a home, no one’s process is the same as the next person because everybody’s got different goals, different financials. We take those goals and financials and put them together, figure out the mortgage that’s going to work, and get them into that home.”

“A lot of family businesses don’t work out, but I’m really fortunate — my dad is an awesome dad, an awesome mentor, an awesome boss at the time. I ended up being his boss. Now he’s retired, so it’s been a good run.”

That run continues with LaBonte and her team serving a variety of clients in Western Mass.; the business is licensed in more than 30 states, but about 99% of its business is centered in Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden counties.

The focus is residential mortgages, she explained — purchases, refinances, and renovations of primary or second homes, and some clients who rent out homes as entrepreneurial enterprises. About a third of her clients are first-time homebuyers, while the rest are either upsizing, downsizing, repeat buying, or renovating.

With that volume of clients navigating the process for the first time, LaBonte said strategic planning and financial education are important parts of what Applied Mortgage brings to the table.

“What I love the most, at least professionally, is getting to meet with and speak to people from all different walks of life,” she said. “For people who are buying a home, no one’s process is the same as the next person because everybody’s got different goals, different financials. We take those goals and financials and put them together, figure out the mortgage that’s going to work, and get them into that home.”

For this issue’s focus on women in business, BusinessWest sat down with LaBonte for a wide-ranging talk about the mortgage business, why she enjoys it, and how she connects with the community in a number of different ways.

 

Sharing the Love

It’s called Local Love Days.

That’s a program recently created by Applied Mortgage as a way to give back and support local businesses. On select days, the team will partner with local small businesses and invite the community to stop by, explore what they offer, and show their support. To spark participation, Applied Mortgage will cover the cost of a small thank-you item, such as a coupon for the first set of shoppers, a free drink or appetizer, or another offering tailored to the partner business.

Lindsay LaBonte (center) with HMA Mortgage colleagues

Lindsay LaBonte (center) with HMA Mortgage colleagues Bob Petrelli (left) and Jess LaMothe.

“We’ve always, throughout the years, supported nonprofit organizations,” LaBonte said. But at the same time, “we’ve got a lot of business owners we work with. So, while we want to continue to give back to the nonprofit sector, I was trying to brainstorm, how do we directly impact and help businesses?

“If if we’ve got a network of about 10,000 to 15,000 homeowners that we’ve helped over the last 35 years, how can I mobilize those people to come out and support businesses and also give them a cool incentive or coupon or something? So the Local Love Days really came from trying to tie that all in together,” she went on.

“We’re selecting some businesses to partner with and having a day where maybe the first 50 people get a free donut on Tuesday morning at such and such donut shop, or maybe something at a happy hour at a bar, or a free yoga class. We’re trying to span the three counties that we work in, span all different types of restaurants and retail, and use this as an opportunity to mobilize our network and help connect people and bring them out to support businesses.”

As she noted, the company supports dozens of nonprofits as well through volunteerism and philanthropy, and LaBonte also serves on a number of local boards. That, like her business goals, was partly due to her father’s influence.

“I think my dad was maybe a little ahead of his time, starting in the ’80s, being in a mortgage company and raising his hand for corporate social responsibility. We’ve always had that ingrained in our core values. And I picked that up from him when I started.

Lindsay LaBonte

Lindsay LaBonte

“I think my dad was maybe a little ahead of his time, starting in the ’80s, being in a mortgage company and raising his hand for corporate social responsibility. We’ve always had that ingrained in our core values. And I picked that up from him when I started.”

“He said, ‘you’ve got to get out there,’” she added. “So part of it was business networking, and another part of it was, what do you want to support? In the financial world, we’re in a spot where we can financially support causes, as well as volunteering and lending our expertise.”

As for that volunteering, LaBonte — now the mother of two kids, ages 4 and 3 — has had to learn how to balance work, family, and her passion for the community.

“I got engaged with some of the local young professional organizations originally, and it kind of grew from there. I was probably 20 at the time that I served on my first committee, and once you raise your hand as a young professional, you get pulled by a lot of different organizations. So most recently, it’s been figuring out where it makes sense and learning how to not say yes to everybody, even though it’s really hard to do that.”

That said, she finds as much time for all of it as she can, and laughed when asked what her typical day is like.

“Typical is not really in my vocabulary anymore. It used to be,” she said, noting that she was “very type A” at one time, but having young kids changed that.

“About 10% of our homeowners actually are entrepreneurs. And a lot of my time is speaking with other entrepreneurs, business owners right here in the Pioneer Valley. And we do a lot of work with nonprofit organizations, giving back to over 30 organizations a year. So my day kind of bounces between actually working on mortgages to just meeting and networking with folks, and then also doing a lot of the community support that we get to do.”

 

Changes and Challenges

LaBonte said the mortgage field has changed in some ways, especially through new technology, which now incorporates everything from electronic portals to share information to clients using FaceTime to view houses.

“There’s just so much more video and photography and text messaging and all these different aspects. I think that’s the biggest change. And what we always try to do is use technology and social media and all those other support tools to enhance relationships rather than to replace the relationship.”

Of course, the biggest challenge for clients these days is the fact that home values have soared, inventory is tight in most areas, and mortgage rates are higher than they have been in the recent past.

“I was just speaking with somebody earlier this week, and they said, ‘wow, this just isn’t my mom’s housing market.’ I’m like, I need to make a T-shirt that says that. Because it’s hard, right? I mean, where do you typically go for your advice? Probably your parents or close friends or someone else who bought a house five or 10 years ago. And really, in the last five years, there’s been a big switch.

“It’s attainable for some people, but not for everybody. And it’s less affordable to buy a house than it has been,” she went on. “So we’ve always incorporated an element of education into everything we do. I always tell people, it’s never too soon to contact us to just start making a plan.”

For many clients, especially first-time homebuyers, that’s crucial, LaBonte added.

“There’s not really financial 101 kind of stuff in schools. Sometimes, when we’re talking to people, it’s their first time ever seeing their credit score or really sitting down and making a budget. So we have those conversations that are just a base plan, all the way up to people who own five, six, seven investment properties, and they’re trying to figure out how to structure things to make their next move. So it can be basic or intricate.

“We consider ourselves their debt advisors,” she went on. “Financial advisors are managing the assets, and we’re trying to figure out how do you best structure this debt? Because a mortgage is usually attached to somebody’s biggest asset, but it’s probably their biggest debt, and they’ve got to be able to pay it, and it’s got to make sense and be comfortable.”

That’s another quality she said she absorbed from the way her father conducted business.

“I learned from my dad originally to give people the time of day, to sit down with them, meet them where they are, and just help them. And I think, through that mindset, we get repeat customers. People who worked with my dad before send their kids, even their grandkids now. And it’s really wonderful.

“It’s a great community,” she added. “We’re really fortunate to have a community that values supporting local folks. And we just stick to that mission of just doing good. Good business begets good business. And it just grows from there.”

Like her father, LaBonte is gratified when she comes home having helped someone secure a home in a region she’s clearly passionate about.

“I always ask homeowners, because I am curious, ‘why now? Why are you moving here? What’s the draw?’ And mostly what I hear is we kind of have the perfect area,” she told BusinessWest. “We have the Five Colleges system. We have great public schools. We have great hospitals. We have all these little downtown areas with great retail, great restaurants. People value that. Plus we have a good environment for hiking, biking, whatever outdoor activities that people like.

“So I do think it’s really a perfect landing place for a lot of folks,” she went on. “And that makes it trickier with our low supply and high demand of housing inventory. But that’s a whole other conversation.”

 

Success Stories

LaBonte has been a Banker & Tradesman top loan originator across the four Western Mass. counties for eight consecutive years, has been named among Scotsman Guide’s top 1% women originators nationally, and was featured in Mortgage Banking’s Powerful Women in Mortgage Banking in 2022.

“I think, when it comes down to it, those are just accolades, right? she said. “It’s the actual people that we’re helping who motivate me — making sure that we’re actually serving people’s best interests.”

When LaBonte was named to BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty class of 2018, she was asked what three words best describe her, and she replied, “goal-oriented, efficient, planner” — and judging from the recognition from the publications noted above, those traits have certainly served her well.

But she’s also personally evolved quite a bit since 2018.

“What’s that, seven years ago? That was before I was married, before kids, before I was actually managing my own group. My mindset was so much more individual — and you can see that in the words that I picked.

“So yes, I think that foundation definitely got me here, but I think I’ve also learned a lot more empathy and sympathy and leadership skills and everything else since then,” she went on. “And I have such an awesome team now. I’m thankful for that. So I think now it would be a lot more team-oriented.”

She’s also more grateful for each individual client success.

“It’s harder now, and it’s not just helping people get to the finish line of owning the home —that’s really the starting line. It’s everything we do after that to support people and the conversations we have and making sure that they’re continuously able to stay in their home. It’s got to be one of the coolest jobs.”

Anna Cook, Heidi Flanders Lead with Integrity

By
Anna Cook (left) and Heidi Flanders
Home Improvement Special Coverage

Nailing It

Anna Cook (left) and Heidi Flanders

Anna Cook (left) and Heidi Flanders

 

 

Both Heidi Flanders and Anna Cook described it as the best alternative to having to look for work.

That was their somewhat tongue-in-cheek way of explaining how and why they became co-owners of Integrity Development & Construction, a design-build firm based in North Amherst. Only they weren’t kidding.

It was 2012, and then-owner Peter Jessop was looking to retire, and was either going to find a buyer — preferably from among his staff — or close the doors, recalled Flanders, adding that she and Cook decided to step in and take that giant step from being employee to employer.

Beyond fear and loathing of the job market, there were other reasons for wanting to take that entrepreneurial leap of faith, primarily a comfort level with the business, the staff, the course the venture was on, and, especially, each other.

“We worked really well together as colleagues,” said Cook, co-owner and project manager, who started at Integrity as an unpaid intern from UMass Amherst in 2002. “By 2012, she was the only designer, I was the only project manager; we felt like the two of us were working hand-in-hand on every project.”

Flanders, co-owner and designer, agreed. She came to Integrity as a designer in 2008 and worked closely with Cook as the company weathered the Great Recession — becoming smaller and leaner in the process — and rebuilt from there. “We partnered up because we felt we were burning the midnight oil together anyway; we decided we’d rather do that than try to find jobs.”

“We partnered up because we felt we were burning the midnight oil together anyway; we decided we’d rather do that than try to find jobs.”

Over the past 13 years, they have kept Integrity on a course of steady growth, building a deep portfolio of residential, commercial, and institutional work that effectively conveys the diversity that has enabled it to withstand several downturns in the economy and other recent challenges ranging from workforce shortages to price and supply chain issues.

“We do a little bit of everything,” Flanders said. “That really helped us survive when commercial work was drying up; we could shift to other things.”

On the residential side, the company handles everything from new home design and construction to kitchen remodels; from porch, deck, and garage additions to aging-in-place design. On the commercial side, it specializes in office renovations, commercial storefront improvements, new office building design and construction, and more.

This Colonial home in Conway is one of many recent additions to the Integrity portfolio.

This Colonial home in Conway is one of many recent additions to the Integrity portfolio.

The kitchen in that new home in Conway.

The kitchen in that new home in Conway.

There is still demand for work in pretty much all those categories, said the partners, adding quickly that the unsettled nature of the economy and widespread uncertainty about what comes next has some clients, on both the residential and commercial sides, pumping the brakes.

“We’ll have a preliminary conversation with someone, and then they’ll come back to us and say, ‘we just want to let the dust settle for a few months — we’re not sure about the state of the economy,’” said Cook, adding that some who once thought their jobs were stable are now not quite so sure, especially in the higher education sector, which dominates the firm’s primary coverage area.

But, overall, the company has a considerable amount of work on the books, said Flanders, adding that 2024 was a very solid year, 2025 has been strong to date, and the simple plan moving forward is to continue building on solid word-of-mouth referrals and a pattern of smart growth.

“Our goal over the past 13 years has been to grow steadily — we don’t want to see large peaks and valleys in that growth,” she went on. “And we want to continue on that path moving forward.”

For this issue and its focus on home improvement, we talked at length with Flanders and Cook about what they’re building — both in the field and with their company — and where they want to take this venture.

 

Solid Foundation

Flanders told BusinessWest that her mother has run a mom-and-pop store for decades, and she learned a lot from her about all that’s involved with owning a business.

“I’ve watched her work every day, 12 hours a day, 364 days a year, so I know what it takes to go into something like that,” she told BusinessWest. “That piece of this — knowing that I would be working long hours and knowing that I would be doing just about anything on any given day — didn’t scare me.”

It didn’t scare Cook, either, which explains their willingness to take a risk in 2012 to acquire Integrity from Jessop, who would stay with the company in a type of advisor and mentor role for several years.

But they didn’t consider it a huge risk because of the solid foundation they, Jessop, and the rest of the team had built, and confidence in themselves.

There were some learning curves along the way, especially on the accounting and HR sides of the ledger, as there are with almost all small business owners, and COVID proved to be an anxiety-filled time. But the two knew the business and what it took to continue that pattern of steady growth, and they’ve been hitting their targets since taking ownership.

As for the current and recent portfolio, it includes, as noted earlier, projects across a wide spectrum, with most work undertaken in Amherst and surrounding communities, including Belchertown, Northampton, Conway, and others.

On the commercial side, the project list includes a law office renovation, a dental office, the Trolley Barn in North Amherst, some historic preservation work at Amherst College, as well as an intriguing project to convert a two-family home into a veterinary hospital in Turners Falls.

On the residential side, the company handles new home construction, both custom and modular homes, and has tackled many of both across the region. The bulk of its residential work, though, is renovations and additions, from one or two rooms to an entire house, as well as energy retrofits, which are in demand as area residents look to pare their energy costs by becoming more efficient and ‘green.’

“We’ll do as little as replacing a few windows and as much as the whole house, top to bottom,” said Cook, adding that the commercial side is dominated by small to mid-size projects, many of them renovations and fit-outs.

“There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty about pricing — questions about what’s happening with tariffs and how that will affect a project. The future is unknown.”

The residential side of the ledger is generally a mixed bag, with some new construction, but a great deal of work involving improvements to existing homes, noted Flanders, adding that many recent projects involve helping people stay in their homes as they age.

“We do get a good number of calls from Baby Boomers who are trying to stay in their homes,” she told BusinessWest. “They don’t want to wind up in a nursing home, so they’re proactive now to improve the home to ensure that they can stay in it long-term.”

Conversely, the firm is getting more calls from younger people who want to renovate or build an addition to a home to accommodate an aging parent.

Indeed, as more communities pass measures permitting in-law apartments, there has been a big uptick in interest in such accommodations, said the partners, adding that there is a learning curve for clients, especially with all that’s involved — and the price tag — with such facilities.

“There’s a big disconnect concerning this,” Cook said. “If we’re building a two-bedroom, one- or two-bath, small, detached space … for us, that’s a whole house; it needs all the things a house needs. But mentally, people think of this as an accessory to their house, so there’s a learning curve on the cost of things.”

 

Building Momentum

While work is steady and the pipeline is full of projects, there are challenges, said the partners, starting with some anxiety concerning the economy in general and prices for materials in particular.

