Home Posts tagged Agawam MA

Agawam Rides Growing Wave of Momentum

By
Steven (left) and Adam Rovithis in the Pit at Next Level Cowork Space.
Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight

Steven (left) and Adam Rovithis in the Pit at Next Level Cowork Space.

Steven (left) and Adam Rovithis in the Pit at Next Level Cowork Space.

They call it ‘the Pit.’

This an open area with several work stations, and it’s built “for momentum, not necessarily quiet,” said Adam Rovithis, adding that it is one of many realms within Next Level Cowork Space, a new venture he and his brother, Steven, launched last spring in Agawam’s industrial park.

There’s also the (Quiet) Cove, another open space, and mostly a no-phone-call zone; the Launch Pad, a conference room ideal for everything from small business meetings to real estate closings; the Lounge, event space featuring everything from a full kitchen to a foosball table (one local family recently rented it out for Thanksgiving); several small (95 to 350 square feet) offices; and some larger tenants, including a marketing firm and a kitchen design outfit.

It all comes together nicely at the region’s latest co-working concept, one the brothers Rovithis said is off to a solid start thanks to what they tout as attractive pricing — $250 a month for one of those private offices and $99 a month for an open desk, for example — a convenient location just a few minutes off Route 57, and an atmosphere they describe as “a community.”

“There’s no corporate feel here … we want it to be more of a community, more like family, than anything else,” Steven said, adding that, while the partners may eventually consider expanding and taking the concept to other markets, for now they’re fully focused on making the Agawam facility a success.

Next Level Cowork is one of many converging stories in Agawam. Others include:

• A small-scale lithium-ion battery storage facility, proposed by Long Road Energy in response to an RFP from the state, and planned for 404 Silver St., formerly home to Lucia Lumber. The proposal has drawn widespread opposition from residents, who cite everything from safety concerns to environmental impact and property values, but Mayor Christopher Johnson said the city is working with the developers to implement strict safety ordinances;

• Ongoing construction of a new Agawam High School. The $226 million project is being undertaken in phases, with current work focusing on the community wing of the school;

• A new police station, which opened recently in the former HUB Insurance building on Suffield Street. The $14 million facility, a price tag that includes acquisition of the building, was put beyond schedule by delays in procuring electric switch gear and a backup generator, said the mayor, but the ceremonial ribbon was cut early last month; and

• Several other new businesses, including a new Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, which is taking over the former American Freight space in the Southgate Shopping Plaza, Convenient MD Urgent Care & Walk-in Clinic on Suffield Street, a new Baystate Ob/Gyn facility on Silver Street, and Fancy Bagels, also in the Southgate Shopping Plaza.

“There’s a lot happening — it’s an exciting time in Agawam,” said Robin Wozniak, president of the West of the River Chamber of Commerce, which includes Agawam. “We’re seeing a lot of momentum in the community.”

As for the battery storage facility, the Silver Street proposal was not among the four chosen recently in the first round of projects — sites in Everett, Somerset, Chelsea, and Tyngsborough, which together will create 1,300 megawatts of battery storage, were selected — but there will be subsequent rounds, Johnson said.

“It’s a benign facility — it’s not what you see when you Google ‘battery storage facility,’ like in New York and California, where they had the fires. That’s not what they build today.”

He noted that such facilities are needed and are going to be placed … somewhere. With the proper safeguards in place, Agawam could and should be one of those places, he said, adding that a facility will bring some jobs, but it would also become the second-highest taxpayer in the city behind Six Flags.

“It’s a benign facility — it’s not what you see when you Google ‘battery storage facility,’ like in New York and California, where they had the fires,” he told BusinessWest. “That’s not what they build today.”

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes a look at the many converging storylines in Agawam, and the many forms of progress in this city of almost 29,000.

 

Watt’s Happening?

The proposed battery-storage facility is a comparatively small project — 250 megawatts, according to Johnson. By way of comparison, the proposal for Everett, on the site of 22 old oil storage tankers, would procure more than 700 megawatts of battery storage.

Overall, the state plans to lock in 5,000 megawatts by 2030, said Johnson, adding that Agawam’s proposal will likely be resubmitted for subsequent rounds of projects.

Unlike the Everett proposal, Agawam’s site borders a residential neighborhood — the Agawam Industrial Park is on the other side of Silver Street, Johnson acknowledged, adding that there are safeguards in place for such facilities.

The Lounge at Next Level Cowork Space.

The Lounge at Next Level Cowork Space.

“For lack of a better way to describe it, these facilities are broken down into containerized units on the property,” he explained. “There will be a number of units on the property, each one containing batteries; they’re monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year — every cell of every battery is monitored for performance.”

Overall, he said such a facility would be a safe, quiet, mostly unnoticed addition to the tax base, and a welcome addition given the cost of infrastructure and capital projects in the city — especially the new high school.

A pet project of Johnson’s and the primary reason he returned to the corner office in January 2024, 24 years after he first served in that capacity (he later served on the City Council), the new high school is an ambitious undertaking, which, as noted earlier, is being undertaken in stages.

