Page 47 - BusinessWest July 7, 2021

NAI Plotkin Sells Former Manchester Hardware Building
EASTHAMPTON — NAI Plotkin, an office of NAI Global, a leading commercial real-estate brokerage firm located in Western Mass., announced it has sold 55-69 Union St., a 17,900-square-foot commercial building in downtown Easthampton known for many decades as Manchester Hardware. The building was sold to the Center for Human Development (CHD) for $1.4 million and includes a total of 1.06 acres of land in downtown Easthampton. Jim Reardon and David Wolos of NAI Plotkin brokered the deal. CHD, which provides a broad range of community-oriented human services, plans on renovating the building to house a community-related program.
Paragus I.T. Acquires
Comportz Technologies
HADLEY — Paragus I.T. announced the acquisition of Worcester-based IT firm Comportz Technologies. Like Paragus, Comportz specializes in outsourced IT ser- vices, cybersecurity, and other technology solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. For more than a decade, Paragus has been one of the fastest-growing I.T. companies in the region. With a few exceptions,
it has primarily been focused on Western Mass. and surrounding areas. This new acquisition is the first big step toward expanding its services into Worces- ter and Central Mass. Comportz Technologies offices have been closed for most of the pandemic, and staff have been working remotely. This fall, Paragus will open a new Worcester office. All Comportz staff have been retained, as well as many of its clients. Paragus will share more details about the acquisition in the coming weeks and is planning a fun event to kick things off in Worcester.
Wellfleet Sign, Logo to Top
Tower Square High-rise
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield residents and motor- ists on I-91 will soon see the full name and logo of Wellfleet, a Berkshire Hathaway insurance company, prominently displayed on the city’s skyline. Signage installation began last month on the western side
of the 28-story Tower Square office building at 1500 Main St., at the center of Springfield’s downtown business district. Agnoli Sign Co. of Springfield is responsible for planning, fabricating, and the com- plex installation of Wellfleet’s name and logo about 300 feet in the air. Wellfleet relocated its corporate headquarters to Tower Square in 2019, occupying 80,000 square feet within three floors. Wellfleet has about 210 employees, with the majority based at the Tower Square office. Founded in 1993, Wellfleet is one of the leading providers of health and accident prod- ucts to the higher-education market, and its Wellfleet Workplace division offers businesses supplementary health coverage and income-replacement products for their employees.
Pride Stores CEO Looking to Sell Chain
SPRINGFIELD — Pride Stores CEO Bob Bolduc announced plans to sell the chain, which includes 31 stores and 525 employees, with 10 additional sites in development. Bolduc has hired a merger and acqui- sition firm and has been speaking with potential buyers, which include oil and gas companies and chain convenience-store operators. The plan is to sell the whole company, retaining only a few real-estate investments. Bolduc worked at his father’s gas sta- tion in Indian Orchard in 1970 before buying him out, thus becoming the third generation of the family to run that business. In addition to running the station,
he became a tire and auto-parts wholesaler, specifi- cally a distributor for BF Goodrich and Continental. But in 1976, Bolduc made the shift that would define his career, buying a self-serve gas station in Indian Orchard. Over the years, he would gradually expand his business, creating the chain of stores known today as Pride. But, more importantly, he developed a repu- tation as an industry innovator by marrying the self- service station with another emerging phenomenon, the convenience store. Other innovations would fol- low; Pride would eventually become the first chain in Western Mass. to put a Dunkin’ Donuts in the stores, and the first to incorporate a Subway. But where the company has really made a name, in recent years, is with its own fresh-food production, supported by the Pride Kitchen, located at the company’s headquarters on Cottage Street in Springfield.
