Westfield Gains Entrepreneurial Momentum

Community Spotlight

 

Mike McCabe isn’t sure how or why Westfield hasn’t really been part of the discussion when it comes to stops on the planned — most believe we’ve moved past using the word proposed — east-west rail line.

But the city’s mayor is intent on changing that.

He’s been talking with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and stating the city’s case for being a stop on the line, which is being touted as a way to level the playing field between the eastern and western portions of the state. And he believes it’s a strong case that involves everything from geography and the city’s size (roughly 40,000 people) to the fact that it already has a historic station that could turn back the clock and serve in that role again.

“We have an existing train station that Amtrak goes past every day, so I’m trying to encourage some real talk about getting Westfield on the east-west rail plan,” he said, adding that it’s been probably a half-century since a passenger train stopped in the city. “I don’t know why we weren’t in the game in the first place, but I don’t think it’s too late to get in the game.”

McCabe, re-elected to a second two-year term last November, believes a rail stop would bring more people, and more vibrancy, to a city that has been seeing progress on many fronts.

That includes its long-suffering downtown, which is seeing new life, as other area urban centers have, through a wave of entrepreneurship that has brought new businesses and especially restaurants specializing in everything from burritos to coffee to crepes, with more on the way.

“We’re not the old drive-through that we once were,” said Peter Miller, the city’s director of Community Development, noting that, in addition to new businesses, the downtown now has a new gathering place, or plaza, in the heart of downtown.

Located on the site of the former Newberry’s department store, which was destroyed by fire nearly 40 years ago and never replaced, the venue, named Elm Street Plaza, complete with a stage, will host concerts, food trucks, and other programs and happenings, making the downtown more of a destination while also going a long way toward solving that area’s biggest problem — a lack of parking, Miller noted.

Amanda Waterfield, who recently marked a year as executive director of the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce, agreed.

“One of the problems we’ve had in town has been parking,” she said. “And this park has added a lot of convenient parking in the downtown. And I know many of the merchants and businesses downtown struggled with that a little bit because the on-street parking is limited.”

Meanwhile, there is progress on many other fronts as well, from efforts to build a new police station to the highly anticipated arrival of the F-35 fighter jets, the next generation of planes to be flown and maintained by the Air National Guard’s 104th Tactical Fighter Group, based at Barnes Municipal Airport. Other developments include early-stage talks about replacement of the now 50-year-old Westfield High School; emerging plans for revitalizing the area just off Turnpike exit 41 (formerly exit 3); new, affordable housing in the old City Hall; and creation of new athletic fields and a track-and-field stadium at the high school, a $11 million project that will be funded essentially through larger in-lieu-of-tax payments by the city’s municipal utility, Westfield Gas & Electric.

Amanda Waterfield

“This park has added a lot of convenient parking in the downtown. And I know many of the merchants and businesses downtown struggled with that a little bit because the on-street parking is limited.”

The G&E, as it’s known, is marking its 125th anniversary this year, a milestone it is celebrating in many ways, from a fireworks celebration at a recent Westfield Starfires baseball game to an event with retirees in May to a blood drive in cooperation with Baystate Noble Hospital, something that will become a monthly happening.

It’s also marking the occasion with continued growth of what has become an intriguing business success story — Whip City Fiber.

The high-speed internet division of the G&E, which was formed 10 years ago, now boasts more than 17,000 customers in more than 20 communities across Western Mass., with more being added to the portfolio, said Tom Flaherty, general manager of the G&E.

Indeed, West Springfield, East Longmeadow, and Southwick are in the later stages of development of their networks, which will be built out by the G&E, which serves as their internet service provider, he said, adding that the G&E’s track record for success has led to communities from the other end of the state, such as Falmouth and Bourne on Cape Cod, reaching out to tap into that expertise.

For this latest installment of our Community Spotlight series, we turn the lens on Westfield, where progress is taking center stage downtown and elsewhere — figuratively, but also quite literally.

 

A New Flavor to Downtown

McCabe, as most locals know, served in the Westfield Police Department for 36 years, rising to the rank of captain, before deciding to change gears and seek the corner office in 2021.

He told BusinessWest he enjoys being the city’s CEO and most aspects of the job, especially work to conceive projects and bring them to fruition.

There have been several such projects in recent years, including the creation of Elm Street Plaza, which, as noted, brought a successful end to talk that began in 1985 about what to do with the rather large hole in the downtown created by the loss of Newberry’s.

Funded with ARPA money, created at a cost of $1.2 million, and officially opened last fall, the plaza is already paying dividends, said the mayor, noting that, in addition to bringing people downtown for various gatherings, the space has created much-needed off-street parking in an area that has seen several new businesses open over the past few years — businesses that need parking.

“Downtown seems to be coming back together again — it seems more vibrant than in the past,” said McCabe, noting the addition of several restaurants that have brought a new flavor to the area — actually, several of them.

“There’s a lot of young entrepreneurs, a lot of new-American entrepreneurs, a lot of women entrepreneurs who are really taking a chance to pursue their passions and their businesses downtown, and it’s been inspiring.”

“We have an incredible variety of international flavors, whether it’s Polish pierogies or Ukrainian crepes or kabobs,” he said. “You can get any flavor you want downtown.”