“There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty about pricing — questions about what’s happening with tariffs and how that will affect a project,” Cook said. “The future is unknown.”

Flanders agreed, noting that there have been recent issues with price and availability of fixtures and other items due to tariffs on specific metals.

Meanwhile, there’s the economy and uncertainty about the future, especially in sectors like higher education, they noted, adding that, while it’s generally good to be based in a college town — or the Five College area, as the case may be — current conditions are not the norm.

“People are worried that jobs that were once considered stable may not be so stable anymore,” she noted. “If you’re on soft money and your grant got clawed back and your position is now in question, you may not want to go ahead with a project.”

Then are lingering workforce issues affecting the entire construction sector, said the partners, adding that, as long-time staff members retire — and several of them have in recent years — replacing them is becoming increasingly challenging.

And workforce is an issue at a company that self-performs much of its work as opposed to construction managing and subbing the work out to others, as Cook explained.

“We self-perform everything from demo to framing to painting, and we do that for quality control,” she noted. “We could sub things out more, and we could then do more projects and increase our capacity, but we feel like we would lose a handle on the quality. So the side effect of that is that we have to schedule things out a little farther.

“We want to staff the project with capable, skilled carpenters and the right helpers with them,” she went on, adding that staffers often get to work on a project from start to finish, rather than just take a small segment of the work.

Flanders noted the firm works with two schools — Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School and South Hadley High School — that have co-op programs, and they have introduced dozens of students to the field through those initiatives and gained several employees in the process.

“It’s proven to be a good pipeline … we currently have four current carpenters on our staff that have come through those programs over the years,” she noted, adding that, overall, finding skilled labor has been a stern challenge in recent years.

“We often joke here … where did the 30- to 50-year-olds go? We don’t know — they’re disappearing,” she said. “Getting people who actually have experience is pretty challenging. We’ve found a few over the past few years, which is great, but it’s few and far between.”

And workforce plays a huge role in both long-term plans for continued growth and shorter-term efforts to slot in a broad mix of projects large, small, and in between.

“We have a full pipeline of projects,” said Flanders, noting that some of these initiatives have been in the discussion stage for months or even years, and others just a few days or weeks, and they’re handled as quickly as workforce, materials, and other factors will allow. “Some people take their time and don’t move as fast; other people move fast, and then we have a backlog.”

Cook concurred. “Because we’re in a college town, we call it our ‘rolling admissions policy,’” she said. “When you’re ready to send the contract, you get the next spot on the schedule.”

To continue this use of higher-ed terminology, it’s fair to say Cook and Flanders have more than made the grade as business owners and key players in this challenging industry.

Westfield Finds Ways to Raise Its Profile

By
Mayor Michael McCabe
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Mayor Michael McCabe

Mayor Michael McCabe says it’s important to expand the tax rolls with both new businesses and housing growth.

Westfield Mayor Michael McCabe is a believer in business growth — specifically, bringing new businesses to the city to boost the tax base and general vibrancy. But for every opportunity, there’s a challenge.

For example, “how do we balance the environment with new growth? Our north side pretty much all sits above an aquifer system, which has caused us some angst because most of the land that we have for economic development and growth is on the north side.

“So if you’re trying to be respectful of your aquifer and at the same time trying to figure out how you get new growth, it’s an interesting scenario,” he went on. “As you know, new growth is one of the things that actually funds the city. It’s where you get new tax revenue from, so you don’t have to tax your residents more.”

“Elm Street Plaza has really worked out beyond our expectations.”

That said, while this city — the region’s fourth-most populous and one of the largest geographically in the state — has seen new businesses lay down roots, from several new restaurants downtown to industrial businesses on the north side, what’s been happening at the municipal level has made the biggest news lately, including:

• The completion of the five-year Cowles Bridge replacement project on Routes 10 and 202, which should be finished by Sept. 25;

• A planned reimagining and redesign of Mass Pike exit 41 — funded by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation — that aims create a more motorist- and resident-friendly traffic pattern involving three roundabouts;

• A coming new Police Department headquarters on Union Street, expected to be open by the end of 2027; and

• Elm Street Plaza, a gathering and performance space that has not only drawn both city residents and visitors to Westfield’s downtown for events, but opened up much-needed parking for retail shop and restaurant owners;

“Elm Street Plaza has really worked out beyond our expectations,” McCabe said, “with the amount of events and the amount of use it gets, and the amount of free parking it has, so merchants can have customers in and out who don’t have to worry about trying to find parking.”

That development has coincided with a number of new restaurants downtown, offering culinary diversity to the central district, he added.

“If you’re looking for something to eat and you don’t want traditional America cuisine, you have Spanish, you have Italian, you have Turkish, you have Ukrainian, you have Slavic, you have Polish, you have Vietnamese … I mean, you have a pretty eclectic mix, all within a tenth of a mile.”

Amanda Waterfield

Amanda Waterfield says events in Westfield, from Friday night concerts to Starfires games, have a multiplier effect when visitors stay in the city to eat and drink.

The downtown will also play host to a welcome-back party for Westfield State University students, one way the city is trying to connect the school to its downtown, McCabe added. “I think there’s a realization that vibrancy begins with people walking around downtown.”

Amanda Waterfield, who has been executive director of the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce for just over two years, echoed the mayor’s focus on hospitality businesses, noting that the chamber is planning a Restaurant Week this Nov. 4-9, featuring menu specials, unique promos, and other activities aimed at raising the profile of participating eateries just before the start of the holiday retail season.

Noting about 70 restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, and other culinary businesses in Westfield and Southwick, Waterfield said she’d like to see at least a third of them participate, and then grow the event from there in subsequent years.

“And I really would like to reach out beyond Westfield,” she added. “I’d like everybody in the Valley to think of Westfield as a destination.”

 

On the Right Track

Westfield Gas & Electric (WG&E) adopts the same philosophy on the importance of growth, which partly explains its launch, a decade ago, of Whip City Fiber, which has now completed wiring the entire city for high-speed internet, and also serves 23 other communities, including the region’s hilltowns as well as East Longmeadow and, most recently, West Springfield, where it has begun to build out infrastructure.

That has brought in significant revenue, and the WG&E is using some of it — $15 million over 15 years, in fact — to pay the city’s bond (with interest) for an $11 million athletic complex at Westfield High School, which broke ground last month.

“My overall goal is to see downtown thrive. Restaurants are a wonderful draw, but we need more than just restaurants. We need more things for people to do when they come into town. I’d love there to be a little more retail to draw folks in and keep their dollars local.”

“It’s a stadium with a full collegiate track, lights, and turf fields,” said Tom Flaherty, general manager of WG&E, noting that the field will be used for football, men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse, field hockey, and more, while a second multi-purpose field, without lights, is being developed behind the school for overflow events; the softball field is being turfed as well.

“We’re really planning for the future with something all of Westfield can use — people of all ages, including senior citizens, who can walk on the track at night safely,” he noted. “I see that all the time in Southwick; a great deal of people use the track they put in about 10 years ago.”

In addition, Flaherty noted, “the fields are for everyone, from youth soccer and youth football all the way to potentially having a revenue stream for the school athletic department by leasing it out to private club teams.”

Westfield Gas & Electric

Westfield Gas & Electric hosted a groundbreaking last month for an $11 million athletic complex at Westfield High School.

McCabe agreed that the benefits of the project are many, and would include the potential of hosting regional tournaments on both the high school and collegiate levels, possibly working with Westfield State University — all of which would bring more visitors to the city, in the same way the Westfield Starfires, now winding down their seventh season of play in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, or the city’s 14 municipal pickleball courts, have done.

“The greater the exposure to Westfield, the greater commerce there is in the city,” the mayor added. “And it’s not all Westfield residents. People will stop by one of the cafés downtown, or have a drink with their friends afterward, and all of those things are very good, obviously, for the city. So that’s what we’re trying to embrace.”

Waterfield added that Elm Street Plaza has enhanced Westfield’s visibility as a cultural focal point; in fact, the city received a Massachusetts Cultural Council designation last fall.

That’s important, she said, because it brings in marketing dollars to organizations working collectively to raise the city’s profile. For example, an organization called Artworks Westfield puts on eight Friday nights concerts at the plaza during the summer, all free to the public.

Westfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1669
Population: 40,834
Area: 47.4 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $15.18
Commercial Tax Rate: $29.17
Median Household Income: $45,240
Median Family Income: $55,327
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Westfield State University, Baystate Noble Hospital, Mestek Inc., Savage Arms Inc., Advance Manufacturing Co.
* Latest information available

“Those seem to be drawing folks in,” she said. “It’s just a good time on a Friday night — bring your lawn chair, there’s food trucks, there’s beer trucks. It’s very family-friendly. I see people with their dogs.”

The prevailing theme with many of these efforts is to get people to notice Westfield — and come back.

“I think if you’re from Westfield, you know what we have to offer here. There’s a lot here,” Waterfield said. “But people might think, ‘I’m from Longmeadow; am I going to make the trek to Westfield?’ Well, yes, actually, you should. You know, come on Thursday to the farmers market and then stay for dinner. Come on Friday and have dinner beforehand and then go to a concert. Go see a baseball game.”

What visitors find, she added, is that Westfield has numerous important elements that contribute to a robust community, from Westfield State University to Baystate Noble Hospital to Barnes Municipal Airport (and the Air National Guard’s 104th Tactical Fighter Group, which recently procured new F-35 fighter jets) to a river and a rail trail.

In addition, “I’m encouraged by the lack of crime downtown, which is wonderful,” she said. “And I give the big businesses downtown credit for being here. The banks, the Gas & Electric, they don’t have to be downtown, but they choose to support the community by having a really visible, meaningful presence here.”

McCabe also praised the Police Department’s work, not only in crime prevention, but being visible to residents, just one more factor in why Westfield has a strong housing market.

“People want to live here,” the mayor said, but, like virtually every town in Western Mass., Westfield needs more housing stock. “We’ve looked at two spaces on the north side for multi-use housing, and we’re hopeful that we were going to see some help from the state in terms of grant funding from the Massachusetts Housing and Livable Communities office.”

 

Local Focus

Waterfield said she’s made progress in her goal to engage more businesses with the chamber; membership was under 200 when she came on board, but is at 258 now, and her goal is 275 by year’s end.

“That’s partly what I hope Restaurant Week will do, give community members an idea that the chamber is here to support the businesses and ultimately improve the state of living in the city.”

She and her team also updated the chamber’s strategic plan last year, and moving the chamber offices to a downtown storefront has been a plus as well.

“My overall goal is to see downtown thrive. Restaurants are a wonderful draw, but we need more than just restaurants. We need more things for people to do when they come into town. I’d love there to be a little more retail to draw folks in and keep their dollars local,” she told BusinessWest.

The mayor was quick to run down why people might want to move to Westfield, from the ones already mentioned — the university, the community hospital — to recreation opportunities.

“We have Stanley Park, which is 225 acres of preserve. And there are plenty of venues to go to now where the kids can play. The parks have been brought back up to speed to where they’re supposed to be. Our municipal parks have pickleball and tennis courts and baseball fields and softball fields.

“And we have good service organizations — the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Westfield do phenomenal work,” he added. “So I think we’re doing pretty well.”

BusinessTalk with Lindsay LaBonte, Branch Manager and Senior Loan Officer, HMA Mortgage

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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 239: August 4, 2025

Joe Bednar Interviews Lindsay LaBonte, Branch Manager and Senior Loan Officer, HMA Mortgage

With almost 20 years of experience in the mortgage lending industry, Lindsay LaBonte (a BusinessWest 40 Under Forty honoree in 2018) has become one of the Western Mass. region’s most prolific loan originators. But it’s about more than numbers, she says, emphasizing elements of her job like relationship building and financial education for clients who are often navigating the homebuying process for the first time — at a particularly challenging time for buyers, for many reasons. On the next episode of BusinessTalk, LaBonte, branch manager and senior loan officer with HMA Mortgage, talks with BusinessWest Editor Joe Bednar about the many aspects of her job, how she and her team prioritize community involvement in myriad ways — from philanthropy and volunteerism to a new program called Local Love Days — and why it’s still so gratifying to help people achieve the dream of homeownership. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest.

Also Available On

Senior Planning Guide 2025

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Senior Planning Special Coverage Special Publications

When BusinessWest and the Healthcare News first started publishing an annual Senior Planning Guide, the idea wasn’t to create a roadmap to the end of life, though it could, in some sense, be described as such. Along with information about financial planning, care options, and family conversations, the idea was also to express that the retirement years should be a rich, rewarding, and robust time. It’s a topic of interest for an increasing number of individuals and families. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans age 65 and older — which was 35 million in 2000, just 12% of the population — will reach 74 million by 2030, or 21% of U.S. residents. That’s a lot of people. And a lot of planning. And a lot of living left to enjoy. In this year’s guide, we bring you perspectives on everything from Medicare plans, food insecurity, and important health issues, like stroke, to local options for in-home care, adult day programs, and more, as well as why it’s so imortant to stay active and have fun well into the retirement years. In short, stories about the questions families are grappling with every day. After all, these years should be an enjoyable time, highlighted by special moments with family and friends, the freedom to engage in a range of activities, maybe even a chance to develop new interests and hobbies. Hopefully, the 2025 Senior Planning Guide will be a helpful resource in that process.    

 

Go HERE to view the Digital Interactive 2025 Senior Planning Guide

 

The Serious Business of Joy

Why Having Fun Is Essential to Healthy Aging >> Read More

 

A Shared Responsibility

Let’s Work Together to Address Senior Food Insecurity   >> Read More

 

Decisions, Decisions

What to Look for in Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans  >> Read More

  

Having the Talk

Ten Tips on How to Approach a Difficult Topic  >> Read More

 

Opening Hearts and Homes

Adult Family Care Offers Numerous Benefits  >>  Read More

 

Benefits of In-home Care

How It Supports Independence for Older Adults  >> Read More

 

Keeping the Pace

Mercy LIFE Aims to Improve Seniors’ Overall Wellness  >>  Read More

 

All About Stroke

The Medical Emergency That Doesn’t Discriminate  >> Read More

 

The Basics of IRMAA

How Does This Surcharge Impact Your Medicare?  >> Read More

 

Senior Resources

These Nonprofits Can Help Families with Care Planning  >> Read More

 

Linda Dulye Envisions Harmony Between Technology, Human Connection

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Features Special Coverage

The Blended Workplace

As companies grapple with the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and other disruptive technologies, the conversations tend to focus on productivity and efficiency.

Linda Dulye wants companies to think about something else: the human element.

“I’ve seen it in my clients; there’s this rush, this FOMO — ‘we’ve got to get this injection of AI,’” she told BusinessWest, using the popular acronym for ‘fear of missing out.’ “This reminds me a lot of when I was working with General Electric and also AlliedSignal — when Lean and Six Sigma were unfolding, we were on the front end of it; we were the pioneers. And there was this rush.”

And her current concern surrounding AI is the same concern she had then — and has expressed with clients over the years when discussing those efficiency models — which is whether the human element is being squeezed out of the discussion.

“You can come in with all the tools, all the technology that is going to improve processes, and we’re going to take what was 10 steps down to three steps, but that can be daunting and scary for many people. So you still have to have a degree of human connection, collaboration, and communication.

