Editorial

Brownfield Challenges and Opportunities

The compelling photographs on page 42 tell an intriguing story about the redevelopment of the sprawling former GE transformer-manufacturing complex in Pittsfield — and about brownfield redevelopment in general.
There are always three tenses involved with such projects, of course: the past, present, and future. The past is represented by images, stories, and recollections of what once was. In this case, and in most all cases, it’s about a large corporation that employed generations of people and brought economic vitality to a neighborhood, city, or region, and often gave it an identity. The present is usually represented by images of idle land where factories that employed thousands of people once stood.
The future? Well, that’s the hard part. The really hard part.
It’s often difficult to imagine what it can be — although people try mightily — and even more difficult to make reality. We’ve seen it repeatedly, at places like the former Uniroyal complex in Chicopee, the former Westinghouse site in Springfield (now one of many locations under consideration for a Western Mass. casino), the former Chapman Valve complex in Indian Orchard, and, to a lesser extent, the Ludlow Mills complex, now in the hands of Westmass Area Development Corp.
While there has been some encouraging progress with the Ludlow initiative — two projects, a new HealthSouth rehab hospital and some senior housing, were announced earlier this year — there have been mostly speculation and frustration involving the others.
That’s especially true in Chicopee, where the Uniroyal site has been a nightmare for mayoral administrations for more than 30 years, and Chapman Valve has been equally frustrating, with only a large solar-power array to be put in the category of new ‘development’ (there aren’t many jobs attached to solar farms).
Still, these brownfield sites are important to the region, and for many reasons. First, there will eventually be a severe shortage of developable land in Western Mass., although the ongoing sluggish economy has kept existing supplies virtually intact. This means that, to attract and retain companies and bring jobs to the area, brownfield sites like those listed above are a critical part of the region’s economic-development strategy.
Equally important is the fact that most of these sites are in urban areas, cities that were former manufacturing hubs and are now in the complicated process of trying to reinvent themselves as something else. These brownfield projects could provide a key piece to that puzzle.
We’re encouraged by what is happening in Pittsfield, and believe officials there are on the right track. The GE complex was indeed a center of innovation, and the transformers built there helped light up the world — literally. The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority, the entity created to redevelop the sprawling complex, has landed one tenant, a financial-services company, and is forwarding plans to build a life-sciences complex that will house companies that have moved beyond the startup stage and are looking for a place to grow.
As we’ve said many times, it is through the nurturing of small businesses such as these — rather than trying to lure large employers from other parts of the country or the world — that the region is most likely to secure more of those good-paying jobs that every community wants and needs. It may take more time to do it this way, but the results may well be more permanent.
It will take a long time — years, if not decades — to fill in the land left vacant when the GE buildings were torn down, and create a third picture to go with the two on page 42. The same is true in Chicopee and Indian Orchard, and it may likely be the same if a casino isn’t built in East Springfield on the Westinghouse site.
But with some patience, imagination, and, yes, the kind of innovation that made these sites so important to the region 50 and even 100 years ago, they can again be key contributors to the area’s economy.
And maybe give some of these cities a new identity.