Berkshire Business Journal April 2023

A business that’s well traveled. Solomon’s Furniture is on the move again, this time back to Pittsfield. Page 9

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Berkshire Business Journal

Brewing Berkshires’ beer

New local establishments will enhance an already thriving brewery scene

By L iam G orman

Craft beer lovers, rejoice! 2023 is turning into the year of the brewery in the Berkshires.

Heralded by the long awaited opening of Hot Plate Brewing Company in Pittsfield this winter, the craft beer business is buzzing throughout the county. In mid-May, Lenox will get on the map with its own entry when Antimony Brewing opens its doors. And let’s not leave out North Adams where Rising Glass Brewing Company is aiming to pour its first pint by late summer.

Joining established notables Big Elm, Barrington Brewery, Wandering Star, Shire Beer and Bright Ideas, these new additions will make the Berkshires home to a total of eight breweries, creating an informal beer trail from one end of the county to the other. They add a boost to local economies and a new reason for beer lovers to belly up to the bar in the Berkshires.

For the owners of Hot Plate, locating in the Berkshires turned out to be a no-brainer. But they needed to do their homework first before following their draft dreams.

“We started looking at census data for different counties throughout Massachusetts, and we found that there was a really good alignment between the craft beer consumer and Berkshire County,” recalls Brooklyn transplant and co-founder of Hot Plate, Mike Dell’Aquilla. “Then we looked at the competitive landscape. And we thought there’s more than a good chance that Berkshire County is underserved from a craft beer perspective.”

For Sarah Real, Dell’Aquilla’s partner at Hot Plate and in life (the two were married in 2007) it was all about the

data. After all, when she’s not brewing, she handles “consumer insights” for Paramount. “My job is really to dig into who our consumers are, helping advertisers nail down where they want to advertise”, she said.

So when it came to their business, Real dug deep into who craft beer customers in the Berkshires might be by asking all the right questions, who is a craft beer drinker?

What does that mean?

What activities do they do?

“So really just building the kind of a person I thought was in the Berkshires as a craft brewing consumer and having that confirmed or not,” she said.

The data panned out. According to the profile that Real built, visitors to the Berkshires make for ideal customers. “With a median age of 52 years old, these

married, college-educated professionals coming from NYC, Boston, or other parts of New England often travel as a couple and with an annual income of $100,200 they also have the resources to spend money on luxury items like craft beer,” her profile stated.

“As that data shows, these are affluent consumers” said Dell’Aquilla. By leaning into the Berkshires as a craft beer destination, he feels the hospitality industry as a whole will benefit.

“There is the halo effect that it will benefit the brewers, but it will benefit all of the hospitality businesses up and down Berkshire County” he said.

“I think all of New England has really stepped it up”, said Bill Heaton, who runs Big Elm Brewing in Sheffield with his wife, Christine Bump. “People go to Maine, they go to Vermont, Massachusetts just for breweries. It’s crazy. You know, it would have never happened 10 years ago.”

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Sarah Real walks through the brewery at Hot Plate Brewing Co. in Pittsfield. Hot Plate, which opened this winter, is one of several establishments that is turning the Berkshires into a haven for craft beer connoisseurs.

Business coach Stephen Warley provides tips on what to look for. Page 10

“Everyone’s got their own style that’s got their own vibe and their space,” roB

Trask, the owner of Antimony in Lenox.

Front pages

‘Lego lady’ builds anew

Bottomless Bricks to reopen in Pittsfield

By Meg Britton-Mehlisch

PITTSFIELD — The coronavirus pandemic could have put an end to Erin Laundry’s Lego business. Instead, it gave her time to grow, presented her an opportunity at stardom and provided the second wind that is bringing her business, Bottomless Bricks, to a new location in Pittsfield.

This spring, Laundry and her husband, Shane, will open the second iteration of Bottomless Bricks at 163 South St. Laundry said she’s signing the lease soon and has tentative plans to open in April.

“It’s kind of like the blessing at the end of the nightmare,” Laundry said. “There were so many dark times during the pandemic where I questioned if we’d ever be in this place again.”

Laundry said she often gets recognized as the “Lego lady” when she’s out and about in the Berkshires with her Lego purse in tow. But residents may be more familiar with Laundry from her stint on national TV last fall.

Laundry and teammate Liz Puleo were one of 12 teams to compete on season three of Fox’s “Lego Masters” hosted by comedian and actor Will Arnett. Laundry and Puleo made it halfway through the 12-week competition.

The debut of team “moms” — Laundry and Puleo’s team — was well watched in Pittsfield, where friends, family and supporters gathered at the Colonial Theatre’s Garage to watch the kickoff of the season.

Laundry said her time on “Lego Masters” has given her the kind of “incredible boost that I really needed after the takedown of the pandemic.”

“I didn’t know if lightning could strike twice,” Laundry said, recalling how promising things had seemed when Bottomless Bricks first opened. “Fortunately, because of the excitement and buzz around Lego Masters, it really is kind of like my second chance to take this where I wanted to take it to begin with.”

BUILDING ON A DREAM

Laundry started doing popup Lego parties for family and friends in 2018. After a year of being told the concept was good enough for its own space, Laundry signed the lease at 57 Park St. in Adams and opened Bottomless Bricks in October 2019.

The party and retail space was so successful that the Laundrys considered moving to a bigger spot after only three months of business. Laundry had just graduated from the inaugural cohort of Entrepreneurship for All’s accelerator program, and it seemed like a good time to grow the business.

The start of the coronavirus pandemic in

March 2020 changed all that.

“Birthday parties ceased to be a thing anymore,” Laundry said.

Laundry said she tried to take what she’d learned in the accelerator program and pivot during the pandemic. For several months she delivered “creativity to-go kits” with a pound of Lego bricks and mini figures.

“After a few months I stopped driving myself crazy trying to figure out what the next month would bring,” Laundry said. “I just decided to put everything on pause, but we didn’t give up on the dream.”

With the storefront closed down, the Laundrys moved their store’s worth of Lego into their basement for safekeeping. Laundry said her husband used the move as a way to stay sane during the pandemic, spending his time organizing their catalog of kits and pieces.

The basement turned into a kind of model factory that Laundry was able to use to audition for Lego Masters.

“It kind of all works out in this really bizarre way,” Laundry said.

WHAT’S IN STORE

When she wasn’t working on her audition tape, Laundry said she was spending her pandemic days taking webinars through 1Berkshire and working on her business model. Over the last year, she’s joined the small business technical assistance program at the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire.

She said she now feels like the pieces have fallen into place to bring back Bottomless Bricks.

The new Pittsfield space will be bigger and better than the original Bottomless Bricks location in Adams, Laundry said. The front of the space will be dedicated to an expanded retail space and the back of the store will have a dedicated party space.

Bottomless Bricks’ signature racing ramp will return for kids to race Lego vehicles and there will be a building wall where people can build out their most creative designs vertically. The much loved mini figure factory will return as well.

Laundry said when the business opens up this spring, Bottomless Bricks will offer a buysell-trade program for kids to trade in old Lego sets for new ones. She said Bottomless Bricks will also build out its community events with STEM workshops and Lego robotics.

In the meantime, Bottomless Bricks is returning to its roots with community events at local libraries and community spaces. This week, Laundry will join Hot Plate Brewery as part of its “First Ten” events for the 10x10 Festival.

On Tuesday, at 7 p.m. Laundry will host Bricks and Brews at the brewery. The event, which is for people 21 and older, will offer customers a chance to build some Lego, buy from small sets and talk with Laundry about her experience on Lego Masters.

Community Health Programs… Care for a Lifetime.

The health and wellbeing of you and your family—at all ages and stages—is at the heart of CHP.

Our multiple locations and two mobile health clinics make getting the care you need easy. From medical and dental to nutrition services, we have you covered. Want to know more? Scan the QR code or visit chpberkshires.org for more information.

EAGLE FILE PHOTOS

Erin Laundry might be familiar as a recent competitor in the third season of the TV show “Lego Masters.” Some around the county just call her the “Lego lady.” Laundry is reopening her Lego business in Pittsfield this spring.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ERIN LAUNDRY

The original Bottomless Bricks on Park Street in Adams closed during the coronavirus pandemic. The new location is set to open in Pittsfield this spring.

Wool sweaters to climate change, Lila’s Mountain Farm does it all

By A inA de L A ppA rent A LvA rez

GREAT BARRINGTON — “Mary, you’re in charge tomorrow,” Lila Berle, 83, said in 2019, to her daughter, Mary Berle, about the family’s 400-acre sheep farm.

It was then that Mary Berle shifted away from her career in education to embrace her family’s 400-acre sheep farm.

Nestled on land between Great Barrington, Alford and Egremont, Lila’s Mountain Farm, got its start in 1984, when Lila Wilde Berle bought her first four sheep.

Mary left the Berkshires for Harvard, where she earned degrees in environmental science and education. She was a project director, senior researcher and curriculum developer for TERC, a math and science education research and development firm, before moving back to the Berkshires to raise her children. She spent 13 years in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, including four years as principal of Muddy Brook School. In 2018, a year before her mother turned over the farm to her, Mary Berle joined the Norman Rockwell Museum as its chief educator, a position she left in early 2022.

Back in 2019, when she first took over with her partner, Len Tisdale, she realized there was a lot she needed to learn. She needed to do “a lot of listening and observing,” as she put it.

Berle, now three years into forging a path to running a sustainable farm, is trying her hand at wool sweaters.

LOCALLY PRODUCED

Her belief in local partnerships has forged relationships with Green Mountain Spinnery, in Putney, Vt., which washes the farm’s wool and turns it into rich yarns, before passing it on to Muriel’s of Vermont, a farm-to-closet garment company, where it is fitted onto a Japanese 3D knitting machine that knits the sweaters. When the sweaters come back to Berle, she sells them directly. The collaboration has come full circle as 40 years ago, Lila Berle gave David Ritchie at Green Mountain Spinnery a $500 loan to get started.

Small-scale, local production can’t be made cheap. Each 100-percent wool sweater will cost between $190 to $210. Instead of a cheap garment though, you pay for something high quality and made within a 150-mile radius.

“We don’t want to lose the capacity to make locally made clothes,” Berle said. “I love putting on our sweater and knowing that it hasn’t traveled far.”

HARD WORK FOR A SHEPHERD

Sweater making has changed how Berle sees her animals. More than ever, she feels like a partner of the farm’s staff of Great Pyrenes — Duke, Mia, Ajax, Thor and Beya.

“It’s really important that they stay connected to the sheep,” she said. The dogs are the farm’s last line of defense when it comes to coyotes.

Sometimes, it is not the coyotes that disturb the sheep the most. People driving by, Berle said, find it fun to have their dogs bark at the farm’s guardians.

This makes the dogs think that a threat is coming from the road, which tires them out during the day and makes them less effective at night, when they need to be the most alert.

This problem has gotten worse in recent years, she said. The farm used to be surrounded by other farms. Now, there are mainly houses, creating a much more suburban landscape.

“I think people are getting so disconnected from nature in the landscape. We are now farming in the suburbs.”

ELEMENTARY PARALLELS

On the farm, Berle finds parallels with her previous work in local schools.

“I was the principal at Muddy Brook elementary. [The farm] is similar to a school environment. I’m working so everyone can have a good, calm and productive day,” she said.

The looming pressure of climate change adds to the daily threats, with a weather both wetter and drier.

“Everything’s a little more extreme,” she said. This year, their second hay cutting was terrible — they got only about a quarter of what they planted. “I think it’s changing faster than any of us would have imagined,” she said.

One of the biggest challenges this year was water. The drought prevented natural water sources from staying filled, so Berle had to take more drastic measures. During the summer, they had to haul 500 gallons of water to the sheep in the pickup truck every day so that they wouldn’t move elsewhere to drink water.

To adapt the farm to warming temperatures, Berle’s son, David Berle Carman, will plant a few hundred trees this spring, so the sheep have cooling shades in every pasture.

Now it is the frigid winter that poses a challenge. On some nights, the temperatures and air are so cold, water coming out of the spigot freezes immediately. One night, Berle had to take three lambs that weren’t able to regulate their body temperature into her home. The day after, she reconnected them with their mothers.

“These animals have a really good life. And that’s the thing that we’re focused on,” she said. “I don’t eat meat, but I do eat our meat, which I know every animal has had a good experience.”

All of this hard work by Berle and her dogs has paid off. Since the winter solstice, 160 healthy lambs have been born, growing the flock by 66 percent.

“I’m really happy to have this. I think it’s nice to have different chapters [in life]. And I love not going to meetings,” she said laughing looking at her sheep. “These are my meetings.”

More information: lilasmountainfarm.com

PHOTOS BY BEN GARVER

Mary Berle is managing Lila’s Mountain Farm in Great Barrington. The farm, founded by her mother, Lila, raises grass-fed sheep prized for their strong, soft wool.

Big Pappa is a prized ram on Lila’s Mountain Farm. His wool is multicolored and strong.

BiggDaddy’s finds new home at Mass MoCA

By Greta JocheM

NORTH ADAMS — The key to a good sandwich: the bread.

That’s according to Berkshire chef Xavier Jones, who will soon be serving up Philly cheesesteaks in the Berkshires once again, and on bread imported from Philadelphia.

In late April, Jones and two other co-owners, Warren Dews Jr. and Dully Saimbert, are opening BiggDaddy’s Philly Steak House on the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art’s campus in a space that was occupied by A-OK Barbecue until it closed last year.

On the menu: wings, brisket, ribs, and of course, Philly cheesesteaks.

“All low fat,” Dews joked.

Vegetarian options will include falafel, Impossible burgers, and macaroni and cheese. There will be sides like honey jalapeño cornbread. “The way grandma used to make it,” Jones emphasized. Her cornbread had a texture like cake, he said.

The restaurant will be open every day except Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. for takeout, delivery, or outdoor seating. Customers can also take the food across the parking lot to Bright Ideas Brewing, Dews said.

Jones grew up in Philadelphia, and when he came to Pittsfield in 2006 to take a job at a restaurant, he and his dad tried to find a place to get a sandwich and were not impressed.

“My dad just was like, ‘Listen, man, when you finally make it, show these people what a real sandwich is.’ And he always wanted to open up a cheesesteak and hoagie shop.”

In 2017, he opened BiggDaddy’s Philly Steak House in Adams and later moved to Pittsfield. When he closed it in 2019 citing a lack of business, he was done being a restaurateur in the Berkshires. “I’m not opening up any more restaurants in the Berkshires,” Jones said at the time.

Berkshire chef Xavier Jones says a good sandwich is all about the bread, which he imports from Philadelphia for his famous cheesesteaks.

He later realized he was speaking through bitterness and anger. “You start to realize: This is who I am,” he said. “Your gift will make room for you. And cooking is what I do. Cooking is my ministry.”

Jones and Dews have already teamed up. Early last year, they opened the Firehouse Cafe in Adams’ historic firehouse, a Mediterranean-infused small plates restaurant.

“His gift is his cooking, and he’s blessed to share with everyone else,” Dews said. “This is his dream. We want to make sure he shines in it.”

When BiggDaddy’s opens this spring, it will be the first Black-owned restaurant in Mass MoCA’s history, “which

House of Seasoning lands alcohol license

By M att M artinez

PITTSFIELD — House of Seasoning, a restaurant with African-American cuisine just off Wahconah Street, recently received its alcohol license, allowing the restaurant to serve liquor after a months long process to receive approval from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.

Mathieu Niamke, co-owner of House of Seasoning at 117 Seymour St., said the restaurant received its alcohol license on Feb. 13. The approval came about two weeks after the owners submitted a second application for a license to the Pittsfield Licensing Board on Jan. 30 because of a snag with the state commission due to the makeup of their management team.

The restaurant opened in September, and began the process of trying to acquire its liquor license in November.

Until the license was received, the restaurant had been serving wine, beer and liquor, including a list of specialty cocktails made with rum, tequila, gin and more. It will soon have a beer tap, as well, as they try to get that apparatus in working order.