“A lot of my work has been centered on, how do we get people to understand the new technology that’s coming in? Automatically there’s a barrier — ‘we’ve been doing this for 10 years; what do you mean I have to change?’”

Dulye — who launched her management consultancy, Dulye & Co., in 1998 to help business leaders and their organizations cultivate cultures where people want to stay and grow — has turned her thoughts on the coming AI revolution into a concept called the Blended Workplace, which she calls a “human-centered approach that harmonizes the benefits of advanced technology with the in-the-moment power of digital minimalism.”

In short, she said a technology-first, people-second mindset is costing companies dearly and pulling leaders away from making critical investments in human connection and communication.

“You can come in with all the tools, all the technology that is going to improve processes, and we’re going to take what was 10 steps down to three steps, but that can be daunting and scary for many people.”

“AI is essential for business success — so is human interaction,” Dulye notes on her website. “The current AI surge feels eerily similar to the Lean and Six Sigma boom. Back then, companies realized that even the most powerful productivity tools couldn’t succeed without real, person-to-person communication. The same holds true today: when workplace connections erode, so do trust and teamwork.”

In a wide-ranging conversation with BusinessWest recently, she explained that people love new bells and whistles in, say, their cars, but not so much at work.

“That’s kind of scary for many people. So that’s why I developed this concept of the Blended Workplace — it’s helping organizations understand they’ve got to devote time with human beings, helping them understanding why we’re doing this, showing them how this augments their skills and doesn’t make them obsolete.”

Linda Dulye

Linda Dulye says any process improvement has to be accompanied by human connection, collaboration, and communication.

On the contrary, the goal is to show team members how to adapt to new technology and new models and make themselves even more valuable to the company.

“That’s ultimately what we’d love to have people do. But we all don’t operate the same,” Dulye went on. “It’s not like flicking a switch and saying, ‘OK, on Monday, we’re going to be utilizing this new AI technology,’ and you’re like, ‘wait, what? What’s going on?’ We want to help people understand why we’re doing it, what it means to them in their job, and how to get comfortable with it. You have to help people.”

 

Change Agent

The Blended Workplace fits well with the overarching philosophy of Dulye & Co., a concept (and movement) known as the Spectator-Free Workplace, which emphasizes investments in human connection and communication in the workplace — in short, being engaged at work and not just a spectator.

Dulye’s new message with the Blended Workforce concept is underscored by a few insights:

• Employee fatigue is real. Endless screen time and nonstop notifications are burning employees out. Her company’s research shows employee engagement is steadily declining, echoing Gallup’s report of a 10-year low in 2024. Making matters worse, only 56% of employees believe their leaders genuinely care about their well-being, according to a Deloitte survey.

• Gen Z, in particular, is unplugging. The rising generation of professionals values authenticity and meaningful relationships over algorithms. CNBC reports that Gen Z craves in-person interaction — especially new graduates, who’d rather learn company norms from colleagues than scroll TikTok.

• Connection drives performance. Whether in person or with cameras on, face-to-face interaction builds trust, ignites creativity, and strengthens accountability.

One Dulye & Co. client boosted engagement and productivity by more than 50% in less than a year simply by transforming team meetings with no-frills fixes like employees helping to set agendas, tackling tough issues head-on, and recognizing peer contributions, she noted.

“We want to help people understand why we’re doing it, what it means to them in their job, and how to get comfortable with it. You have to help people.”

Meanwhile, Dulye told BusinessWest, workers from different generations have different responses to — and tolerances of — major change, especially technological change, in the workplace.

“There’s always a new wave. Do you remember when computers happened? I’m old enough to remember the pink slip. I came in my office — I was a reporter then — and saw who called, and now I had to return a call. Well, the person who wrote that doesn’t exist anymore. And neither does the pink slip.”

The idea, she went on, is that change of any kind is constant in the workplace, and in the rush to apply new tools and technologies to be more efficient, companies aren’t spending enough time on the people side to help everyone navigate change — especially dramatic change like AI, which is much more disruptive than ditching written phone messages.

“These tools are only effective when people are working collaboratively, when they understand them together,” she explained. “We all are gaining efficiencies with these new tools that help us work better together collectively, not just individually. So you’ve got to spend time as a team really figuring out, how do we work these tools into our own practices? And that involves communication between team members.”

Moreover, Dulye added, “we’ve got to understand all the different nuances that affect learning it, applying it, and feeling comfortable enough that I want to advance this; you’re going to have different roadblocks than me, just because of our experiences. But that’s the kind of discussion a team needs to do together. Leaders need to spend time helping their organizations know why we are doing this.”

Dulye said there’s an opportunity to promote this kind of conversation with Gen Z, whom many people assume want to live behind screens — a stereotype she said isn’t true. “I feel bad for this generation because they actually want more connections than maybe Boomers do or or some of Gen X.”

But connections are harder in general during the new age of remote and (more commonly) hybrid schedules, which make it more of a challenge for leaders to promote communication in the office. But she said hybrid arrangements are a net positive in many ways.

“I think the flexibility factor is strong. Unless you do a lot of work in manufacturing, or have a job where you have to physically be there — like hospitality — I think you have to have a hybrid schedule. I see models where having an in-person requirement on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday is very effective.

“It’s not just getting people to come in, but being very deliberate and intentional about what we are doing to create more team-based experiences.”

“But here’s the thing,” she went on. “Just because we’re coming in doesn’t mean we’re working more collaboratively together. Just coming in doesn’t mean you and I will cross paths. So it’s not just getting people to come in, but being very deliberate and intentional about what we are doing to create more team-based experiences.”

That goes back to Dulye’s original business concept, the Spectator-Free Workplace.

“People want experiences at work that make them feel, one, I’m valued; two, I really like the team I’m with; and three, I really do like the company I work for. But it takes an experience. If you’re still operating on routines that you’ve been doing the last five years, that’s building a spectator-filled workplace. And it’s not beneficial. It’s just people coming into work, showing their faces, and really not interacting. So I’m all for the hybrid workplace — with very intentional team experiences.”

 

Beyond Meetings

Dulye concedes, of course, that hybrid schedules create a more challenging environment for business leaders when it comes to in-office interaction, but that it’s still possible to create a healthy, connected workplace even if employees are at home part of the time.

One strategy are team meetings where everyone is expected to contribute.

“It’s not OK to have a team meeting where three people out of 20 are talking, and everyone else just sits there doing something else, and says, ‘yeah, pass, I have nothing going on.’ Really? If you’re paying me and one week has gone by and I have no new information to contribute to my team, there’s something wrong. That’s not acceptable,” she said.

“If you’re getting together as a team once a week for 30 minutes, everyone’s got to bring something they learned, maybe something they didn’t expect that happened, maybe even just a recognition of a team member, but everyone has to contribute. You don’t get a pass.”

Getting back to communication around AI, she said some employees are worried about the implications on job security, but those concerns existed when Lean and Six Sigma came into being as well.

“People were all concerned about, ‘well, if we take 10 steps and go to five, how many jobs is that?’ So this is not new. I think people need to understand this is not a new phenomenon. People have always been fearful that technology can reduce jobs when it makes work more efficient.

“Again, it’s how do you see yourself being able to utilize that technology in a role that you still want? Or, maybe you want to think about a new role that requires skill sets you have and want to grow, but maybe isn’t as affected by AI. I mean, AI won’t affect us all at the same rate. It affects us all, but by different degrees.”

Walt Tomala Helps Students Discover Passion for Construction

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Walt Tomala (center) with apprentices Ben Harrington (left) and Matt Ganhao.
Construction Special Coverage

Spark of Youth

Walt Tomala (center) with apprentices Ben Harrington (left) and Matt Ganhao.

Walt Tomala (center) with apprentices Ben Harrington (left) and Matt Ganhao.

 

While he was already interested in the construction field, Matt Ganhao had never actually been on a job site before starting a co-op with TNT General Contracting in Westfield, which he procured through the Lower Pioneer Valley Career Technical Education Center, or CTEC.

“I was really excited — it was a new experience for me,” he told BusinessWest. “Once I finally got to work out in the field and actually get to see what goes into building a deck or building stairs, doing a roof, whatever, it really sparked something in my mind that maybe this is something that I want to do. And then, as I kept working my co-op apprenticeship, I decided I want to go full-time.”

That’s music to the ears of Walt Tomala, president of TNT, who has brought a number of teenagers onto job sites for lengthy co-op experiences in order to introduce them to a career path that, both locally and nationally, is in desperate need of young talent, as retirements continue to outpace new workers.

Tomala understands a youthful passion for this work; he started his company right out of high school and has done everything from changing screen doors to large remodels, additions, new homes, and even two Extreme Makeover builds.

“We’ve tried different strategies and different business models,” he explained. “And one that I just kept coming back to is working with our youth. Someone put some time and energy into me and helped me along the way, and if I didn’t have that, I don’t know that I’d be here and still loving the industry the way I do, or as passionate about it.”

“Once I finally got to work out in the field and actually get to see what goes into building a deck or building stairs, doing a roof, whatever, it really sparked something in my mind that maybe this is something that I want to do.”

Ben Harrington will be entering his junior year at Westfield Technical Academy this fall and already has real-world construction experience outside the shop environment at school.

“I just like being out here, working on different things, learning new skills — and I feel like being in this trade is very good for me,” he said, adding that it’s beneficial to learn from both teachers in school and construction professionals on job sites. “It’s good to know multiple people’s ways. If I ask Walt questions, he’ll give me different answers than somebody else, but if I listen to both answers, it helps me a lot. And it feels good knowing I’m doing something right for Walt.”

And that’s one thing Tomala emphasizes with his apprentices — the gratification of a job well done and understanding the why as much as the how.

“We do certain things all day, every day, and it can feel like the same thing over and over. But we take the time and make it our mission to make sure everybody understands why we’re doing this and why it’s so important,” he explained.

“They have to understand the passion that we have,” he went on. “No employee is ever going to be as passionate as you are about your business, but they can be as passionate about the industry. And it may mean they move on and start their own company or become a subcontractor. Or it may mean they just really embrace our beliefs and passions and then stay with us for as long as they choose to. There’s plenty of room for growth.”

Ganhao, who graduated from both West Springfield-based CTEC and Ludlow High School this past spring, is already convinced.

“I don’t really want to go to school and learn a different trade; I did decide that I want to go full-time,” he said. “It’s a new experience, and it’s something that not everyone’s going to like. But if you’re interested in the industry, this is something you should try out.”

Walt Tomala gives some instruction to Ben Harrington on a job site in Westfield.

Walt Tomala gives some instruction to Ben Harrington on a job site in Westfield.

When he was 16, Tomala said, he didn’t know if this was the industry for him; he needed exposure and experience.

“These young people should have an opportunity to really learn, and not just be kind of barked orders at. They’re full employees, on payroll, and we also teach them the whole finance component — how to open up checking accounts, getting direct deposits. So we’re preparing them for the real world, no matter what they choose to do. And hopefully, it’s construction.”

 

Desire to Inspire

Tomala has served in leadership with local, state, and national trade organizations, with the overall goal of “just kind of making sure that we’re all doing things the right way, the proper way.”

And building things to code is only the bare minimum, he added. “It’s like graduating with a D. You still pass, but did you do a great job? Our focus is showing everybody that it doesn’t have to be difficult — that it really can be an easy transition to just doing things better. It’s about collaborating with the right manufacturers and the right products and finding the systems that really work for you.”

That philosophy carries over to the way he mentors young people in the field. “I think my message to other builders out there is, take the time; put the energy in. Don’t show them just how to dig a hole, but why we dig that hole and, better yet, the importance of doing it right before we have to dig a hole. Make sure the foundation’s sealed correctly; make sure the roof is put on with all the right underlayments; make sure the windows are taped and sealed.

“Someone put some time and energy into me and helped me along the way, and if I didn’t have that, I don’t know that I’d be here and still loving the industry the way I do, or as passionate about it.”

“I’ve found, throughout my years, that a lot of times, we get some older people in the industry who just wanted to do a job. They didn’t want to learn how. So I sit on the board for three trade schools [Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy in Springfield is the third] because I want these young folks while they’re fresh, while they’re still excited. And the program we implement is, ‘hey, come on board. Come on for the summer; see if you like it. You’re in a trade school right now, but you might not know if this is the industry for you.’”

The backdrop to all these efforts, of course, is a persistent shortage of construction talent, which is why Tomala values apprenticeship.

“It’s not just important; it’s critical. I think we’ve been talking about this as an industry for 15 years,” he said, noting that Fine Homebuilding magazine has a program called Keep the Craft Alive, through which contractors donate funds to help support trade schools and improve their offerings.

“We’re now at a point where most of my subcontractors are going to age out and retire, and we just don’t have enough of the youth understanding how important this industry is, how rewarding it is, and how you can make an extremely good living here,” he said.

Matt Ganhao checks out a residential basement crack.

Matt Ganhao checks out a residential basement crack.

“It’s not like, ‘oh, you’re a roofer, so you’re only going to get paid so much,’” he went on. “No, there’s a really, really good paycheck at the end of the day, especially when you know what you’re doing and you deliver on the expectations. And that’s why it’s so important to know what the client wants and to be able to deliver on that. I’m not saying it’s the right fit for everybody, but I want to remind the world that the are companies out here taking the reins and giving these young folks an opportunity.”

 

World of Experience

Tomala said his influence on local young people interested in construction started with visits to the trade schools.

“They wanted someone to come in and talk, to just inspire students overall. And that worked out pretty nicely. I’d spend two hours with the students, and I enjoyed it,” he recalled. “But it wasn’t until after COVID that I was like, you know what? I get to see these kids for a day, but there should be more of a connection, and there should be more of an avenue for them to get to us.

“So I sat down with a lot of the teachers and said, ‘this is what I want to do, this is what I want my business model to be, and is there an opportunity for us to collaborate and to bring students on?’” I also said, ‘I don’t want to stop them from going to other places as well, but I’d like them to have an opportunity to interview with me, to just sit down to see if we’re a good fit or not.’”

“There’s a really, really good paycheck at the end of the day, especially when you know what you’re doing and you deliver on the expectations. And that’s why it’s so important to know what the client wants and to be able to deliver on that.”

He had nothing but praise for the teachers and programs in those schools. “Students are coming out with real knowledge. They’ve got some really great, committed teachers who are getting that curriculum going and inspiring the youth coming through that program.”

Ganhao said his classmates in Ludlow have been curious about his real-world experience.

“I’ve been asked questions like, ‘is that something you’re going to do for the rest of your life? Are you just doing it just for the heck of it? What’s up with that?’ And I feel like kids are missing out on the opportunities,” he said. “I feel like it should be more publicized because a lot of kids do want to try out a trade.”

Tomala it’s easy to become passionate about construction on actual job sites, finishing real projects. He was working with Ganhao and Harrington on a home in Westfield the day they spoke with BusinessWest, repairing a basement leak and replacing windows and shutters; a third apprentice, also from Westfield Technical Academy, wasn’t on the job that day.

“I think it’s rewarding for them to be able to start something and finish it and see that completed project because, often in the school system, they don’t get to complete a project in full,” Tomala noted. “And they’re learning how to work with each other in different skill sets and different personalities. They’re all having such a good time doing it, and it’s just such a good experience overall.

