Page 41 - BusinessWest January 24, 2022

in Easthampton to the Golf Acres recreational facility in Westfield. It is also negotiating the sale of a large shopping center in Pittsfield. There has been less activity on the office side, but the com- pany did handle the sale of 480 Hampden St. in Holyoke to Girls Inc., among other deals, and has handled several leases and a few sales for compa- nies reorganizing or downsizing space.
Overall, the two sectors seeing perhaps the
the downtown in a way that hadn’t been seen
in decades, and there was uncertainty concern- ing when and under what circumstances those vacancies would be filled. Now, with many
of those storefronts leased or under contract, including the Silverscape Designs property, there is far more stability.
“We’re making some nice progress in the level of activity that we’re seeing downtown, and it’s
like the residential real-estate market (see story on page 6).
“The industrial market has very little inven- tory, and for the few things that come up, there are a lot of takers, and the pricing has increased significantly, because people have products that people want, they’re making money, and they need that new building,” he said. “There’s been a lot of demand, things don’t stay on the market for long, and prices are way up.”
As just one example, he cited the former home of Work Opportunity Center in Agawam, an 18,000-square-foot industrial space, which was under contract just a few weeks after it went on the market. Many other properties have moved in similarly quick fashion, and at prices — and here’s another parallel to the residential hous-
ing market — that have prompted buyers to also become sellers.
“We’re actually selling properties, which we hardly ever do, because the pricing is so high that you have to take some chips off the table and reposition the properties you want versus the ones that are in your past,” Vincunas said, not- ing that the company is in the process of selling a multi-tenant property in Chicopee.
“The price seemed right, and we thought it maybe it was time to change that in for some- thing else,” he explained, adding that many prop- erty owners are thinking along similar lines to take advantage of the white-hot market.
Space Exploration
As noted earlier, it’s the region’s office market that has perhaps struggled the most, and it’s the one confronting an uncertain future.
Vincunas, whose company manages several
PAT GOGGINS
“We’re making some nice progress in the level of activity that we’re seeing downtown, and it’s something that more closely mimics what we had been accustomed to.”
something that more closely mimics what we had been accustomed to,” he said, adding that, while there are still some vacant storefronts to be addressed, the overall tone is much more posi- tive than it was a year or 18 months ago.
Plotkin agreed, noting that, overall, while retail- ers are seeing increasingly higher volumes of online
most activity are retail and industrial, said those we spoke with, with cannabis impacting both in a positive way, although there are other factors as well.
Pat Goggins, president of Goggins Realty in Northampton, said the cannabis sector has cer- tainly helped that city’s downtown, one that has seen several stores close due to the retirement of long-time owners, but also complications from COVID. But there have been other types of entre- preneurial activity, including some new restau- rants and clothing stores.
Overall, he said it was certainly a much more “nervous time” in Northampton a year or so ago as vacancies started piling up in and around
sales, most of them still need a bricks-and-mor- tar presence, and this is contributing to ongoing movement in that segment of the market.
“They may shop for something online, but they want to go to the store to try it on,” he explained. “And that’s why I believe retail will remain strong.”
But it is the industrial market that is seeing the most activity, said Bolotin and others — and it would see considerably more if there was inventory.
At present, there isn’t much, said Vincunas, noting that what exists generally goes quickly and at high prices, which makes this category much
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