Running the business for the first five months without alcohol was difficult, Niamke said. The owners are still trying to attract more local customers, too.

is huge,” Jones said. He credited Mass MoCA staff, including director Kristy Edmunds, for helping make it happen.

It’s an opportunity that has not always been available to Black men, “especially in this community,” Jones said. He added, “So many times people say that Black people can’t make it in this area. And if you listen to what people say, you’re never gonna get anywhere.”

Niamke , who co-owns House of Seasoning with his wife, Raissa Doumbia, said he was grateful to Greylock Federal Credit Union and the Berkshire Black Economic Council for giving the restaurant business with catering and ordering gift cards for their employees. The support helped a lot in the interim.

The restaurant has recently introduced a deal night on Fridays hoping to attract more local business. Customers can get $1 wings, at a minimum of 12 wings, and drink specials starting at 8 p.m. on Fridays until the restaurant’s close.

GRETA JOCHEM — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE Dully Saimbert, Xavier Jones and Warren Dews Jr. are opening BiggDaddy’s Philly Steak House in North Adams.

EAGLE FILE PHOTO

Business updates

The Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce recognized the officers of its 2023 board of directors and discussed past achievements at its annual meeting and member appreciation gathering at The Red Lion Inn.

Newly appointed chamber President Pamela Boudreau recognized the officers of the board: Amanda Barcenas of Prado de Lana Sheep Farm, vice president; Douglas Goudy of Wheeler & Taylor, assistant vice president; Wendy Pearson of Stockbridge Library, treasurer; and Mary Flournoy of National Shrine of Divine Mercy. Also recognized were four members at large: Amy Moorby of Berkshire Theatre Group; Doug Bagnasco of Devonfield Inn; Lauren Smith of Fairview Hospital; and newly appointed Margit Hotchkiss of Norman Rockwell Museum.

Resigning President Margaret Kerswill, who had served on the board since 2014, was appreciated and recognized for all she had done to advocate the chamber’s commitment to the support of the businesses and the overall well-being of the town of Stockbridge and its environs.

The chamber held two successful fundraising events in 2022. After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the chamber held a record-breaking “Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas” weekend.

Stockbridge was named for the 3rd year in a row, “the best Christmas town in America” by Country Living. New businesses that joined the chamber last year included lShop Around the Corner, Township Four, Mundy’s Asia Galleries, Once Upon a Table, Berkshire Bach Society and Cana Provisions

The chamber once again received funds in 2022 from the town of Stockbridge to promote the local economy from the local occupancy room and meals tax collected by businesses. The chamber was awarded first place regional Award of Excellence by the 2022 International Best Brochure Competition. Berkshire Brochure Display submitted the Stockbridge, MA Guide as an entry.

TokenTag, a Web3 social network based in Williamstown, has recently conducted the beta launch of its product, a platform that disrupts how creators and community managers understand their audiences and how consumers interact with content across platforms.

TokenTag unifies social channels and chains to create a single, easy-to-use Web3 social ecosystem. By combining Discord, Twitter, and the blockchain, users are able to see and directly interact only with what matters: community and friends activity.

“After nearly a year working alongside dozens of fantastic projects to build TokenTag, I’m thrilled to finally kick off our public beta release. Our ultimate goal is to transform the way communities come together and interact. We believe that, with TokenTag, we’ve created a home for Web3 communities that enhances connection, and paves the way for broader consumer adoption of NFTs into the future” said Daniel Vataj, Founder & CEO of TokenTag.

Berkshire Bank Foundation invested more than $764,000 during the fourth quarter of 2022, to bring its total number of investments for the entire year to more than $2.8 million.

The fourth quarter fundings, which were invested between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, cover a wide range of projects in communities that the bank serves.

The investments also support the company’s BEST Community Comeback program, which includes a planned $15 million in community contributions by the end of 2024. The foundation supports programs that align with Berkshire Bank’s Center for Women, Wellness, and Wealth to provide opportunities for women to build a future enriched with financial stability, balance and growth.

Berkshire County recipients included, Berkshire Resources for the Integration of Diverse Groups and Education; Berkshire Black Economic Council; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation; and Sculpture Now, along with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield.

Additional details on the foundation’s grant programs and focus areas can be found at berkshirebank.com/foundation.

The Berkshires Academy for Advanced Musical Studies in North Adams has received major support from several donors and foundations, all contributing to the expansion of its mission and increasing its ability to serve more young music students from Berkshire County and beyond.

A donation received from Michelle Daunais and Rick Seto of Weymouth was double matched by Takeda Pharmaceutical. Funds were also raised through Network for Good, and donated in memory of John T. “Jack” Gould, of North Adams, who died in December 2022. The funds donated in Gould’s memory were made possible by the family of Jack Gould and the Flynn & Dagnoli Funeral Home.

The school has also received grants from the William J. and Margery S. Barrett Fund, for young music students from Adams, Cheshire and Savoy, and the Guardian Life Insurance Co. in Pittsfield to support scholarships and reduced tuition for its students.

Berkshire Bank has been named to Forbes list of America’s Best Midsize Employers 2023.

The award is presented by Forbes and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider.

Berkshire is the only Massachusetts-based bank, and one of four banks in New England and New York, on the 2023 midsize employer banking and financial services list.

Forbes and Statista selected the America’s Best Employers 2023 through an independent survey applied to a vast sample of approximately 45,000 American employees working for companies with more than 1,000 employees in America.

Five hundred midsize employers were chosen for the list. The awards list can be viewed at tinyurl.com/474bztcx.

Big Y Foods has formed a partnership with the Fisher College of Boston’s Graduate Professional Studies Department that will allow its employees to attend online courses through the school’s Corporate Advantage Program.

Under the partnership, Fisher College will offer discounted tuition rates on online courses for Big Y employees and their immediate family members, and will work to identify courses and develop programs that fit the company’s needs.

Fisher College has similar corporate educational partnerships with several other companies, including Spectrum Health Systems and Visiting Nurse Association of New England.

Based in Springfield, Big Y operates Berkshire markets in Great Barrington, Lee and Pittsfield and convenience store/ gas locations in Lee and Pittsfield.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has announced that the state is now covering the cost of Massachusetts residents’ initial General Education Development (GED) test and High School Equivalency Test (HISET) in each subject, plus two retakes.

The free HiSET testing began in February, while free GED testing began on Sept. 12.

By covering the cost of testing, the department is ensuring test fees will no longer be a barrier to candidates who were unable to attain their high school credential through traditional means. The fees for high school equivalency exams can be steep for students, costing as much as $143 per test depending on the setting and test mode.

To have their fees covered by the state, test takers will enter a promo code instead of credit or debit card payment when they register for the test. Additional information about covering the cost of testing is available on DESE’s High School Equivalency webpage at tinyurl.com/mv585h6s.

1Berkshire has received a $295,000 grant award through the Regional Economic Development Organization grant program.

The funding is made available through statewide investments made by the Mas-

sachusetts Office of Business Development and the support of the Berkshire County legislative delegation.

It will help to sustain the ongoing work of the 1Berkshire Economic Development team’s support of small businesses, implementation efforts associated with the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, and the ongoing regional efforts to bolster the Berkshire economy.

As part of this year’s grant, 1Berkshire also received funding to support a series of five distinct collaborative, regional economic development projects through the competitive application process. These projects include:

• Year 2 of the Best Foot Forward Facade Improvement Micro-Grant Program.

• “Insert Here” Vacant Window Art Program.

• Berkshire Innovation Center North Pilot Programming.

• Small Business Resource Expo.

• GreylockWorks lighting and signage.

Rob Adams and Patricia Kolis, employees of Edward Jones Investments in the Berkshires, have accepted limited partnership offers from the company.

Adams, a financial adviser at the Edward Jones branch in North Adams, will become a limited partner. Kolis, a senior branch office administrator, will increase her holdings in the Jones Financial Cos. LLLP, the holding company for the St. Louis-based financial services firm.

Adams joined Edward Jones in 2016 and has served investors in North Adams and the surrounding area for the past seven years. Kolis joined Edward Jones in 2011.

Edward Jones currently employs 50,000 associates throughout the United States and through its affiliate in Canada. This is the firm’s 18th limited partnership offering in its 100-year history.

Fontaine’s Auction Gallery realized $2.5 million in sales at a recent fine and decorative arts auction at the gallery on West Housatonic Street.

The 550-lot auction saw strong performers in nearly every category with a sell-through rate of 91 percent. The event drew over 7,000 approved bidders, according to auctioneer and owner John Fontaine.

The auction’s top lot, a Tiffany Studios window, “Jesus in a Field of Lilies,” sold for $237,500, nearly doubling its high estimate. The circa 1898 window, featuring plated, leaded and confetti glass, measured 9 feet 11 inches by 7 feet 5 inches.

The winning bidder was a church in the western part of the United States, which intends to restore and install the window in its church, Fontain

Berkshire Homewatch in Lenox has earned accreditation from the National Home Watch Association for the second year.

Business owner John Simons, a member of the Lenox Chamber of Commerce, formed Berkshire Homewatch when he discovered a need for second-home owners to have their properties looked after while they are away.

Simons, who has a wide range of experience in the real estate industry, including an almost 10-year stint with the New York City Housing Development Co., founded Berkshire Homewatch after doing property management in the Berkshires for four years.

The company serves all of Berkshire County.

Berkshire Bank is one of 483 companies around the world that has been named a member of the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.

The index is a modified market capitalization-weighted index developed to gauge the performance of public companies dedicated to reporting gender-related data.

This reference index measures gender equality across five pillars: leadership & talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand.

The Blackshires Community Empowerment Foundation has launched the Blackshires Leadership Accelerator, a program designed to support and empower the Black community in the

Berkshires and surrounding areas.

This program offers Black community members the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, receive support, training, and resources, and take their leadership skills to the next level. The program is funded primarily through an urban agenda grant from the state Office of Executive Housing and Urban Development.

The Blackshires Leadership Accelerator is a 12-week program that provides community-based training, cohort support, leadership development, networking opportunities, and a stipend of $1,000. Information: blackshires.net/leadership/.

Old Brick Furniture & Mattress Co., which operates a store in Pittsfield, has been named 2023 Retailer of the Year in the large retailer division, by the Home Furnishing Association. The company received its award March 2 at its home office and showroom in Albany. N.Y..

Old Brick was judged by a panel of industry professionals on eight categories: Customer Experience, Company Culture, Social Responsibility, Innovation, Adaptability, Industry Contribution, Marketing, and Achievements.

Old Brick, Bennington Furniture and Old Brick Furniture merged in September 2020, after which Pittsfield’s Bennington Furniture store in the Allendale Shopping Center was rebranded as Old Brick Furniture & Mattress Co.

Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington has been named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Scholars by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the

UPDATES, Page 6

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Kitchen manager taking over Ozzie’s Steak & Eggs

Updates

FROM PAGE 5

highest number of applicants selected for the 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program.

Simon’s Rock alumna Chazlee Myers was awarded an English teaching assistant grant by the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission to provide assistance to local English teachers in Italy and act as a cultural ambassador for the U.S from October 2022 to June 2023

Simon’s Rock professor Peter Filkins was also awarded a Spring 2023 Fulbright IFK Senior Fellowship in Cultural Studies to research and write a biography on poet Ingeborg Bachmann.

The MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board is holding two workshops across the Berkshires for employers and organizations that are interested in working with high school interns.

The workshops will be held April 26 at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and May 12 at Berkshire Health Systems’ Hillcrest Campus in Pittsfield. Both sessions take place from 9 to 10:30 a.m.

These identical workshops will provide tips, guidance and strategies for providing internships to high school students. They are open to professionals interested in starting an internship at their company or looking to enhance their current internship program.

Information/registration: Youth program specialist Kat Toomey, kat@masshireberkshire.com, 413-442-7177, ext. 120.

Big Y Markets was recently named as one of America’s Greatest Places for Diversity 2023 by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group.

The two entities conducted a large-scale employer study based upon over 350,000 company reviews across 6 economic sectors and 34 different industries throughout the United States.

These reviews generated scoring based upon available data and interviews as well as an anonymous online survey of a diverse pool of employees at companies with 1,000 or more employees.

By Jane K aufman

HINSDALE — He’s been cooking at Ozzie’s Steak & Eggs for years; now Dylan Brewer is on his way to owning the restaurant where he learned the business.

Brewer, 30, is buying the business from founders and owners Tracey and Alan “Ozzie” Lussier, who will stay actively involved at the 20-year breakfast and lunch destination after the transaction. It’s expected to change hands in May following the transfer of the liquor license.

“That’s what makes us so successful ... everyone works together as a team,” Alan Lussier said.

The founders plan to remain involved in three ways. First, the Lussiers will continue to own the three-story building in the center of town that houses the restaurant along with the one-acre field behind it, which is used for events. Second, they’ll retain ownership of Ozzie’s Food Truck/ Catering for off-site catering jobs from fairs to weddings. And finally, they’ll remain involved in all aspects of the restaurant business in an effort to help Brewer continue the success Ozzie’s has enjoyed for 20 years.

The Lussiers want their customers to know that nothing will noticeably change with Brewer as the new owner.

Brewer said he likes the “big extended family” that runs the restaurant, “just the whole atmosphere.”

He said it’s his intention to keep the restaurant operating in the same manner as it is now: attracting 300 to 500 customers on busy weekend days with the same staff of about 20 that has been there for years.

The Lussiers met when they were working at the Dalton Restaurant, a restaurant Alan Lussier’s parents, Carmella and Gil Lussier, started 39 years ago, which is still running today.

Alan and Tracey Lussier opened Ozzie’s Steak and Seafood, also in Dalton, in the late 1990s, running it for a decade. At Dalton’s former train depot, they brought in local cover bands such as “Wishful Thinking.” After working late nights, they often went out to breakfast.

“It was always, like, not really the greatest,” Tracey Lussier said. “That’s what put the thought in his head that … we needed to open a breakfast place.”

“You need to have hot buttered toast corner to corner,” Alan Lussier said.

Peter Frissell learned of their interest and approached Alan Lussier about opening in his three-story building in Hinsdale. At that time, the first floor had a small restaurant called Gloria’s and a laundromat next door.

The Lussiers looked at the location and decided to open there in March 2003. They rented the restaurant space and bought the laundromat, closing it and converting the space into a second room with seating for about 50. The main dining room, with its bar, has seating for about 40.

The Lussiers bought the building in 2006 and remodeled both dining rooms.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ozzie’s closed for just three weeks, and pivoted to takeout for much of the lockdown.

The owners added a pavilion to cover the deck outside, where there had been a tent. Ozzie’s holds several car shows in spring, summer and fall, advertised as cruises. The restaurant also offers fresh seafood during the summer, including lobster rolls and fried clam bellies.

Summer sizzles at Ozzie’s, with camps open, second-home residents in abundance at nearby lakes, and the Berkshires’ busy tourism season.

The restaurant has remarkably low turnover, with some of the staff starting as teens, returning to work during summers in college and working a day a week once they find their careers elsewhere.

“We’re very lucky and grateful that we have had the same people for numerous years,” Tracey Lussier said. “It’s unheard of. We always get complimented.”

“Her staff is the best,” Alan Lussier said.

Alan Lussier, 62, and Tracey Lussier, 54, are now hoping to have more time to enjoy life by selling to Brewer, whom they consider to be a part of their extended family.

Brewer’s father worked as a bouncer at the Dalton Ozzie’s.

“So then when I was looking for a job, he brought me down here,” said Brewer, who began working at the Hinsdale restaurant as a dishwasher when he was 14. “And then working under Al, I learned a lot very quickly. So it just became the right move for me. So it made sense to get a culinary degree in high school and then stick with that, just like the rest of the staff has, forever.”

Brewer studied culinary arts at McCann Technical High School in North Adams. Brewer, 30, lives in Dalton.

“You learn a little differently when you’re doing it in the kitchen,” Brewer said. “You learn how to adapt and multitask on your feet.”

Brewer said he enjoys developing and cooking specials, and that he also enjoys preparing fresh seafood in the summer.

