The council received a presentation from the owners of Tourists on September 26th.
“Tourists has welcomed nearly 40,000 guests to North Adams since we opened five years ago," said Tourists Vice President of Operations Nina Konsa. "We've created 60-plus solid jobs and collected over $800,000 in rooms and meals tax for the city to date. We want to invest further in North Adams and expand the resort to include the historic Blackinton Mill campus.”
Konsa said the development of the industrial property along the Route 2 corridor West of North Adams would bring in 30 new jobs and over $200,000 in new tax revenue annually. The sole catch? A mound of rotting hides from the mill’s previous existence as a tannery.
“The tannery dump site blocks circulation between the existing hotel and the proposed mill expansion," she told the council. "As identified in 2017, without remediation this additional development cannot proceed. The Tourists campus is publicly accessible green space with miles of trails, outdoor sculptures, and abundant river access. This remediation creates even more opportunities. The route for the North Adams adventure trail, the proposed trail connecting existing bike paths to the west and south, must run through the dump property. The existence of the dump in the Hoosic River floodplain also poses a risk for the health and climate resilience of the watershed. Now is the critical time to act.”
Tourists brought the parcels of land in question before North Adams for the price of $1 so that the city could apply for grants unavailable to private entities to address the issue. Mayor Jennifer Macksey tied the mill development project to parallel public infrastructure work.
“It is envisioned that this assemblage of additional property will promote the development of the long-waited bike trail, as well as connect parcels between the Blackinton Mill and the current Tourist resorts allowing the development of the mill, which the city and the Blackinton Mill LLC are working diligently to accomplish,” she said.
Macksey said the acquisition would allow the city to apply for the next round of brownfield grants and assess and remediate those parcels.
“This is key not only for the Blackinton development, but also for our future bike path," said the mayor. "We are currently engaged with a professional to help us evaluate the site, as well as document the environmental condition of the land in order for us to move forward with our grant application as well as Blackinton’s next step in the development.”
But Macksey’s and Tourists’ timelines diverge. Benjamin Svenson, a principal behind Tourists and the Blackinton Mill, said the multi-million dollar project was in peril.
“We can't get a bank loan until we resolve this matter, and I'm sure there are other people in this room who own businesses- Mountain One owns Tourists," he said. "That's how you make a building, you have to get a loan to do it. Because this project has just been delayed and delayed and delayed, we are at a breaking point right now where we really need to resolve this urgently in order to get financing and keep everything on track. We presented our [tax increment financing] agreement on August 8th with a vote on the 22nd, and it was our clear understanding that this connected topic would be heard on September 12th. It has been delayed until this meeting. We can delay no more. We need resolution immediately, or all of these opportunities will go away for Tourists and the city.”
Svenson said he’s frustrated over new language from North Adams that would officially delay the land acquisition until mid-February at the earliest.
“The brownfield discovery began six, seven years ago, and was done to a very thorough degree," he continued. "We have a very full understanding of it. We've for two years been working on this issue with the mayor, and as I said, a development needs a financing partner, and we've been proceeding without a partner for probably longer than was even realistically feasible, and we are at a breaking point where we need that financing. If it's the case that closing is not- I can't understand February 15th. The applications are due November 13th. Why would we miss the opportunity to get that funding? I don't understand it.”
Macksey explained that she wanted to wait to make sure the land in question is thoroughly tested first.
“I agree, this is an important project," said the mayor. "I want to work with Tourists. But I also have an obligation to the community to do our due diligence, and that's what we're doing. I readily admit that we were slow out of the gate. We are doing everything in our power.”
Noting the visible frustration of the Tourists team, Councilor Keith Bona said there was little he and his colleagues could do to spur Macksey.
“We can't make the mayor go any faster than what- if she's going to want to do these processes, we can't make that happen," he said. "So, I will approve the acquisition and the land will get cleaned. But beyond that, I don't know what else we can do for you.”
Macksey’s estimate on the cost of the possible site remediation project is anywhere between $1 million and $60 million without more information and the aforementioned testing.
The council unanimously accepted the land purchase.