“I want them to form relationships and friendships and to just understand that the client is a human being — everything we do, whether it’s a deck or a whole house, is for somebody else,” he added. “It might be a small project to us, but it’s their entire world at one point in time. So they get that feeling of satisfaction and camaraderie, understanding how important it is to the client.”

And, hopefully, they find a passion they can turn into a career, in a field where young talent remains elusive.

“Just being able to see the customer at the end, satisfied with our work,” Ganhao added, “it’s something else.”

Easthampton Grapples with Growing Pains

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Burns Maxey in the balcony of the second-floor performance space.
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Burns Maxey in the balcony of the second-floor performance space.

Burns Maxey in the balcony of the second-floor performance space.

An architect’s rendering of the new entrance and elevator at Old Town Hall, home to CitySpace.

An architect’s rendering of the new entrance and elevator at Old Town Hall, home to CitySpace.

Salem Derby says he certainly didn’t see this coming.

Easthampton’s City Council President was at a meeting with Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, executive assistant Lindsi Sekula, and City Solicitor Mark Tanner, expecting conversation about municipal matters, when LaChapelle informed him that she would leaving to become the state’s Conservation and Recreation commissioner. And he would be serving as interim mayor.

“It was a complete surprise, and it was really quick — she said she’d be leaving in six days,” said Derby, an elementary school teacher, adding that he plans to be in City Hall something approaching full time this summer, but will maneuver around his classroom schedule once school starts, working afternoons, weekends, and in the morning if needed.

He’ll only be in the corner office until the November election (he won’t be a candidate for the job), and over the next four and a half months, he plans to provide stability, keep things running “as drama-free and interference-free as possible,” and, well, keep the ball rolling, if you will.

Indeed, Easthampton is a community in demand, and it has been this way for a while now, a pattern that brings with it some opportunities, but also stern challenges, as Derby, who has been on the council for more than 20 years, well knows.

“Housing is huge — the ability for people to find affordable housing is something I’ve been focused on the entire time I’ve been on the council,” he said, adding that the challenge extends across the housing spectrum, from potential homebuyers facing spiraling prices and limited inventory to renters in some of the bigger complexes — many of which have been sold to larger corporations — encountering increases that are pretty significant.

“There was a large group of renters and tenants outside of City Hall yesterday; they had a meeting and a little bit of a rally,” he explained. “There’s a push for the council to help the Legislature push for rent control.”

This housing crunch, and LaChapelle’s exit for the State House, are just two of the many converging story lines in Easthampton. Others include:

• Several projects in various stages of development to bring more housing on the market. These include, as we’ll see, everything from conversion of three closed elementary schools to the reimagining of more former mills;

• The start of redevelopment of the Tasty Top site on Route 10, a highly anticipated and somewhat controversial project that begins with a new Greenfield Savings Bank branch and also includes a gymnastics center, a daycare facility, retail, and a large residential component;

• The start of the second phase of redevelopment of the old Town Hall into CitySpace, what its leaders call a “thriving arts ecosystem.” This phase includes a new entranceway and elevator that will open the door, quite literally, to phase 3, renovations to the second-floor auditorium for concerts and other performances and events;

• New leadership at the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce. Jon Kostek took the helm almost two months ago, and has established goals to continue growing membership; bring more users to WorkHub on Union, a co-working space at the chamber offices that opened roughly a year ago; and make more and better use of digital platforms to promote the chamber and its services, and, hopefully, engage more young business owners;

• Zoning changes to accommodate short-term rentals, a move that brings the community in line with what most other cities and towns have done and helps meet recognized need; and

• Plans for a new music performance venue at the site of a former massage school, an undertaking being spearheaded by the Heavy Culture Cooperative, a project that will, with the nearby CitySpace, create more vibrancy in the downtown area and serve to connect the downtown with the neighboring mills and the cultural activities taking place there.

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at Easthampton and how it continues to be in demand and cope with its growing pains.

 

Supply and Demand

Allyson Manuel was drawn to Easthampton by its many selling points — a vibrant arts community, an increasingly eclectic downtown area, a small-city feel, recreation, and more.

Formerly town planner in West Springfield, she and her husband settled here five years ago after considering several potential landing spots, and she became the city’s director of Planning and Community Development last December.

She can attest to spiraling home prices and a shortage of inventory, and how this surge is creating challenges.

“There’s a lot of demand. A lot of people want to be here, which is wonderful; it’s clearly indicative of a good quality of life and quality of place,” she told BusinessWest. “But it does come with challenges. Affordability is an issue for anyone looking to buy a house anywhere right now, but especially in Easthampton and Hampshire County.

“So, we’re reckoning with that and also with making sure we’re not pricing out residents that have been here for many, many years,” she went on. “And for the rental market, there’s been quite a pinch.”

“There’s a lot of demand. A lot of people want to be here, which is wonderful; it’s clearly indicative of a good quality of life and quality of place. But it does come with challenges. Affordability is an issue for anyone looking to buy a house anywhere right now, but especially in Easthampton and Hampshire County.”

Indeed, the housing market in the community is exceedingly tight across the board, and both Manuel and Derby hope and expect that the many projects promising to bring a mix of housing will serve to loosen things up a little.

Projects in various stages of development include Growing Green, a rural project just off Main Street, an initiative slowed by an appeal filed by neighbors but still progressing, with the number of planned units reduced from 87 to the mid-60s, said Manuel, adding that another project involves development of more property within the massive Ferry Street complex, specifically Building 11, where 96 units of housing are planned.

An architect’s rendering of the residential component slated to be built on the site of the former Tasty Top on Route 10.

An architect’s rendering of the residential component slated to be built on the site of the former Tasty Top on Route 10.

Another initiative involves redevelopment of the former Notre Dame Church and surrounding properties on Pleasant Street into approximately 42 ‘townhouse’ units, said Manuel, adding that several of these units will be in the church itself.

“I think those will be really cool units when they’re done,” she said, adding that other structures on the property will be razed to make way for new construction.

At the 34-acre Tasty Top site, housing (more than 200 planned apartments, a mix of market rate and affordable) is one of many components to a project being undertaken by developer Frank DeMarinis, said Derby, adding that more than 100 units are expected to be created through redevelopment of the three shuttered elementary schools.

These projects and other smaller initiatives are expected to make a real dent in overall need, he went on, and relieve pressure on existing inventory.

“Once all these are completed, I think the amount of housing in Easthampton will increase so significantly that I’m hoping it will make a real impact on affordability and access to quality housing,” the interim mayor said. “I’m hoping this can potentially be a catalyst for people who need affordable housing and maybe take a little pressure of some of the other units in Easthampton.”

Manuel agreed. “We have some challenges ahead of us, absolutely, but we also have a strong foundation that not all communities have to work from,” she said. “We have a lot of social capital — people that live in the city are very involved, they care about their neighbors, they care about the well-being of the city at large. And that goes a long way toward solving these types of problems. I don’t think it will happen overnight, but the fact that people care enough is a really valuable tool to have in the toolbox.”

 

Art and Soul

As she walked with BusinessWest up to the balcony of the auditorium in the old Town Hall, Burns Maxey gestured with her hand to the space below.

“You can imagine the possibilities,” she said of this space, which has sat idle for the better part of a decade and a half now.

The key to unlocking its full potential as a resource for the community is accessibility, said Maxey, who was honored by BusinessWest with its Difference Makers award in 2023 for her efforts to transform the landmark, opened in 1869, into CitySpace, adding that such access is at the heart of phase 2 of the ongoing project.

Designed by Amherst-based Kuhn Riddle Architects and construction work being handled by West Springfield-based Keiter, the $3.9 million project to build a new entrance and elevator is expected to take about 18 months, said Maxey, adding that, as this initiative is undertaken, a capital campaign continues to raise funds for the third phase.

Jon Kostek

Jon Kostek says one of his goals for the Greater Easthampton Chamber is growth of its WorkHub on Union.

Backing up a little, she said phase 1 included infrastructure work and conversion of the ground floor into an arts hub, with performance space (an area called the Blue Room) and several tenants, including Big Red Frame, a gallery, and Easthampton City Arts, the arts organization within the city’s Planning Department.

Phase 2 has been in the planning stages for several years and was delayed somewhat by bids for construction that came in higher than originally anticipated. With additional support in the form of an underutilized properties grant from MassDevelopment, the agency went out to bid again, with Keiter prevailing.

Easthampton at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1785
Population: 16,211
Area: 13.6 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential Tax Rate: $13.67
Commercial Tax Rate: $13.67
Median Household Income: $45,185
Median Family Income: $54,312
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Berry Plastics Corp., INSA, Williston Northampton School, National Nonwovens Co.

The new entranceway and elevator have been designed to provide access, but also preserve the architectural and historic integrity of the building, said Maxey, including the staircases at the front of the structure, which is similar in many ways to Chicopee’s City Hall and designed by the same architect, Charles Parker.

As for phase 3, the projected cost is expected to approach $7 million, said Maxey, adding that work covers a wide spectrum, including the ceiling, lighting, sound baffling, asbestos remediation, sprinkler and fire suppression systems, bathroom renovations, creation of a green room and offices, and more.

Fundraising continues, and the stated goal is certainly a challenge, but Maxey is confident that the community will continue to support the initiative.

“We have a ways to go — we’re about halfway there,” she conceded, adding that the overall price tag for the project has soared from roughly $6 million to more than $11 million, mostly due to inflation and rising construction costs.

Once funding is secured, she believes phase 3 can be completed in perhaps 18 months, ushering in the next chapter in the story of CitySpace.

 

Making Connections

As for next chapters, the Easthampton chamber is writing itself, with Kostek taking the helm after long-time executive director Moe Belliveau stepped down earlier this year.

Kostek said he was looking for a new challenge after his position with the United States Tennis Assoc. New England was eliminated.

He said his work at the USTA, much of it focused program development for young people, is similar to his new role at the chamber in that they both involve relationship building.

“One of the things I liked most about my work with USTA was meeting people and developing relationships, and I think a lot of these same things apply here, at the chamber … meeting with members and discussing with them what the chamber offers and what we can do moving forward.”

Kostek said he’s spent much of the time since his arrival getting to know the community, meeting with his members, and gauging what they like, dislike, and want more of.

In that last category are face-to-face networking opportunities, he said, adding that he plans to add such events, including After-5s and more Coffee and Connections events at the WorkHub, to the calendar.

Also on his to-do list is growing overall membership and especially membership for WorkHub on Union. The facility has attracted only a few regular users to date, he said, adding that he plans to more aggressively market it across multiple platforms to get the word out.

“It’s a great space, and I think there is a real need for facilities like this,” he said, noting that there are several workstations, as well as a shared conference room, kitchen, and other facilities. “And it’s open 24/7.”

BusinessTalk with Michelle Grout, executive director of the Springfield Business Improvement District

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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 238: July 21, 2025

George O’Brien Interviews Michelle Grout, executive director of the Springfield Business Improvement District

Michelle Grout

It’s called ‘Odyssey.’ That’s the art installation placed this summer in Tower Square Park in Springfield — the one featuring three pigeons around a Campbell’s soup can. It was placed there to turn some heads, generate talk, activate a space, and bring people to the downtown. And it’s doing all of that and more, according to Michelle Grout, executive director of the Springfield Business Improvement District. Overall, ‘Odyssey’ represents just one of the ways the BID is getting creative in its efforts to promote downtown, create vibrancy, and generate economic development, as Grout explains on the next episode of BusinessTalk, hosted by contributing writer George O’Brien. It’s must listening, so tune into BusinessTalk, a podcast presented by BusinessWest.

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What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Means for Taxpayers, Businesses

By Contributor
Accounting and Tax Planning Special Coverage

A Sweeping Tax Overhaul

By Tim Provost, CPA

In a dramatic display of legislative determination, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Trump signed into law, a sweeping tax reform package on July 4. Though stripped of its campaign-era title for procedural reasons, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act represents one of the most comprehensive overhauls of the U.S. tax code since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017.

Packed with both solidified extensions of soon-to-expire provisions and a host of new reforms aimed at individuals and businesses, the legislation reshapes the tax landscape for years to come. It also dramatically curtails green energy tax incentives to offset the substantial cost of these reforms, estimated to exceed $5 trillion over a decade.

 

Making TCJA Permanent

At its core, the bill cements many key provisions of the TCJA that were set to expire at the end of 2025. These include the maintenance of reduced individual income tax brackets (10% to 37%), the higher standard deduction, the elimination of personal exemptions, and the expanded alternative minimum tax thresholds.

The final legislation increases the standard deduction beginning in 2025, setting it at $31,500 for joint filers, $23,625 for heads of household, and $15,750 for single or married individuals filing separately. These figures will continue to be indexed for inflation.

The child tax credit is permanently increased to $2,200 per child, with inflation adjustments and a refundable portion of $1,700 for 2025.

The act also preserves the expanded estate tax exemption at $15 million (indexed for inflation) and makes permanent several itemized deduction limits and changes to the mortgage interest deduction, which will now include mortgage insurance premiums.

Tim Provost“In a move that drastically shifts federal energy policy, the act eliminates or shortens a range of green energy tax credits introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act.”

Tax Relief for Workers and Families

Among the most headline-grabbing provisions are new deductions designed to benefit middle-income earners in specific professions:

• A new tax deduction of up to $25,000 is available for tip income received in specific occupations (excluding highly compensated employees). The deduction begins to phase out at $150,000 of modified adjusted gross income for individuals and $300,000 for joint filers. This deduction is available through 2028.

• Overtime compensation is now partially shielded from taxation, with a deduction capped at $12,500 per taxpayer and income limits similar to those for tips.

• Seniors age 65 and over are eligible for a bonus standard deduction of $6,000 through 2028, subject to income phaseouts.

 

SALT Cap Expansion, Expiration

Long a point of contention, the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap sees a temporary reprieve. The cap is lifted from $10,000 to $40,000 in 2025, increasing slightly each year through 2029, before reverting to the original limit in 2030. However, phaseouts apply for taxpayers with high incomes, starting at a modified adjusted gross income of $500,000.

 

Business Provisions Made Permanent

For businesses, the bill makes several long-advocated provisions permanent:

• It reinstates 100% bonus depreciation for qualified property placed in service after Jan. 19, 2025 and makes it permanent. The bill further includes expanded eligibility for manufacturing property and broader asset classes.

• The bill permanently reinstates full expensing of domestic research and experimental (R&E) costs from 2025. Small business taxpayers with average annual gross receipts of $31 million or less may even retroactively apply this change back to 2022 through amended returns. Taxpayers who previously capitalized R&E costs after Dec. 31, 2021, and before Jan. 1, 2025, may elect to accelerate the remaining deductions for such expenditures over a one-year period or ratably over a two-year period.

• Though the House bill proposed increasing the qualified business income (Sec. 199A) deduction to 23%, the final law keeps it at 20% while expanding phase-out thresholds. The deduction is now permanent.

• The maximum small business expensing (Sec. 179) deduction is increased to $2.5 million, with a phase-out beginning at $4 million of property acquisition.

 

IRS Reform and International Tax Tweaks

The Act terminates the IRS Direct File program, reallocating funds to study a public-private partnership model for free tax filing solutions.