Brewer’s sisters, Cassidy and MaKenna Brewer, both work at the restaurant, and Brewer has the long view in mind: He’s hoping his nephews, Vincent, 7, and Barrett, 2, will be able to keep what’s become a family tradition. In fact, he asked The Eagle to feature their photo for this story, both dressed in Ozzie’s T-shirts.

“This isn’t something that just happened,” Alan Lussier said of the decision to sell to Brewer. “He’s been working for years on this goal.”

Brewer praised the work of the Lussiers.

“Alan and Tracey have built a great business over the past 20 years,” he said. “And I’m just hopefully looking forward to another great 20 years.”

Nationally, in the food retail sector, Big Y is one of only 5 companies to receive a total of 5 stars, their highest rating. Another 10 companies received 4.5 stars and 11 received 4.

Based in Springfield, Big Y operates Berkshire markets in Great Barrington, Lee, Pittsfield and North Adams and gas/convenience store locations in Lee and Pittsfield.

Berkshire Community Diaper Project has received $7,000 from Greylock Federal Credit Union to support its mission of providing free diapers to families. Funding from this grant will go directly to the purchase of more than 41,000 diapers, which will be given out to low-income families through 23 partnering agencies. Not only will this grant money support ongoing work, but it will help the organization grow and diversify its reach. The Diaper Project has provided more than 1.6 million diapers in the past nine years.

“The Diaper Project fills a critical gap in supporting low to moderate income families in the Berkshires,” said JamieEllen Moncecchi, Greylock’s senior vice president and chief administrative officer. “They leverage partnerships and meet families where they are needed most. Greylock is honored to be able to support their work.”

Foot Care by Nurses, which provides nursing-focused, comprehensive foot care, mainly for older adults, recently opened a new clinic at 625 Cape St. in Lee.

The clinic opened despite the recent death of longtime Berkshire resident Emily Armstrong, who was slated to lead it.

The business is a holistic, evidence-based practice focused on preventing falls and wounds from happening. It was founded by registered nurse Kate Clayton-Jones in 2016 in response to an unmet need.

“Despite this terrible loss, the team that Emily built will continue to provide exceptional care from specially trained nurses,” Clayton-Jones said.

“A holistic approach, teaching about nutrition and health, and supporting overall wellness are what makes foot care by a trained nurse different than foot care provided by a podiatrist or other allied health care providers,” she said.

The new clinic is currently accepting clients by appointment. Information: : FootCarebyNurses.net.

Big Y Foods has donated almost $44.000 raised from its October “Partners in Hope” initiative to 32 local breast cancer groups throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, including the women’s imaging center at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.

The regional supermarket chain holds this fundraiser annually in October at all of its stores to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer.

Seventeen Massachusetts organizations, including those in Amherst, Holyoke, Ludlow, Longmeadow, Northampton, and Springfield, received funding.

Based in Springfield, Big Y operates Berkshire supermarkets in Great Barrington, Lee, North Adams and Pittsfield and gas/convenience store locations in Lee and Pittsfield.

Latde Diagnostics won the $50,000 prize for finishing first in the Western Mass. Health Tech Challenge, which took place at the Institute for Applied Life Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The challenge was sponsored by small business accelerator Lever Inc. of North Adams. It was open to startups from the four counties of Western Massachusetts.

Quasar Therapeutics received $25,000 in grant funding for finishing second. The top two startups were selected from the group of five finalists by a panel of judges.

All five startups began at UMass Amherst, and have been supported by the Institute for Applied Life Sciences. The challenge was funded in part by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. Lever and MLSC have partnered since 2016, with the Western Mass Health Tech Challenge representing the seventh in a collaborative series of acceleration programs.

JANE KAUFMAN

From left, Alan and Tracey Lussier plan to sell Ozzie’s Steak & Eggs in Hinsdale, the business they founded and own, to Dylan Brewer of Dalton, who is the restaurant’s kitchen manager.

EAGLE FILE PHOTO

Customers eat breakfast at Ozzie’s Steak & Eggs in Hinsdale.

Homeowners beware: Registry warns of mortgage ‘gimmick’

A possible scam that looks good on paper will put a 40-year lien on your home

By Tony DoBrolski

PITTSFIELD — The first time Patricia Harris saw the document, she thought something didn’t seem right.

The registrar at the Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds, Harris said, “I noticed that this was an unusual looking mortgage.” And she has been looking at official documents for 23 years.

“It didn’t have the typical characterizations that we’re used to seeing,” she said. “It certainly wasn’t from a lending institution. It didn’t really follow the laws that we’re used to seeing.”

It was, in fact, evidence of a suspected scam that right now can make homeowners a little money, but later can cost them a whole lot more. In a lawsuit, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office accuses the company that originated the document of making “false and misleading statements.”

What Harris saw was a document known as a “homeowner benefit agreement,” provided by the Massachusetts subsidiary of a Florida-based realty company. Known by its initials, an HBA makes small upfront cash payments in exchange for the firm’s exclusive right to act as the listing brokerage when the homeowner decides to sell. The HBAs, with a 40-year maturity date, are actually mortgages submitted to the registry without the homeowner’s knowledge.

Harris decided not to file the document, but at least 500 similar mortgages produced by this same company, MV of Massachusetts LLC, had been filed as of December at deed registries across the state, according to the state Attorney General’s Office. Eighty-nine have been filed in the six registries in the four counties of Western Massachusetts.

Tipped off by state registrars including Harris, the AG’s office in December filed in Suffolk Superior Court a lawsuit against MV of Massachusetts LLC, a subsidiary of MV Realty PBC LLC of Delray Beach, Fla. The court granted the AG’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which restricts MV Realty from engaging in unfair and deceptive marketing practices, prohibits the company from obtaining or recording additional mortgages during the pendency

Crust to open second shop in Williamstown

By m aTT m arT inez

because “I don’t know what the results of the lawsuit will be.” If the attorney general loses the suit, she said, she worries that the company will start filing HBAs again.

“I felt that this was something that people should be aware of because after this gimmick, there’s going to be another one.”

Brad Gordon, the executive director and staff attorney of the Berkshire Regional Housing Authority, said such financial products as the ones offered by MV Massachusetts LLC were more common in the Berkshires during the Great Recession when the housing bubble burst and homeowners were struggling to make payments.

“We just haven’t seen much of that” recently, Gordon said. “From what I’ve read about the one that the registry identified, it’s a very interesting situation.”

According to the complaint, the HBA pays homeowners a cash advance, in the median amount of $1,150, for the right to use MV of Massachusetts LLC as their exclusive real estate broker if they sell during that 40-year time period. As presented to consumers, the agreement entitles MV of Massachusetts to a “commission” payment at least 10 times the advance if the homes are sold.

WILLIAMSTOWN — Crust, a pizza restaurant in Pittsfield, will open a second location in Williamstown in the coming months, aiming to cater to its customer base in northern Berkshire County.

The restaurant announced the plans last month via Instagram.

Jim Cervone, co-owner of Crust and Ayelada, a frozen yogurt shop in Pittsfield, said the new location would be set up at 46 Spring St., the space previously occupied by The Red Herring, a tavern that is now closed.

Cervone said that he has been looking to expand to communities north and south of the city because of the pizza restaurant’s heavy traffic from both areas.

of the litigation and requires the company to release existing mortgages. A temporary restraining order had been approved, which prohibited the company from doing business in the state while the legal matters were under consideration.

“MV Realty has used malicious marketing practices to prey on, lie to and financially exploit hundreds of homeowners across Massachusetts, stripping home equity from cash-strapped consumers,” said Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in a statement. “This preliminary injunction will stop MV Realty from further harming our residents and serves as a model for attorneys general offices across the country to fight back against these kinds of predatory practices.”

Harris took matters into her own hands by publishing information about the company’s activities in a January newsletter that the registry regularly sends out to people who use its services.

She is alerting the public, Harris said,

But according to the Attorney General’s complaint, the commission, referred to as an “early termination fee,” occurs on virtually any transfer during that the 40-year time span, including legal transfers such as divorce or foreclosure, “whether or not MV provides any such real estate services.”

“The consideration for the payment appears to be what is essentially a 40-year lien or right to serve as the broker if the property is conveyed during that 40-year period,” Gordon said.

“It is such a hokey and fraught concept,” he said. “They are creating secured instruments or contracts with unsuspecting homeowners.”

MV of Massachusetts’ parent company, MV Realty PBC LLC, operates in 33 states. In court documents filed in answer to the state’s motion asking the court to impose the preliminary injunction, MV of Massachusetts describes the homeowner benefit agreement as a five-page document that “conspicuously and

The Pittsfield location of Crust, 505 East St., opened in September 2020. Cervone said that he’s been looking to expand the business for about a year. The opportunity to move into the space in Williamstown came about four months ago, he said. The owners will work on renovating and remodeling the space, including the business’ entryway. In terms of what customers can expect, the answer is service identical to Pittsfield, with an assembly line for its pizzas and full drink service.

“Our business is going to be very much the same,” Cervone said.

If there are any differences between the two locations, they would be tailored around the new store’s proximity to Williams College. It’s yet to be determined, but Cervone said the new store might have later hours and slightly different offerings, such as coffee, for the students.

Bradley Architects, a Pittsfield-based firm, will be drawing up designs for the building, and Cervone said he hopes for construction on the space to begin around April 15. He hopes to be able to open the new location in early July, but its opening date is not final.

Berkshire Money Management lands in Great Barrington

By Jane k aufman

GREAT BARRINGTON — Berkshire Money Management

is showing it is bullish on its south county client base having recently purchased a $1 million building at 72 Stockbridge Road.

Following some interior renovation, the former Berkshire Boxing Club building will be transformed into an office for the independent investment-advisory firm.

Since October 2021, the firm has operated a satellite office in rented space at 322 Main St. in Great Barrington.

It will continue to be headquartered at one of the old Crane mansions, Model Farm, a 29-acre estate at 161 Main St., Dalton. That property was purchased in 2017 for $1 million under the name Model Farm LLC.

Allen Harris, chief investment officer and CEO of Berkshire Money Management, said buying property in Great Barrington, under the name Carvergirl LLC, shouldn’t be viewed as a real estate investment.

“Did we overpay? Probably. Are we paying too much in interest rates? Probably,” he said. “So it’s really intended to be an investment in the clients of the Berkshires and the clients of Great Barrington.”

He added, “But we are going to need people” at the new site. With 18 people on the staff, including two full time in Great Barrington now, Harris expects some to commute from Dalton to Great Barrington.

He said the larger quarters on Route 7 will allow meetings with more than one client at a time.

Of Berkshire Money Management’s approximately 800 clients, about 320 live within 40 miles of Dalton, 48 in south county.

And while many clients don’t mind doing their business by phone or through virtual meetings, they tend to prefer their initial interactions to be face to face.

Clients who are second-home owners from New York City may need help navigating the estate-planning tax

of Massachusetts as they decide to make their south county residences their primary homes, he said.

Harris, 50, grew up in Peru and Dalton, graduated from North Adams State College (now Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts) and later took statistics and economics courses at the University of Massachusetts.

He worked for the former Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley) and met Scott Hotaling when the two worked at the former Dion Money Management.

Founded by Harris and Stacey Carver with Scott and Sheila Hotaling in 2001, Berkshire Money Management launched with a financial newsletter that eventually went to 16,000 paid subscribers. Berkshire Money Management offices were initially in Dalton in the attic of Carver’s father’s business, BETNR Construction, and

later in Pittsfield. The Hotalings left the business within the first few years of its founding. Carver stayed as co-owner and chief engagement officer.

Harris said he sold that newsletter in about 2006. At that point, smartphones allowed investors to get up-tothe-minute information about the world of finance.

“We had an office in the Berkshires, because that’s where we wanted to live,” Harris said. “But our clients weren’t really in the area.”

In fact, there were just a few. About two years later, the stock market crashed, and Berkshire Money Management’s portfolios were “intact,” Harris said, attributing that healthy circumstance partly to luck and partly to “cool moves.”

“We had extra money,” Harris said, coming out of that crash. Not long after that, Harris attended a conference at which financial expert Mark Tibergien was the speaker.

Harris told Tibergien that his profit margin coming out of that crash was 51 percent.

Tibergien challenged him.

“‘Why would you do that?’” Harris recalls Tibergien’s response. “‘You’re not going to grow if you’re holding on to this cash … and just serving the clients you have.’”

So Harris pursued clients in Berkshire County. According to its latest regulatory filing, Berkshire Money Management has 260 high net-worth clients with more than $635 million in assets under management. In addition, it has 470 clients of lower net-worth, with more than $177 million under management. Its total assets under management are more than $853 million representing a total of 1,924 accounts.

“I love Dalton. I grew up in Dalton and we’ve got great clients that are here,” Harris said. “But the second-home owners are moving into Great Barrington … or Lenox. … And for us to reach the people that we can help the most, it makes sense for us to be closer to them.”

BERKSHIRE MIDDLE DISTRICT REGISTRY OF DEEDS FACEBOOK PHOTO

The Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds in Pittsfield. Almost 90 documents provided by MV Massachusetts LLC have been filed in the six registries located in the four counties of Western Massachusetts.

MORTGAGE, Page 8

PROVIDED PHOTO

Allen Harris, chief investment officer and CEO of Berkshire Money Management based in Dalton, is bullish his south county clients. His company recently purchased a $1 million building on Route 7 in Great Barrington to serve them.

Broken boiler forces Adams firms out of Armory Block

Lynda’s Antique Clothing Loft, Scotty’s Trucking among businesses relocating

By Sten Spinella

ADAMS

— After 17 years of owning Lynda’s Antique Clothing Loft on Park Street, Lynda Meyer won’t have a pristine view of Mount Greylock anymore.

Meyer appreciated that view from her second-floor store at 41 Park St., part of the Armory Block building at 39-45 Park St., which is listed on the National Historic Register. A faulty furnace is to blame for the relocation of multiple Adams-based businesses in the building.

“The store, even though it was upstairs, which everybody complained about, had lovely space, and light, and views of the mountain,” Meyer said. “I did not voluntarily want to leave.”

Meyer posted on Facebook to tell customers she was asked to leave because of the prohibitively expensive boiler replacement for the Armory Block. Estimates on boiler replacement vary, but are always in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars range.

“We were having trouble all winter with our heat or lack thereof, then [Armory Block owner David Laborde] found out the boiler is no longer going to work, and it would cost $100,000 to replace it because it’s a huge building and it’s very old to be functioning as a commercial building still,” Meyer told The Eagle. “He told the tenants he could not afford to do that, and that we were going to have to leave because there was no way we were

Mortgage

FROM PAGE 7

Raising stakes for a revival Theater owner adds Topia Inn to Adams holdings

By Sten Spinella

going to have heat in that building.”

Laborde declined to be interviewed for this story, though he agreed to an interview at a later time. He did not offer an estimate on what it would cost to replace the boiler, or an update on his plans for the building. But he did say over text that the Armory Block building is “big … with lots of issues, not insurmountable longterm, but short-term, very problematic.”

“I’m finishing the renovation of the adjoining building, The ‘Jones Block,’ in the next 30 days,” Laborde told The Eagle by text. “That project has been going on for 25 months and will add six market-rate residential and three commercial spaces to downtown. Sad to see the Armory slowing down just as the Jones Block is getting on its feet.”

Meyer said she suspects Laborde “would prefer to put his energy and money in working on his other buildings, leaving this building to kind of fester for a year or two until he’s able to get to it.”

Another business in the Armory Block building, Scotty’s Trucking, is also relocating elsewhere in Adams. Scotty’s office administrator Elizabeth Hurd said she’s been working in the building for the past 17 years.

“It’s just sad we have to move,” Hurd said. “Even if [Laborde] repairs it, it’s going to take months before he does it. When I spoke to him directly, they weren’t planning on fixing anything anytime soon.”

clearly” sets forth the parties’ respective obligations in “easy to understand language.”

“There is no fine print,” the company said.

But the complaint states that in marketing and selling the HBA, the company has taken “extraordinary steps” to conceal the terms of its transactions from homeowners, including “false and misleading statements” and “half-truths made by telemarketers.” The company has been so effective at concealing the terms of the HBA that, “most homeowners did not understand that MV recorded a mortgage encumbering their home,” the Attorney General’s complaint alleges.

