A long-empty lot near the Mass Pike is getting an overhaul – one officials in Chicopee hope will bring in both a travel center and tax dollars.
Following several years of planning, city council votes and even some court actions, about eight acres off of Burnett Road are being torn up and smoothed for a new travel hub – one that will service tractor trailers, commuters and other drivers using the Mass Pike or nearby I-291.
“… we can do better things for the community - by December, we will be opening this location and we will be paying taxes, also…” said real estate developer Dinesh Patel. “This is a big project in city of Chicopee, after almost five years,”
Patel and his family have owned the lot for over two decades – overseeing what was once an Econo Lodge location before the motel was torn down some ten years ago.
It’s been empty ever since, at one point filled with overgrowth, but for the last few years, Patel has been working with the travel center company, Pilot, to flip it into a 16-pump gas station and more – a site officials say will pump the city with at least a million dollars in local tax revenue annually once its up and running.
“Chicopee, like Mayor [Vieau] said, it's a crossroads in New England. We're very excited about being here,” said Evan Smith, part of Pilot’s real estate development team, speaking with reporters at a groundbreaking this week. “We think this is going to do great volume, great traffic … and have a great impact on the local community. What's going on behind us, currently, is that they're starting to flatten the dirt out, getting ready for us to build a travel center. Hopefully, it will be completed before Christmas this year.”
The target date is about four months out, but crews were working throughout the morning Tuesday to level dirt and dig up other spots as Patel, Smith and others marked the project’s progress nearby.
Also on-hand: Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, adding that the redevelopment comes only a few years after MassDOT completed work to overhaul the intersection nearby – better accommodating the thousands of tractor trailers and travelers who pass through.
“We want to be able to support growth and investment - we helped support dollars to improve the intersection from a safety perspective, that's going to benefit everyone, but it certainly helped pave the way for this development: a major infusion of dollars that will produce jobs and tax revenues and services on a piece of land that could use some redevelopment,” Driscoll told attendees. “We see this as a real win-win.”
According to the Patels, the project could potentially generate as much as $3 million in annual state fuel tax revenues, plus as many as 70 full-time jobs and 20 part-time roles.
The project’s been moving quickly ever since Chicopee’s city council gave a final green light in December – reversing a 2022 decision to reject it.
Three years ago, despite site plan approvals from the planning board, the council opted to deny license applications for the project, according to The Springfield Republican, all amid public outcry from neighbors over potential increases in traffic and accidents.
The council’s move sparked court actions, with the developers seeking to overturn the decision. It was later upheld, but the Patels and Pilot made another push in late-2024, with the council ultimately yielding, despite nearby neighbors still voicing concern over possible traffic and pollution impacts.
The Patels tell WAMC the project has been the subject of multiple traffic studies and could, in fact, relieve traffic due to its location. For context – the parcel is off of Burnett adjacent to a roadway leading to the on- and off-ramps for the Mass Pike.
“We've done multiple traffic studies. Typically, you only do one traffic study - we've done … maybe four or five over the all the years, pre-Covid, during Covid, post-Covid: we've analyzed all the traffic patterns,” said Dinesh Patel’s son, Rishi. “That's the only way we were able to get approval from the MassDOT. They’ve got the engineers over there - they signed off multiple times.”
In addition to gas station pumps, the center is expected to offer a fast-food restaurant, a convenience store and other amenities, including shower facilities for truck drivers.
Pilot, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, operates a similar facility in Sturbridge, Mass.
