Page 12 - BusinessWest March 17, 2025

Holyoke at a
Glance
Year Incorporated: 1786
Population: 38,247
Area: 22.8 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $17.46
Commercial Tax Rate: $38.54
Median Household Income: $37,954
Median Family Income: $46,940
Type of Government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Holyoke Medical Center, Holyoke Community College, ISO New England Inc., PeoplesBank, Universal Plastics, Marox Corp.
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT >>
Holyoke Continues to Ride a Green Wave
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
Aaron Vega calls them ‘meet and greets.’ And they are, well ... just what that name suggests. They’re meetings between city officials and small-business own- ers, many of them representing ventures in the emerging ‘climate tech’ sector who have heard about Holyoke and the companies that now call it home, and want to hear more with an eye toward following them.
“The biggest challenge for these companies that want to come to Holyoke as they move from their startup space is that there’s no built, ready space for them. There’s no white-box office space to move into. These guys don’t want to get involved in a rehab project; they want to be able to move in and get to work.”
12 MARCH 17, 2025
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“They’re hearing about Clean Crop, they’re
hearing about Sublime Systems, they’re hear-
ing about Simple Pack, and they want to know
what’s going on,” said Vega, director of the
city’s Office of Planning and Economic Devel-
opment, referring to three cutting-edge businesses we’ll get to back to later that are either already in Holyoke or advanc- ing plans to locate there.
hub — and early-stage efforts to create more spaces for them to move into — are just a few of the many converging story- lines in Holyoke.
Others include:
• New housing projects, including a WinnDevelopment initiative at the former Farr Alpaca Co. complex — a $60 million endeavor that will create 88 units of mixed-income housing for adults 55 and over in phase 1 and another 70 in phase 2, while preserving a huge piece of the city’s past — and another project at Open Square that will create 80 units of market-rate housing;
• A cannabis cluster in flux: Holyoke welcomed the canna- bis industry with open arms, and for a time, it looked like a large cluster of different businesses, from growers to dispen- saries, would settle there. Some have, but as the sector faces
As city leaders listen to these business owners, a com- mon thread — and a real challenge for the community
— emerges.
“The biggest challenge for these companies that want
to come to Holyoke as they move from their startup space is that there’s no built, ready space for them,” Vega noted. “There’s no white-box office space to move into. These guys don’t want to get involved in a rehab project; they want to be able to move in and get to work.”
Holyoke’s meet and greets and other aspects of its efforts to bring more small businesses to this former manufacturing