Registrars urge homeowners to be cautious when presented with such documents.

“It’s amazing what’s out

ADAMS — Adams Theater Executive Director Yina Moore says the future of the theater, the Topia Inn — which she bought in February — and downtown Adams are intertwined.

“On a micro level, the theater has a lot of people travel to perform in Adams, and I’m already starting to feel the pressure of having to house people. I don’t think Adams has hospitality offerings outside of AirBnB,” Moore said.

GILLIAN JONES

Multiple businesses at 39-45 Park St. in Adams are being forced to relocate due to a faulty boiler in the building

Hurd said she believes Laborde regrets the situation. She read a message he sent to her.

“It says, ‘Thanks, Beth, I’m so remorseful to see so many longstanding businesses have to relocate. It’s been great getting to know you,’” Hurd said, adding, “He still has the Scotty’s Trucking shirt I gave him.”

Scotty’s is owned by Scott Grant, who operates a flat-bed tractor trailer hauling heavy construction equipment, such as payloaders.

Meyer is moving to a new building at 126 Columbia St. She has a gofundme with a goal of $5,000 asking for help from the community with relocating costs. She has raised more than $300 thus far.

Her establishment is a haven for collectors, selling hand-sewn dresses from the mid-19th century to the mid20th century, as well as other clothing, jewelry, glassware and more. Meyer is an antique-clothing dealer, historian and lecturer. She said that when she opened the store, it was “the first upscale store in Adams.”

there,” North Berkshire Registrar Marie Ziemba said.

Three such mortgages were filed in the North Berkshire Registry early last year, and one has since been discharged, Ziemba said.

“If you’re not familiar with these schemes and need to remortgage your home, you trust these people,” Ziemba said.

Robert Quigley of Pittsfield, who has lived in his house on Backman Avenue for 22 years, agreed to sign a homeowner benefit agreement with MV of Massachusetts LLC. He said the company called and “offered me $600 to sign with them.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a mortgage or a lien,” he said. “It was supposed to be an agreement that if I sold the house, they would be my representatives.”

Quigley originally told the company that he’d think about the offer, but eventually agreed to sign with it.

Meyer, who is originally from New York City, has lived in Adams for 32 years and owns a house a couple blocks from where her new store will be.

“Adams is once again going through another sort of gentrification,” she said. “So there are a lot of spaces that are being built and taken up … it seems to me that Adams is ready to be another Brooklyn.”

Bishop West Real Estate is also in the Armory Block building. Business owner Corey Bishop declined to comment on whether the company is being forced out of the building and where they would move to.

Smith Brothers-McAndrews Insurance, which is also in the building, did not respond to a request for comment.

Meyer said that, in a way, she views the unfortunate circumstances as an opportunity.

“Being challenged by a new space is exciting when you’re a collector and designer,” she said. “It has two large front store windows, and I’m going to work to create a space that would be aesthetically warm and artistically inspiring to my customers.”

“To be honest with you, I needed the money,” Quigley said. “They called me three times before I agreed. We found out afterward that they had put a mortgage on the house.”

“He was pretty surprised when I told him that his interaction with MV Realty resulted in a mortgage on his property,” said Harris, who spoke with Quigley before informing the AG’s Office about his situation. “He did not know that.”

Quigley said he then called the company and told them that he no longer wanted to work with them.

“They were not happy,” he said.

“He is in limbo,” Harris said. “Say for example he wanted to sell his house right now or even refinance his house, he cannot do that. This is a lien. It’s very clearly a lien and an encumbrance on his property and that will hinder him if he plans to do anything with his house at

“On a macro level, I always see the theater as one of downtown’s anchors. It’s brought out other entrepreneurs.”

Moore rattled off a list of changes happening in Adams: the recently opened Fire House Cafe; the opening of the Adams Tavern, which was formerly the Haflinger Haus; and that Wigwam Western Summit owner Lea King is soon to open a retail store in Adams. She also referenced housing projects in the area.

“Every other entrepreneur is looking at the bigger picture of Adams, and they see a vibrant downtown could be created,” she said.

But, Moore said, she needed some help. Her childhood friend Kate Chen, and Chen’s husband, Dimitrios Kolaxis, formed Pleasant St. Holdings LLC and spent $600,000 for the Topia Inn property located at 10 Pleasant St. Kolaxis and Chen did not return a request for comment. Former owners Caryn Heilman and Nana Simopoulos had bought the inn in 2007.

Under their ownership, the Topia Inn was a self-described “organic oasis.” The boutique bed and breakfast had nine themed rooms from which guests could choose. Room names included: Moroccan, Aloha, Aesclipian (Greek), Oshun (African), Peacock, French and Iroquois.

Moore also bought the Adams Theater from Heilman and Simopoulos in 2021.

Not much has changed at the inn yet, and its new owners are still renting rooms. They have plans, though, for the design to focus more on local arts, culture and artists and less on an international flavor. Leading the redesign will be Beau Barela, the owner of Hearts Pace, a tea shop in North Adams.

Moore said Heilman and

this time.”

About 12 of these mortgage agreements turned up at the Middle Berkshire Registry, Harris said. Quigley’s mortgage, filed in September 2021, is the only one that slipped through before Harris caught on.

“After noticing this one, I instructed my staff to reject these,” Harris said. “We had reason enough to turn them away.” The red flag, she said, was that the typical mortgage references a promissory note; the questionable ones reference instead a homeowner benefit agreement.

“It actually bound these homeowners to a 40-year mortgage, which is insane,” she said. “I couldn’t tell what the condition of the mortgage was. They didn’t seem to have a maturity date. It didn’t seem to have an amount.”

It’s also unclear in these documents whom the homeowners should contact if they

Simopoulos built a “gem” in the inn. The previous owners have been “handholding” new ownership, Moore said, and current staff will continue on.

With financial help and an operations team soon to be in place, Moore said she felt confident enough to buy the inn after its previous owners had been floating the idea for the past two years. Moore wants to focus her energy on the Theater, which, she says, will have a season this year, from May 20-July 29.

“We have most of the weekends booked up,” she said. “I haven’t released the season publicly because we still have to iron out details with artists.”

In a 2018 interview with The Eagle, Simopoulos said she believed the idea of a multi-function performance space remained viable, despite the setbacks she and Heilman encountered, after laying out roughly $300,000 for the property and investing another $125,000 in the cafe space. They managed to present some performances, but they didn’t continue.

Moore told The Eagle in 2021, after buying the theater, that Simopoulos and Heilman “kind of passed the baton to me. I felt I might be able to push it forward.”

Moore said Chen told her, during a recent visit to The Berkshires, “‘Yina, the inn is going to support the revitalization of the downtown, and I want to do this together.’”

“Serendipity brought outside capital into my vision to revitalize downtown Adams,” Moore said.

want to discharge the mortgage, Harris said.

If homeowners are looking for financial assistance, they should make sure that the organization they work with is certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before taking any action, Gordon said. HUD-certified organizations are required to go through a vigorous certification process, and their housing counselors must pass a national certification exam.

“Then you know that you have a reputable organization that is working with you,” Gordon said.

“Almost, without exception, there will be no fees associated with that type of support in terms of housing counseling and working you the homeowner, the mortgagee, to come up with a solution,” he said.

that needs to be replaced.

EAGLE FILE PHOTO

Yina Moore, founder and executive director of Adams Theater, recently purchased the Topia Inn along with Kate Chen, and Chen’s husband Dimitrios Kolaxis.

Some businesses stay in the same place. Solomon’s Furniture isn’t one of them

By John Townes PITTSFIELD

— Solomon’s Furniture has moved around a lot.

The local furniture story recently moved to another new location, this one in a brick former industrial building on 2 Brown St. in Pittsfield, that had housed the former Pittsfield Furniture for 20 years. Solomon’s moved there in early January after Pittsfield Furniture closed following 34 years in business.

Since Adams native and owner James Solomon started the business in 2008, Solomon’s Furniture has been located in three other spaces: on Merrill Road in Pittsfield; at the Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough and at the Lee Premium Outlets shopping complex in Lee. Starting in 2011, Solomon operated the stores on Merrill Road and the Berkshire Mall at the same time, before closing the Merrill Road store, and later consolidating everything in Lee.

The store was originally located on Merrill Road when Solomon started the business in 2008 in the space formerly occupied by Bear’s Furniture and Mattress. Solomon, who had been sales manager at Bear’s, started his own business at that site when the owner of Bear’s retired.

Solomon is leasing the property on Brown Street from former Pittsfield Furniture owner Paul Clark, and has an option to buy.

“I had wanted to locate the store in Pittsfield, and this opportunity came up when Paul decided to retire and close Pittsfield Furniture,” said Solomon. Pittsfield Furniture was originally located in the former Pittsfield Plaza shopping center on West Housatonic Street before Clark moved it to Brown Street some 20 years ago.

The store’s transition back to Pittsfield was very noticeable to motorists and pedestrians for many weeks who may have thought they were seeing double. Both the closing of Pittsfield Furniture, and the subsequent re-opening of Solomon’s, were publicized by people standing at various locations around the city holding signs that announced the changes. The signs for the opening of one store and the closing of the other were nearly identical, as they were the same size, contained the same lettering, and were often held by people that were stationed in the same places.

Both businesses had separately used that marketing strategy in the past, Solomon said.

Solomon grew up in Adams and still lives in that town. He entered the furniture business in 1996 as an employee of Bear’s Furniture and Mattress before becoming sales manager. In 2008, when the owner of the local Bear’s retired and closed the business, Solomon started his own furniture and bedding store there.

In 2011, he opened his second store in the Berkshire Mall.

“The mall was a much larger space, and it generated a majority of our business,” he said. “So I decided to focus on that.”

While Solomon’s was successful there, the Berkshire Mall was in its difficult final years, and experienced a steady exodus of merchants and declines in customer traffic. Solomon’s had been located next to Sears, one of the mall’s anchor tenants. When Sears left the mall in 2018, Solomon closed his store.

But Solomon had also operated a second business in the Berkshire Mall, DJ’s Gifts, a seasonal pop-up store for about three years. He originally moved DJ’s to the outlet mall in Lee as a full-time store, before deciding to open another Solomon’s Furniture there in 2021.

The store in the outlet mall did well, but it was smaller and served a different market. The majority of that shopping center’s tenants are outlet stores that belong to national retail chains.

“While it did draw residents and second-home owners from Lee and other nearby communities, it primarily at-

tracted tourists visiting the outlet mall, who generally bought smaller items they could fit in their vehicles,” Solomon said.

When the Pittsfield site became available, he decided to move the business back to the county’s largest municipality.

“After I closed the Berkshire Mall store, I looked for a place in Pittsfield but noting suitable was available at the time,” he said. “When the site of Pittsfield Furniture became available, it was a good fit for my original goals for the business. In addition to being in Pittsfield, it was significantly larger.”

Another advantage to being in Pittsfield is that the store is also now more accessible to customers who lived in other areas of the Berkshires, Solomon said.

On Brown Street, Solomon and Clark agreed that Solomon could initially lease the site with an option to buy the property, which is located in a mixeduse neighborhood just east of Silver Lake and the William Stanley Business Park of the Berkshires. The space includes a 20,000 square-foot showroom and sales area along with a 15,000 square-foot warehouse.

“My goal is to grow the business from here and eventually buy the property,” he said

Like other businesses, Solomon’s has had to contend with the impact of the COVID pandemic and overall economic disruptions, including inflation and supply shortages. But Solomon said those conditions are improving.

“A year ago it was very difficult getting inventory because of shortages at the manufacturers,” he said.

“If we placed an order, delivery could be months out. But over the last six months it has become the opposite situation. There is a lot of inventory, and now when I place an order I can usually have it delivered within two weeks.”

Solomon’s (solomonsfurnitureandmore.com) has a staff of six people.

Solomon said the furniture and bedding store serves a range of markets, from promotional (lower cost) to midend products. It offers brands such as Ashley Furniture, Best Chair and England’s, among others. Prices for sofas, for example, range from about $499 to $3,500.

Mattresses are a significant portion of the business, he added. Those range from $149 to about $5,000. Solomon’s was

named Best Mattress Store in the Berkshire Eagle’s annual Best of the Berkshires poll in 2021 and 2022. Solomon said the response at the new

location has been encouraging. “January is usually a slow month, but we were very busy, and that pace has continued,” he said.

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Jim Solomon has opened a new location for Solomon’s Furniture on Brown Street in Pittsfield. It is the business’ fourth location since opening in 2008.

What is it that I really want to do?

Want an internship this summer? A business coach provides tips on landing one

By Tony DoBrowolski

PITTSFIELD — Spring is often the time of year when college students begin looking for summer internships.

Young people who are interested in obtaining internships often don’t know where to start. Questions abound. Where do I look? How do I apply? What will an internship do for me? Employers often have have similar questions. I’d like to give a kid an internship this summer, but where do I go to begin? What am I looking for?

For answers, we turned to local business coach Stephen Warley of North Adams who runs the Berkshire Internship Prep Program managed by small business accelerator Lever Inc. of North Adams, which recently concluded. Warley, the founder and owner of Solopreneur Business Coach, also serves as a facilitator for Lever’s Berkshire Internship Program, which takes place during the summer.

“It’s my life’s working helping people do what they really want to do,” he said. We asked him about the process and this is what he told us.

QWhat’s the most important question to ask yourself when thinking about doing an internship?

AThe toughest and best question to ever ask yourself is always why? It’s a hard

question to answer. Why do you want an internship? Why is it worth your time and effort? I think too many people just check the boxes and do an internship. They never get anything out of it. We tell them (in the prep program) that (an internship) is a minimum of 400 hours and that you have to be assigned to a position. We want them to learn

real skills, work with real people and give them real projects. We remind them that an internship is where you get to try on different careers really fast. Do a couple of them while in college if you can. That way you’re going to really know if you like something. You can’t just take somebody else’s word for it.

QWhat do students learn in the prep program?

AIt helps them step-by-step through their whole internship process. I told them at the kickoff of the program, we don’t want you to find an internship to check off the box. We want to get you to find an internship that will help you, and this is the work that you

have to do to get that.

Our other mission in this program is to give students who don’t have a lot of advantages to have those advantages. We let them know that they’re there for each other. I’m a big believer in peers encouraging each other because they all want the same thing and they all have different perspectives on what is appropriate and not appropriate in whatever we’re covering that night.

QWhere do you start?

AWe start with the resume so we can build the foundation. We spend an hour together and I say by the end of the hour you’re going to have your first messy draft. That’s the goal. I don’t want to lecture at them. I want them to say, “hey, I actually finished something. Now I’m more excited about it and I want to keep working on this.”

The following week it’s the cover letter which is the most dreaded piece of the entire process of looking for a job. No one ever knows what to do with a cover letter. I even told them that when you look at cover letters online there aren’t many good ones.

I’m a huge advocate of really being specific in your cover letter about what that internship is asking for, and how you take an inventory of all your experienc-

INTERNS, Page 11

PHOTO BY GILLIAN JONES

Stephen Warley is an instructor in Lever’s internship program. An internship is more than just checking the boxes, he says.

es and accomplishments and projects. If there’s two duties in that listing, we want you to think about a couple of your strengths. The cover letter is about how you tell a story. Show me how to do this and explain why this is going to help you to create that connection.

QWhat else does the prep program cover?

AWe talk about what an employer is really looking for. How do they read a cover letter or a resume. You only have their attention for 30 seconds or less. We’re working with them on that step-by -step. In between classes we give them homework assignments probing their memory. A lot of this is helping them to just understand what they really want out of life. They’ve never had enough time to stop. It’s like I’m going to school and I think this is what I want to do, and I know it’s getting real because I’m applying for an internship. What is it that I really want to do? And when the rubber hits the road I’m going to have to write a cover letter, right?

We move on to the internship search. How do you find an internship that you’re really excited about. Before you look, understand what your values are so you can find an organization or company that you really want to intern at....A big part of this is putting yourself back in their shoes. How would I have done this for myself when I was their age? That’s what we’re trying to do.

