Page 37 - BusinessWest May 29, 2023

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE >>
The Last Big Piece of the Puzzle
Proposals Sought for Large Parcel Within Uniroyal Property
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
ee Pouliot says he’s always had what he calls a bit of a fascina- tion with what is known simply as the Uniroyal property in Chi- copee — although there is nothing simple about it.
He grew up the city, but, because he’s only 37 (and a BusinessWest 40 Under Forty winner in 2020), all he’s known
of the buildings — most of them, anyway — is as empty shells, the sub- jects of stories that almost every long-time resident of this community tells about working at the tire-manufacturing complex, or being related to someone who did.
While he was earning a master’s degree in landscape architecture at Cornell more than a dozen years ago, Pouliot took this fascination to a higher level, engaging himself and a few of his classmates in a final project — one that would create a development plan for the complex of buildings for the Uniroyal and adjacent Facemate properties, located in the center of the city.
Later, as an intern in the Chicopee’s Community Development office and then as a staffer in that office, he worked with city leaders to move a project to redevelop that complex, through a series of critical next steps.
And now, as city planner, a position he’s held since 2015, Pouliot is playing a lead role in writing what is essentially the final chapter in a long, complicated story that has, in some ways, been more than 40 years in the making.
This chapter involves a 9.58-acre parcel at the Uniroyal site, one of two yet to be developed, the other a 10-acre parcel being eyed by the city for recreational uses. A request for proposals was recently issued
for the first of those parcels, which includes four buildings, including one that served as an administration building.
Those requests are due back on July 21, and Pouliot, like everyone else in the city, is anxious to see what the development community
has in mind for this parcel, which is being marketed as RiverMills
at Chicopee Falls, and especially the four remaining buildings on it, which the city opted not to demolish, in part because of their structural soundness.
“The reality is that there are a number of developers who have considerable experience with mill conversions. And so, in some ways, the city is
trying to target developers who have this kind of experience, in the hope that we can see something creative done with those buildings that keeps them standing.”
“The reality is that there are a number of developers who have con- siderable experience with mill conversions,” he explained. “And so, in some ways, the city is trying to target developers who have this kind of experience, in the hope that we can see something creative done with those buildings that keeps them standing.”
The bid package issued by the city touts this as “one of the largest
BusinessWest << COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE >> MAY 29, 2023 37
Since he’s only 37, Lee Pouliot has only known the buildings on the Uniroyal site as empty shells. With the request for proposals, that may finally change.