Page 11 - BusinessWest July 7, 2025

Pittsfield >>Continued from page 9
many ongoing efforts to inspire people
to look beyond the grit.
Staying Power
Hotel on North is marking its 10th
anniversary this year, Tierney said, and
there is much to commemorate.
Indeed, the boutique 45-room hotel
— created out of buildings more than
a century old that were once home
to the menswear and sporting goods
emporium Besse-Clarke — has become
a cornerstone of an ongoing transfor-
mation of downtown Pittsfield, from
the retail-heavy and business-focused
days when GE’s transformer division
was employing more than 10,000
people, into a more hospitality- and
arts-dominated district where more
people live than in decades past.
The hotel and the guests it draws
funded through MassDevelopment’s
Transformative Development Initiative,
as well as the spots promoting not only
the shows at Barrington Stage and the
Colonial Theatre, but nearby restau-
rants in Pittsfield.
With the latter, the goal, through the
spots on NPR, is to introduce (or rein-
troduce) Pittsfield to a broad audience
across Western Mass.
“We have great tourism that obvi-
ously goes on in the Berkshires, but
Pittsfield is kind of that forgotten
“Together, they say, ‘come
back downtown and see
what’s new.’”
from across the Northeast and
beyond have inspired several new
businesses, she said, listing Methuse-
lah Bar & Lounge and an expansion
of Steven Valenti’s men’s clothing
store among them.
As for the hotel itself ... well, Tier-
ney said it shares its personality
with the Berkshires (and Pittsfield
itself), meaning an intriguing blend
of the past and present, heritage and
innovation.
She and David have traveled all
around the world, and they’ve incor-
porated their experiences into Hotel
on North, such as its revolving door,
a concept borrowed from a hotel in
Nashville.
Over the past decade, the hotel
has become a big part of the changing
scene in Pittsfield, a tight-knit com-
munity of hospitality, arts-related, and
service businesses that support one
another and, together, have become
more of a destination in recent years
rather than a place to drive through
on the way to somewhere else.
But in many ways, it is still an
unknown, or at least underappreci-
ated, commodity, said Tierney, add-
ing that there is a need for the city to
understand and appreciate all that it
has become — “it’s been the ugly step-
sister for the surrounding towns for
so long that I think that sometimes
it doesn’t see itself as the engine that
can and will” — and do more to put
its best foot forward.
Brien said this need to promote all
Pittsfield has to offer is at the heart
of DPI’s Hey Neighbor campaign,
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Business W est << COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT >>
The Hey
Neighbor
campaign is
part of a broad
effort to bring
more attention
to Pittsfield,
its cultural
attractions,
and its eclectic
mix of small
businesses.
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JULY 7, 2025
11