QHow important is it for someone just entering the workforce to have done an internship?

AI think that now it’s crucial. I personally have always believed it’s crucial. It’s a huge advantage if you’ve got an internship or two under your belt. It also shows that you’re generally interested in this. That you’re putting your heart into it. It’s not just a job for

you. Employers want people on their team that want to be there.

QSo employers would rather bring on someone they don’t have to train

AMaybe you and I take it for granted, but just being in the workplace is a skill unto itself. Traditionally, way back in the day, companies like General Electric would have a house management program. That’s all gone. That got cut out of the budget long ago. In different sectors it can be different. I think in the technology sector there is a lot of programming for skill development but I don’t think that’s necessarily (done) across the board. Again, it just comes down to looking at a pile of resumes. You want to grab the one from the ones who are interested. You can tell by reading a cover letter who made the effort.

QHow should they approach employers?

AWe tell them you don’t have to just look for an internship by what’s listed. If there’s an organization or company that you really like contact them directly. Say I know you don’t have any internships available, but I’d really like to talk with you about it. I’d really like to work here. Let’s figure something out.

Another thing that I tell them the first night is that you have your network here tonight. You have your fellow peers. Believe it or not, a lot of your connections as you move through life are going to come from your peers.

If you know what you might want to do as far as an industry or a profession try and find people who are already doing it. Ask your parents, your friends, your social circle, anyone you can think of. I always say that people who you already know, know a lot of people that you don’t know. Ask them what’s it like. What do you do all day? What are the pros and cons? Interview them. That’s another important step.

QSo many kids grow up now with this casual attitude about how to dress and how to act. How do you get them to present themselves professionally?

AThere’s that classic adage your first impression is everything. If you’re somebody who’s dressed to show that I’m excited about this and I want to put my best foot forward as opposed to somebody who isn’t they’re going to look at you. It’s really that simple. I think that you over time will have more freedom to choose how you get to dress as you earn that right. In the early days of your career when you have such little experience and skills one of your advantages is that you show that you care about yourself. It’s an advantage. Not caring about your appearance when you’re going in for an interview, why do that? It just doesn’t make any sense.

QA lot of employers want to offer internships, but don’t know how to set them up. What’s your advice?

AI love that you asked that question. There’s actually an orientation program for employers. We give them some training, the pros and the cons. Any employer who is offering an internship through the Berkshire Internship program is invited to participate in the orientation program. It’s like a workshop to go over what the expectations are, how the experience can benefit the student but also the employer. Even before that when they’re reaching out we provide them with the basic guidelines and standards about how this program works.

QIt sounds like employers have the same questions about internships that students do

AIt’s the same question for an employer. Why do you want an intern?

Be clear about that. What do you actually need help with that’s real work that truly can help you? Again, in some sectors it’s hard to find people to

fill some of those positions so an intern could be that even though its temporary. But if it’s an enthusiastic student who’s willing to learn something are you’re ready to take that? That’s something to think about. What are the needs of your organization and are you able to use that type of help right now?

And be prepared that this is not only providing work for somebody this is an opportunity to provide training for somebody. You have to be prepared or have the patience to maybe sketch out a couple of things that you’d like to teach that intern. Even on the first day have a conversation about what you want from this internship so you’re both establishing expectations because a lot of times that simple conversation doesn’t happen. The employer is miserable and the intern is miserable because they didn’t work out what they both expected from the internship.

QWhat else do interns and employers need to know?

AWhen you’re in that internship be curious. Don’t wait for someone to create work for you or do stuff for you. Go talk to people and ask them what they need help with. Use your curiosity and you might create projects and work for yourself.

Students think that because they’re just starting out that they have no value in the workforce. That’s absolutely incorrect. Just because you’re 19, 20, 21 or 22 years old the way you look at the world is valuable. Things are changing so quickly. There’s a lot of employers who may have been around for 25 years and are a little out of touch. They need help in discovering new opportunities.

QWhat do you hope students will get out of an internship?

AThat by the end of the summer these kids can say that this was one of the best experiences of my life. Some of them will say I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life, but I’ve learned that. It saved me a lot of time because I thought I wanted to do this.

Cover story

A frothy history of suds Brewing beer in the Berkshires started when the county began

By L iam G orman

Brewing beer in the Berkshires is as old as the county itself.

But it was much different in the beginning then it is now.

“As far as we can tell, most of the brewing that went on in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries was home brewing,” said Cynthia Farr Brown, the president of the Berkshire County Historical Society. “So very small scale.”

Farr Brown has researched the subject. She recently headed a lecture, “Beer for Their Refreshment: Brewing in Pittsfield from the 18th Century to Prohibition” that took place in late March at The Garage in the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield

Brown’s talk, Beer for Their Refreshment: Brewing in Pittsfield from the 18th Century to Prohibition, presented original research and images that illuminated this fascinating part of Pittsfield’s history and culture.

Jacob Gimlich, one of the county’s most successful 19th century brewers, employed over 100 workers and manufactured tens of thousands of barrels a year when his firm was at its peak (Gimlich’s last name has also been spelled Gemlich, but he preferred Gimlich, according to Farr Brown).

The earliest mention of commercial brewing in the Berkshire that Brown found occurred in Lanesborough.

“The first brewery that I could find evidence of in Berkshire County is through an advertisement, and it was a combined brewery and distillery,” she said.

Brown’s research often involved digging through public record archives or old newspapers, so the exact location of this first commercial brewery in Lanesborough that she has uncovered has been lost to history. But understanding how the process of brewing beer works left Brown with an educated guess.

“It would have been near a water source,” she said. “It would have either been on current Route 8, somewhere there, or possibly on Route 9 headed

into Dalton a little bit.”

The next mention of the Berkshire’s beer brewing history that Brown uncovered occurred in the 1820s through advertisements for the Pittsfield Brewery, which was also sometimes referred to as the Berkshire Brewery. According to Brown, this brewery faced some of the same issues that many businesses are facing today.

“There were some supply chain issues,” she said. “There were lots of ads in the paper about ‘please grow barley, fair price paid — match the prices that are being paid in Albany’. So clearly there was trouble getting barley to make the beer.”

Undeterred, local brewers kept plugging away. The Berkshire early brewing efforts reached a peak when a pair of

German immigrants, brothersin-law and business partners Jacob Gimlich and John White, purchased an existing brewery in Pittsfield just after the Civil War in 1868 and turned it into a profitable business. Gimlich and White’s company employed over 100 workers and manufactured tens of thousands of barrels a year at its peak.

“It appears that they had a network built in to other German immigrants and German Americans who were in Pittsfield, and that’s how they got their foot in the door,” Brown said. “And they turned out to be good businessmen and appeared at the right time because they were able to scale up very quickly.”

Placing ads that might make modern consumers wince, the

Thank You Thank You

tion began in 1920.

brewers in 1886 asked drinkers to, “use beer for their refreshment and invigoration in a temperate, manly, proper way.”

Apparently, that marketing pitch worked. The Berkshire’s original brew brothers became the only brewery of note between Albany, N.Y. and Springfield. According to Brown, “They started producing lager beer, which had not been produced in the earlier breweries. They were branching out in terms of variety. They were shipping beer and had quite a following. So they were extremely successful.”

Gimlich, who was born in Bavaria, and White changed the brewery’s name to the Berkshire Brewers Association in 1891. The business remained strong until Prohibi-

Consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States remained illegal until 1933. But the public’s taste for alcohol remained, so Gimlich and White began to diversify which allowed them to soldier on for a little while longer.

“They continued to manufacture, run through their stock until 1922, when the feds finally got around to coming and making them shut down.” said Brown. “But they were continuing to operate on a more limited scale. They had sort of a ‘near beer’ that they were trying to market and make a go of.”

“They were doing, sodas and seltzers, but it just wasn’t enough,” Brown said. “I mean, the beer was the backbone of the business. They didn’t dissolve the business until 1929.”

An advertisement for an early Pittsfield brewery in 1868.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY BERKSHIRE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

A brewery in the Berkshires, around 1905. Beer has been brewed in the Berkshires since the earliest colonists settled here.

Bump and Heaton were early entrants to the market, but unlike Hot Plate, their journey to the Berkshires was less about numbers and more about luck. In the early aughts, Bump and Heaton were working brewers out of Philadelphia with hopes of opening their own brewery in New England.

“It was very serendipitous, because we stopped for lunch. And we had a book ‘Breweries in New England’”, recalls Heaton. “And it was like, oh, ‘there’s a brew pub here in Pittsfield, let’s go check it out’. And we got to the door and there was a ‘just closed’ sign on it.”

After getting in touch with the owner, the couple were able to strike a deal to rent the space on Depot Street that became Pittsfield Brew Works. “The restaurant had just been refinished, like new floors, new furniture, some new kitchen equipment. In retrospect, we just got really lucky,” he said.

But the grind of owning and operating a brew pub for five years was a bit more than they thought.

“The restaurant business kind of killed us,” said Bump with a laugh. “So we decided we needed to get back to our roots, essentially, and be back in the production side of things.”

After closing Brew Works in May 2010, the pair eventually founded Big Elm in Sheffield in 2012. Big Elm planted the seeds for a budding craft beer industry in the Berkshires and the couple’s business continues to grow within it. Last fall, Big Elm opened up a new taproom in Great Barrington.

“I think all of New England has really stepped it up”, said Heaton. “People go to Maine, they go to Vermont, Massachusetts just for breweries. It’s crazy. You know, it would have never happened 10 years ago”.

At the other end of the county, Orion Howard, owner of Bright Ideas in North Adams has been in the game since 2016. “I think we’re coming to the sweet spot in the Berkshires,” he said.

According to Howard, 65 percent of his sales come from visitors to the area, so building a critical mass for “beer geeks” to venture to the Berkshires is the key to success.

“I simply think that we have enough interesting variety now. I think our volume will go up because people are going to go to Hot Plate. They’re going to come from Boston and from Worcester and from Northampton to experience the new place,” Howard said. ”And then they’re going to say, ‘we’re in Pittsfield, let’s go to Bright’, and it’s going to become a circuit.”

Citing Portland, Maine as an example, Howard sees the potential in the “more the merrier” philosophy.

“There are 38 breweries in Portland, you can pick five breweries that you really want to go experience and do a four hour trip around Portland for a day,” Howard said. “I know hundreds of people who do that on a regular basis and I want those people in my brewery.”

The buzz new breweries might bring to an area doesn’t only come from the beer that visitors consume, they can become

economic engines that help reinvigorate communities.

“I get calls all the time from community planners or towns that say to me, ‘I want a brewery in my downtown area because they want to revitalize that space and bring people back to it and make it cool and make it trendy,’” said Katie Stinchon, the executive director of the Mass Brewers Guild.

Known as the “halo-effect”, breweries can boost the surrounding area by adding employment opportunities and drawing in new visitors that will then explore nearby businesses.

According to Stinchon, “cities and towns see breweries as job creators and they attract other businesses nearby — restaurants, ice cream shops, boutiques, you name it, people want to leave a brewery and then kind of walk around a little bit. So they have the ability to kind of draw others to the space.”

That concept was on the mind of Ben Lamb, the director of economic development at 1Berkshire, when the team at Hot Plate approached him early in their search for a space for their brewery.

“When you think about what it does to the larger economic ecosystem, it creates another stop along the way,” Lamb said. “The money is a multiplier effect and it is a very exciting industry that becomes another reason for visitors to stay longer. I think Hot Plate is a prime example of building community around an approachable and lovable brewery. And so the more of those across the entire region, the more of that brewery

trail component, the better.”

When Antimony opens later this spring at the Lenox Commons, in a space formerly occupied by several restaurants, they’ll help fill in the Central Berkshires for beer tourists that are looking to connect the dots for their suds stops from both north and south.

For owner Rob Trask, who also owns 51 Park Restaurant in Lee, the prospect of being part of something bigger is exciting.

“The name Antimony means ‘not alone’”, Trask said. “In that sense, it becomes kind of a cool tie in with building

a gathering space for people to come together, sort of building the community.”

Each new brewery will add its own flavor to the community. “It’s not a competitive environment. It’s collaborative, but it’s also complementary,” Trask said.

“Everyone’s got their own style that’s got their own vibe and their space. And that’s what kind of makes it fun for the customers.”

At Rising Glass Brewing in North Adams, owner Jonathan Spinney seconds the sense of the collaborative spirit in the Berkshires. “We always collaborate, that’s a bit of a foregone conclusion, he said.”

Spinney has been a bit of a beer industry journeyman in the Berkshires. Before he started working at Bright Ideas and Wandering Star in Pittsfield, he helped build breweries as a carpenter. He did work at Big Elm for Bump and Heaton, with whom he remains close.

“Bill was super helpful and gave me some equipment. In fact I’m still using a piece of his equipment on my pilot system now,” Spinney said. “Like every other brewer and brewery, they’ve been really forthcoming with information and just super supportive.”

He sees rising tides for everyone.

“Breweries are little economic engines, people travel to breweries. They want to come,” he said. “For a long time we’ve sort of been on the tail end of the Vermont Trail, but I think the circle just expanded.”

Rejoice!

Employment Resource

FILE PHOTO

Christine Bump, who owns Big Elm Brewing with her husband Bill Heaton, stands in the Sheffield brewery’s taproom. Bump and Heaton were early entrants to the Berkshire brewing scene, founding the former Pittsfield Brew Works in the early 2000s.

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

Orion Howard is the co-founder and owner of Bright Ideas Brewing in North Adams, which opened in 2016. He said 65 percent of his sales come from visitors to the Berkshires

In hot or cold weather, energy efficiency is a priority

PITTSFIELD — There is a dedicated effort within the Massachusetts government to address energy efficiency in housing to respond to concerns about climate change.

In 2022, then-Governor Charlie Baker passed sweeping climate legislation that set forth lofty goals regarding energy efficiency and reducing dependence on fossil fuels with benchmarks required in 2030 and 2050. The state began drafting a new climate-friendly building code. When current Governor Maura Healey took office in January, she pledged that she would move in tandem to produce more housing to meet increased demand while ensuring that new housing is environmentally sustainable. It is a common belief that increased sustainability equals increased building and renovation costs, but both residential and commercial property owners can benefit by examining their own energy use and create more efficiency to improve costs and sustainability.

Conversations about green homes or efficient buildings often focus on solar energy, but high-performance homes expert Craig Foley urges to “reduce before you produce” to kickstart energy efficiency. The first steps

are to check insulation, ventilation, and selecting right-sized mechanicals. After these steps have been taken, you can then focus on the production of energy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels.

INSULATION AND VENTILATION

Installing insulation in the walls, attic, and floors can help to reduce heat transfer and keep the home at a more consistent temperature. Mass Save is a valuable resource to apply for assistance in improving the insulation of a home. Mass Save rebates can pay 75 to 100 percent of the cost of installing new insulation. Sealing air leaks around windows, doors, and other openings can help to reduce energy usage and improve indoor comfort. When checking for air leaks around outlets, windows and points of egress, also look for proper ventilation to makes sure that excess moisture is removed from the air and there is good indoor air quality. Installing a ventilation system that meets the needs of the home can help to reduce the amount of energy needed for heating and cooling. In the MassSave program, there is no-cost for the home audit that can guide you on how to eliminate drafty areas in your home.

SELECT CORRECT EQUIPMENT

HVAC, furnace, water heating, appliances, and lighting all should be sized correctly for the size of the space to not overburden any one system with overuse. Energy Star equipment and the upgrade of old heating units for more efficient performance can result in rebates up to $15,000 through MassSave for heat pumps, hot water rebates, heat pump installation and

much more.

As you purchase new appliances, don’t forget to check the energy efficiency of the new equipment. View MassSave.com to determine which incentives may apply to your upgrades. The state is promoting increased efficiency by offering these rebates so you might be surprised at the benefits awaiting a new purchase.

Through this examination,

you could save money both upfront in rebates and in the long run with simple, effective changes that reduce consumption. By reducing heat transfer and improving air quality, homeowners can save money on energy bills and enjoy a more comfortable living environment. If finances are tight, investigate the Mass Save program that offers zero percent financing for qualified energy efficiency improvements, including minisplit heat pump installation.

