Page 18 - BusinessWest March 3, 2021

Holyoke
Continued from page 16
change the conversation about Holyoke, they changed the direction of a lot of the development, and they helped usher in a plan — the urban- renewal plan,” he explained. “A lot of the ground- work 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 story the city can tell is a good one, although, as noted, it was better before the pandemic.
“Things were happening in this city; the momentum was happening,” Vega said. “It took a
“Investing in a majority minority community was important to us.”
while to build that momentum, and hopefully we can get it back soon.”
The loss of Gateway City Arts, however, is a serious setback for the community.
“It was firing on all cylinders,” he said, refer- ring to everything from its event venue to its popular restaurant. “And it’s ironic because we’re six or seven months away from having 200 to 400 more people working in downtown Holyoke in the cannabis industry — people who will be look- ing for a place to go eat or have a beer or listen to music after work. The irony is that we don’t have that right now.
Truelieve’s massive facility on Canal Street is ramping up for opening, and is projected to employ between 250 and 300 people when fully operational.
“The biggest hit has been with momentum,” he went on. “Our restaurants took a hit, just like Northampton and Springfield; the housing devel- opments, especially if they were dealing with state incentives, have been pushed out — everything’s taking longer now.”
Overall, Vega said, the pandemic has made it difficult for some small businesses to survive, and it’s made it more difficult for all of them to oper- ate as they would like.
“If you look at Gateway City Arts ... the pan- demic just took the wind out of them, it took the momentum away; it’s like someone slammed the door in their face,” he said, adding quickly that
there is interest in some of the components of that business, and, likewise, the phone is starting to ring, and more interest is being shown in Holy- oke within the development community.
“There’s a couple of key projects where, if
we can get them online, we can regain some of
that momentum,” he told BusinessWest, noting
that one such project is a large housing initiative downtown, a 92-unit project being undertaken by WinnDevelopment at the former Farr Alpaca mills that has been slowed by the always-complicated process of applying
for and receiving Holyoke
historic tax credits. Continued on page 49
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18 MARCH 3, 2021
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