Page 16 - BusinessWest March 2, 2026

Peter Albero says GSB’s overall growth strategy involves
moving “south and east.”
Staff Photo
have sat in the state that it was in and continue to deteriorate,” he
said. “This is something we did to help the city of Greenfield and
create some tax revenue. We needed additional space, and we were
looking for some place to build or possibly buy, and we thought that
renovating the Leavitt-Hovey House would help this whole corner of
downtown.
“We’re bringing it back to its original luster,” he went on, refer-
ring to the color scheme from the 1950s, when the home was
placed on the National Register of Historic Places, adding that the
facility is slated to open late this month or early in April.
As for Easthampton, the leaders at GSB saw that community as
the logical spot for its southern expansion. That city is similar to
Greenfield in many ways — a former manufacturing hub that is rein-
venting itself as a center for the arts and hospitality, especially in
renovated mills — but it also neighbors thriving Northampton, a city
where the bank already has a presence.
“There’s been quite a resurgence in Easthampton,” Meshako
said. “That whole mill district just took off, and it has helped the
whole downtown. The city continues to prosper, and we decided
that this is where we wanted, and needed, to be.”
As for the former Tasty Top site itself, plans call for a Starbucks,
a steak restaurant, housing, and other developments that should
bring foot traffic — and additional business — to the bank.
Continued growth is important to GSB, as it is to all banks, said
Albero, as the cost of doing business continues to rise on many
fronts, and institutions seek economies of scale.
“Technology costs continue to rise, and it’s difficult, also, to
attract employees, particularly where we are in Western Massachu-
setts, so you ending up paying higher salaries to attract individuals,”
he explained. “We find that’s it’s challenging. Every time you con-
tinue to grow, you can’t just continue to add head count; you must
become more efficient, but the technology costs to do that are very
expensive.”
And while the bank plans to continue to grow organically and
safely, as Meshako mentioned, it will explore options for acquisi-
tions as well.
“We will consider M&A transactions, but we will be the acquir-
er,” he told BusinessWest. “But our focus over the next three years
is on efficiency, increasing our earnings, and boosting our capital so
we have a long runway for organic growth. And while we’re doing
that, we’ll keep an eye on the M&A market; if the opportunity is
there, we’ll take advantage of it.
“We’ll keep our options open,” he went on, adding that this might
be considered the overall game plan moving forward for an institu-
tion that it is in a time of transition — in many different ways. BW
“We have a lot
of borrowers in
the Springfield
market, and
they refer other
borrowers to the
bank because of
our ability to get
the deals closed.”
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16 MARCH 2, 2026
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