PRODUCE ENERGY WITH SOLAR AND RENEWABLES

Once you’ve reduced energy demand through proper insulation, ventilation, and right-sizing, there are several ways to produce energy in housing, including solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal systems, biomass, hydro power, and micro-CHP. By exploring these options and selecting the most appropriate solution for their property, homeowners can reduce energy costs, promote sustainability, and improve their quality of life.

Producing energy in housing can help reduce reliance on traditional energy sources, decrease energy costs, and help promote sustainability.

Why wait? Start now.

Sandra J. Carroll is the chief executive officer of the Berkshire County Board of Realtors and Berkshire County Multiple Listing Service.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION

Using a programmable thermostat is one way to make a home more energy efficient.

Sanda J. Carroll Real estate

Why eating out in the Berkshires hasn’t changed

PITTSFIELD — COVID has not been kind to the restaurant industry, but there is reason for optimism in that sector locally.

Despite closures and setbacks since the pandemic struck three years ago, the food service industry nationally is forecast to reach $997 billion in sales this year, a good number, although its driven partly by higher menu prices, according to the National Restaurant Association 2023 report. Despite labor shortages, the food industry workforce is expected to add 500,000 jobs this year, bringing the total industry employment level to 15.5 million by the end of the year, which would surpass pre-pandemic levels, the report states.

Pittsfield, is planning to open a second location in Williamstown.

Another restaurant is returning. Xavier Jones, who had previously run Bigg Daddy’s Philly’s Steak House restaurants in Adams and Pittsfield, and business partners Warren Dews and Dully Saimbert, are now planning to open another Bigg Daddy’s in North Adams at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in the space formerly occupied by A-OK Barbecue. The new Bigg Daddy’s is scheduled to open in late April.

Tony Dobrowolski Commentary

Although 92 percent of restaurant operators say the cost of food is significant for their business, it appears that consumers are still willing to pay for it. Nationally, 84 percent of consumers believe going to a restaurant with family and friends is a better use of their leisure time than cooking or cleaning up, according to the National Restaurant Association’s report.

How do these national trends effect the Berkshires? I don’t know the answer to that one. What I do know is that an awful lot of restaurants seem to be opening up around here.

Small restaurants have been springing up all over the Berkshires. At least one restaurant is expanding. Jim Cervone, who has done a bang-up job with Crust, his pizza restaurant in

Give Jones credit for going back out on a limb. When Jones closed Bigg Daddy’s Pittsfield location in 2019, he told me he would never open a restaurant in the Berkshires again. Jones recently told Berkshire Eagle reporter Greta Jochem that he was speaking out of anger and bitterness when he said that. Earlier this year, Jones and Dews also opened the Firehouse Cafe in Adams. Let’s hope the third attempt at establishing Bigg Daddy’s in the Berkshires sticks.

To me, restaurant owners taking chances at opening multiple locations or revisiting a former concept shows that the demand for eating out in the Berkshires hasn’t waned. That means people here are willing to spend their money locally, which is good for the local economy. None of these new eateries are part of national or regional restaurant chains, which means the money that gets spent local-

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Mathieu Niamke and Raissa Doumbia, who run House of Seasoning Grill in Pittsfield, recently received a liquor license from the state on their second try. The married couple, who are originally from Ivory Coast, were initially denied the license due to a technicality because they were not U.S. citizens. They reapplied for the license under a different category and were successful.

ly will mostly remain here. I’m not an economist, and don’t try to pretend I am. But even I know that when local funds recirculate through the Berkshires it’s good for all of us.

A number of ethnic restaurants have also opened in the Berkshires recently, which is always a good thing. Who would have thought five years ago that we’d have a restaurant locally that serves West African cuisine? House of Seasoning Grill opened in Pittsfield at the end of last year. Owners Raissa Doumbia and Mathieu Niamke, a married couple who are originally from the Ivory Coast, received a boost recently when they finally obtained a liquor license from the city of Pittsfield.

Their first application through the Licensing Board

had been declined by the state because the Doumbia’s were not U.S. citizens. They obtained their license on the second try when they applied as a limited liability company, a category where the stipulation of being a U.S. citizen doesn’t apply. Having the ability to serve alcohol should pick up their business. Let’s hope it does.

Espetinho Carioca, which features Brazilian cuisine, recently opened in Pittsfield. Ozzie’s Steak and Eggs in Hinsdale will soon come under new ownership. There are other examples too numerous to mention in this space. These are all good signs for the local economy. That’s good news for everyone.

You may have missed it, because the transaction didn’t take place in the Berkshires.

But the former owner of the old Pittsfield Plaza on West Housatonic Street is now interested in turning the former Southern Vermont College campus in Bennington into a high-end resort.

Weissman Real Estate of Harrison, N.Y., which owned the Pittsfield Plaza property from 2007 to 2016, recently signed a purchase and sales agreement with Southwestern Vermont Health Care to develop the 371-acre campus, which SVHC purchased in late December 2020. Southern Vermont College, located on the site of a former estate known as The Orchards, closed in 2019.

The New York-based real estate development firm had big plans for the former Pittsfield retail complex, which was in dilapidated shape when it was sold. Remember when Big Y was going to move its supermarket on West Street over there to become the new complex’s anchor tenant? A restaurant was planned for that complex, too. None of those plans worked out. The property was in worse shape than everyone thought, Big Y backed out, and the Great Recession struck, which stymied development everywhere. To its credit, Weissman improved the infrastructure enough to attract another buyer, an Arizona-based developer who turned the former shopping complex into a U-Haul rental center. It will be interesting to see what the company does with the former college property in Vermont.

Tony Dobrowolski is the editor of the Berkshire Business Journal.

Phinney

Local housing shortage needs to be addressed now

LEE — I attended a recent meeting of business leaders in the Berkshires where each person was asked to identify the most urgent issue for his or her organization.

With all of the current challenges around labor shortages and high energy costs, it was somewhat surprising to hear that lack of housing was at the top of the list for most of the leaders in the room. The stories shared outlined the problem from the business perspective. Here are some of them:

• A new manager who relocated to the area to take a position at a local hospitality business was entering her second month living in a hotel because she couldn’t find an acceptable place to live that fit her budget.

• Young professionals, three to four years into their careers at a local manufacturing company and looking to set down more permanent roots in the Berkshires, keep getting outbid in intense competition for homes in the entry level part of the market.

• Cultural organizations are reducing or eliminating internships because it is impossible to secure seasonal housing for students coming from outside Berkshire County.

• A business owner talked about an employee living in his car because he suddenly lost access to his housing.

• An employee of a retail establishment has to travel 45 minutes each way to get to work because there is no affordable housing closer to his job.

• A multinational company can’t attract engineers to Pittsfield because there isn’t enough housing that fits their desired lifestyle, whether it’s near a city center or a single family home in a neighborhood near good schools.

There is no doubt that having a variety of affordable housing options is important for recruiting employees to the area, as well as retaining workers as their families and

Social media algorithms help with marketing

PITTSFIELD — Social media algorithms are a hot topic in the marketing world right now.

Why?

careers grow. Businesses are also well served when their employees are secure and feel safe in their housing situations because they are present and less distracted at work, leading to improved productivity.

In March 2022, a working group of housing practitioners from around Berkshire County issued a housing strategy report entitled “A Housing Vision for the Berkshires”.

The report identifies many segments of the population impacted by housing issues, including the rising number of homeless individuals, senior citizens on fixed incomes who want to stay in their communities, modest income workers struggling to find decent housing to rent or buy, and middle-income professionals who can’t find housing that meets their needs.

The report makes it clear that housing in the Berkshires is a complex problem with a myriad of contributing factors. Our housing stock in Berkshire County is old, and not enough new housing units have been built over the last 10 years. State building, fire and housing

codes make renovations of existing dwellings with three or more units more costly (if improvements exceed 30 percent of the assessed value of the building, the renovation must meet all current codes. This can kill a project.

Affordable housing projects take years to fund and develop, and they are expensive. Short term rentals have taken housing units off the market. Municipal infrastructure for water and sewer can limit land available for development. “NIMBY-ism” is often a barrier to progress in local planning efforts. And as a result of lower resident income levels but persistently high costs of construction, the business case for building housing in the Berkshires often isn’t attractive to developers.

Because good quality, affordable housing is critical to recruit and retain the talent we need to sustain our businesses, business leaders have an important role to play in this effort. Here’s what need to be done:

• We need to understand the housing needs and preferences of our current and future workforce and bring those needs to the table with housing and regional planning practitioners, developers and community leaders

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as housing development plans are being created.

• We need to use our influence to advocate for workforce housing programs and projects at the local, state and federal level.

• We need to support the expansion of vocational career training to address the local shortage in skilled trades like carpenters, electricians and plumbers, etc.

• We need to engage in the local development decision making process to ensure that local planning boards and community members understand the linkages between good quality, affordable housing, the strength of our local businesses, and ultimately, the economic health of the Berkshires.

The housing challenge can feel overwhelming, but we can’t afford to shy away from pushing forward. The housing problem has been years in the making so it is not a problem that will be solved quickly. It will require collaboration, innovation and persistence from all the key stakeholders. We need to get started.

Kaitlyn Pierce

They play a crucial role in determining which content users see and engage with on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. While these algorithms can be complex and constantly changing, it’s important for businesses to understand how they work and how to use them to their advantage.

One thing we know for certain is that social media algorithms are designed to prioritize content that generates engagement. This means that posts with high levels of likes, comments, and shares are more likely to be shown to a larger audience. However, what we don’t know is exactly how the algorithm calculates engagement or the specific factors that are taken into account.

Despite the lack of transparency surrounding social media algorithms, businesses can take certain actions to increase their visibility and engagement on these platforms. Consistency is key when it comes to social media, so aim to post high-quality content regularly, at least once a day.

Use relevant hashtags to increase your reach and get your content in front of new audiences, but avoid overusing them. Experts recommend using a mix of hashtags, including industry-specific, branded, and trending hashtags. Avoid using the same set of hashtags on every post and instead, switch them up to keep your content fresh.

The algorithm prioritizes content that generates engagement, so encourage your followers to like, comment, and share your posts through questions, polls, and giveaways. Video content is also a powerful way to boost engagement. A recent study by HubSpot showing video posts on Instagram receive 49 percent more engagement than image posts on average. Experiment with different types of video content, such as tutorials, behind-the-scenes footage, and customer testimonials. Finally, analyze your social media analytics to see what types of content are resonating with your audience, and use this data to inform your future content strategy and tailor your posts to what your followers want to see.

While the social media algorithm may seem like a mysterious and ever-changing entity, there are things businesses can do to work with it and increase their visibility and engagement. By posting consistently, using hashtags, encouraging engagement, utilizing video, and analyzing data, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and make the most of their social media efforts.

Kaitlyn Pierce is the founder and chief strategist of PierceSocial, a digital marketing company

Patricia Begrowicz, the president and co-owner of Onyx Specialty Papers in Lee, is chair of the board of directors of Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

PHOTO BY SCOTT STAFFORD

Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity volunteers are building a second single-family home in a Williamstown neighborhood. In the background is a second home they completed two years ago. The housing shortage in the Berkshires urgently needs to be addressed, says columnist Patricia Begrowicz.

Patricia Begrowicz

It takes an ecosystem to devlop an economy

by Jeffrey T homas and f rancesca olsen

NORTH ADAMS — It takes a community to grow an economy, and the Berkshire economic development community is strong and getting stronger.

Since we launched Lever Inc. in 2014, I’ve seen more new Berkshire County economic development resources develop with each passing year. The diversity of approaches by these organizations is impressive. Of the two dozen or so Berkshire economic development entities

I’m aware of, I like to say “we’re all pulling in the same direction, but using different ropes.”

That’s just as it should be; the diversity of approaches makes for a robust ecosystem.

But it can be confusing for newcomers to find the organizations and resources that best fit their needs.

That’s why Francesca Olsen and I have put together a list of Berkshire County economic development organizations. We’ve summarized their missions, their programming and types of businesses they support.

Resources these organizations offer can be grouped into two broad categories: capital and business development. Capital includes loan financing, grants, and equity funding (where investors purchase a portion of the company). Business development resources can include a broad range of assistance, like business planning, workforce training, product prototyping, and networking.

Business and financial planning is called “technical assistance” by many. For the high-growth startups we support at Lever, we call this “acceleration”. These are the tools you need to get your business to grow with speed, efficiency, and direction.

Capital and technical assistance go hand in hand. Business leaders with strong business plans and go-to-market

NON-PROFITS

• Lever Inc.

Contact: Jeffrey Thomas, executive director, jthomas@leverinc.org; Avril Levesque, communications manager, alevesque@leverinc.org.

• Berkshire Innovation Center

Contact: Ben Sosne, executive director, ben@the-bic.org.

• EforAll Berkshires

Contact: Allison Schmitt, program manager, berkshire-county@eforall.org, 1-833-336-7255 ext. 7209.

• 1Berkshire

Contact: Ben Lamb, blamb@1berkshire.com.

• Berkshire Black Economic Council

Contact: A.J. Enchill, president and executive director, contact@berkshirebec. org.

• Berkshire Immigrant Center

Contact: Office: 413-445-4881, info@ berkshireic.org.

• Schumacher Center for a New Economics

Contact: schumacher@centerforneweconomics.org, (413) 528-1737.

• Berkshire Agricultural Ventures

Contact: Glenn Bergman, interim executive director, glenn@berkshireagventures.org.

• CDC of South Berkshire

Contact: Giulia Laveto-Emery, program

strategies have an easier time attracting capital because they’re less likely to fail. Capital fuels business growth and helps draw new businesses to our region. New jobs are the result.

Many entrepreneurs are more interested in accessing capital than they are in receiving technical assistance. However, most organizations that provide capital first ask prospective recipients

RESOURCE DIRECTORY

manage, giulia@cdcsb.org, 413-528-7788.

• Mill Town Capital

Contact: Tim Burke, CEO and managing director, info@milltowncapital.com.

STATE ENTITIES

• Mass. Small Business Development Center — Berkshire Regional Office (MSBDC)

Contact: Jayne Bellora, client services coordinator, jmbellora@msbdc.umass.edu.

• Berkshire Regional Planning Commission

Contact: Laura Brennan, economic development program manager, 413.442.1521 ext. 14, lbrennan@berkshireplanning.org.

• MassHire Berkshire

Contact: Melanie Herzig, business services coordinator, 413-499-2220 ext. 124; businessTeam@masshireberkshirecc.com; Heather Boulger, executive director, Heather@masshireberkshire. com.

• City of Pittsfield, Community Development

Contact: Laura Mick, 413-499-9378.

• Pittsfield Economic Revitalization Corporation (PERC)

Contact: Laura Mick, 413-499-9378.

ACADEMIA

• Williams College, ‘68 Center for Career Exploration

Contact: Entrepreneurship program,

to participate in technical assistance programming. This pre-work substantially improves the odds that any capital provided will be well utilized.

The more we can lead people to the right tools, the more entrepreneurs can succeed here. I have assembled a table that is attached to this article to help folks navigate the rich set of resources now available to Berkshire County businesses.

Tonio Palmer, twp1@williams.edu; employer relations, Scott LaChapelle, srl4@ williams.edu.

• Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Contact: Career center, Anthony Napolitano, anthony.napolitano.jr@mcla.edu, 413-662-5332; entrepreneuship, Tara Barboza, tara.barboza@mcla.edu; Amy Shapiro, Amy.Shapiro@mcla.edu.

• Berkshire Community College Workforce Development

Contact: workforce@berkshirecc.edu.

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

• North Adams

Contact: Nico Dery, business development director, hello@nachamber.org.

• Williamstown

Contact: Susan Briggs, executive director, info@williamstownchamber.com, 413-458-907.

• ProAdams

Contact: Info@ExploreAdams.com, 413.446.9858.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS OF NOTE

• Berkshire Business and Professional Women

• Berkshire Grown

• Lee Chamber of Commerce

• Lenox Chamber of Commerce

• Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce

• Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce (Great Barrington)

Francesca has assembled a directory of business resources, including links and contacts. You can access the directory anytime at www.leverinc.org.