International tax changes include renaming and modifying deductions:

• FDII and GILTI are renamed to FDDEI (foreign-derived deduction eligible income) and NCTI (net CFC tested income), respectively, with corresponding deduction percentages reduced slightly from current levels.

• The base erosion and anti-abuse tax rate is stabilized at 10.5% instead of the scheduled increase to 12.5%.

“Businesses, especially those involved in capital investment and research, will benefit from enhanced expensing rules and the permanence of deductions that had previously been temporary.”

Green Energy Rollbacks: A Major Offset

In a move that drastically shifts federal energy policy, the act eliminates or shortens a range of green energy tax credits introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Clean vehicle credits, residential clean energy credits, alternative fuel infrastructure credits, and energy-efficient home credits are terminated after Dec. 31, 2025 (or slightly later in the Senate compromise).

Notably, the New Markets Tax Credit, supporting low-income investment, was preserved and even made permanent, a lone holdover in an otherwise sweeping repeal of energy-related incentives.

 

Final Thoughts

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act legislation brings a significant degree of clarity and continuity to the federal tax code. By making many provisions of the TCJA permanent and introducing new deductions targeted at workers and families, the law offers both simplification and expanded relief for a broad spectrum of taxpayers.

At the same time, the reduction or elimination of several green energy incentives reflects a reprioritization of fiscal resources aimed at offsetting the cost of these reforms. Businesses, especially those involved in capital investment and research, will benefit from enhanced expensing rules and the permanence of deductions that had previously been temporary.

As the new provisions take effect, taxpayers, advisors, and financial professionals will need to evaluate how the changes impact planning strategies and compliance obligations in both the near and long terms. Continued guidance from the IRS and Treasury will be critical to implementing the new rules effectively and ensuring that both individuals and organizations can make informed decisions under the updated tax framework.

 

Tim Provost, CPA is a partner at MP CPAs. He has more than 15 years of practice in personal and business taxation at both the federal and state levels, as well as experience working with international affiliates on foreign tax issues. He provides consulting and tax solutions to a diverse group of clients, including individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations, and trusts. Provost specializes in working with high-net-worth clients and private equity firms and their owners. He is also a certified valuation analyst who works with clients on the value of a particular business for the purpose of acquisitions, sales, and gift and estate tax purposes, to name a few.

Strengthening the Human Element in Cyber Defense

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Cybersecurity Special Coverage

Sophisticated Game

 

 

There’s no doubt, information security experts say, that people have become more savvy about detecting phishing attacks and other cyber threats.

Unfortunately, the hackers have become more savvy as well — exponentially so, in the era of artificial intelligence — and that’s a problem.

“The risk is getting worse, not better,” Bean said. “The sophistication of the attacks is getting infinitely better, and the variety or complexity of the attacks is getting significantly higher. And a lot of that is driven by AI.”

Elaborating, he explained that there are essentially two types of phishing attacks. One is the bread-and-butter, scattershot attacks that hope to ensnare as many random recipients as possible. And these hackers — many of them operating from foreign countries where English isn’t their first language — are now using AI to craft emails that sound more plausible, and don’t set off the same alarm bells as their cruder predecessors.

“But then there are high-value attacks, which are much more sophisticated and much more intelligent. They’re not just mass attacks sent out to hundreds or thousands or millions of people. They’re targeted attacks,” Bean said — and these employ AI to a troubling degree.

He related a real-life example of a CFO getting an email from a hacker posing as a vendor, urgently asking for a payment, at a time when the CEO was traveling and unavailable (which the hacker knew). To verify the transaction, the hacker set up a Zoom call with what turned out to be a deepfake version of an actual attorney.

“The lawyer says, ‘this is what the money is for; go ahead and wire it.’ And the CFO, at that point, is very comfortable and sends the money, no hesitation,” Bean said. “That kind of deepfake would have been impossible even three years ago; only Hollywood could provide that level of sophistication. But in the last couple of years, it’s so easy. You can get content online, combine it with certain tools, and do some really impressive stuff that’s beyond phishing — it’s straight-up cybercrime.”

Tim Miller, chief Information Security Officer at Community Bank, agreed that malicious AI tools are helping to create perfectly crafted phishing emails that are specific to a company or individual user, which is why the bank’s employees are not only trained on a regular basis to detect these threats, but tested as well.

“You don’t want to create a simulated fishing program without some level of training tied to failures,” he explained. “And you’ve got to make it believable; you’ve got to make it good. Sometimes that upsets people; we’ve done tests in the past that people have gotten really upset about, but that’s what these threat actors are doing. They don’t care what your feelings are. The point is to get an emotion out of you, a sense of urgency, of fear, and that’s how they get you to click.”

Exploiting the human element in cybercrime — known in IT circles as social engineering — is an ongoing concern for companies of all sizes.

Delcie Bean

Delcie Bean

“The risk is getting worse, not better. The sophistication of the attacks is getting infinitely better, and the variety or complexity of the attacks is getting significantly higher. And a lot of that is driven by AI.”

Hoxhunt, an organization that helps companies with IT risk management, notes that the human element is a factor in 68% of data breaches, according to a Verizon report. Of those, the Comcast Business Cybersecurity Threat Report says 80% to 95% are initiated by a phishing attack, and the total volume of phishing attacks has skyrocketed since the advent of ChatGPT in 2022.

“I think the risks from AI are going to continue to develop, and we’ve already seen significant changes from what the risks were before,” Miller said. “What was theoretical risk a year ago is actual risk now, and what that’s going to look like a year from now, I think, is somewhat unknown.”

 

Damage Done

For companies that do fall prey to cyberattacks and data breaches, the damage can be significant, Miller said, especially for companies (like banks and hospitals) in highly regulated industries, publicly traded companies, and businesses that operate in multiple states.

“Even if you deem it a small-scale event, it can mushroom very quickly,” he noted. “Now, let’s take the example of ransomware, where they’re able to get in and actually encrypt your data. In almost every ransomware event over the last couple of years, they’ve combined that with data exfiltration. So not only are they preventing you from accessing your files, they have a copy of it themselves. So it’s a combination of them wanting money from you, and they have the data already.”

Another big risk in these events is reputation risk, he went on.

“If a customer knows that you’ve had a security incident or a breach, especially a significant one, how do they know their data is going to be protected going forward? How do they know that the company is ultimately going to be able to protect them in the future? And are they more likely to find somebody else to do their business with? That’s the thing with cybersecurity incidents — it starts to degrade trust a little bit, which makes it challenging for companies to overcome.”

That’s why cybercrime is actually much more prevalent than public reports would suggest, Bean said. “You’re not going hear about 95% of them. The CEO or CFO doesn’t want to let that story get outside their little circle of trust.

“Ransomware has always been much more prevalent than we knew about because companies were keeping it secret, unless it caused a significant outage, like a hospital or an entire town being taken down,” he added. “For every one of those, another 100 businesses were hit quietly, and they dealt with it, and they weren’t telling anyone because they didn’t want it reaching the world because of loss of credibility and fear of lawsuits — and a lot of cybercrime stayed under the radar.”

Bean emphasized that the classic, non-AI attacks that have been around for years are still prevalent — essentially, “they’re trying to get you to log in and do something.” But these have become more sophisticated and targeted as well.

“They’ll know that you placed an Amazon order — ‘there’s a problem with the delivery of your dog food; click here if you still want to receive this order.’ They use very sophisticated tools to scrape your cookies when you’re on websites, and they see that you’re browsing for dog food, they assume you placed the order, and they send a very targeted attack. That stuff is growing.”

Miller said Community Bank communicates regularly with customers on how they can avoid becoming victims, while also making sure employees know what to look for.

Tim Miller

Tim Miller

“If a customer knows that you’ve had a security incident or a breach, especially a significant one, how do they know their data is going to be protected going forward? How do they know that the company is ultimately going to be able to protect them in the future? And are they more likely to find somebody else to do their business with?”

“It’s important, from our perspective, to make sure everyone inside the company understands that cybersecurity risks are everyone’s responsibility. It’s not just my role,” he explained. “And it’s important for the folks in our branches to understand what these threats are because they are the frontline to customer interactions. And if they can relay some of the information to them, that’s obviously beneficial for all.”

That’s especially true at a time when threats are increasing. “I mean, the concept of deepfakes is very much here, and it’s not going anywhere. And that’s a concept that’s really challenging for people to grasp,” Miller went on, going back again to what he emphasizes internally, which is the importance of following established processes — for instance, when a possibly deepfaked company executive is asking for a wire transfer.

“It goes back to adhering to your processes and not necessarily going off of your emotion — because your emotion in that instance would be, ‘I want to satisfy the CFO by making this wire.’ But the reality is, you might have a verification step where you call the CFO back. These attacks have gotten so good that the whole ‘smell test’ piece may not work anymore. So you have to go back to certain things that you know will identify those risks.”

 

Strong Defense

Bean emphasized the importance of both training and testing employees, saying one without the other isn’t enough.

At the same time, however, “we’ve had to shift to almost accepting that there’s going to be a certain amount of successful phishing attacks. It’s like a war — you have to cede one line in the battle and retreat to a different position that you feel is more defensible.”

And that second position, in many cases, has been recognizing what a successful breach looks like — often using AI systems to monitor that — and locking it down before damage is done.

“Most commonly, they’re stealing Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace credentials. But the second they log into the system, there are certain hallmarks about how that’s going to look. The login is different in subtle ways; a login by a bad actor sends up suspicious flags. An AI system can evaluate that login, and if there’s anything remotely suspicious, a human can lock the account, send a report to us, and we take over the case from there.

“That’s definitely been a godsend. We’re seeing hackers getting through MFA [multi-factor authentication] or getting a password through phishing, but we’re catching them the instant they log in,” Bean went on, comparing it to having both external home security and motion sensors inside the house. “The police arrive before there’s any damage.”

He added that this is a war being fought on multiple fronts, and companies need to take it seriously, through training, testing, and perhaps an outside partner.

“If someone can get in, it can be anywhere from a couple hundred thousand dollars to a couple million, and most businesses don’t have that floating around. Some go out of business or face financial hardships that might not be covered by cyber insurance. It’s not something you can afford to underinvest in.”

Miller added that “a lot of companies, especially smaller companies, don’t have budgets to invest in the latest and greatest, and that’s fine. It’s more about, are you patching your systems? Are employees aware of newer threats? There’s a lot that companies can do.

“These are the basics of cybersecurity — which, honestly, is what protects you 99% of the time,” he added. “It’s doing the basics of being skeptical. That’s one of the keys with phishing and all these other types of fraudulent attempts — being skeptical about it.”

Springfield BID Gets Creative in Efforts to Promote Downtown

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Michelle Grout at the ‘Odyssey’ installation at Tower Square Park
Commercial Real Estate Special Coverage

Pushing the Envelope

Michelle Grout at the ‘Odyssey’ installation at Tower Square Park

Michelle Grout at the ‘Odyssey’ installation at Tower Square Park, one of the BID’s attempts to “push the envelope” in efforts to promote Springfield and bring people to the city.

 

Michelle Grout says she’s still getting emails and texts and seeing posts on social media platforms regarding the head-turning art installation in Tower Square Park known as “Odyssey,” featuring three seven-foot-tall pigeons and a Campbell’s soup can.

Not as many as when it first appeared a month or so ago, but they’re still coming in, with most of them positive in nature and candid about how nice it is to have something new and different downtown.

Her favorite missive is from a family not living in Springfield — they didn’t say where they were from — that jumped on a new reason to come to the city.

“The very first day, we had a post on social media … a family said, ‘we hadn’t been downtown in three years, but when we saw this, we know we had to come downtown for lunch,’” said Grout, president of the Springfield Business Improvement District (BID), which brought “Odyssey” to the park with support from several member sponsors. “They went to Hot Table and sat under the pigeons and had lunch.

“It’s doing its job — it’s got people talking, and it’s bringing people downtown,” she said of the installation, adding that, for the BID, the project is perhaps the most visible manifestation of ongoing efforts to do things differently when it comes to promoting the downtown and bringing people there, which is, in a nutshell, the agency’s mission.

“If you want the same results, keep doing the same things,” she said. “We don’t want the same results; we really want to try to push the envelope and get people to start thinking about Springfield as a destination again. We want to give people a reason to come.”

“Odyssey” will be on display until Labor Day, she added, and there will be other efforts to spur talk and visits — everything from a planned new mural project to a grilled cheese and tomato soup day at “Odyssey.”

These efforts coincide with new developments downtown, a rise in the number of people living there, and optimism about what’s to come, said Grout, who grew up in the city and remembers taking the bus downtown as a kid and going to the Steiger’s that sat near where those pigeons now do.

“It’s a balance of live, work, and play — it can’t be all people who live here, it can’t be all people who work here, and you can’t solely rely on people who visit here.”

The project at 31 Elm St., conversion of the former hotel into 70 units of market-rate and workforce housing, has been a catalyst for more development, with new initiatives, such as replacement of the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse — she contends that the new facility needs to be downtown — creating speculation and anticipation.

Meanwhile, the tenants at 31 Elm are making an economic impact, which generates more anticipation about other residential initiatives in the planning stages.

“There are people from that building that we see all the time in their new routines,” she explained. “They go to the farmers market, they get their coffee at Palazzo, they go to Nosh … they’re investing in their new home,” she explained. “That’s one thing that attracts someone to live in a downtown — they have these amenities; we just need to come up with the amenities. It’s a balance of live, work, and play — it can’t be all people who live here, it can’t be all people who work here, and you can’t solely rely on people who visit here.”

There are certainly challenges in the BID district, Grout said, adding that many office buildings have not fully recovered from the aftereffects of COVID on where people work. And some of these properties may now be better suited for housing, although retrofitting them will be expensive. Meanwhile, some properties require extensive investments to host any kind of tenant, given modern standards and changing needs, and the costs are, in many instances, prohibitive.

String lighting, as seen here on Worthington Street

String lighting, as seen here on Worthington Street, is one of many BID initiatives to beautify downtown Springfield.

But overall, there is energy, optimism, and movement to create that needed balance, she said, adding that it’s a different downtown than the one she grew up with, but one with many strong assets and great potential.

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, we talked with Grout about how the BID is getting more creative as it carries out its mission, and ever more diligent in its efforts to put the city’s best foot forward, whether it’s with flowers, string lights, or art in the park.

 

Optimistic View

The large windows in Grout’s office at 1319 Main St. face south and provide direct views of the MassMutual Center and its marquee.

“I can’t miss what’s going on; I have no excuse to say I didn’t know what’s happening,” she joked, adding that she doesn’t need this view to know what’s going on across Bruce Landon Way — or at any of the other downtown venues downtown.

In fact, it’s her job to know — or at least one small part of her job, one that she arrived at after spending several years in residential real estate and a decade at the BID. She started there as administrative assistant to Director Chris Russell, then Operations director, then interim director when Russell stepped down three years now, and now director.

She’s seen and been through quite a bit over her 12 years with the agency, including what she called the “ebb and flow” of the downtown, a global pandemic and its many impacts, and now, what she describes as a resurgence in development over the past several years.