“There will be a number of units on the property, each one containing batteries; they’re monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year — every cell of every battery is monitored for performance.”

The first stage is what Johnson calls the ‘community wing’ portion of the building, now under construction. It includes the gymnasiums, auditorium, cafeteria, locker rooms, media center, office space, and other facilities, he explained, adding that this phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year or the beginning of 2027.

Phase 2 is the academic wing, construction of which will entail demolition of a portion of the existing high school, said Johnson, adding that the community wing will be temporarily connected to the academic wings of the current high school to ensure there is no disruption to any programming during ongoing construction.

Phase 3, scheduled to be completed in June 2028, involves demolition of the existing building and completion of athletic fields. This phase will be completed by the end of 2028, said the mayor, adding that the undertaking is on time and, more importantly, on budget.

Agawam officials cut the ribbon on the city’s new police station early last month.

Agawam officials cut the ribbon on the city’s new police station early last month.

As for the new police station, it replaces a nearly 40-year-old facility (a renovated elementary school) on Springfield Street that was cramped not long after it opened, the mayor noted.

“This station has more room — there’s built-in additional capacity, and it’s laid out to better accommodate workflow,” he explained, adding that renovation of the old insurance property came with a price tag that is roughly half of what new construction would have been.

 

Work in Progress

When asked about the name affixed to their new venture, Steven and Adam Rovithis both pointed to the sign on the wall in the conference room reading “Welcome to the Next Level.”

It was placed there to help motivate those working at the real estate company they formed (Rovithis Realty, later rebranded ROVI Homes) and moved into the former laboratory facility on Herbert P. Almgren Drive in the Agawam Regional Industrial Park, on the site of the former Bowles Airport.

Agawam at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1855
Population: 28,692
Area: 24.2 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $14.10
Commercial Tax Rate: $26.67
Median Household Income: $49,390
Family Household Income: $59,088
Type of government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: OMG Inc., Agawam Public Schools, Six Flags New England
* Latest information available

“One of the marketing people said, ‘why don’t we just call it Next Level?’” Steven recalled, noting that the name helps indicate that this is co-work space with some different, innovative twists.

The property was acquired by the two brothers — who come from a family of entrepreneurs; their uncle, Manny, owned the appliance chain that bore his name, and their father, Steve, helped him get that venture off the ground — to house the real estate business, but other tenants as well. These included an attorney’s office and the kitchen design company, said Adam, adding that, with the real estate employees working remotely during and after COVID, there was more space available to lease out, and co-working space became an increasingly attractive option.

Indeed, while the co-working movement has had its ups and downs — some ventures have thrived, while others, most notably the large-scale Venture X facility in Holyoke, have not — the brothers thought their community concept would work and forged ahead.

In putting together their venture, they borrowed from other co-work facilities and office spaces and tweaked concepts, said Steven, noting that they had seen variations of the Pit and the Lounge in other settings.

They currently boast several tenants making use of the different kinds of spaces available, especially the private offices and the Pit. Clients have ranged from permanent tenants to professionals who have made use of the space and its amenities after dropping off teenagers at nearby Six Flags and before picking them up again.

Current tenants include an IT professional, a software development company, two financial services professionals, a healthcare consultant, a hazardous waste consultant, and others, said Steven, adding that the community aspect of the venture is punctuated by regular networking events among tenants on the third Thursday of every month.

“We get all of our business owners together, have some food and drink, talk a little bit of business, and do some networking,” he said. “We have a few deals come together in the lounge — two different businesses saying ‘hey, I can help you.’”

As noted earlier, the partners believe this is a concept that can work in other markets, and expansion is certainly an option down the road.

“I think we can do more, but right now, we’re still so new at this that we want to make sure that we nail this location,” Steven said. “If this works, we can definitely do more. I think co-work is picking up again, and this concept, 99 bucks a month to get out of your house … that’s appealing to many people.”

Partners Restaurant Celebrates 40 Years of Food, Community

By
Sue and Mark Tansey are partners in both business and life.
Features Restaurants

Morning Glory

Sue and Mark Tansey are partners in both business and life.

Sue and Mark Tansey are partners in both business and life.

Mark Tansey didn’t exactly plan his path into the culinary world.

“My brother kind of pushed me into the business,” he recalled. “My mother died when I was 15, and I had to cook at home. I wanted to go to college, and he goes, ‘why don’t you go to cooking school?’ So I ended up going to Johnson & Wales.”

In addition to completing that two-year program, Tansey worked at the Monte Carlo in West Springfield, and later at Hillbrook House in Westfield, then Springfield Country Club. The first two of those establishments are long gone, but his next venture — Partners Restaurant & Catering in Agawam — is still going strong, more than 40 years later.

“A woman came to me and said, ‘I have this little breakfast-lunch place in Agawam, Mark, if you want to think about it,’” he recalled. That was 1984, and Partners had been open just a couple of years when its then-owner wanted to unload it. Tansey, then just 24 years old, liked what he saw, secured a $45,000 loan from Westbank, and started crafting a plan, both culinary and financial.

