Page 8 - BusinessWest January 22, 2024

Lee at a glance
Year Incorporated: 1777
Population: 5,788
Area: 27 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $11.83
Commercial Tax Rate: $11.83
Median Household Income: $41,566
Median Family Income: $49,630
Type of Government: Representative Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Lee Premium Outlets; Onyx Specialty Papers; the Landing at Laurel Lake; Oak n’ Spruce Resort in the Berkshires; Big Y
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT >>
Lee Builds on Status as Gateway to the Berkshires
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
Chris Brittain says the report wasn’t exactly surprising, but it was still quite eye-opening.
Indeed, by the time the Boston Business Journal
listed Lee as one of the three hottest housing markets in the Bay State last August — along with Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard and the gateway city of Lowell — most in this com- munity didn’t need to be told just how hot things were in town.
They already had plenty of direct or anecdotal evidence to that effect.
“People have been buying homes for well above the ask- ing price,” said Brittain, Lee’s town administrator, noting that the median home value in Lee was $256,000 five years ago, $370,000 a little more than a year ago, and nearly $400,000 last June, one of the largest upward swings in the state over that time.
He said the surging prices are in part a reflection of the run-up in value of vacation and second homes, but also the product of supply and demand; there is limited supply, and demand has been soaring, in Lee and most other Berkshires communities, in the wake of COVID and the growing popu- larity of remote work. He speculates that Lee appears at the very top of the list because home values are generally lower — although the gap is certainly closing — than in neighbor- ing communities such as Lenox and Stockbridge, which are also hot markets.
Surging home prices are not the only intriguing develop- ment in Lee, said Brittain, noting some real headway in the
long-anticipated, scaled-down project known as Eagle Mill, which involves new construction and conversion of some of the town’s many former paper mills into a mixed-use devel- opment featuring housing, retail, and a restaurant.
“During the summer, though, it’s crazy; on Sundays in the summer, there’s often a line out the door.”
There’s also movement with plans to create a new public- safety facility downtown, on the site formerly occupied by the Department of Public Works, which is moving to a commer- cial property on Route 202 that the town has acquired. The price tag for the various phases of the initiative is roughly $37 million, he said, adding that the DPW will likely be moved in the spring, with demolition of those properties to follow, and construction of the new public-safety facility to likely commence in the spring of 2025.
Meanwhile, there was more talk about how to celebrate the town’s 250th birthday, coming up in 2027.
And there is continued bounceback from the difficult COVID years, with travel to Lee and other Berkshires com- munities returning, and many different types of hospitality- related businesses doing as well as, if not even better than,
8 JANUARY 22, 2024
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