Page 23 - BusinessWest March 18, 2024

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE >>
A Visionary Approach
Mill Town Capital Aims to Make an Impact in Pittsfield
“Impact investment
means focusing on key assets
or amenities or projects that have a high potential positive impact on the region.”
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
eal-estate development can be a profitable business. In fact, it’s safe to say that’s the key driver for most players in this sector.
For the team at Mill Town Capital, it’s about impact — on more than the bottom
line.
Formed in 2016 and based in Pittsfield, Mill Town is
an “impact investment platform,” said Tim Burke, the company’s CEO. “Our overall mission and mandate is to really make the area of Pittsfield and the Berkshires a better place to live through traditional investments, impact investments, and pure philanthropic community work.”
But what is impact investment?
“To us, impact investment means focusing on key assets or amenities or projects that have a high poten- tial positive impact on the region,” he explained. “So it’s a little bit different than maybe a traditional impact investment that might look at energy or other areas
of impact. Ours is really place-based in terms of our approach.
“When we think about impact, it’s taking on invest- ments that most traditional investors wouldn’t take on either because the rate of return is lower, or it takes a much longer time to realize it, or they’re just really dif- ficult projects,” he added. “We’re not necessarily restric- tive to different sectors or industries. It’s really about, is this project good for the region? Is it good for the local economy? Does it have the chance to spur economic development or other potential investment, and, if so, how can we make it work?”
The company’s first ventures into real estate cen- tered on housing-development projects in Pittsfield.
“Pittsfield used to be a 60,000-person city, but now has 40,000 people. So you would think that there is enough housing for everyone, but the stock itself is sig- nificantly deteriorated,” Burke explained. “You have a lot of really old stock, things that are run down, prop- erties where absentee landlords have a lot of deferred maintenance. And the living conditions in some of these are really tough.”
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The Mill Town Capital team atop Bousquet Mountain Ski Area.