Page 13 - BusinessWest September 28, 2020

Wilbraham
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owner of the property has worked extensively with us and other commit- tees and boards in town to come up with a design concept that would fit in with the town center.
“It’s a very sensitive area; it’s looked the way it has for quite some time,”
he added. “This is a new use on this spot — mixed-use development, with retail on the ground floor and apart- ments on the second floor. Actually, it’s bringing in an old use. At one point, a hotel stood on this spot. So we’re bring- ing residential use back, and resur- recting something that was done years ago.”
Some folks in the neighborhood
are open to change, Pearsall said. “For a long time, residents in the center of town have complained that it’s a little sleepy, and they want to have more activity there. We’re finally getting some actual development and change. The project will be a real catalyst for the center of town.”
The former post office on Crane Park Drive recently changed owner- ship and could be repurposed as com- mercial office space, he added, while a
“For a long time, residents in the center of town have complained that it’s a little sleepy, and they want to have more activity there. We’re finally getting some actual development and change. The project will be a real catalyst for the center of town.”
new cosmetology business, Inner Glow Skin Studio, is moving in. Meanwhile, the old Masonic Hall on Woodland Dell Road was purchased by a local resident who is converting it to office space for his dental-management business.
“We’re taking a property that was tax-exempt and putting it back on the tax rolls,” Smith added.
Also along Main Street, Rice’s Fruit Farm and adjoining Fern Valley Farms have been enjoying a strong year,
with pick-your-own-apples business boosted by cooperative weather and families looking for something to do. In fact, Rice’s has been working with town Planning and Zoning officials on park- ing expansions to accommodate the enterprise’s growth.
“It’s been very successful,” Smith said, adding that a parking crunch is, in one sense, a good problem to have. “They’re kind of taking the next step.”
Developing Stories
Wilbraham also has two solar farms under construction, a 1.4-MW project on Tinkham Road and a 3.4-MW proj- ect on Beebe Road; the latter develop- ment straddles the Hampden town line, with another 2 MW available for that community.
Another development in the works is part of a ‘community compact’ to identify and explore the potential for expanding municipal fiber along Bos- ton Road to determine how that might impact business opportunities.
“There’s a need for fiber and high- speed internet,” Smith said. “We
moved some time ago to be a munici- pal light plant, which means we can essentially be a supplier of high-speed internet.”
“There’s a broadband committee, being coordinated by our IT director, to move that project forward,” Pearsall added.
Residential growth advances slow- ly in a small town, but some trends have emerged. Even before COVID-19 struck, Pearsall noted, more people were starting to work from home.
“We’ve seen a lot more interest and activity from people trying to do home- based businesses,” he said. “We’ve also
seen a lot of interest in so-called in- law apartments in town, and we have zoning for that, where elderly parents own a home and want their children to live with them, or the children own the home and create an apartment for their parents. That seems very popular right now.”
It’s another way times are changing and town leaders must adapt — in a year when they’ve certainly had plenty of practice. u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 13