Jeffrey Thomas is the executive director of Lever Inc., a small business accelerator in North Adams. Francesca Olsen is a communications and digital marketing consultant based in the Berkshires.

A generational opportunity at William Stanley Business Park

by ben sosne

PITTSFIELD

— I recently took a trip to Worcester and liked what I saw.

About a year ago, I went to Worcester with Michael Coakley, the director of economic development for the city of Pittsfield. We visited with Jon Weaver, President & CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives. MBI is a private, independent economic development organization based in Worcester that serves as a catalyst for life science and healthcare innovation. They help start biomedical companies and create jobs within the life science industry by providing bench and lab space and trained staff for “seed stage” companies.

MBI was formed in 1985, formulating a strategic economic development effort aimed at leveraging local assets — UMass Medicine Science Park, UMass Medical School, and a strong academic base — to unlock the potential of a strong commercial base. MBI launched eight major innovation centers, of which they currently operate four totaling 50,000-square feet. Since its inception, MBI has helped spawn over 150 companies and created over 2,500 jobs. MBI has also been at the center of related collaborative efforts in Worcester.

In 2015, MBI hosted a bioman-

ufacturing summit with over 70 industry professionals. They discussed the wave of biomanufacturing across the commonwealth, and the opportunities presented for local economic development. At the summit, MBI presented a white paper urging surplus state land in the city be converted into a biomanufacturing park. That white paper led to the formation of the Worcester Biomanufacturing Initiative, a collaboration with broad support from industry, academia, and governmental partners. Two years later, because of the group’s work, a 46-acre master-planned biomanufacturing campus was born on land adjacent to the UMass Medicine Science Park, UMass Medical School, and one of the Worcester’s leading life science firms. Named the “Reactory,” the park is marketed as providing pad ready sites for growing biomanufacturing companies “within close proximity of Cambridge and the entire Massachusetts life science supercluster.”

As new companies have formed and new jobs opened in and around the park, Worcester has surged. From 2010 to 2020, the city saw a 14 percent growth in population, the highest growth rate of any of New England’s 10 largest cities. In 2022, U.S. News & World Report ranked Worcester as among the top 100 best cities to live in the

U.S., ahead of larger cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and Honolulu. Coakley and I left Worcester blown away. The energy of the young companies sprouting out of MBI was contagious and seemed to be fueling related public and private investment, including the new Polar Park, the home of the Worcester Red Sox. Our conversation with Weaver, however, left a bigger impact. Weaver stressed that the growth did not happen overnight, that it took years of incremental movement to gain momentum and credited their ultimate success to thoughtful strategic planning efforts and committed collaboration by government, academia, and local industry. Leaders were very deliberate in identifying the region’s existing assets and finding creative ways to leverage those assets to bring new opportunities.

The visit to Worcester and our conversation with Weaver left a strong impression and seem particularly relevant to revisit now. As was highlighted in last month’s issue of this publication, Mayor Linda M. Tyer recently announced that the city of Pittsfield has secured $10.8 million for redevelopment efforts at the 52-acre William Stanley Business Park, the former industrial facility operated by General Electric that also houses the Berkshire Innovation Center. Specifically, the funds

are allocated for Site 9, the park’s largest and most prominent section, which consists of 16.5 acres located at the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Tyler Street. Portions of Site 9 are covered in concrete foundations and pavement that once supported 16 GE buildings, and the funding will be used to cap the debris with green space and add roadways and utility lines for future development.

The BIC has brought life to land that sat as rubble for too long, and the latest stack of funding is a major hurdle in the effort to return vibrancy to the full 52-acre site. The wave of momentum is strong, and with that momentum comes pressure to lock in developers and see new buildings sprout.

I would urge a thoughtful pause. We are talking about a tremendous amount of land in a prime location in the heart of the biggest city in the county, steps from downtown and adjacent to some of our region’s strongest and most engaged employers and developers. The pieces already in place and the timing of the public money present a generational opportunity to create a new engine for economic growth, for Pittsfield and for the Berkshires.

And to be perfectly clear: while this article began with a gushing assessment of the rise

of Worcester, I am in no way suggesting that the recipe that worked in that city is the recipe that will work here. The lesson to be learned from Worcester is in intentional process that they went through to lay the foundation for the growth that we see today. Private industry, academic partners, and governmental leaders were all engaged, identified the region’s most strengths and weaknesses, and together built a comprehensive and tailored plan for strategic growth.

I meet amazing minds every day at the Innovation Center — leaders from the private sector, from our educational partners, and from local and state government. Let’s bring a diverse set of these leaders around a table and task them with envisioning a comprehensive strategic plan and a process for how such a plan should be implemented so that we maximize this opportunity and chart a course that will drive our region for the next generation. Opportunities can be missed, they can be bungled, or they can be seized. At the BIC, we live by the maxim that “collective wisdom always wins.” To seize the opportunity in our own backyard, we need to put that maxim to work.

Ben Sosne is the Executive Director of the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield.

Jeffrey Thomas

Francesca Olsen

How local nonprofits enable and support economic development

PITTSFIELD — I recently attended a program at the Berkshire Innovation Center that focused on making clean tech the next big success story for Massachusetts, and on making the Berkshires the western anchor for this effort. It was a fantastic event, presented in collaboration with MassVentures and the Mass Clean Energy Center.

It was exciting to meet new people and connect with old friends — including session panelists state Sen. Paul Mark and former state senator Ben Downing, who is currently vice president of community affairs with The Engine, a “tough tech” incubator affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When introducing the panelists Dennis Rebelo, the BIC’s chief learning officer — and I’m paraphrasing slightly — noted that the BIC operates at the intersection of technology, learning, and community. To put it another way, you can’t have innovation without TLC. That is something those of us at Berkshire United Way, and all of us who work in the nonprofit sector understand incredibly well. It also is a commitment reflected in the missions of most, if not all, of the more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations that operate, invest, and serve in Berkshire County. It’s why the nonprofit sector has earned a seat at the table in every conversation about the economic development and economic future of county, commonwealth, and country.

During the presentation, panelists and participants shared a vision for the new technologies and innovative businesses that will develop and grow in Massachusetts in the coming decades. Naturally the discussion focused on attracting investment, hiring employees, competing with and against other states and regions, and ensuring Berkshire County has the education and workforce training resources to make the most of this latest stage in the evolution of the clean and green economy. This is, among other things, a matter of regional equity.

Equally compelling for me was the recognition among several of the panelists that innovation and economic development, new opportunities and disruptive technologies all have human dimensions.

They acknowledged that what happens to individuals and families, communities and neighborhoods, that how economic activity contributes to community stability, vitality, and equity is an important consideration as pure ROI when imagining the success of entrepreneurial investments.

This was music to my ears, as I’m sure it would be to nonprofit professionals and leaders throughout Berkshire County. Nonprofits often are among the first lines of response to community needs. Through our work — both as individual organizations and as part of a collaborative network of community partners — we have the privilege and the responsibility of being witnesses to and partners with individuals and families. Nonprofit programs and staff assist people as they address challenges, advocate through their lived and living experiences, and participate in the vibrant cultural and natural environment prized by so many in the Berkshires.

The Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires would remind us that part of our sector’s strength lies in our ability to be large and small at the same time. The 1,000 plus nonprofits that operate in Berkshire County account for one in four jobs in our economy. That makes us a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand, 75 percent of these nonprofits are small organizations, small businesses, employing just a few people that are laser-focused on a particular and unique mission. This sliding scale of operations is a strength, and it also makes it easy for us to forget what we have in common, to speak with one voice, and to appreciate and promote our impact. Put simply, nonprofit work is economic development, and here are just a few reasons why:

• Nonprofits innovate — We know how to develop and implement creative solutions for the simplest possible reason: necessity. Many nonprofits have limited resources, and it is their creativity and innovation that fuels their missions. This type of innovation isn’t always flashy or new, but it helps organizations make a difference for the people and communities they serve.

• Nonprofits collaborate — Over the past six months Berkshire United Way has re-launched our convening work with our funded partners and others. Coming through the pandemic we find that this ability to connect with peers

and partners has great value. People are eager for connection and for working together to share common challenges and identify shared solutions.

• Nonprofits advocate — In February Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, and Berkshire United Way hosted our annual briefing with the Berkshire legislative delegation. This was a chance for our sector to harmonize our voices in chorus with one another, to share with our legislators where we need help — unsurprisingly, transportation housing, food security, and ongoing pandemic recovery were at the top for many of us — and where we can be of help to them.

• Nonprofits create and invigorate — The cultural sector in the Berkshires in an economic engine that makes our region a better place to live, work, and visit for everyone. In addition to performing and presenting engaging works of art, cultural nonprofits in the Berkshires are partners in expanding access, improving education, promoting equity, and encouraging excellence.

• Nonprofits educate — Early childhood education and learning readiness are among Berkshire United Way’s foundational commitments. We are proud to partner with a range of organizations that provide young people with safe, stable, nurturing environments that give them a strong start and help them thrive. We also work closely with organizations that promote youth development, helping young people aspire and imagine a future they want for themselves. Learning has value on its own behalf, and it also helps create the conditions for economic success in our community.

In the session at the BIC, state Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Yvonne Hao noted that she will be part of an effort to update the commonwealth’s economic development plan. During a question-and-answer session I urged Secretary Hao, and leaders across the Healey-Driscoll administration to remember, engage, and listen to nonprofits in the Berkshires and throughout the commonwealth.

Our perspective is comprehensive. Our economic impact is significant. Our network of community connections is unparalleled. Most importantly, our voice is strong.

Tom Bernard is the president and CEO of Berkshire United Way.

Tom Bernard

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

Manny Slaughter and his wife, Vanessa run After School Homework and Mentorship Program under Focus is Our Children, a small nonprofit organization that is run out of the basement of a church in Pittsfield. It is one of several local nonprofits that help to invigorate the Berkshire economy.

Real estate transactions

Berkshire County real estate transactions for Jan. 30-March 3

ADAMS

Adams Community Bank sold property at 77-79 Summer St., Adams, to Constance Blanchette, $90,000.

Arthur Smith sold property at 4 Bieniek Ave., Adams, to Ellies Holdings LLC, $140,000.

Nicholas Yaneff sold property at 12½ Staples St., Adams, to Wesley S. Kelson and Lynn M. Berti, $107,000.

Christina L. Diagnault sold property at 28 Morningside Ave., Adams, to Darlene A. and Michael R. Lapierre, $246,000.

Thomas F. and Carolyn M. Chalifoux sold property at 75 North Summer St., Adams, to David A. and Patricia B. Willette, $179,900.

Nicole J. Dimitropolis, personal rep. of Suzanne J. Dimitropolis, sold property at 4 Plunkett Lane, Adams, to Pierre Kareh, trustee of Hind RT, $125,000.

Berkshire County ARC Inc. sold property at 11 Sayles St., Adams, to Lorraine P. Palm, trustee of the Craig R. Kelly Supplemental Needs Trust, $195,000.

Burke Construction Co. Inc. sold property at 6 Refrew St., Adams, to La Familia Group LLC, $1,000,000.

Elizabeth M. Vareschi, personal rep. of Emily Arlene Arigoni, sold property at 111 Columbia St., Adams, to Zick Adam and Bigue Niang Konte, $120,000.

Bruce E. Lagess, personal rep. of Elaine D. Smith, sold property at 150 Columbia St., Adams, to Richview Properties LLC, $67,900.

Garret C. and Katheryn Y. Wood sold property at 23 Second St., Adams, to Jeremy A. Wilson, $262,900.

Sharon Ann Bryant and Robin Lynn Martin sold property at 11 Crotteau St., Adams, to Jason Nocher, $80,000.

97 Commercial Street LLC sold property at 40 Commercial St., Adams, to Aladco Linen Services Inc., $45,000.

Joan Smigel sold property at 30-32 Richmond St., Adams, to Wenninger Family LP, $220,000.

BECKET

Charles E. Ouimette Jr. sold property at Friar Tuck Drive, Becket, to Frederick Tibets Jr. and Milena Damianova-Tibets, $3,000.

Jessica P. Giarolo, formerly known as Jessica P. Morse, sold property at 21 Brook Lane, Becket, to Patrick Finnegan, $173,000.

PennyMac Loan Services

LLC and John R. Litchfield-Macchi sold property at 85 Fred Snow Road, Becket, to Elisabeth Anderson, $205,000.

Neil F. and Deborah A. Toomey sold property at Mitchell Road, Becket, to United States of America, $762,000.

Francis D. and Theresa A. Santore sold property at 134 Fireside Lane, Becket, to Michael C. Jordan and Amy Bainbridge-Jordan, $180,000.

Hughey Capital LLC sold property at Fred Snow Road, Becket, to Julie Elizabeth Simon, $31,000.

Gregory Cohen and Yisraela Sivan Rodriguez sold property at 375 Long Bow Lane East, Becket, to Gregory Cohen, $125,000.

Maria Wallington, trustee of the Maria Wallington RVT, sold property at 271 Johnson Road, Becket, to James M. Sharpton and Pilar C. Bellido-Sharpton, $375,000.

DNC Real Estate LLC sold property at Lyman Street, Becket, to Charles I. and Loretta P. Francis, $7,000.

Adam Larson sold property at 327 Chester Road, Becket, to Jeffrey N. Krupa and Kathleen A. Knox, $1,700,000.

Jerry S. Charson and Joan M. Harris sold property at Pill Drive, Becket, to Cherie Daniel, $5,000.

Jacob Echeverria sold property at Fred Snow Road, Becket, to Carolyn M. Graybeal, $22,000.

CHESHIRE

Mark F. Warner sold property at 78-82 School St., Cheshire, to John Bucala, $195,000.

Kelly K. Grogan sold property at 10 Hutchinson Lane, Cheshire, to Veronica Cuello, $368,000.

Dominick R. Villane sold property at 77-93 Wilshire Drive, Cheshire, to Longrun Management LLC, $960,000.

CLARKSBURG

James R. Schouller, Melissa S. Kivett, formerly known as Melissa Lee Schouller, and James R. Schouller Jr. sold property at Cross Road, Clarksburg, to Patrick Lashbrook and Deborah Lamphier, $25,000.

Jeffrey T. Lincoln sold property at 39 Morris Drive, Clarksburg, to Brandon and Ashley Gilvey, $48,000.

Jonathan M. Beaudreau sold property at 221 Middle Road, Clarksburg, to Katheryn Yvonne and Garret C. Wood, $455,000.

DALTON

Thomas M. and Lynne M.

Lennon sold property at 207 East Housatonic St., Dalton, to Cassie Lee and Derek Douglas Holmberg, $267,000.

Alice E. Fitch sold property at 6 Park Circle Drive, Dalton, to Brian and Melissa Vreeland, $240,000.

Patricia L. Cyphers sold property at 163 Orchard Road, Dalton, to Gregory Boino, $400,000.

Ryan J. and Shelbey K. Stengl sold property at 74 Frederick Drive, Dalton, to Lisiane A. Medeiros-Toole, $430,000.

Nicholas R. Anastasio sold property at 143 Grange Hall Road, Dalton, to Steven Michael Berning, $338,000.

EGREMONT

Cora Portnoff sold property at 0 and 136 Egremont Plain Road, Egremont, to Paul E. Storti and Brooke E. Storti, $300,000.

FLORIDA

Kenneth E. Stockdale sold property at 350 Mohawk Trail, Florida, to James Pedro, $60,000.

Gregory J. and Kelly G. DePietro sold property at 31 Monroe Road, Florida, to Pamela K. and Robert E. Horner, $390,000.

Eastern Summit LLC sold property at 335 Mohawk Trail, Florida, to James M. Pedro, $150,000.

Margaret J. Wolak, personal rep. of Ludwik Wolak Jr., sold property at Monroe Road, Florida, to Hussain A. Hamdan, trustee of the Scenic Monroe Road RT, $10,000.

