Page 15 - BusinessWest June 10, 2024

“The Airbnb phenomenon
has certainly impacted us, as it has almost every community in
the States and overseas as well. A lot of the modest homes have been purchased by owner/investors that have crowded out the younger families and empty-nest households perhaps looking to downsize to more modest homes.”
attractions to find enough help, said Mitts, adding that many restaurants are able to open maybe five days a week instead or six or seven because of staffing issues.
“It has impacted the ability of our village shops and eateries to have the summer staffs that they’ve enjoyed the past several decades,” Mitts explained. “Kids grow up, and they start busing in the restaurants and working in the local retail establishments in the summertime to help with seasonal employment needs. And now, those kids are becoming fewer and far between, and it’s harder for those restaurants to be open seven days a week in the summer because they just don’t have the staff.”
The two new housing projects — a 65-unit, mixed- income development that should break ground in the next 90 days, and a 68-unit project in the earlier stages of development — should bring some relief, but more new housing is needed.
Meanwhile, on the business side, Lenox continues the
process of making a full recovery from COVID. The pan-
demic obviously hit this community hard, and in the years immedi- ately after the height of COVID, when people could go back out and do things, many took their time getting back into that rhythm.
But Piccolo said the town is primed for a big year in 2024.
“Lenox has been hopping; last year was a great year, and Tangle- wood’s lineup for this year looks even better,” she said. “I think this summer is going to be a record-breaking summer.”
Jaclyn Stevenson, director of Marketing & Communications for Shakespeare & Company, was similarly optimistic.
A member of the Lenox Cultural District, she said the commu- nity’s many attractions are working together — perhaps more than ever before — to promote the sum of all that’s going on (the busy season started Memorial Day weekend, builds through the summer, and peaks in August) and generate some intrigue.
“The cultural organizations in Lenox, including some of the retail spaces, have been working together more than they have in previous years,” she said, citing as reasons everything from the pandemic to turnover, both in Town Hall and in those retail spaces.
Shakespeare & Company’s 33-acre campus in Lenox is open to the public for picnics and exploration of its grounds.
“That spirit of collaboration is starting to come back.”
For this, the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series,
BusinessWest turns its lens on Lenox, a community that continues to build on its long legacy of being a true destination community.
At Home with the Idea
Mitts isn’t from Lenox — she was born in Hartford, Conn. and subsequently lived in many different places, from Washington, D.C. to Detroit to Manchester, Conn., and then back to West Hartford — but came to this picturesque community just south of Pittsfield in 2001 and has raised a family here.
While doing so, she’s made a point of getting involved. Indeed, in addition to serving on the Select Board, she’s been involved with
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