That resurgence has taken many forms, is both public and private in nature, and has involved several different properties, including 31 Elm St.; ongoing efforts to redevelop the Clocktower Building and adjacent Colonial Block into more housing and ground-floor retail; ambitious work to revitalize several long-vacant or mostly vacant properties on Worthington Street in the city’s entertainment district; the new Convention Center Carpark and the adjoining space, which is being activated for events; renovation of Court Square; the new Hope for Youth & Families Arts Center; and more.

“These investments are very inspirational and, I’m sure all would agree, necessary,” said Grout, adding that these initiatives and others will bring more people and vibrancy to a downtown the BID serves in many different ways — specifically, 221 parcels across an area stretching from West Columbus Avenue to Chestnut Street (but also Mattoon Street and the Quadrangle), and from just south of State Street to the Arch.

These include what Grout called supplemental services beyond what the city provides to keep the downtown clean and safe — from beautification efforts and lighting to broad economic development initiatives.

Indeed, the BID was awarded a $100,000 grant from the state Executive Office of Economic Development to subsidize new businesses and fill vacant storefronts in the district, she explained, adding that 13 ventures took advantage of the program, earning grants ranging from $7,500 to $15,000.

The farmers’ market in Tower Square Park

The farmers’ market in Tower Square Park is another BID initiative to activate downtown spaces and bring people to the city.

The BID is also charged with marketing the downtown, an assignment that takes on many forms, from robust programming to a website that that includes a calendar of upcoming events, snapshots of downtown restaurants with links to their websites, and listings of hotels and attractions, including MGM Springfield, Riverfront Park, the Springfield Museums, and the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, with programming, the BID has moved away from outdoor concerts, she explained, and much more toward promoting venues that offer live music, from MGM Springfield to Theodores’ to the Student Prince.

“We’ve pivoted to more destination placement, complimentary support to what’s already happening to grow a broader audience for that,” she said, adding that the “Odyssey” installation falls squarely into the category of marketing and promotion, although it is certainly non-traditional in nature.

As she talked about how it arrived in Springfield, Grout said the Downtown Boston Alliance had worked with a Quebec-based company called EXMURO on its Winteractive, a winter arts exhibition, and introductions were made.

“We saw the success they had in bringing people back to their district for a unique and unexpected experience, and the impact it had,” she explained. “And we thought that, on a Springfield scale, we could find the right piece to do the same thing, and after a few months of consulting, we landed on this piece.”

“Odyssey” has been in display in several cities — it was in Quebec City last fall, for example — but this is its first appearance in the U.S. And, as Grout noted, it has garnered attention and generated talk, which was the goal.

“People would ask, ‘what’s it for, what’s it about?’” she told BusinessWest. “My answer is getting people talking — it’s given people another reason to come down, another block to walk, another sight to see.”

 

Art and Soul

And there will be more efforts like it — although certainly not exactly like it — to keep creating a buzz, said Grout, noting there will be other art installations in other locations.

Meanwhile, another of her primary goals is to build on existing collaborations with community partners and “work smarter, not harder,” as she put it.

“We want to build efficiencies within everyone’s initiatives,” she explained. “You see a lot of people working at the same thing; if they all work together, it would be more efficient.”

As an example, she cited the relationship between the BID and the MassMutual Center and its marketing team. The two entities started working more closely together two years ago, and since that commitment, both have seen dramatic increases in engagement and followers on social media platforms, with the BID’s rising 18% and the MassMutual Center’s 65%. This surge has coincided with an increase in acts and a schedule that attracts people of all ages, she noted.

Another collaborative effort involves the Springfield Cultural Council, said Grout, adding that the agencies are working on several different initiatives, including a new mural project now in the planning stages and dependent on grant funding, as well as Art on Market Street, a free drop-in art program for young people slated for Saturdays this summer.

The downtown farmers market, meanwhile, has become a Friday tradition in the city. Presented by Country Bank, it runs from June until the end of September and features several local vendors, live music, and family-friendly activities.

Then, there are ongoing efforts to make the downtown clean and safe, which play a huge role in its overall success.

“If it looks good, people feel good, and that makes them want to come back and not be afraid to walk another block, go to another place, and see another site,” she explained, adding that these efforts go well beyond watering plants and picking up trash. “It takes a village.”

Indeed, it does. And in the village of downtown Springfield, there is progress, anticipation, and, yes, talk. And not just about the three pigeons and a Campbell’s soup can.

 

Springfield Features Many Developing Stories

By
Ray Berry at Pridelands on Mane Street, what he calls a spinoff of a winning concept from the days before COVID.
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Ray Berry at Pridelands on Mane Street, what he calls a spinoff of a winning concept from the days before COVID.

Ray Berry at Pridelands on Mane Street, what he calls a spinoff of a winning concept from the days before COVID.

Diana Szynal took the job as president of the Springfield Regional Chamber — and an office overlooking Tower Square Park — three years ago.

Back then, the city was still trying to shake off the effects of COVID, she said, with many workers at downtown businesses still spending considerable time working remotely.

They’re not all back five days a week, she stressed, but there is far more vibrancy in the downtown than when she started — and on many levels.

“More people are in their offices more days of the week, and this has helped create a lot of vitality downtown … I’m seeing a lot of energy there,” she said. “There are some new restaurants opening and new businesses coming in. There are a lot of people walking around and enjoying being downtown.”

And that sentiment certainly includes what Szynal can see out her window in Tower Square Park, which is home to a popular farmers market and, more recently, an attention-grabbing art installation called Odyssey — one of the Springfield Business Improvement District’s more creative (literally and figuratively) efforts to promote the downtown and bring people to it  — and a new outdoor event destination created by White Lion Brewing called Pridelands on Mane Street, which kicked off July 9.

Diana Szynal

Diana Szynal

“More people are in their offices more days of the week, and this has helped create a lot of vitality downtown … I’m seeing a lot of energy there. There are some new restaurants opening and new businesses coming in. There are a lot of people walking around and enjoying being downtown.”

Ray Berry, owner of White Lion, said the destination, created from three custom-designed shipping containers, offers a unique backdrop for planned weekly entertainment on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, but also for company outings, team socials, or casual get-togethers with friends and family.

“There are so many positive moving parts to engage and enjoy downtown,” he said. “We see Pridelands as another piece of the mosaic.”

This broad activation of Tower Square Park is just one of many storylines converging in the City of Homes. Others include:

• Progress to create more housing of all kinds, from market-rate apartments in the downtown to higher-end homes in different areas of the city (more on this later);

• The high-profile project to redevelop the Clocktower Building, Colonial Block, and two other adjoining properties into roughly 100 units of market-rate housing, as well as infrastructure improvements in that area, including a new parking garage;

• The transformation of the former CityStage into the Hope Center for the Arts, a state-of-the-art facility to designed to educate young people and perhaps inspire careers in the arts ;

• Ambitious work to revitalize the entertainment district through redevelopment of a block of buildings on Worthington Street, a project led by Raipher and Joseph Pellegrino in partnership with the city, detailed in the July 7 issue of BusinessWest;

• Continued discussion, and some anxiety, about the future of some downtown office buildings, which continue to struggle in this post-COVID era;

• Plans to replace the troubled Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse — the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance has issued a request for proposals for a new site, preferably in the downtown; they’re due back in October — and speculation about what will done with the existing structure as well as adjacent properties in that area off State Street, including the former First Church;

An architect’s rendering of the planned improvements, including a new parking garage, in the South End, between State Street and Union Street.

An architect’s rendering of the planned improvements, including a new parking garage, in the South End, between State Street and Union Street.

• The continued success of the Springfield Thunderbirds, which will soon enter their 10th season and continue to set the bar higher with everything from ticket sales to marketing and social media content (see below

• Movement toward creation of a master plan for redevelopment of the Mason Square neighborhood and adjoining areas;

• Visible signs of progress in a massive project to reimagine the former Eastfield Mall as a retail center with a large residential component; and

• Future redevelopment of the former Massachusetts Career Development Institute property on Wilbraham Avenue. The site was demolished four years ago, and speculation continues about what will come next in an area that has seen strong residential growth.

Overall, housing remains one of the main focal points, said Tim Sheehan, the city’s chief Development officer, noting that that there is both urgent need for more housing and several ongoing initiatives to address that need. These include everything from the aforementioned South End project to redevelopment of the former Springfield School Department headquarters on State Street to plans to build high-end homes on the pre-tornado campus of Cathedral High School.

This residential growth reflects both strong need for more housing as well as greater interest in the city overall as a place to live and work, he went on, adding that work is taking place on many fronts to meet the needs of new (and old) residents, and make Springfield a true destination.

 

All That Jazz

Evan Plotkin, president and CEO of NAI Plotkin, has long been a cheerleader for Springfield and a prime mover when it comes to projects to promote the city and especially its downtown and cast them in a positive light. These include everything from mural projects to the Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival, which took place last week and was in its final planning stages as he talked with BusinessWest.

Plotkin said he sees a number of positive developments taking place in the city, including several in the office tower he co-owns, 1350 Main St., where a high school now resides on the top two floors. But it’s what he’s not seeing that has him concerned.

Springfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1852
Population: 155,929
Area: 33.1 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential tax rate: $15.68
Commercial tax rate: $35.22
Median Household Income: $35,236
Median Family Income: $51,110
Type of government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Baystate Health, MassMutual Financial Group, Big Y Foods, MGM Springfield, Mercy Medical Center, Center for Human Development
* Latest information available

That list includes new businesses coming to the city and its downtown; instead, he said, there’s much more movement of existing businesses and restaurants, a game of musical chairs that doesn’t result in real growth, just a shift of vacancies from one building to another.

Something else he’s not seeing is consistent effort from the city to maintain landmarks like Stearns Square, which was revitalized several years ago, but sees its ornate fountain not in use the majority of the time.

“They invested in the hardscape and the landscape, and then they walked away,” he said of the city and its efforts at the park. “And this is a pattern; we put up plaques saying ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that’ and ‘here’s this brand new park,’ but the next year, they don’t mow the lawn and let the weeds grow back.”

Overall, more work is needed to maintain and preserve such treasures and to make the city a more desirable place to visit — and work in and live in, he went on, adding that he would like to see the city create a permanent stage downtown near Stearns Square (a temporary one was set up for the Jazz Fest) and make live music a prominent piece of the puzzle, as it was years ago.

Live music is just one of the components of Pridelands on Mane Street, a play on words that also represents what Berry called a “spinoff of a proven concept, pre-COVID.”

Elaborating, he said that, before the pandemic, White Lion created pop-up beer gardens at several sites around downtown. The last few years, though, it has concentrated these efforts in Tower Square Park, making use of retrofitted shipping containers.

Fast-forwarding, he explained that, with an ARPA grant from the city, White Lion was essentially tasked with reactivating the park, and it’s doing so in colorful styles, as in a shipping container wrapped (by East Longmeadow-based Go Graphix) with the White Lion logo.

“We knew, by way of our partnership with the Business Improvement District and other stakeholders, that the beer garden concept worked in years past, and pre-COVID showed that a container park concept resonates with our customer base,” Berry explained. “So we thought, why not bring the concept back, look to make it more permanent, and have it be a true destination right in the middle of the business district and the emerging arts district?”

Approaching 10th Season, T-Birds Have Matured as a Business

Nate Costa says that, when it comes to the Springfield Thunderbirds and prospects for continued growth, there isn’t room for much more.

Well … at least when it comes to ticket sales.

Indeed, capacity at the team’s home, the MassMutual Center, a.k.a. the Thunderdome, is 6,700. For the 2024-25 season, the T-Birds, an affiliate of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, averaged 6,369 per game, up from 6,321 the prior season. So, there’s still room for improvement, and the team will doggedly pursue it. But, again, not much.

Nate Costa

Nate Costa

“We’re going to eventually, hopefully, run out of tickets to sell,” Costa, the team’s president, said with a laugh, noting that this is both a good problem to have — one many other teams in the American Hockey League would love to have — and one of many solid indicators of how far this team has come.

As it readies for its 10th season of operation, with various plans to mark that milestone, the Thunderbirds have established themselves as a solid franchise with an increasingly loyal fan base, as evidenced by those numbers above … and the fact that they were achieved with the parking garage next door to the arena unavailable for the past three seasons.

Which means that, while there’s not much room for growth in ticket sales, there’s still plenty of room when it comes to growing revenue through increases in ticket prices — the team still charges well below the league average — as well as merchandise sales and other avenues.

“Over the past five years, we’ve continued to see the maturation of our business,” Costa explained. “We’re continuing to fill the building, and now it’s looking at our margins; we’re 30th in the league out of 32 teams in ticket price. It’s been really good to get the bodies in the building and show the value, but now it’s up to us to start walking that ticket price up effectively and generating revenue on the margins.”

Looking back, Costa said 2024-25 was another solid season for the T-Birds. There was a playoff run, albeit not a deep one (the team lost in the first round), with 20 sellouts, and, as noted, continued improvement in ticket sales and other measures of success.

“Every Saturday in the second half of the season, we sold out,” he noted, adding that many other games approached capacity over the final three months.

Meanwhile, off the ice, the team earned several awards from the league, which is becoming an annual tradition.

Indeed, in addition to benchmark awards for ticket sales and corporate sales, the team was recognized as having the AHL Marketing Department of the Year and the Most Unique Social Media Content. (More awards were expected at the annual league meetings in South Carolina, which were taking place as this story went to press.)

The marketing and social media content awards help explain the continued improvement in group sales and overall ticket sales, said Costa, adding that, with the shorter playoff run, the team is already “well ahead and well out in front of next season” in terms of season ticket renewals, group sales, and other initiatives.

Indeed, the team continues to set the bar higher, he went on, adding that, with the parking garage now open, the space adjacent to it being activated — the team, working with the state, which controls the property, will look to create a Yawkey Way-like atmosphere on game nights — and an already stable fan base, there are expectations for continued growth.

As for ticket sales, the team’s success on the ice and with creating a fun, always changing fan experience, coupled with the relatively small capacity of 6,700, has created both demand and urgency, said Costa, adding that the team has grown season ticket sales past 1,600 and looks to surpass 1,700 for next season.

“When you have a base like that coming in for every game, and we had a really great year for groups — we did more than $1 million in group revenue for the first time ever in Springfield hockey history — that gives you a really good base to work from to fill the rest of the building,” he explained, adding that the full (and nearly full) houses create a raucous atmosphere not seen in some other buildings.

“In Hartford, the XL Center [now PeoplesBank Arena] seats 16,000 people; when you bring 6,000 out, it just doesn’t have that same feeling,” he said. “If you get 5,000 in our building, the place is rocking; it feels like it’s full. That’s an advantage for us.”

As for ticket revenues, the T-Birds’ average price is just over $20, with the league average north of $28, said Costa, adding that there is some leeway for increases, given those statistics, the value the team delivers, and the growing demand for the product.

“Since we started here, the big thing was just trying to show as much value as possible, with the promotions and themes we do on game nights … that’s really added to why people want to buy tickets,” he explained. “Now, with the scarcity of tickets, the ticket packages are much more valuable because people are trying to lock in their seats, knowing that they’re not going to get them waiting until a week before a game.