“I had to learn how to write the financials, how to figure out, ‘well, if I have one dishwasher and a cook and a server, how much do I need?’ But then I realized, for the first couple of years, I was the dishwasher and the cook.”

His first marriage would end in those early years, and he wound up bonding with his current wife (and business partner) of 33 years, Sue, over food; her family owned Angy’s Tortellini at the time, and she ran a small catering business.

And now, they’re celebrating four decades running a restaurant and catering business that has outlasted challenges ranging from a devastating fire in 2014 to the COVID-19 pandemic (more on both later), emerging from it all with a loyal clientele, about 50 employees, and even a succession plan (the Tanseys’ daughter, Siena, is deeply involved in the business).

In short, there’s plenty to celebrate, which they did on Nov. 22 with an admittedly late 40th anniversary event (the actual milestone was last year) at the restaurant, where they expected about 400 people to show up.

“We have a lot of repeat business, and we have people that say, ‘I can’t wait until they put out those specials because I want to see what I’m going to have this weekend.’”

The clientele has been multi-generational, Sue said, but so has the staff.

“We’ve had multiple third-generation family members working for us. We’ve had the mother, then their daughter, and now the granddaughter working for us — I’d say a good five families like that. It’s so cool.”

Both Tanseys attribute much of the restaurant’s success to its staff. In the early days, Sue said, “if we came home on a Sunday and we were over $1,000, we’d be like, ‘oh my God.’ Now, we serve 400, 500 people on a Sunday.” And they appreciate those putting in all the work to make that happen.

“Everybody makes fair money; I pay them well. I don’t chintz around. And if we do have a great week, they get extra,” Mark said. “How is that money going to enhance my life? I could use it, but in the long run, by giving everybody 50 bucks, it works out better, because they’re going to stay, we have less turnover, less training. I didn’t know that in the first five years of business, but after a while, we did.”

The result is clear in the waitstaff’s hustle and demeanor, he added. “That’s how we want it. I want people to feel fun and not have a grumpy person greeting them.”

 

Serving Up Challenges

Sept. 3, 2014 was not one of those fun days.

That’s the night the Tanseys were summoned to the restaurant, which had suffered a major electrical fire caused by degraded conduits across the street.

“If you looked in the window, you wouldn’t think we had a fire, but it was all electrical damage; everything was permeated with smoke,” Sue said. “They ended up having to take the building down.”

Thankfully, an insurance policy allowed them to operate at another spot, and they opened Partners at the Cup on Route 20 in West Springfield the following June. Before that, however, “we still had catering to do,” Mark said. “Because I had a rapport with Six Flags, they had a kitchen out in the back. It was winter, and they weren’t using their stoves and ovens, and they didn’t charge us at all.”

First Baptist Church of Agawam also allowed the couple to cater from there, so they paid rent to the church to do that for a while. “We had people come out of the woodwork to help us rebuild,” Mark said.

Partners reopened in December 2015, and the couple ran both locations until 2020, when the Cup closed for good.

As difficult as the fire was, however, COVID may have been worse. “I think I still have PTSD,” Sue told BusinessWest. “It was difficult to figure out the PPP, but we rallied, and we came up with menus. We had family dinners. We did takeout. We had a few employees that weren’t afraid, and we ran a skeleton crew.”

That was when Siena came home from Boston, where she had she studied hospitality and was working at the Omni Parker House until it closed, and started a new career at Partners.

“We also fed our employees; we would have employee dinners.” Sue recalled. “It was very hard work. We did fish and chips Friday night, and people would pre-order. We had a little side window that worked out perfectly, so people didn’t have to come in.

“But every Monday, we waited for [then-Gov.] Charlie Baker to drop another hammer. Every Monday, there was another restriction on us. It was awful. But then we were able to open outside, and we put up a big tent. Eventually, we ended up coming back inside, though we had to go from 80 seats down to 40, with barriers between them. But we still had our loyal employees.”

“Thank God for them,” Mark quickly added. “Especially during COVID. We were not surprised, but taken aback by how much support we got.”

It’s not just the restaurant that has succeeded, but a catering business that has taken many forms and operated in many settings over the decades, and now includes an event space that opened two years ago right on the Partners property, which can accommodate parties of more than 400 people.

On both sides of the business, Mark said, they use as much locally sourced, fresh food as possible, from produce to breads — no canned vegetables anywhere. And patrons look forward to the ever-changing specials board, which benefits not only their taste buds, but the bottom line.

“You can get bacon and eggs anywhere at $6, $7, $8. But I want to get a higher check average because I have a good payroll,” he explained. “So I’ll try to do dinner entrees for breakfast specials. Like, this weekend we have beef brisket. And now, instead of getting steak and eggs for $14.95, you can get smoked beef brisket for $16.95.

“We have a lot of repeat business,” he added, “and we have people that say, ‘I can’t wait until they put out those specials because I want to see what I’m going to have this weekend.’”

