Page 9 - BusinessWest August 7, 2023

“We want to help these businesses become more sustainable and more resilient.”
community, a growing number of restaurants and other hospitality-related businesses, such as Tandem Bagel (see story on page 4), an emerging cannabis sector, and scores of old mills that have found new uses as every- thing from artists’ studios to event spaces; cannabis dis- pensaries to condos and apartments.
Specific initiatives range from CitySpace, the nonprof- it group tasked with creating a flexible arts and commu- nity space in Old Town Hall (Burns Maxey, CitySpace’s board president, was honored by BusinessWest as one of its Difference Makers for 2023), to the ongoing and very ambitious One Ferry Project to renovate several mills
on Ferry Street; from the chamber’s WorkHub on Union project to expansion of the renamed public library into the former Bank of America building on Park Street.
Moving forward, LaChappelle said that perhaps the city’s greatest need is for more housing because the com- munity is in vogue, and in addition to being a great place to work or start a business, it is increasingly viewed as a desirable place to live.
There are several housing projects in various stages of development, including redevelopment of three former city school buildings, she said, but the need for more is constant.
“Housing, housing, housing ... that’s our biggest need right now,” she said, adding that, while it’s a good problem to have in some respects, it’s a stern challenge for which her administration contin- ues to seek solutions.
Work in Progress
As she talked with BusinessWest about plans for WorkHub on Union, Belliveau said the initiative was conceptualized to address that growing part of the community’s business community that visi- tors and residents can’t see — and they can see plenty.
These are ventures that people are operating in their basements, home offices, and dining-room tables, she said, adding that such businesses existed before the pandemic, but mushroomed during
Moe Belliveau says the WorkHub initiative is an example of how the Easthampton Chamber is evolving into more economic development.
that time.
“These are businesses, but they’re informal as opposed to for-
mal,” she explained, adding that her goal is to take these ventures out of the basements and onto Main Street — or Union Street, as the case may be.
“We want to help these businesses become more sustainable and more resilient,”
she explained, adding that there are prob-
Easthampton
Continued on page 11
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