Page 15 - BusinessWest March 3, 2021

Aaron Vega says Holyoke lost considerable momentum to the pandemic, but it has a solid foundation on which to mount its recovery.
in November and has been offered the the job of town manager of Provincetown — putting out the red carpet for the cannabis sector and the city blessed with millions of square feet of vacant mill space that is in some ways ideal for canna- bis growing and other aspects of this business, Holyoke has become a destination for companies looking for a home.
The pandemic has certainly slowed the pace of progress in most of these areas, though. It has certainly impacted the cultural economy, most notably with the news that Gateway City Arts, the multi-purpose arts venue, has closed, and its owners are looking for a buyer. But signs of lost momentum are everywhere. The Cubit Build-
ing, once a symbol of downtown revitalization,
is still humming on its residential floors, but the Holyoke Community College MGM Culinary
Arts Center has been all but shut down by the pandemic. Meanwhile, there are still a number of vacancies on High Street and other downtown throughfares. And the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a significant economic engine for Holy- oke and the region as a whole, has been canceled for the second year in a row.
“That’s been a huge financial hit to the restau- rants and many other kinds of businesses,” Vega said of the parade. “The trickle-down impact is severe.”
Even the cannabis sector has been slowed a
little by the pandemic, but in most all respects, it remains a powerful force in Holyoke, with more than 30 ventures currently at some stage of pro- gression and perhaps 300 new jobs coming to
“A lot of the groundwork is sort of done, and in some ways, this office how has to be more proactive
and outward-facing — how can we go out to private industry and market Holyoke better? We need to go door-knocking and tell people, ‘think about Holyoke as a place to set up shop.’”
the city with the slated opening in the next few months of Florida-based Truelieve’s facility on Canal Street.
The company, which has more than 2 million square feet of cultivation facilities and more than 70 dispensaries across several states, will operate a multi-faceted, vertically integrated operation that will include cultivation, production, and office operations in a 145,000-square-foot facility formerly occupied by Conklin Office.
“We understand scale, we understand supply chain, and we’re going to be bringing that experi- ence to Massachusetts as we build out our culti-
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
MARCH 3, 2021 15
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