 

 

Off the Air

Mark has taken his passion for cooking to the airwaves in past decades, hosting a local cooking TV show, Continental Cuisine, and a talk radio show, The Latest Dish, as well as participating in cooking demos and seminars for the Big E, Angy’s Tortellini, Big Y Foods, and various clubs and organizations.

“At that time, people wanted quick meals they could make at home,” he told BusinessWest. “People can go to a restaurant and get chicken parm; I would show them how to do a chicken parm or something simple. Speed scratch cooking — that’s kind of what I did. And then I did some more upscale stuff, because I have some background in that too. But I wanted the people to know that you can do this at home.”

Sue thinks her husband could have become nationally known.

“Food Network was just starting to come out, Emeril was getting popular, and I remember thinking I should send in a tape for Mark,” she said. “And I never did it.”

“I could have been famous,” he said, then flashed a warm smile at his partner. “But look at our life.”

Ace Precision Continues to Hone Its Craft

By
Plant Manager Sadiq Elias
Cover Story

Parts of the Whole

Plant Manager Sadiq Elias

Plant Manager Sadiq Elias

 

Sadiq Elias knows precision manufacturing is a challenging business.

“It’s long hours. It’s the type of industry where it’s not always a 9-to-5 job,” Elias, plant manager at Ace Precision Inc., told BusinessWest. “We’re making military components here, for the government. And we all know their demands; they don’t care if it’s Sunday, they don’t care if it’s Christmas, they don’t care if your kid was just born — their priority is getting their parts so they can move on with their projects. So that makes for long hours, long days, and that could be a turnoff for some people.”

But there’s a certain satisfaction that comes with this work, he added, that makes it a good fit for young people looking for a rewarding career that engages both their brain and their hands.

“The biggest thing that I’ve always enjoyed is knowing what you’re building,” Elias said. “We’ve made components in the past that are on the Hubble telescope. One of my customers told me at one point, ‘you know, every plane in the sky has a part that Ace Precision made.’ And it’s something you can tell other people — ‘we have parts on space shuttles and satellites, submarines and aircraft carriers, commercial airlines, F-35s.’ It’s cool to know that you can look at a submarine or go to an airshow and look at some planes and say, ‘oh yeah, we make parts that go on there.’ It’s a cool feeling.”

Ace Precision has been creating those feelings — and, more importantly, cutting-edge components — since Elias’s father launched the business in 1980.

“We’ve made components in the past that are on the Hubble telescope. One of my customers told me at one point, ‘you know, every plane in the sky has a part that Ace Precision made.’”

From that original location, in a 9,000-square-foot building on Suffield Street in Agawam, the business continued to grow and thrive, with some important milestones along the way, from achieving ISO900/AS9100 certification in 2013 to relocating to a new, much larger facility at nearby 17 Ace Precision Way in 2021.

“My father started the business with one machine and a lot of ambition. We’ve grown into a 20,000-square-foot facility here in Agawam with roughly 30 employees,” Elias said, noting that the company’s main manufacturing focus is in the aerospace and defense industries, both locally and with a footprint stretching from the South to the West Coast.

The company touts capabilities ranging from prototyping to production work. “We have a pretty good engineering team here. Sometimes we’ll have customers come to us with a design that hasn’t yet been built. And we’ll work hand-in-hand with them, taking those drawings and models and turning those into parts, and then further down the road into assemblies and testing those out for them. Eventually, that may turn into a production order for them.”

Ace Precision

Ace Precision moved into its current, 20,000-square-foot headquarters in 2021.

For example, “we do a lot with with Collins Aerospace, developing tools to help them in the field for maintenance purposes and aircraft repairs and overhauls and just routine maintenance,” Elias said. “Also, we do quite a bit with the Navy, where we’re doing launch and recovery systems on the aircraft carriers, as well as with a company that does a lot with commercial airlines, on the mechanical side of things, on the bodies of the planes. So many of those components are built right here at Ace Precision.”

 

Specialized Services

The Agawam facility houses computer numerical control (CNC) equipment, from lathe mills, grinding equipment, and saws to coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to check parts. “It’s pretty high-end,” Elias said. “We try to keep up with the latest and greatest equipment that’s out there so we can stay competitive.”

And it is, indeed, a competitive field, he added. “There are a lot of firms in the area that do this type of work — not as many as there used to be, obviously, as manufacturing has gone downhill a little bit in the last 20 years.”

He explained that precision machining involves holding tight tolerances while working on specified materials, such as engine components for aircraft that have very little leeway for tolerance errors.

“So we need really well-trained talent in the shop that can operate the equipment that we do have on hand,” Elias said. “There are other shops out there that don’t necessarily work with precision manufacturing, which is not to say anything bad about them, but it’s just a higher class of workmanship here, I guess you could say.”

That’s why making the move to more than double the floor space was so huge, he noted.