“It’s been really good to change that mentality, and we’ve re-educated the community as to how to get tickets and the best way to get them,” he went on. “Coming out of the gates, we focused on building the base and going after large numbers; then, once you get the large numbers in the building and you start to create some emergency with sellouts, you can start to walk up your ticket price. I think we’re there.”

Heading into their 10th year, the T-Birds are ‘there’ in many respects and looking to soar still higher in 2025-26.

—George O’Brien

Pridelands is one of many sources of greater vibrancy Szynal is seeing downtown, and at the chamber as well, which is based in Springfield but boasts members from across the region. She said membership is up — 419 was the latest count — amid efforts to both grow and diversify the membership through initiatives such as a revamped, more member-focused website and television commercials.

“We’re really trying to diversify our membership in every possible way, from diversification of the people that are part of the chamber to the businesses and types of businesses that join the chamber,” she explained. “We’re really trying to cast a wide net; the chamber is most effective if there’s a lot of different types of people and businesses that are part of it.”

Elaborating, she said the chamber has been working in many ways to “be more out there,” through those TV commercials, social media content, the new website, a deeper event schedule, and more.

 

Progress Report

While there are several visible signs of momentum in the city, perhaps the most notable is what would be considered the ‘housing market,’ Sheehan said.

That’s a broad term that covers everything from still-rising home prices — the city has seen one of the more dramatic such increases in the state — to development of new housing of all kinds, including new market-rate apartments downtown, but also upscale homes in several sections of the city, including East Forest Park, the Bicentennial Highway area, and perhaps the site of the former Sears at the Eastfield Mall, acquired by one residential developer.

“The demand is for new product,” he said, referring to both homes and rental units. “And that’s why we’re seeing so much new housing development coming in that includes homes at the higher end of the market.”

Meanwhile, interior demolition has commenced at the South End properties — the Colonial Block, the Clocktower Building, and others, said Sheehan, noting that McCaffery, the Chicago-based development company leading the project, is finalizing financing, which is expected to cost roughly $50 million. Transfer of the Springfield Redevelopment Authority properties to McCaffery is expected to take place early next year, with construction expected to begin soon thereafter.

As that project progresses, so too has a $30 million infrastructure improvement initiative, including a new parking garage at the corner of Stockbridge and Willow streets, for the area from State Street to Union Street, one designed to make it more responsive to the residential growth taking place there.

“There’s significant housing development that’s back there now, with Stockbridge Court being the largest one, but there’s also the Lofts on Park Street,” he explained, adding that the work includes new sidewalks, lighting, road repair, and improvements to the surface parking in that area, and will create stronger connections to Main Street. “This will lift up that entire area, not just for the new housing, but the housing that’s historically been there for quite some time.”

While Sheehan sees progress on many fronts, from housing to the Eastfield Mall to the county courthouse, there are areas of concern.

These include the property at 101 State St., owned by MGM Springfield. There is still scaffolding on the structure nearly seven years after the casino opened, he said, adding that redevelopment of the property is a key bullet point in the host community agreement, and lack of progress there has become a point of contention between the city and the casino operator.

“We have concerns about that not moving forward in a timely way,” he said, adding that another pain point is the lack of any apparent progress at the former Vibra Hospital site on State Street, now vacant for several years, a campus that includes the so-called ‘Isolation Hospital,’ which preservationists want to save from the wrecking ball.

Another concern is the property known as the Mardi Gras building because it was home to a now-closed gentleman’s club. The restaurant known as 350 Grill will be moving from that building to the site of the former Jackalope on Worthington Street, becoming a key part of the revitalization efforts there. And while that location will likely work out well for the restaurant, it leaves the Mardi Gras building vacant and with little talk of redevelopment.

“There hasn’t been much dialogue, but there has been discussion of doing housing there,” said Sheehan, adding that the upper floors hold the potential to house dozens of units. “And it would be an ideal site for housing because there’s plenty of parking at the site, and you’re close to Union Station.”

Meanwhile, several other properties downtown are largely vacant — he listed Harrison Place and adjoining structures along Main Street, but there are others scattered across the central business district — and with little movement toward redevelopment and the properties in serious need of investment in new infrastructure.

“These owners have held and held and held and not kept up with the requisite investments they should be making in these properties,” said Sheehan, adding that speculation that some properties might become part of the MGM complex, such as those now being converted to housing in the South End, kept those owners from investing in their holdings.

Sheehan said one possible reuse for some of these properties is housing, although conversion would likely be an expensive undertaking. The state has launched a new initiative called the Momentum Fund, a first-in-the-nation state revolving fund to support mixed-income housing production, and it recently announced its first financing commitment from the fund, $5 million for the Residences of East Milton, which will create 92 new mixed-income rental units in an underutilized commercial property in the town of Milton.

He noted that Springfield has several buildings that meet that description, and hopes projects will materialize that can take advantage of the Momentum Fund, adding that housing might be the best option for many commercial properties in and around the downtown.

“We’d like to have a little more momentum in Western Mass.,” he said, “a part of the state that needs more help with housing.”

Pilot Program Helps Workers Navigate Cliff Effect

By
Banking & Finance Special Coverage

Living on the Edge

 

 

Most people love the idea of a promotion or raise at work. But not everyone accepts one.

“Some employers may have employees saying no to promotions, and they don’t know why. It’s an invisible issue — they’re asking, ‘why wouldn’t you want more money?’” said Kristen Joyce, Bridge to Prosperity program director at Springfield WORKS.

Many, she explained, are running into something called the cliff effect, a common situation in which a low-income earner who’s accessing public benefits gets a pay bump that negates those benefits and leaves them bringing home less money than before. “They would actually be worse off, and you have to make a rational decision not to take the promotion when you feel that your family is going to be worse off.”

Enter Bridge to Prosperity, the pilot program Joyce oversees. “It’s been a long time coming, and we’ve been working with many partners in Western Mass. on this,” she told BusinessWest. “The cliff effect is really holding folks back and keeping them from moving up. We’ve heard from employers that it’s an issue for them too, when they can’t promote their workers.”

For the past several years, Springfield WORKS, a collaborative affiliated with the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, has been working on ways to navigate the cliff effect, and one key tool has been Bridge to Prosperity, a statewide pilot program that launched in February with 18 participants. It was initially funded with $1 million in seed money from ARPA, announced in 2022, a figure that eventually grew to $2.6 million in public and private funds.

“Some employers may have employees saying no to promotions, and they don’t know why. It’s an invisible issue — they’re asking, ‘why wouldn’t you want more money?’”

Seven of the initial 18 participants are in the Springfield area; the others are in Boston and Worcester. The program provides direct payments to workers facing the cliff effect, aimed at bridging the gap and making up for the value of lost benefits. Participants also receive financial and career coaching and connections to community resources as needed, and will be eligible for a $10,000 asset-building bonus at the end of the two-year program.

“The goal is to serve up to 100 people by the end of the year,” Joyce said. “We’re actively fundraising and building out our employer partnerships in Boston and Worcester as well. It’s definitely an economic development issue, and employees being at the table is really key.”

At the heart of the initiative is the idea that rigid safety net policies often discourage economic advancement, and Bridge to Prosperity addresses this challenge in myriad ways.

Kristen Joyce says Bridges to Prosperity Aims to expand to 100 participants this year

Kristen Joyce says Bridges to Prosperity Aims to expand to 100 participants this year, in an expanded range of careers.

“A few months ago, this all felt out of reach,” one of the Springfield pilot participants said. “Now, with support from the Bridge to Prosperity pilot, I’m not just dreaming of becoming a nurse; I’m taking real steps toward it and toward building a stable future for my son.”

 

Multi-layered Support

Joyce broke down the four key elements of Bridge to Prosperity for BusinessWest.

First, participants receive either $300, $500, or $700 per month to bridge the gap in lost benefits. Essentially, as wage increases result in a loss of assistance supports (like housing, childcare, and food) but are not enough to cover those expenses, the pilot will provide targeted cash assistance payments to bridge the gap.

Next, the pilot offers career coaching, financial management coaching, and wraparound services that empower participants to achieve their career and financial goals. This coaching aims to embed social capital resources into families and their communities, with far-reaching benefits. The coaching partners include United Way Pioneer Valley in Springfield, Worcester Community Action Council, and Women’s Money Matters in Boston.

“This is education and training around budgeting and goal setting around employment,” Joyce said. “Financial education and wellness is a big part of it.”

The third element is employer participation, aimed at mapping access to career pathways that pay a living wage, while helping area employers gain perspective on how the cliff effect impacts their workforce.

Joyce noted that six of the seven Springfield pilot participants are with Baystate Health, on track to become LPNs, in an environment where healthcare employers are in desperate need of more nurses.

“That’s an important part of this, this connection to employers,” she said. “We’re really connected to training and working with employers to advance them to a living wage job, or a family-sustaining wage job, so when they lose benefits, they’ll be in a better position at the end of the two years.”

The final step is a $10,000 asset-building payment, awarded after two years to support life-changing investments, such as moving to a better home or purchasing reliable transportation.

“We see that as a transformational investment for families,” Joyce told BusinessWest. “It’s an active investment in families.”

When the pilot program was announced in 2022, Laura Sylvester, Public Policy manager at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, noted that many households who receive emergency food at member food pantries and meal sites are directly impacted by the cliff effect. “Fear of losing benefits prevents people from advancing in their careers, keeping them trapped in a cycle of poverty. It is a major cause of food insecurity and economic instability.”

That’s why supporters of this program hope it will be a meaningful first step toward addressing the cliff effect on a much broader scale in Massachusetts, including through legislative solutions.

“A few months ago, this all felt out of reach. Now, with support from the Bridge to Prosperity pilot, I’m not just dreaming of becoming a nurse; I’m taking real steps toward it and toward building a stable future for my son.”

To that end, Springfield WORKS is also part of Beyond the Cliff, a national coalition with organizations in 12 other states, that grapples with legislative and policy solutions to the cliff effect. Models that have been discussed include benefit policy changes — like more gradual benefit reductions, increased income eligibility, and tax credits — as well as greater employer engagement on this issue, more robust workforce development programs, and addressing systemic barriers like lack of transportation, childcare, and healthcare.

 

Looking Ahead

Anne Kandilis, director of Springfield WORKS, called the pilot “a tremendous victory for workers and families throughout the Commonwealth” when it was announced. “To create economic opportunity, we must remove obstacles for people as they work to earn a livable wage by making sure that we do not strip away public benefits too rapidly.”

Joyce noted that, as the pilot is expanded to 100 participants — again, in the Springfield, Worcester, and Boston areas — the idea is to study outcomes that will inform policy and system solutions to the cliff going forward.

“The end goal is to eliminate the cliff effect and make policies so that families are not on a poverty track,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re not looking to drop people into a benefit state, but support them as they move into family-sustaining jobs.”

Anne Kandilis

Anne Kandilis

“To create economic opportunity, we must remove obstacles for people as they work to earn a livable wage by making sure that we do not strip away public benefits too rapidly.”

Bedsides United Way Pioneer Valley, Worcester Community Action Council, and Women’s Money Matters, other supporting partners with the program include the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Massachusetts Economic Pathways Coalition, Baystate Health, Boston Medical Center, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, Boston Foundation, Ceres Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds, MassMutual Foundation, UpTogether, and a number of legislative advocates, including state Sen. Adam Gomez and state Reps. Pat Duffy and Carlos Gonzalez.

And while the initial cohort of pilot participants from Springfield are in healthcare, Joyce sees potential in expanding it to early education, the hospitality sector, and the trades.

“We’re excited to hopefully expand this with fundraising and other employee partners,” she said. “We’ve heard directly from employers that their employees are refusing promotions; going from minimum wage to around $22 an hour is when the cliff effect really hits. We know there’s a lot of that in the healthcare space, education, and hospitality — CNAs, medical assistants, early educators.

“Folks have to make a rational decision, and if they take an increase, it could be a couple dollars an hour, and they lose all these benefits,” Joyce said, quickly adding that, when the cliff effect can be managed, “these employees benefit, and employers also benefit because they can keep their good workers and help their incumbent workers move up in their careers and advance.”

Local Nurses Share Their Passions, Challenges, and Why They Do It

By
Healthcare News Special Coverage

On the Front Lines of Care

Nurses, in many ways, are the backbone of the healthcare system, caring for patients in dozens of different types of settings, often during the most distressing moments of those patients’ lives. It’s challenging work for sure — but also gratifying work, as the six individuals profiled on the following pages can attest. For our annual salute to nurses, BusinessWest sat down with three veteran nurses and three just entering the field about why they got into nursing, what motivates them, especially during hard days, and what the impact of their work means to them.

 

Click on the names below to read their stories:

Joseph and Vincent Bartolucci

Joseph and Vincent Bartolucci

Identical Twins Double Down on the Passion They Bring to Nursing

 

Yirancis Rivera

Yirancis Rivera

She Serves as an Inspiration — in Any Language

 

Kim Larrier

Kim Larrier

Fascinated by the Mind, She Forged a Path in Psych Nursing

 

Dave DesLauriers

Dave DesLauriers

This Veteran Nurse Seeks a ‘Bridge’ into Emergency Management

 

Kara Lombardi

Kara Lombardi

As Assistant Nurse Manager, Her Role Is to Be a Support Person

 

HardTech Holyoke Draws on Innovative Momentum in Paper City

By
Cofab Design Partner Mike Stone
Environment and Engineering Special Coverage

Meeting of the Minds

Cofab Design Partner Mike Stone

Cofab Design Partner Mike Stone

 

When Mike Stone looks around Holyoke — and some of the innovative companies that have set up shop there — he sees a city with several unique advantages.

“First of all, the cost of energy is low, which is great for companies with electrical-heavy processes. Then there’s the amount of available space,” said Stone, CEO of Cofab Design, a Holyoke-based studio that develops hardtech products (more on that term in a moment) and the strategies to produce them.

In addition, he noted, “there are about 60,000 students in the Pioneer Valley, plus an industrial workforce that’s been here for more than 150 years. That’s not to say it’s the same as it was 100 years ago or 150 years ago, but there are still a lot of precision manufacturers, and there is a manufacturing workforce base here.

“So you have folks that know how to scale processes and do manufacturing, and you have the sort of innovation coming from the Five Colleges, plus the Boston-New York corridor, and I just think we’re uniquely positioned here to be able to kind of leverage that and offer second-stage space.”

“It makes much more sense to grow a base here and have a little bit more room to stretch out and grow. So that’s the vision, and hopefully more companies will take note.”

HardTech Holyoke, the second event of its kind (the first took place in 2023), highlights some of the innovative companies that are growing in Holyoke. The gathering, held on June 18 at Open Square, brought attendees face to face with the minds behind growing companies like Clean Crop Technologies, which is developing new ways to remove contamination from seeds and foods; Sublime Systems, which is developing an innovative cement manufacturing process; Xenocs, which uses X-ray technology to analyze nanoscale materials; and florrent, a maker of supercapacitors for energy storage, to name a few.

As opposed to software, Stone said, hardtech refers to more physical technology. “It’s a wide net — it covers advanced manufacturing, clean tech and green tech, even things in the defense space, energy, food and ag tech. It’s sort of an amorphous term, but the throughline here is folks that are building physical things, which takes a different form of investment and attitude than building software or building other types of businesses.”

