For decades, the 16.5-acre area of cracked, barren concrete slabs known as Site 9 sat as a grim reminder of Pittsfield’s industrial past.
At the nearby Berkshire Innovation Center Thursday morning, first-term Mayor Peter Marchetti offered a recap of the parcel’s redevelopment journey, noting the involvement of the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority — the body charged with transforming the former General Electric campus now known as the William Stanley Business Park.
“PEDA and the city have diligently worked over the last several years to secure $11 million investment to prepare Site 9 for future development," said Marchetti. "It is important to highlight that no city taxpayer funding is going towards this project. Since 2021, the city and PEDA have secured the necessary funding through a variety of sources, including in 2021, $264,000 from the MassDevelopment brownfields grant, also in 2021, $880,000 from MassDevelopment's site readiness grant. In 2022, an economic development earmark earned by [Democratic State] Representative [Tricia] Farley-Bouvier [of the 2nd Berkshire District] of $500,000. Also in 2022, a MassWorks grant of $3,000,000. 2023, GE landscaping fund of $1.3 million, and in 2023, PEDA Foundation fund of $400,000. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the four and a half million dollars of the American Rescue Plan Act funding that Mayor [Linda] Tyer committed to this work during 2023.”
Marchetti announced that private investment firm Mill Town Capital has signed a letter of intent to buy almost 5 acres of Site 9 for an office building project as well as an adjacent 3-acre parcel on Woodlawn Avenue for mixed income housing units and retail.
“Mill Town has had an interest in Site 9 since 2018," said CEO Tim Burke. "During this time, we have invested in and developed over 200 units of housing in Pittsfield, with a particular focus on the Tyler Street neighborhood. Our financial support has also extended to the Berkshire Innovation Center, the Tyler Street Lab, the Berkshire Dream Center, all in the Tyler Street neighborhood and numerous other regional nonprofit organizations. Overall, we have invested over $80 million in the region addressing crucial needs and supporting local assets across various sectors and platforms, much of which is community driven.”
Burke says Mill Town is in conversation with local businesses to become the tenants of the office building planned for Site 9, which Pittsfield says will be full remediated for new development by October.
“We've been having conversations with mostly local businesses for quite a while now, and I think there is a lack of Class A office space out there for growing local companies," he said. "So, we have a group of companies that we're working with to define their needs, and I think now that we're at this point where we can hopefully progress to the next step, we're going to be looking to network with other businesses as well. But I think our approach would be looking to secure local companies that are growing and looking to add jobs and running out of their current space, and then potentially looking to add some capacity for companies that may be looking to start or move here from other locations.”
As far as the new housing units, the CEO explained Mill Town’s decision to offer a range of options for varying income levels.
“Our definition of mixed income is, is units across the income spectrum, so affordable units, market rate units and kind of in between that," said Burke. "I think a lot of the housing development that we see in Massachusetts right now is either affordable or market rate, so I think having some kind of model that blends the two is critical in terms of the fabric of the neighborhood.”
Burke cautioned that it will be a long road yet until the units are actually housing Pittsfielders.
“There's a lot of homework to do in terms of the condition of the site, the buildable aspect of it," he said. "I think we're optimistic about it, but we have a lot more work to do to make sure we can actually build there and have it be effective. But I think the site's large enough to accommodate a meaningful number of units, so, we would like to see this be a project that has enough volume to actually really move the needle.”
Berkshire County, as well as Massachusetts at large, continues to face a major housing crisis. The commonwealth has a deficit of 200,000 homes with a market stretched to the limit by low stock and high demand.