“Moving into a larger facility allowed us to streamline production, creating a flow from in to out. And we’re all under one roof right now. Before, we were in a building that had several different roofs, and it wasn’t very streamlined. So now we’re in a very clean, new facility. It’s a great working environment. People enjoy coming to work to a clean atmosphere, and also it just helps communication within the company.”

Sadiq Elias, pictured with Andrea Sibilia

Sadiq Elias, pictured with Andrea Sibilia, vice president of Purchasing, says the current space lends itself to a more streamlined workflow and better communication.

At the same time, client needs are always changing as well. “We’ve been working with the same four major customers for many years. Their products have changed, and for the better. There have been design changes and models that have changed configurations completely. We try to use the latest software to help model these parts up and also equipment like 5-axis machining or 3D scanning on CMMs, trying to stay ahead of the curve with technology. That makes us attractive to customers as well as making our job here at Ace Precision easier, and at the end of the day, we become more profitable and prosperous.”

That customer loyalty from a few major, long-time clents has been a critical component the success of Ace Precision, Elias noted.

“There’s one motto that I stand by, and I’ve always stood by: don’t give your customers a reason to go elsewhere. That means give them a quality part, and give it to them when they expect it. Those are two big key factors in keeping your customers happy. If you give them an excuse to go elsewhere, then, obviously, they will find someone else to make their parts.

“There’s one motto that I stand by, and I’ve always stood by: don’t give your customers a reason to go elsewhere. That means give them a quality part, and give it to them when they expect it.”

“There are plenty of shops in the area or in the country, for that matter, that are capable of doing these types of things,” he went on. “So customer satisfaction is huge, and it’s a driving factor in keeping a long-term relationship with a company, so your customer can rely on you. They can pick up the phone or send an email and say, ‘we’re in a pinch; we need something right away.’ And when you get it to them, they’re happy, and you’re happy. They have that feeling of ease that they can rely on you to deliver their parts when they’re needed. That’s what it’s all about: customer satisfaction.”

 

 

From the Floor Up

Elias said he always had his eye on working at Ace Precision, even from childhood.

“I kind of grew up here as a kid, coming on weekends with my dad, and he taught me from the bottom up, from sweeping floors, taking out the trash, getting my driver’s license and making deliveries, running on the saw, just doing what I had to do. He groomed me into the man I am today, and basically I run the business now.”

And the plant continues to grow, he told BusinessWest.

“Obviously, everybody hit a big roadblock during COVID, which put a damper on production, but we were able to come out of that strong, if not stronger, due to the fact that our industry is versatile, and we don’t put all our eggs in one basket. So we were able to get through COVID with no problems, and we’ve definitely increased our capabilities and our profitability.”

That said, recruiting and retaining talent is a struggle these days across the manufacturing spectrum.

“You find that a certain age group of older talent may have retired, may have moved on to something different in their lives,” Elias noted, and they’re not necessarily being infilled at the same rate with younger talent. “There’s a little bit of a gap in age where there weren’t that many people out there that said, ‘oh, I want to get into manufacturing.’ Everyone wanted to be in IT or a desk job. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s hard to find that talent and the good help that you need.”

But Ace’s clients continue to demand parts and expertise, Elias was quick to add, and they always have new products in the works.

“So we hope that we’ll get a part of that, if not all of it. We’ve been growing, and we’ve been at a steady pace of growing for the last four years since COVID. It seems to keep going in that positive direction every year. So I just stay positive.”

For Agawam, It’s Back to the Future

By
Chris Johnson
Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight

Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson will be returning to the mayor’s office in January 24 years after serving as the city’s first mayor.

Chris Johnson was elected Agawam’s first mayor back in November 1989.

He then served five two-year terms before returning to his real-estate law practice in 2000. In the years that followed, he stayed active and involved in the community where he was born and raised, serving several terms on the City Council, where he likely would have stayed had Mayor William Sapelli, former superintendent of schools in this city that calls itself a town, declined the opportunity to seek another term.

With that decision, and with several key issues facing this community — especially movement toward renovating or, preferably (in the view of most involved) replacing its high school — Johnson sought a return to the corner office. And last month, voters gave him a hard-earned victory over his challenger, fellow City Councilor Cecelia Calabrese.

“They say that once it’s in your blood, it’s hard to get it out,” Johnson said. “I care deeply about the community I grew up in and raised my family in, and we have a few significant issues that we’re facing over the next year or two. And I wanted to make sure they got a fair shake.”

Indeed, Johnson told BusinessWest that, as he returns to City Hall, there are several matters that will have his full attention — everything from a pressing need to create more housing in several categories to bringing roughly 25 years of work to create recreational facilities at the former Tuckahoe Turf Farm in Feeding Hills to a sucessful conclusion, to efforts to redevelop the former Games and Lanes property on Walnut Street Extension.

“I work closely with the mayors, as well as the state senators and representatives, to be sure that we’re providing a platform for the small businesses in Agawam, and be that middle person to ensure that the businesses are able to have their voices heard.”

But it is the high school that will be priority one, he said, adding that, after a few failed attempts to gain traction from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), the community is moving closer to getting into the pipeline for state funding for a new school, and city residents will likely have the opportunity to vote on the matter as early as next spring.