Dan White says Holyoke has been attractive to many innovative companies

Dan White says Holyoke has been attractive to many innovative companies, for reasons ranging from competitive utility rates to a supportive city government.

And Holyoke, located not far from major innovation centers but offering a lower cost of doing business with a host of amenities, is the ideal spot to grow a hardtech hub, he added.

“It’s hard to compete on innovation. There are people innovating here, but you can’t compete with Boston or New York in terms of density of schools, and we know the attraction the cities have,” Stone explained. “But for a Clean Crop, when you’re spending money in Cambridge or Somerville for a bigger space, it starts to be disadvantageous, and it makes much more sense to grow a base here and have a little bit more room to stretch out and grow. So that’s the vision, and hopefully more companies will take note.”

 

Selling a City

HardTech Holyoke was conceived in 2023 when FORGE, a nonproft that helps innovators with physical projects navigate the journey from prototype through to commercialization, teamed up with Cofab, Clean Crop, and the city of Holyoke on a gathering to celebrate the startups, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, and others building new physical products in and around the city.

“So we put an event together, and we expected 50 people to show up, but 100 people came, and there was a good buzz,” Stone recalled. “There was a good sense after the event that people found it a good place to connect and network with this community. So we’ve been trying to do it annually ever since.”

It actually took about a year and a half to get the second HardTech launched, but attendance topped the first, drawing about 150, as did the number of participating companies. “It’s a bigger format, and we have a bigger space here, and we’re really appreciative of the folks at Open Square who donated space for this,” he noted at the start of the June 18 event. “I’m kind of leaning into the exhibit theme — I like to think of this as an art gallery opening night for manufacturing companies.”

“I think we have a chance to re-industrialize in a grassroots way and build cool stuff while also building robust manufacturing jobs, which left Holyoke 40, 50 years ago.”

Inside that ‘gallery,’ along with the participating companies’ exhibit tables, were displays explaining what Holyoke brings to the table in several categories, including:

• Energy and water, including the lowest regional energy costs, a high percentage of renewable sources, access to power infrastructure through Holyoke Gas & Electric, and high water supply and wastewater treatment capacity for water-intensive processes;

• Space and location, including 1.5 million square feet of industrial space available in the city, local development resources, turnkey hardtech startup spaces, pre-zoned industrial parcels, access to I-90 and I-91 connecting to major cities, airport access, and regional rail and bus lines;

• Talent and workforce, including an existing manufacturing base, a rich higher-education ecosystem, technical training programs, and workforce supports like MassHire; and

• A number of other factors, from a strong local industrial supply chain to available pools of both public and private grant funding.

Alex Nichols says he and his two co-founders of florrent took advantage of some specialized equipment at UMass Amherst

Alex Nichols says he and his two co-founders of florrent took advantage of some specialized equipment at UMass Amherst for early prototyping, then decided to stay in the region.

“We want to pitch why we’re here, why some of these other companies are here, and just try to get that into a communicable message where other people can say, ‘oh, there’s something going on in Holyoke,’” Stone said. “We want to show why it’s a good place, specifically for hardtech companies that are past their startup stage and into their scale-up stage.”

Companies like Clean Crop.

“Right now, we’re focused on seed treatment and finding ways to reduce overall pesticide use, so we can displace a lot of existing tools and give growers the same yields or better,” co-founder Dan White said. “We found a really strong initial market in leafy greens. So we’ve got quite a lot of demand that we’re just growing into right now, but we’re on track to expand our facility here to full utilization by the end of this year. And then the next step will be establishing our first facility in California sometime next year.”

White said it’s gratifying to see HardTech Holyoke grow since its first inception.

“When I look across at these other companies, the same reasons that we came here are why I think a lot of other folks are coming as well. We have really competitive utility rates, particularly electricity. But also, the city government has been incredibly helpful, and the ecosystem partners like Cofab are a huge part of the story too.”

Alex Nichols is one of three founders of florrent, a Sunderland-based startup that took part in HardTech Holyoke. The company is developing a material innovation that enables performance improvement in supercapacitor technologies.

The founders, Nichols explained, are UMass Amherst alumni who wound up using specialized lab space on that campus after they graduated. “They have some very specific equipment that allowed us to do early prototyping. That really brought us to the region. We stayed, we hired a team out here, and we’re here to stay.”

 

One Company at a Time

Stone said growth toward making Holyoke a hardtech hub may be gradual, but every step is meaningful.

“It’s a small city, so one company moving to the city a year could be meaningful for workforce development, which I think is a big part of this,” he told BusinessWest. “I think we have a chance to re-industrialize in a grassroots way and build cool stuff while also building robust manufacturing jobs, which left Holyoke 40, 50 years ago.

“So I think it’s a unique opportunity to do social impact work and create good jobs and create workforce training programs, and have some fun building some really novel, groundbreaking technology and utilize the infrastructure that was started 150-plus years ago in Holyoke; we can have a little bit of a repurposing for some of these tech companies.”

A wave of cannabis companies started moving to Holyoke over the past five years, he noted, and for some of the same reasons.

“I think that crest has peaked. But I think, over the next five, 10, 20 years, there will be a lot of this hardtech stuff. I have my ear to the ground because of Cofab, and there’s been a sea change over the past three or four years where a lot of people are trying to build stuff like this. And we’re able to take advantage of that.”

Pittsfield Builds Awareness of All It Has to Offer

By
Laurie Tierney, seen in front of Hotel on North
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Laurie Tierney, seen in front of Hotel on North

Laurie Tierney, seen in front of Hotel on North, describes Pittsfield as the “Brooklyn of the Berkshires,” which is meant as a compliment.

 

Laurie Tierney likes to refer to Pittsfield as the “Brooklyn of the Berkshires.”

By that, Tierney — co-owner, with her husband, David, of Hotel on North (as in North Street, downtown’s main drag) — implies there’s some grit when it comes to that region’s largest community. “We’re gritty, not necessarily pretty,” she said with a laugh.

But if one were to look closer and beyond the grit, they would see much more — in this case, culture, restaurants, some retail, and outdoor recreation, for starters, she told BusinessWest.

“I think Pittsfield is doing a great job of reinventing itself,” she said of the ongoing transformation from the days when its economy and overall vibrancy were dominated by one large employer, GE. “Barrington Stage and the Colonial Theatre have been a big part of that; we have a great arts community … we just need more people to get to know us.”

Rebecca Brien, managing director of Downtown Pittsfield Inc. (DPI), agreed, adding that a multi-faceted marketing campaign is being launched in an effort to prompt more people — especially locals, but also those from other area codes — to give Pittsfield a closer look.

It includes Hey Neighbor, a program awarding marketing grants to 10 businesses in downtown Pittsfield, with grantees receiving custom video ads before films at the Beacon Cinema and radio advertisements on WUPE/WEBC during that same time period.

In addition, the city’s two major theaters, Barrington Stage Company and the Colonial Theatre, have received what she calls “dinner-and-a-show” radio spots on NPR.

“This initiative aims to drive foot traffic, build community awareness, and showcase the diverse stories of Pittsfield’s small business community,” Brien said of Hey Neighbor, adding that the theater spots are designed to remind neighbors that the city offers world-class theater and attractive dinner options just a short drive away (more on this later).

“If it isn’t daily workforce that’s occupying the restaurants and coffee shops and visiting the businesses, then it needs to be residents that are doing it in the morning and the evening after work, or while working remotely.”

These promotional initiatives and broader efforts to bring people to the city comprise just one of many developing stories in this community of roughly 44,000 people. Others include:

• Ongoing efforts to create more housing of all kinds, but especially market-rate and affordable units. Several projects in various stages of progress will add more than 100 units, but 200 to 300 will be needed, Mayor Pete Marchetti said;

• The demolition and rebuild of historic Wahconah Park, with the goal of bringing collegiate league baseball back to Pittsfield;

• Early-stage work to gauge interest in forming a business improvement district in the downtown;

• Late feasibility-stage work to build a new elementary school, one that would merge two existing schools into one; and

• Several infrastructure projects, including work on North Street.

Housing remains a critical issue in the community, said those we spoke with — both to meet an urgent need for more options among workers, the elderly, and other constituencies, and to bring more vibrancy to a downtown still suffering from the side effects of COVID, especially the transition to remote work and hybrid schedules, which has reduced the level of business activity in the neighborhood.

Jonathan Butler, president and CEO of the regional economic development agency 1Berkshire, said there is no turning back the clock in this regard, leaving housing as the best option for commercial space in the downtown — and for providing the critical mass of people needed to support the wide range of hospitality-related businesses.

The Hey Neighbor campaign

The Hey Neighbor campaign is part of a broad effort to bring more attention to Pittsfield, its cultural attractions, and its eclectic mix of small businesses.

“If it isn’t daily workforce that’s occupying the restaurants and coffee shops and visiting the businesses, then it needs to be residents that are doing it in the morning and the evening after work, or while working remotely,” he explained. “They’re replacing those people who were formerly working in commercial spaces and buying their morning coffee and lunch.”

“In the spirit of post-pandemic urban planning, downtown Pittsfield, like a lot of other urban centers, has seen a shift away of commercial activity — we’re seeing employers shifting to more work-life balance models with remote working and hybrid office models,” he explained. “So we’re seeing some investments in housing, to meet the city’s needs and a much larger regional need.”

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest turns its lens on the Brooklyn of the Berkshires and the many ongoing efforts to inspire people to look beyond the grit.

 

Staying Power

Hotel on North is marking its 10th anniversary this year, Tierney said, and there is much to commemorate.

Indeed, the boutique 45-room hotel — created out of buildings more than a century old that were once home to the menswear and sporting goods emporium Besse-Clarke — has become a cornerstone of an ongoing transformation of downtown Pittsfield, from the retail-heavy and business-focused days when GE’s transformer division was employing more than 10,000 people, into a more hospitality- and arts-dominated district where more people live than in decades past.

The hotel and the guests it draws from across the Northeast and beyond have inspired several new businesses, she said, listing Methuselah Bar & Lounge and an expansion of Steven Valenti’s men’s clothing store among them.

As for the hotel itself … well, Tierney said it shares its personality with the Berkshires (and Pittsfield itself), meaning an intriguing blend of the past and present, heritage and innovation.

She and David have traveled all around the world, and they’ve incorporated their experiences into Hotel on North, such as its revolving door, a concept borrowed from a hotel in Nashville.

Over the past decade, the hotel has become a big part of the changing scene in Pittsfield, a tight-knit community of hospitality, arts-related, and service businesses that support one another and, together, have become more of a destination in recent years rather than a place to drive through on the way to somewhere else.

Mayor Pete Marchetti

Mayor Pete Marchetti says that, while new housing units are coming online, there is more work to do to meet enormous need in the city.

But in many ways, it is still an unknown, or at least underappreciated, commodity, said Tierney, adding that there is a need for the city to understand and appreciate all that it has become — “it’s been the ugly stepsister for the surrounding towns for so long that I think that sometimes it doesn’t see itself as the engine that can and will” — and do more to put its best foot forward.

Brien said this need to promote all Pittsfield has to offer is at the heart of DPI’s Hey Neighbor campaign, funded through MassDevelopment’s Transformative Development Initiative, as well as the spots promoting not only the shows at Barrington Stage and the Colonial Theatre, but nearby restaurants in Pittsfield.

With the latter, the goal, through the spots on NPR, is to introduce (or reintroduce) Pittsfield to a broad audience across Western Mass.

“We have great tourism that obviously goes on in the Berkshires, but Pittsfield is kind of that forgotten space,” she explained, adding that, while most area residents will go Northampton for dinner and a show, most don’t fully appreciate that they can do the same in Pittsfield.

“Why aren’t those same individuals coming here?” she asked rhetorically, adding that the answer may well be a simple lack of awareness.

Meanwhile, Hey Neighbor will spotlight 10 downtown businesses through those aforementioned cinema and radio spots, said Brien, adding that the eclectic mix includes Hot Plate Brewing Co., Thistle ’n Thorn Floral, WANDER Berkshires, Otto’s Kitchen & Comfort, Methuselah, and Berkshire Nautilus.

“Together, they say, ‘come back downtown and see what’s new,’” she told BusinessWest, adding that a third piece to the broad marketing campaign involves $1,000 grants to three summer event series to promote their offerings:

• The Pitt, a Friday summer music series being spearheaded by Hot Plate Brewing Co.;

• Rhythmscape, which offers weekly dance lessons on Sundays. (like the Pitt, these take place in Dunham Mall, a public pedestrian walkway that has seen several aesthetic improvements over this past year); and

• Depot After Dark, which pairs Tito’s Mexican Bar & Grill and WANDER Berkshires, a new gathering space, adding late-night dance parties to the alleyway just outside their businesses. 

 

Developing Stories

Such efforts are expected to bring more momentum to a downtown that has seen healthy doses of that commodity in recent years, even as it continues to build back from the many types of disruption resulting from the pandemic.

Perhaps the biggest of these is the change in how and where work is done, said Butler, adding that, like all downtowns in the region, Pittsfield’s suffers from having fewer people going to work there everyday.

This trend, coupled with critical need, is fueling investments in housing downtown, he went on, adding that several projects are in various stages of development.

Pittsfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1761
Population: 43,927
Area: 42.5 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $17.94
Commercial Tax Rate: $37.96
Median Household Income: $35,655
Median family Income: $46,228
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Berkshire Health Systems; General Dynamics; Petricca Industries Inc.; SABIC Innovative Plastics; Berkshire Bank
* Latest information available

These include renovation of the Wright Building, just a few doors down from Hotel on North, which represents an example of the shift from commercial to residential uses for downtown real estate. Butler said there are maybe a few hundred more people living downtown than a decade or more ago, and this growing population has helped support existing businesses and inspire new ones.

Meanwhile, this new housing is helping to meet soaring need across the city and the region, said Marchetti, a former Pittsfield Cooperative Bank executive and city councilor, who was elected mayor in November 2023.

He said the city is ready to cut the ribbon on some projects, including Terrace 592, redevelopment of the Wright Terrace apartments, which will bring online 41 units, most of them affordable, while others are in earlier stages.

Overall, there are perhaps another 150 to 200 units in early stage or predevelopment, Marchetti said, including redevelopment of the former Hibbard Elementary School, while Mill Town Capital has several projects in different locations across the city. These initiatives will make a dent in overall need, but more will be needed, he added.

“There’s a lot more work that we need to do, mostly because ours is an aging population,” he noted, adding that affordable options are needed if empty nesters want to continue living in the city.

Beyond housing, there are other issues facing the city, he went on, including the demolition and rebuilding of Wahconah Park, the city-owned landmark built in 1919, with work slated to begin next year.

The wooden grandstand, one of the few remaining in the U.S., was deemed unsafe, Marchetti said, and the park, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been closed for two years. Plans call for replacement of that grandstand but retention of other elements of the park, as well as creation of a historic walkway that will highlight the history of the park, which had a diamond oriented due west (it was constructed well before the advent of field lighting permitted night games), which resulted in brief suspensions of play at sunset so that the setting sun would not interfere with the batters’ view of the pitch.

The Pittsfield Suns, part of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, played at the park before it was deemed unsafe, Marchetti noted, adding that the team could possibly return to Pittsfield — which would be yet another development blending past and future in this city in flux.