Page 34 - BusinessWest Macrh 6, 2023
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HOLYOKE HISTORY TIMELINE >>
  Continued from page 32 >>
1927
Lyman Cotton Mills, which erected a complex of buildings in Holyoke in the late 19th century, closes.
1940s
The city begins developing a new power source: hydroelectric power.
1946
Holyoke Graduate School is founded. The following year, it changes its name to Holyoke Junior College.
1946
On July 9, on a flight from Goose Bay, Labrador to Westover Air Force Base, a B-17 crashes into Mount Tom. None of the 25 military and civilian passengers aboard survive.
1959
The Skinner mansion, Wistariahurst, is donated to the city of Holyoke.
1964
Holyoke Junior College becomes Holyoke Community College.
1968
Economic recession in Puerto Rico results in an influx of Puerto Ricans to the city seeking employment in the tobacco industry.
1970
About 2,000 Spanish-speaking people are now living in Holyoke.
1971
Holyoke Community College breaks new ground at Homestead Avenue.
Continued on page 36 >>
Getting Down to Business
Holyoke Sees Surge in Entrepreneurship, Business Diversity
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
Juan Uribe calls it a “family dream.”
He was referring to El Paraiso Colombiano restaurant, an entrepre- neurial gambit that is truly a family affair.
Indeed, Juan and his brother, Gil- berto, are co-owners and also cook and tend bar. Their father is head chef, and their sister is a waitress. Together, they created and now operate what they believe to be the only Colombian restaurant between here and Hartford, one that opened in the middle of the pandemic, but quickly found its stride nonetheless.
“On grand-opening day, there was
a line outside to the corner,” said Juan, adding that, while there have been plenty of challenges with this venture, it has been a huge success to date, drawing patrons from around the block but also across the region and even beyond. “We thought people would come out and support something new, and they have.”
Juan, Gilberto, and other members of the Uribe family are now part of a changing scene on High Street, one of several ‘main’ streets in this city, and also part of an ongoing surge in entre- preneurship that is changing the face of the local business community.
Indeed, where once this city was
Brothers Juan (left) and Gilberto Uribe are co-owners of El Paraiso Colombiano restaurant, a true family affair that has found a home on High Street.
“On grand-opening day, there was a line outside to the corner.”
“There’s a lot of old players in Holy- oke — there are many established businesses in many sectors, including manufacturing, which has traditionally been our foundation,” she explained. “But we’re seeing a lot of young, new faces as well, people who are investing in our downtown.”
Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, execu- tive director of EforAll Holyoke and its Spanish equivalent, EparaTodos — an agency that is fueling this wave through accelerator programs, pitch contests, virtual workshops, co-working space, and more — agreed.
She said that the chamber, EforAll, and programs like the Transformative District Initiative, which are funneling dollars into storefront-improvement efforts and other programs, are help- ing people launch new businesses and then weather the many challenges they will face.
These efforts are also making Holy- oke’s business community much more diverse, said both Jordan and Murphy- Romboletti, noting that it looks much like the city itself, with many Hispanics and other minority groups taking on risks and putting their names (figura- tively and, in some cases, literally) over the door of buildings on High Street and many other roads.
“Holyoke is such a diverse com- munity, and I think we’re both trying to make sure that our business communi- ty reflects our community at large,” said
   dominated by large mills that covered several blocks of real estate, it is now marked increasingly by smaller ven- tures that occupy a storefront or even a desk or cubicle in the incubator space at the EforAll offices, also on High Street.
Jeff Cattell and Joseph Charles are also part of this changing scene. Busi- ness and life partners, they launched Paper City Fabrics, a supplier of a wide variety of fine fabrics, in September 2021, and have taken it from an online operation to a storefront on High Street that was most recently home to a law firm. They are completing reno- vations now and expect to open in the spring.
“Our goal has always been to open a brick-and-mortar storefront,” said Cat- tell, adding that he and Charles moved to the city four years ago and, after
considering several business options, settled on a thrift-store model in what he called the “fiber-arts realm.”
Elaborating, he said the store will accept donations of fabric, everything from cotton to silk, as well as sewing machines and other goods and equip- ment, and sell them at steep discounts, thus bringing another unique concept to downtown Holyoke and one that speaks to its storied past in many respects.
Paper City Fabrics, El Paraiso Colombiano, and many other new busi- nesses on High Street and beyond, from City Sports Bar to the Artery, a pop-up shop, to Star Dancers Unity (see story on page 50), are, indeed, part of a wave of entrepreneurship in the city, said Jordan Hart, executive direc- tor of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce.
Business
Continued on page 36
>>
 Did you know?
1910: In the 1910 U.S. Census, Holyoke is described as the third-most crowded city in the nation, behind New York and Hoboken, with 11.9 people per household. Conditions are especially poor in crowded French-Canadian homes in Ward 2, with 22.3 people per dwelling.
 34 MARCH 6, 2023
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