In his view, building a new high school, even one with a projected $230 million price tag, will be more practical and cost-effective than trying to again renovate and add onto the current structure, built in the mid-’50s.

Meanwhile, a new high school will certainly help the community effectively compete with neighboring cities and towns for young professionals and businesses alike.

“It’s been 50 years since we’ve built a school,” he said, referencing the middle school, built in 1973. “We’ve gone a long time without making a major investment. I’ve been in the real-estate world since I left the mayor’s office 24 years ago; I’m a real-estate attorney, and I have lots of friends who are Realtors and brokers, and they all say that, when it comes to new families moving into the area, one of the first things they want to know is what the school system is like.”

Robin Wozniak

Robin Wozniak stands in front of the new Starbucks set to open in Agawam.

Robin Wozniak, president of the West of the River Chamber of Commerce, who serves on the committee studying options for the high school, agreed. “It’s imperative that we keep up with technology and provide facilities that are state-of-the-art,” she said. “We have to remain competitive with our neighbors.”

Beyond the high-school project are other pressing issues in town, as well as signs of progress, she said, noting, among them, the highly anticipated opening of a Starbucks in a lot at the corner of Main and Suffield streets, being developed by the Colvest Group. The store is in the final stages of construction, she said, and it will be an important addition to that section of town just over the Morgan-Sullivan Bridge from West Springfield.

With the acquistion by Colvest of a small parcel on the edge of the neighboring Town Hall parking lot, there is room for additional development on the site, Wozniak said, noting that an urgent-care clinic and a fast-food restaurant have been among the rumored possibilities.

Meanwhile, she’s looking forward to working with Johnson to bolster the chamber’s role as a liaison between City Hall and the business community, making sure the wants and needs of the former are understood by the latter.

“We’re trying to identify some parcels for some creative housing concepts to try to see if we can get some more affordable-housing opportunities, if not subsidized affordable-housing opportunities.”

“I work closely with the mayors, as well as the state senators and representatives, to be sure that we’re providing a platform for the small businesses in Agawam, and be that middle person to ensure that the businesses are able to have their voices heard,” she said.

For this installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest turns the lens on Agawam, a community looking to transfer some unresolved issues to the proverbial done pile in the months and years to come.

Room for Improvement

As he talked about the current high school, a facility he attended in the ’70s and knows from many different vantage points, Johnson compared it to a “beautiful ’55 Chevy that we kept in really good condition.”

In other words, it still purrs, and it’s still somewhat easy on the eyes. But it is simply not suited for these times.

“It’s going to need significant work over the next five to 15 years, and no matter how much work you do to it, it’s not cost-effective to turn it into a new, modern vehicle,” he said, adding that the relatively good condition of the current high school actually hurt the town to some extent because the MSBA put other communities with more pressing needs ahead of Agawam in the competition for school-building funds.

But even the state has come around to the notion that the building needs to be replaced, said Johnson, adding that the MSBA board of directors recently voted to move the project to what’s known as schematic design.

The state would likely pick up $100 million of the total price tag, leaving the community to come up with the rest, he said, noting that a debt-exclusion override — something the town has never before sought from the voters — would likely be needed. And Johnson, like other elected officials, is leaning strongly toward putting the matter on the ballot.

But while the high school is the predominent issue facing the community, there are others, he noted, citing the ongoing work to convert the former HUB Insurance building on Suffield Street into a new police station, as well as continued progress on work to convert the former Tuckahoe Turf Farm, nearly 300 acres the town has owned for more than 20 years, into passive recreation.

“The other need is at the other end of the spectrum, the young people who have grown up in Agawam; they’re young adults out in the work world trying to find housing opportunities so they can stay in Agawam.”

This includes hiking paths, picnic areas, and other facilities, he said, noting that, roughly a year ago, town leaders approved the borrowing of nearly $4 million to build a road, repair the dam and culverts on the property, and create a parking lot.

That work continues, said Johnson, adding that funding has also been received from the state, as well as from Tennessee Gas, which directed funds it has earmarked for conversation projects to work on the dam and pond on the property.

What the initiative needs is a name, he noted, as it has always been referred to simply as the ‘former Tuckahoe site,’ and the town reconizes the need for something new and fresh. “We’re working on it,” he added.

Likewise, this community, like most in the region, is working to address an ongoing housing shortage.

“We’re trying to identify some parcels for some creative housing concepts to try to see if we can get some more affordable-housing opportunities, if not subsidized affordable-housing opportunities,” he explained.

Agawam at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1855
Population: 28,692
Area: 24.2 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $14.54
Commercial Tax Rate: $27.54
Median Household Income: $49,390
Family Household Income: $59,088
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: OMG Inc., Agawam Public Schools, Six Flags New England
* Latest information available

“We have two glaring needs, and they’re not easy to address, unfortunately. One is seniors who have raised families in Agawam; they’re living in single-family houses, and they want that downsizing opportunity,” he went on, noting that there is one over-55 condomimum project wrapping up, but the units come with price tags above what many can afford. “The other need is at the other end of the spectrum, the young people who have grown up in Agawam; they’re young adults out in the work world trying to find housing opportunities so they can stay in Agawam.”

