Page 25 - BusinessWest March 18, 2024

“I think we’re pretty hard on ourselves in that we think we have awaystogo before we achieve the impact that we want to achieve. But it is validating to a certain degree that people see that we’re heading in the right direction.”
“And then we have two businesses that are in the recreation space,” Burke said. “We own an athletic center that’s called Bousquet Sport, which is across the street from the ski area, where we’re currently undergoing a 15,000-square-foot addi- tion plus renovation to the facility, and that’s an investment in tennis, fitness, and pickleball.”
Then there’s Camp Arrow Wood, where the former Lakeside Christian Camp on Richmond Pond was converted into a new, sleep-away sum- mer sports camp.
“We run three- and six-week summer camp sessions out of that property. That’s another proj- ect that we kind of uncovered during the COVID period ... and we’ve been building that up over the past year and a half or so.”
Coming Home
Prior to Mill Town, Burke spent a number of years in corporate finance roles with United Tech- nologies and then later with a couple different biotechnology companies, most recently Biogen in Boston’s Kendall Square biotech cluster.
But his connection to Pittsfield was strong, having grown up there, and around 2015, he met Dave Mixer, Mill Town’s founder “and really kind of the motor and the initiative and the capital behind everything that we do,” Burke said. “So I ended up meeting with Dave, and he had a general idea of what he wanted to do.”
Mixer, like Burke, is a Berkshire native and had just come back to the area after being away for a long period of time, and he want- ed to make an impact, Burke explained.
“His view of making an impact is a little bit non-traditional from a philanthropic standpoint. He didn’t want to just write checks and then walk away. He really wanted to see if he could drive economic development and job growth and population stabilization and new housing and educational improvements — all across the spectrum
Mill Town transformed the former Lakeside Christian Camp on Richmond Pond into Camp Arrow Wood, a new, sleep- away summer sports camp.
of economic development and quality of life.
“It’s been a great, challenging, unique run for us over the past six
or seven years, and we’re at a point now where, through Mill Town and our businesses, we employ over 300 people in the area. We’re constantly looking to grow and make this engine work and also kind of preach what we’ve learned over the years to other communi- ties and people and investors
and philanthropists and see
if there are ways we can help other areas progress with what
Mill
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