Page 46 - BusinessWest June 9, 2021
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 Hall of Fame
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that September. Meanwhile, a series of major additions and renovations to the Hall were being completed, prompting expectations for a surge in visitation.
A commemorative coin was slated to be launched, one that was projected
to become a major fundraiser for the shrine. And plans were being finalized for a massive three-on-three basketball tournament, with the Hall as a major player — and drawing card for partici- pating teams.
And then ... it all went away.
The induction ceremonies, a major source of funding for the Hall, were pushed back several times, and eventu- ally to last month, and moved to Mohe- gan Sun in Connecticut. The commem- orative coin was scrapped, and the three-on-three tournament, dubbed Hooplandia, was scrubbed as well.
As for the Hall’s renovation, COVID- 19 actually provided an opportunity to slow down the pace of work and add two new attractions — the Kobe Bry- ant exhibit and another exhibit that allows visitors to virtually join the set with TNT’s NBA broadcast team, which
White Lion
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been creative, and we’ve made a num- ber of pivots along the way and diversi- fied our portfolio, but the bottom line is we lost a full year and more.”
He said moving up the timetable for fully reopening the state will certainly help, giving him an additional 10 weeks of operating without restrictions that he wasn’t anticipating — although he was watching the situation closely and was hoping the date would be moved.
“We were already going to gear up for some sort of opening during the month of June,” he explained. “But we always wanted to be in a situation where any opening would be an unre-
Hazen
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Hazen, joined the company at the
start of the 1990s, and have continued to grow the enterprise and expand its capabilities, with a special emphasis on coating, metallizing, and — of course — holographic technology.
In 2005, Hazen Paper set up its holographic origination lab and design studio in Holyoke, and has since devel- oped thousands of unique holographic designs and holds several patents on the processes it has developed. Shortly after, the company launched a holo- graphic embossing and metallizing operation a mile away on Main Street.
“They always say it’s dangerous to go outside your traditional business model, outside your wheelhouse,” John Hazen said of those early days in this new niche, and particularly that plant. “We came in way over budget, at least
includes Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, and read a few highlights.
In recent weeks, visitation to this new, more modern, more immersive Hall has been steadily increasing, said Doleva, who expects that pattern to continue, and for a number of reasons, ranging from Vanessa Bryant’s Insta- gram post to the fact that many people who might otherwise be heading to the Cape or Martha’s Vineyard this summer will be coming to Western Mass. for day trips because they can’t book rooms or cottages at those destinations.
“Our traffic right now is ahead of pre-pandemic, 2019 numbers, and our pre-bookings for upcoming weekends are excellent,” he noted. “On a normal Saturday in May, we would get 300 to 400 people; last Saturday (May 22), we had 660. School is not out yet, and yet we’re still seeing a few hundred on a weekday.
“Our projections are that this will be the best summer we’ve ever had; we’re going to be aggressive in our promo- tion of visitation — we didn’t invest $21 million to hope and pray people come,” he went on, adding that he’s expecting 100,000 visitors to visit this summer, a 30% to 40% increase over
stricted opening first, rather than a restricted opening, so we’re very happy to be in this new normal.”
Berry acknowledged that the office crowd that has helped make his out- door events so successful — and will be one of his target groups for his Tower Square facility — hasn’t come back yet, may not return until the fall, and cer- tainly may not be all that it was, size- wise, at the start of 2020. But he said that audience is just part of the success formula for this endeavor and that the ultimate goal is to bring people into downtown from outside it.
“We’ve never predicated our busi- ness model on one particular group,”
six months behind, but that plant came to life right at the end of 2008.”
That’s right — at the beginning of a
“It really was a startup, a
technology startup in an older
company. And ultimately, we really
”
crippling recession.
“When you think about what was
going on in the world, the first half of 2009 was really a scary time,” he said. “Fortunately, the business came back in the summer of 2009, and everything started to fall into place.
“Everyone’s system for making holography is different — they’re
seating for several hundred and Center Court, which can seat more than 400 for a sit-down dinner and now includes a 14-by-40-foot video screen.
“We’re getting a lot of interest, a
lot of calls,” he said, noting that a few banquet facilities closed due to COVID, and the Hall stands to benefit whenev- er the business community and other constituencies are ready and willing to gather in large numbers again.
Getting back to those calls from California and the Kobe Bryant exhibit, Doleva said the typical lifespan for such a display is at least three to five years, and perhaps longer. He joked that those at the Hall are telling those callers, ‘why don’t you buy your tick- ets today, and we’ll hold it until you come.’”
Enthusiasm for that exhibit is just one of many reasons why those at the Hall of Fame believe they can fully rebound from a year that saw a num- ber of hard losses. u
—George O’Brien
will return in some form in 2021 — and at multiple locations. He’s currently in discussions with those running Spring- field’s Business Improvement District and other business partners to sched- ule what he called “a series of special events that will encourage people to come out and support the local busi- nesses in the downtown corridor.”
Overall, a dream that was years in the making took another full year to finally be fully realized. But, at long last, White Lion is ready to roar to life in downtown Springfield. u
—George O’Brien
Broadly speaking, packaging remains the broadest category of holo- graphic work nationally, with designs seen on everything from boxes of golf balls and toothpaste to liquor packag- es. But the sky is the limit, Hazen said, and new uses emerge all the time — justifying that initial investment more than 15 years ago.
“It really was a startup, a technol- ogy startup in an older company. And ultimately, we really reinvented Hazen Paper,” he told BusinessWest. “The holographic technology ended up feeding the old business. So it’s like we installed a new heart in an old body.”
Not a bad return on that bag of beans. u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
what has been typical over the years. And the governor’s moving of the
reopening date from Aug. 1 to May 29 will certainly help in this regard, he said, adding that June and especially July are key months for the shrine.
“We were anxiously awaiting the green flag — and now we’re ready to run,” he told BusinessWest, noting that, while some businesses were not fully ready for May 29, the Hall was, and especially grateful for gaining nine critical weeks.
Overall, Doleva believes 2021 will,
in many respects, be the year that 2020 wasn’t for the Hall. There will actually be two induction ceremonies, with the class of 2021, headlined by former Celt- ics Paul Pearce and Bill Russell (to be honored as the first black coach in the NBA), to be celebrated in September
at the MassMutual Center, as well as
a return of collegiate basketball tour- naments that benefit the Hall. Mean- while, Doleva is also projecting a strong surge in corporate events and outings at the Hall as the business world gradu- ally returns to something approaching normal.
He said the Hall boasts a number of amenities, including a theater with
he explained. “Craft breweries are des- tinations — they are considered experi- ences to the consumer. So consumers will take it upon themselves to find out where the local craft breweries are.
“Even when we had cans to go two days a week, we would have an influx of people from outside the area who would say they were driving through or were eating somewhere local down- town and looked up ‘local breweries,’ and White Lion popped up, so they came in.”
As for other aspects of the White Lion business, Berry said the beer garden that was a fixture in the park across Main Street from Tower Square
similar, but they’re different — but the one thing we knew was our sys- tem worked,” he went on. “But we
        reinvented Hazen Paper.
went through some rough years from 2010 to 2016. We definitely overextended ourselves to get into the holographic business, and part of that overextension was the impact of the 2009 recession.”
In 2006, Hazen set up its first satellite plant in Indiana, a lamination and
sheeting operation that ultimately operated 24/7, with more than 50 full- time employees. In 2016, however, it sold the plant as a strategic move away from commodity-type foil laminations to increase focus on growth opportuni- ties in holography and specialty paper products in Holyoke.
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