As for the former Games and Lanes property, long an eyesore and an environmental nightmare, and then a vacant lot used only for parking at Big E time, Johnson said at least one developer has expressed interest.

The broader Walnut Street Extension corridor was rezoned to allow mixed use, he noted, adding that the preferred reuse of the Games and Lanes property would be development that entailed retail and office space on the ground floor and residential units on the floors above.

 

Bottom Line

Much has happened in this town since Johnson last occupied the corner office at the start of this century.

But some issues, including the high school, housing, and the Tuckahoe Turf Farm, were talked about the first time he patrolled Town Hall.

He ran again to bring resolution to those issues and “give them a fair shake,” as he put it, and as he prepares to return to office, there is an expectation of real progress on these and many other fronts.

 

In Its Fifth Decade, OMG Inc. Keeps Growing and Innovating

By
From left, Web Shaffer, Hubert McGovern, and Dewey Kolvek on one of the plant floors at OMG Inc.
Construction

View from the Top

From left, Web Shaffer, Hubert McGovern, and Dewey Kolvek on one of the plant floors at OMG Inc.

From left, Web Shaffer, Hubert McGovern, and Dewey Kolvek on one of the plant floors at OMG Inc.

The past three years — spanning the pandemic and all the ways it has impacted industry, from supply chains to workforce challenges — have been rough on businesses of all kinds.

But for OMG Inc., it’s been a different story.

“I want to say three-quarters of the business is re-roofing,” said Web Shaffer, senior vice president and general manager of the firm, which encompasses two main divisions: OMG Roofing Products and FastenMaster. “So, while it’s not entirely recession-proof, when your roof goes, you can patch it for a little while, but you can only do that for so long.”

OMG President Hubert McGovern agreed. “You either get a bucket, or you get a new roof.”

And the bucket isn’t the ideal choice for a large company — think of an Tesla factory, a Target store, or an Amazon warehouse — with plenty to protect under that roof.

Meanwhile, 2020 found people stuck at home, not going on vacation, and, in many cases, investing in their homes, said Dewey Kolvek, OMG’s senior vice president of operations. “During the pandemic, it was crazy, with everybody battening down the hatches. A lot of people were at home, looking around, and saying, ‘you know, maybe we should remodel our bathroom. Maybe we should remodel the kitchen. Oh, let’s put a deck out in the back.’”

OMG Roofing Products, which manufactures and supplies roofing fasteners, adhesives, and rooftop drains, pipe supports, and solar mounts, as well as proprietary installation technology for the flat-roofing market; and FastenMaster, which develops fastening and adhesive products used by remodelers, deck builders, residential framers, home builders, and floor installers, both benefited from this environment.

“We’re not making basic drywall screws or something like that. If we have a new product, it’s got to have a feature, a benefit, a patented intellectual property, and something the customer wants.”

And during a time of global supply-chain issues in 2021 and 2022, “we grew out of control, and we couldn’t keep up,” McGovern said. “These last two years have been record years for the company because of the demand. It’s finally starting to settle, but we’ve been under the gun to produce as much as possible, as fast as possible, for probably two and a half years.”

Kolvek recalls it all vividly. “For a period there, we were on 24/7 for two months, just to try to put a dent in it. It was brutal.”

OMG is no stranger to growth spurts. After launching in 1981 as Olympic Fasteners, by 1987 it was manufacturing 100 million fasteners a year. In 1993, the company became Olympic Manufacturing Group — hence the OMG acronym — and in 1997, it was acquired by Handy & Harman, which was later taken over by a public company called Steel Partners. Throughout its history, OMG has grown about 10% a year, on average, through organic growth, constant product development, and a series of acquisitions.

Today, OMG boasts more than 650 employees — about 450 of them at its Agawam campus, which spans 480,000 square feet over a half-dozen buildings — and records about $400 million in annual sales. Its three other plants are located in Addison, Ill., Charlotte, N.C., and Rockford, Minn., in addition to field salespeople located across the U.S. and overseas. The company estimates that around 65% of all commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings in the U.S. that have been built or reroofed within the past 25 years have one or more of its products on their roof.

“The good news about roofing is, people need roofs,” McGovern said. “So if you have a decent building, you’re not willing to let it just deteriorate; you’re going to get a new roof if you need it. Or you’re going to have a lot of buckets and be running around like a chicken with your head cut off every time it rains.”

 

Hot Stuff

During BusinessWest’s recent visit to OMG’s factory in Agawam, Shaffer pointed out a Chinese advertisement for RhinoBond, the first non-penetrating, induction-based roof-attachment method in North America, which OMG introduced in 1999.

“RhinoBond is a global leader in induction heat welding, and a leading-edge technology in the commercial roofing industry,” he noted. “So we make stuff in Western Mass. and export it to places like China, which is pretty cool. It usually goes the other way.”

