Page 15 - BusinessWest August 18, 2025

Westfield >>Continued from page 13
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 vis-
ible, meaningful presence here.”
McCabe also praised the Police
Department’s work, not only in crime
prevention, but being visible to resi-
dents, just one more factor in why
Westfield has a strong housing market.
“People want to live here,” the
mayor said, but, like virtually every
“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.”
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 Massachu-
setts Housing and Livable Communi-
ties office.”
Local Focus
Waterfield said she’s made prog-
ress in her goal to engage more busi-
nesses with the chamber; member-
ship 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 Restau-
rant 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 down-
town thrive. Restaurants are a won-
derful 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
Business W est Westfield, from the ones already men-
tioned — 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 organiza-
tions — the YMCA and the Boys and
Girls Club of Greater Westfield do phe-
nomenal work,” he added. “So I think
we’re doing pretty well.” BW
Westfield Gas & Electric hosted a groundbreaking last month for an $11
million athletic complex at Westfield High School.
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AUGUST 18, 2025
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