Greenfield Cooperative Bank Issues Fiscal Report
GREENFIELD — Michael Tucker, CEO, and
Anthony Worden, president and COO, of
Greenfield Cooperative Bank (GCB) and its parent company, Greenfield Bancorp, MHC, announced the operating results of the bank’s latest fiscal year at the 116th annual meeting of the bank on June 15. Worden reported that FY 2021, which ended on March 31, was very successful, and the assets of the bank grew by $98.1 million (an increase of 14.31%) over the prior year. In FY 2021, GCB originated more than $165 mil- lion in loans of all types, including $51.28 million in residential mortgages, $104.43 million in commercial real-estate and commercial and industrial lending, $31.13 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, $31.91 million in municipal lending, $8.92 million
in home-equity loans and lines, and $1.09 million
in MassSave zero-interest energy loans. GCB had an increase of $104.7 million in deposits (up 18.15%) over the past year, its largest one-year increase ever. The pre-tax operating income for Greenfield Coop- erative Bank was $3.424 million for the year ended March 31, and the net income after taxes was $3.059 million. Total equity grew to $82.83 million. GCB’s tier 1 capital to average assets is 10.9%. The bank is con- sidered well-capitalized by all regulatory definitions. As a result of these solid earnings, Greenfield Cooper- ative Bank and its employees were able to contribute over $260,503 to 200 community groups and charities throughout Hampshire and Franklin counties dur- ing the past fiscal year, a 7.8% increase over the prior year.
Home City Development Inc. Selected for South End Project
SPRINGFIELD — Home City Development Inc. (HCDI) has been chosen as the developer of the for- mer Gemini site in the South End of Springfield. Once completed, the development will include 33 for-
sale residential units, to be known as Gemini Town Homes. This project will expand home ownership in the South End by more than 150%. Once completed, the project will provide dozens of otherwise non- existent housing opportunities for people and fami- lies with low to moderate income, as well as millions of dollars of contracting opportunities for local and minority-owned businesses. HCDI has assembled a team of experienced professionals with demonstrated success with projects like the Gemini Town Homes development. Home City Development Inc. is a non- profit, resident-centered developer of multi-family and mixed-use properties in Western Mass. Found- ed as Better Homes Inc. in 1968 by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, HCDI has worked for more than 50 years to facilitate community stability and growth in collaboration with the community.
MachineMetrics Announces $20 Million in Funding
NORTHAMPTON — MachineMetrics, an industrial data startup that elevates manufacturing perfor- mance through autonomous machining, announced it has raised $20 million in Series B financing. The company will use the funding to scale its platform globally and democratize access to the machine insights that power manufacturing operations. Tera- dyne, a market leader in industrial automation and robotics, led the funding round with participation from Ridgeline Ventures and existing investors Tola Capital and Hyperplane. Today’s global capacity chal- lenges underscore the urgency to improve manu- facturing productivity. A 2020 benchmarking report
Company Notebook
by MachineMetrics revealed an average machine- utilization rate of only 24%, an alarmingly low mark that limits manufacturers’ ability to meet demand. MachineMetrics’ industrial data platform solves this challenge by enabling manufacturers to improve machine utilization and increase production without adding more machines. The IoT-powered solution, which can be installed in minutes, automates the col- lection of data from manufacturing equipment and delivers actionable, machine-data-driven insights for factory workers, empowering organizations to imme- diately reduce waste and optimize shop floor pro- ductivity. MachineMetrics is currently used by hun- dreds of customers and connected to thousands of machines globally. These manufacturers, which range from small contract manufacturers to some of the world’s largest OEMs, are leveraging MachineMetrics to enable remote visibility into real-time production, identify production bottlenecks, predict machine fail- ures, improve quality, and build workflows that auto- mate the operation of machines.
Meredith-Springfield Associates
Breaks Ground on Expansion
LUDLOW — Meredith-Springfield Associates Inc.,
a plastics manufacturer specializing in bottles and hollow technical articles manufactured through extrusion blow molding and injection stretch blow molding, recently broke ground on an expansion
in Ludlow. The project will add 5,000 square feet
of light manufacturing space, 12,000 square feet of warehouse space, and three new loading docks in a 1,000-square-foot addition, bringing the total facil- ity to 83,000 square feet. The larger footprint makes way for six top-of-the-line machines that will help
to automate production and increase capacity. Since its founding, Meredith-Springfield has offered extru- sion and coextrusion (double- and triple-layer) blow molding and injection stretch blow molding for cli- ents spanning the globe. Notable customers include American Distilling, B&G Foods, Henkel, Honeywell LifeMade Products, PepsiCo, Reebok, and more. In the coming months, Meredith-Springfield will install two new extrusion blow molding machines, a Bekum 155 and R&B/Sika 850 long stroke, as well as an Aoki AL-1000 injection stretch blow molding machine. In addition to the molding machines, the manufacturer has acquired three new, fully automatic Dyco Bag- gers and a Mexan Automation semi-automatic bag- ger. These machines will automate bottle discharges
Company Notebook
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JULY 7, 2021 47
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