The growing list of eateries includes everything from Ray Ray’s Café on Main Street to Two Rivers Burrito on Elm Street; from Crave Café, specializing in crepes, which recently opened at the corner of Elm and School streets, to Circuit Coffee, on the other corner of Elm and School.

Another important addition to that portfolio, Tribeca Gastro Bar & Grill, an upscale tapas bar, is set to open soon (a specific date has not been set) on the ground floor of the historic Lambson’s Furniture building on Elm Street, directly across from the plaza.

“They’re crediting the plaza project with their decision to locate downtown,” said Miller, adding that entrepreneurial gambits like Tribeca are fueling a resurgence downtown, one that has been decades in the making.

“It’s been a slog, certainly, and we can’t take credit for what’s been happening,” he said of efforts to breathe new life into a downtown that, like most others in the region, has been forced to reinvent itself over the past few decades amid dramatic changes in the retail landscape.

“The small-business community has been much more creative over the course of the past six to eight years,” he went on. “There’s a lot of young entrepreneurs, a lot of new-American entrepreneurs, a lot of women entrepreneurs who are really taking a chance to pursue their passions and their businesses downtown, and it’s been inspiring.”

Miller said he expects the downtown to benefit greatly from another ongoing initiative — a bid to create a cultural district in that area.

“We’ve applied to the Mass. Cultural Council for the designation of a cultural district on Elm Street, which we hope will provide us with a collaborative that will help to better market the downtown,” he explained, noting that the city had a business-improvement district doing some of this work, but it disbanded several years ago.

“We’ve seen these districts be successful in places like Easthampton, Great Barrington, and communities as small as Cummington, and we’re hopeful that putting together a group that’s focused exclusively on the downtown will help us to better market what we have here.”

Elaborating, Miller said this was the first time the city and its leadership have felt comfortable applying for creation of a cultural district, and the decision was sparked by the work of several nonprofit groups, including ArtWorks Westfield, formed five years ago, which has committed to an eight-week, Friday-night concert series in the new plaza, among other initiatives, including several art-walk events.

 

A New Gig

It was a desire to be part of this resurgence that prompted Waterfield to put aside work in print journalism — she was the owner and publisher of West Springfield Lifestyle magazine — and pursue the job as director of the Greater Westfield Chamber, which also represents Southwick and the hilltowns to the west of the city.

“It was a position that checked a lot of boxes for me,” she explained. “I’ve been a long-time Westfield resident, I love communications, I love community development, I’ve been an engaged member of the Kiwanis Club here, so I have a lot of interests here and decided to make the switch. And I’m very happy that I did.”

Since arriving, she’s been focused on building membership (she’s increased that number to roughly 235), meeting each member (she figures she’s about halfway there), developing a new strategic plan, and putting in place an ambassador program to help members, especially the newer ones, make the most of their membership.

Overall, she sees renewed vibrancy downtown, momentum that’s measured in various ways — from the steady number of ribbon cuttings for new businesses to the growing roster of events in the new plaza downtown.

“I love those ribbon cuttings because, to me, that shows an investment in our community,” she said, adding that the growing number of such ceremonies shows that more are willing to make that investment and thus become part of an ongoing story of revitalization.

The G&E has long been part of that story, providing comparatively lower-cost energy and, more recently, reliable, gigabit internet service to a growing mix of residential and commercial customers.

“We’ve seen these districts be successful in places like Easthampton, Great Barrington, and communities as small as Cummington, and we’re hopeful that putting together a group that’s focused exclusively on the downtown will help us to better market what we have here.”

As the utility marks 125 years, the emergence of Whip City Fiber has become one of the utility’s better success stories. As noted, it began 10 years ago with service to the Route 20 corridor in Westfield. Today, the business has expanded to communities near the Quabbin to the east and to the hilltowns and well beyond to the north and west.

“Whip City Fiber has diversified the Gas & Electric to not just be focused on natural gas and electricity with essentially zero growth other than potentially a handful of residential customers each year and a few new commercial customers,” Flaherty explained, adding that it has become a solid business that continues to grow each year.

The success of the venture can be attributed to manner in which the G&E becomes full partners with the communities it serves, he added, providing turnkey operations.

“We’re the network operator, which means we handle soup to nuts, everything involved with their network, from billing customer service to tech customer service,” he said. “We don’t touch their money; it goes right into the town’s account, but we physically do all of the management of their department for them.”

He noted that there is considerable competition, not just from the major players such as Comcast and Verizon Fios, but also from other municipal utilities, including those in Chicopee and South Hadley. The G&E’s main competitive advantages are size and proven capabilities, he went on.

“We’ve built out 20 communities outside of Westfield, so we know the process; we know what that takes,” he told BusinessWest, adding that this track record for success has helped bring on new partnering communities, including Southwick and East Longmeadow.

 

Bottom Line

Getting back to east-west rail, McCabe acknowledged that the city is somewhat late to this party, but hopefully not too late.

If he can manage to gain the ear of the state and make Westfield a stop on that line, that would bring another dose of momentum to a community that is seeing large amounts of it — on many different fronts.