McGovern said OMG has a family of about 20 patents on its induction roofing technology, which uses heat to meld the roofing membrane to a fastener plate without having to puncture the membrane with a screw. “It’s a different way of doing roofing — and we lead the market with that.”

On an aerial photo of the Agawam campus, he pointed out a building dedicated to research and development that houses about 30 employees, mainly engineers, who work on developing new products. Over the years, the company’s developments have included TrapEase, the first composite deck screw that does not mushroom; OlyBond Insulation Adhesive, a two-part, low-rise polyurethane foam; OlyBond500 canisters, a new method of applying adhesive, and many more.

OMG’s patented heat-induction system

This flat roof will use OMG’s patented heat-induction system, which requires no screws to pierce the membrane.

“A lot of the growth has come from looking at our customers and saying, ‘what else can we sell these guys that will help them build a better roof?’” Kolvek said. “And that’s where you see our drains come in, or the solar mounts and other things. Those accessories have helped grow the business, as well as new technologies that cannibalize some of our original product line or allow a more premium solution to builders.”

Shaffer agreed. “We’re really getting out there to the customer and saying, ‘how can we help you? What are your challenges you’re facing?’ And maybe we can bring a solution to the table.”

FastenMaster in particular has been introducing new products at a brisk pace, as evidenced by an innovation award it received from Home Depot in November, for its Cortex Hidden Fastening System, which is used to build a deck with fully hidden hardware and fasteners. That kind of continuous development is possible only by staying atop and even spearheading industry trends, McGovern said.

“Some of the technology is changing, but we’ve changed some of the technology with our products,” he noted. “And we’re not making basic drywall screws or something like that. If we have a new product, it’s got to have a feature, a benefit, a patented intellectual property, and something the customer wants.”

“We’re in Western Mass., and we’re all vying for the same pool of workers. So what makes you different than someone else you’re competing against for that same labor?”

Clearly, customers do want them — not only domestically, but in a place like China that’s known much more for its imports to the U.S. than its exports from stateside manufacturers. “You don’t see that a lot in any industry — maybe in some more high-tech ones,” Kolvek said. “But in the construction industry, there’s a lot more imported product. So we have to be different — and better. That’s the bottom line.”

And when OMG develops a successful product, similar products will follow, as with the OlyBond canisters. “We introduced that technology to roofing and, it took off — tens of millions of dollars of sales in a very short period of time,” McGovern said. “Now everybody has a canister technology.”

OMG’s Cortex Hidden Fastening System

Last year, Home Depot gave one of its three innovation awards to OMG’s Cortex Hidden Fastening System.

“In business, that’s what happens,” Shaffer added. “If you’re successful like Tesla, well, somebody else is going to come out with electric cars. They’re not going to let you just do that forever. So you’ve got to move on and innovate again, which is what that whole R&D building is all about.”

And being first to market is important when operating on a global scale, McGovern said. “Then it’s everyone else playing catch-up.”

A key element in OMG’s success has been its embrace of lean manufacturing concepts, Kolvek explained.

“We have a pretty robust continuous-improvement program where we want all employees to be engaged with that thought: what is a better way? How do I improve efficiencies? Can I work safer? Can I work faster? You know, really just instilling people to understand the principles of driving the waste out of everything that we do. There’s always an alternative, and we have to pursue that to stay competitive and stay out in front.”

Shaffer agreed. “How do we compete globally from Western Massachusetts, which is not an industrial region? It’s the innovation plus lean operations keeping costs down and improving that value proposition to the end user. Managing costs and innovating — that’s how we succeed here in Western Mass.”

Focus on People

McGovern said the importance of employees is also reflected in initiatives ranging from tuition reimbursement and financial-wellness programs to company picnics, subsidized healthy meals, and physical-wellness programs such as yoga, massage therapy, and a gym and fitness trainer on site.

“These are all things that enhance people’s lives, that aren’t necessarily attached to the working piece of the company. But if people feel better about themselves, if they’re financially well, if they’re physically well, then we know they’re going to be a better employee. We win, and they win.”

Such efforts are even more important at a time when businesses of all sizes struggle to recruit and retain talented workers.

“It’s a huge issue. That’s why we spend a lot of time and money on it,” McGovern said. “We want the best employees, and we want them to stay. And it’s not an easy market.”

The goal has been to create an employee-centric culture, Kolvek added, and the proof of that model’s success is OMG’s continued growth.

“Management will walk the floor every day, in different areas of the company, just to find the pulse: ‘what are your challenges? What can I help you solve? Do you need anything from me?’ Maybe we’ve got to make an investment somewhere, and who better to highlight that than the person who’s dealing with that challenge day in and day out?

In addition, “you have to differentiate yourself from your competition,” Kolvek said. “We’re in Western Mass., and we’re all vying for the same pool of workers. So what makes you different than someone else you’re competing against for that same labor? If you have employee programs where people see value and benefit, they’re going to be more inclined to come here, stay here, and make a career here.”