GREAT BARRINGTON

Douglas A. Freundlich and Margo D. Stark sold property at 281 Main St., Unit 3B, Southworth Condominium, Great Barrington, to Christine Chapman, $261,250.

Estate of Richard A. Flach sold property at 5 Christian Hill Road, Great Barrington, to Sasa Zelenovic and Emily Zelenovic, $542,500.

Patricia D. Alles and Kathleen N. Dolan sold property at 48 Quarry St., Great Barrington, to Timothy A. Parker and Sara L. Parker, $649,000.

Berkshire 72 GB LLC sold property at 72 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, to Carvergirl LLC, $1,000,000.

Estate of Eugene Gollogly sold property at 177 East St., Great Barrington, to Brendan Patrick Mulroy and Molly MacKenzie Olsen, $405,000.

Lawrence A. O’Brien Jr. and Nancy E. O’Brien sold property at 0 & 17 Wyan-

tenuck St., Great Barrington, to James Mead, $280,000.

Cameron Forest and Sierra Forest sold property at 2 Walnut St., Great Barrington, to 2 Walnut Street LLC, $308,000.

HANCOCK

Craig Reidinger and Melissa Carr sold property at 9431 Mountainside Drive, Hancock, to Christos Kyratsous and Lauren Kristine D’Amico, $1,120,000.

HINSDALE

Melvin and Marsha C. Cohen sold property at 180 Pine Cone Lane, Hinsdale, to Sharon Ricker-Perez, $465,000.

Irina Polchlopek sold property at 615 East Washington Road, Hinsdale, to Kelly Kilfeather Grogan, $500,000.

Camp Tanglelake Inc. sold property at 212 Longview Ave. and Michaels Road, Hinsdale, to Camp Emerson Real Estate Company LLC, $2,347,900.

Richard B. Litchfield sold property at 110 Plunkett Ave. Extension, Hinsdale, to William A. and Linda D. Young, $118,500.

LANESBOROUGH

Timothy J. O’Brien sold property at 4 Baglee Ave., Lanesborough, to 4 Baglee Avenue LLC, $175,000.

LEE

45 Park Street LLC sold property at 43 Park St., Lee, to Greylock Federal Credit Union, $950,000.

Jodi Rathbun-Briggs and Sharon L. Pease, personal representatives of the Estate of Lillian Esther Rathbun, sold property at 455 Greylock St., Lee, to Jodi K. Rathbun Briggs, $255,000.

Richard Lippin and Jessica L. Barest sold property at 135 Wood Duck Road, Lee, to Merry Regenstreich, trustee of the Merry Regenstreich RVT Trust 2018, $465,000.

Kathleen R. Bort sold property at 45 Forest St., Lee, to Diplacon Investments LLC, $325,000. Lenox Landings Barrington Brook Holdings LLC sold property at 827 Mallard Lane, Unit 16, Lee, to Kenneth and Robin Baer, $939,890.72.

Alpine Lake LLC sold property at 75 Chestnut St., Lee, to Gary A. and Thomasine A. Williams, $440,000.

LENOX

Michael A. Lewis sold property at 5-12 Morgan Manor, Lenox, to Rosa

Velasquez, $100,000.

Michael P. and Ann Zumwalt Coppola sold property at 85 Clifden Court, Lenox, to William R. and Pamela J. Johnson, $650,000.

James R. Hashim, trustee of the June F. Hashim RVT dated Feb. 13, 2002, sold property at East Dugway Road, Lenox, to the Town of Lenox, $360,000.

Beth A. Archey sold property at 49 Crystal St., Lenox, to Luke J. Archey and Amber Mulinofsky, $195,500.

Kathleen Ann Medina sold property at 870 East St., Lenox, to William G. Wood, $449,000.

Par Master Holdings LLC sold property at 21 Highcrest Road, Unit 24, Lenox, to Kenneth and Nancy Warren, $953,000.

MONTEREY

James W. Clary and Sheela

S. Clary sold property at 0 Mount Hunger Road, Monterey, to Alan Zablonski and Joyce Vandemark, $85,000.

Mildred A. Church-Hurd sold property at 62 Mount Hunger Road, Monterey, to Kate Kapner, $230,000.

Merry Regenstreich

Revocable Trust 2018 sold property at 7 Seven Arts Road, Unit 1, Seven Arts Condominium, Monterey, to 23 Seven Arts LLC, $950,000.

William R. Johnson and Pamela J. Johnson sold property at 140 Main Road, Monterey, to Claire M. Fraser Revocable Trust, $1,725,000.

MOUNT WASHINGTON

Joel S. Nachman and Christine J. Nachman sold property at 213 West St., Mount Washington, to Charles Pasquet and Michelle Ting Young Pasquet, $865,000.

NEW MARLBOROUGH

Acreage Equity LLC sold property at 0 Aberdeen Lane, New Marlborough, to Susan E. Pfeiffer, $79,900.

Frederick C. Mielke and Deborah D. Mielke, co-trustees of C.R.D. II Real Estate Trust, sold property at Arroyo Way, New Marlborough, to Adam Davenport and Claire Davenport, $100,000.

NORTH ADAMS

Richard A. Beatty sold property at 299 East Main St., North Adams, to Chickadee Properties LLC, $119,900.

City of North Adams sold property at River Street, North Adams, to Alyssa A. Sporbert, $327.

City of North Adams sold

property at Front Street, North Adams, to Elizabeth A. Mitchell, $266.

City of North Adams sold property at River Street, North Adams, to John W. Gaskell and Susan A. Morin, now known as Susan A. Gaskell, $1,420.

Anne E. Guest, personal rep. of Mary L. Guest, sold property at 50 Veazie St., North Adams, to Danmark LLC, $42,000.

Calvin R. and Mary A. Rowland sold property at 79 Summit Ave., North Adams, to Christina M. McGlew, $180,000.

Ross Investments LLC sold property at 355 State St., North Adams, to DSM Properties LLC, $65,000. Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency sold property at 783 West Shaft Road, North Adams, to Randy Bangert, $165,000.

Jason Daniel and Kathryn Ridley Murphy sold property at 1130 State Road, North Adams, to Christine Kelly, $263,000.

David W. Jennings sold property at 31-33 Porter St., North Adams, to Joshua A. Serre, $220,000.

Robert R. Moulton Jr. sold property at 115 Main St, Unit A, North Adams, to Mark P. Moulton, $100,000.

City of North Adams sold property at Bracewell Avenue, North Adams, to Mark P. Moulton, $523.

Laydet Properties LLC sold property at 23-27 Gallup St., North Adams, to Moshe and Bryan Holender, $180,610.

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development sold property at 115 Cliff St., North Adams, to Steven S. Chirgwin, $80,000.

Michael James Kenneth Helsmoortel sold property at 57-59 Glen Ave., North Adams, to D&B Real Estate Ventures LLC, $175,000. Revolve Capital Group LLC sold property at 335 State St., North Adams, to Bulent Gurcan, $54,000. 22-36 Taft Street LLC sold property at 22-36 Taft St., North Adams, to Onyx Development & Management Inc., $600,000.

Edward and Dinah Luczynski sold property at 89 Barth St., North Adams, to Bryce J. Maruco, $240,000.

Sean M. Carollo sold property at 205 Corinth St., North Adams, to Erin E. Poplaski, $230,000.

David G. Carver, trustee of Scarafoni Associates NT, sold property at 13 Veazie St., North Adams, to Berkshire Hills Development Company LLC, $10,000.

Real estate

FROM PAGE 19

David Jowett sold property at 55 Hawthorne Ave., North Adams, to Kurt B. and Joey A. Collins, $215,000.

Lorenzo G. and Jean A. Burzimati sold property at 168-170 North Houghton St., North Adams, to Andrew Magera, $90,000.

Leon C. Lescarbeau, trustee of the Leon C. Lescarbeau NT, and Patricia

A. Lescarbeau, trustee of the Patricia A. Lescareau NT, sold property at 447 River St., North Adams, to Joseph Renzi, $125,000.

310 State Street LLC sold property at 310 State St., North Adams, to JATO LLC, $255,000.

David C. Atwell sold property at 8 River St., North Adams, to Shahmir Properties LLC, $150,000.

Paul R. McMullan sold property at 19 Church St., Unit 3, and 44 Eagle St, Unit C, North Adams, to Just Over There LLC, $150,000.

Mark Meehan and Deborah Morandi sold property at 0 Notch Road, North Adams, to Aung Zaw Lyn and Jessica Glick Lyn, $78,200.

David and Donna Motta sold property at 38 Veazie St., North Adams, to Berkshire Hills Development Company LLC, $400,000.

OTIS

David J. Roffo sold property at 134 Kibbe Road, Otis, to John and Tracy Mountain, $585,000.

Bart J. Curcio Jr. and Laura Loiacono, trustees of the Curcio Family 2017 Irrevocable Trust, sold property at 1340 East Otis Road, Otis, to Clemmence M. Jollivet and Andreas Vaupel, $710,000.

Robert D. and Josephine

A. Fanelli sold property at 10 Reservoir Heights Road, Otis, to William J. Holland Jr., $300,000.

Mountain Stream LLC sold property at Old Blandford Road, Otis and Blandford, to Lauren M. Begin, $84,900.

PERU

Katherine Guitard sold property at 7 Bonny Lane, Peru, to Charles Champion Stickles III, $135,000.

PITTSFIELD

NewRez LLC, doing business as Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, and Judith Huddleston sold property at 33 Circular Ave., Pittsfield, to Federal National Mortgage Association, $6,800.

Cross Development Berkshires LLC sold property at 108-110 Linden St.,

Pittsfield, to Malila Siv, $40,000.

Sling LLC sold property at 40 Plinn St., Pittsfield, to Simon Wineberg, $302,000.

Cottage Corn LLC sold property at 3 Federico Drive, Pittsfield, to Blue Sky RE LLC, $1,278,350.

Todd J., Victor A. and Patricia A. Lampiasi sold property at 40-48 Reed St., Pittsfield, to 40-48 Reed Street Holdings LLC, $1,070,000.

Michael J. Layden, personal rep. of the Estate of Michael D. Layden; Rachel Shepard; Stephanie Layden, formerly known as Stephanie Provencher; Kimberly Simpson-Gomes, formerly known as Kimberly Simpson; and Alice A. Croshier, heirs of the Estate of Michael D. Layden, sold property at 787 Churchill St., Pittsfield, to Michael J. and Nicole M. Layden, $239,900.

Christopher L. and Marjorie L. Adorno sold property at 60 Division St., Pittsfield, to Bella Art LLC, $160,000.

Robert I. Schwartz, trustee of the Robert I. Schwartz 2012 RVT, sold property at 34 Churchill Crest, Unit 34, Pittsfield, to Carin Upstill, $160,000.

HLP Realty Holdings LLC sold property at 57 Park St., Pittsfield, to Caleb M. Cimini, $115,000.

Sandra Barry sold property at 29 Dutchess Ave., Pittsfield, to Kayla Fusini, $280,000.

Joseph W. Dalo sold property at 984 Williams St., Pittsfield, to Andrew J. LaDouceur and Ana E. Dermody, $244,000.

Kari Ann Mendel sold property at 94 Winesap Road, Pittsfield, to Colin Philip Wilson and Elizabeth Anne Dister, $423,000. Realize Group Inc. sold property at 247 Peck’s Road, Pittsfield, to 247 Pecks Rd Pittsfield LLC, $60,000.

Diplacon Investments LLC sold property at 199-201 Woodlawn Ave., Pittsfield, to Jose F. Saldana, $360,000.

Lisa A. Poplaski sold property at 30 Dan Ave., Pittsfield, to David M. Esler, $300,000.

Gary E. Bellows sold property at 207 South Mountain Road, Pittsfield, to DNC Real Estate LLC, $162,000.

Vincent L. Leydet sold property at 22-24 McKinley Terrace, Pittsfield, to Churchill Street Realty LLC, $220,000.

Charles P. and Ellen K. Ramsey sold property at Peck’s Road and Kellie Drive, Pittsfield, to Paul Supranowicz, $52,600.

Robert J. O’Connor Jr. sold property at 69 Wood Ave., Pittsfield, to Kandice Dannielle and Deron Glenn D’Avanzo, $200,000.

Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, trustee, sold property at 481 West St., Pittsfield, to Joseph and Mary Lou Trzcinka, $40,000.

Wells Fargo Bank N.A. sold property at 51-53 Orchard St., Pittsfield, to Derrick J. Hatwood, $93,000.

David M. Amlaw, personal rep. of the Estate of Sarah Helen Amlaw, sold property at 148 Parkside Ave., Pittsfield, to Joseph Amlaw, $180,000.

Jamie Regene Williamson sold property at 10-12 Worthington St., Pittsfield, to Michael E. Durant, $30,000.

Lee Bank and Shire City Apples LLC sold property at 15 Commercial St., Pittsfield, to 15 Commercial LLC, $625,000.

Benjamin C. Webster sold property at 80-82 Howard St., Pittsfield, to Luis Fernandez and Alexandra Belalcazar, $165,000.

Esther R. Anderson, formerly known as Esther R. Bolen, sold property at 82-84 and 86-88 Lincoln St., Pittsfield, to Newtown Realty LLC, $484,000.

Simeon M. and Natanya H. Bittman sold property at 39 Catherine St., Pittsfield, to Chelsea M. Szmania, $215,000.

Joanne L. Pasquini sold property at 200 West Housatonic St., Pittsfield, to Kenneth Harrison, $140,000.

Eden-Renee Hayes, formerly known as Eden-Renee Pruitt, sold property at 90 Commonwealth Ave., Pittsfield, to John Toole, $334,000.

John Pierce, personal rep. of the estate of Helen Mary Kozchuk, sold property at 175 Dalton Ave., Pittsfield, to Amanda Wojtkowski and Thomas Gilardi, $207,000. David and Paul Cowan, trustees of the 2018 Revocable Trust of Richard Cowan, sold property at 35 Pittsfield Ave., Pittsfield, to Hunter S. Mott and Olivia L. Bedard, $280,000.

Ann Marie Stevens and Peter L. Newman, personal reps. of the Estate of Mary Ann Newman, sold property at 9 Quirico Drive, Pittsfield, to Lena M. Doherty, $279,900.

Stephen T. Maroni sold property at 59 Livingston Ave., Pittsfield, to Amy L. Mall, $250,000.

Bespoke Capital LLC sold property at 92 Brown St., Pittsfield, to Karen O. Hine and Hector J. Sandifer, $190,000.

BD Asset Co. 5 LLC sold property at 343 Columbus

Ave., Pittsfield, to Bella Art LLC, $175,000.

Michelle L. Lopez and Raider Lopez Capote sold property at 37 Hancock Road, Pittsfield, to Rebecca L.C. Hoell and Shawn P. Flynn, $350,000.

Jacqueline J. Howard, Kristina L. Malcomb and Michael Strazzulla sold property at 290 Barker Road, Pittsfield, to Michael Strazulla, $70,000.

Martha L. Read, personal rep. of the Estate of Fred Robert Read, sold property at 51 Saratoga Drive, Pittsfield, to Martha L. Read, $200,000.

Jeffrey H. Ditman, personal rep. of the Estate of Diane Molly Ditman, sold property at 29 Maple Grove Drive, Pittsfield, to Jody L. Manzolini, $225,800.

Andrew and Emily Ladouceur, personal reps. of the Estate of Daniel J. Ladouceur, sold property at 75 Cleveland St., Pittsfield, to Brenda A. Durant, $100,000.

Robert K. and Linda E. George, trustees of the Robert K. George Trust — 2013, sold property at 163 South St., Pittsfield, to South Street Plaza LLC, $1,550,000.

Mahican LLC sold property at 28-30 & 32-32½ Brown St., Pittsfield, to Mark L. Baer, $330,000.

TJLR Onota LLC sold property at 203 Woodlawn Ave., Pittsfield, to RC Investing LLC, $20,000.

RC Investing LLC sold property at 203 Woodlawn Ave., Pittsfield, to Peter Brown, $95,000.

Barani Mayilvaganan and Saikavitha Krishnan Natesan sold property at 77 Alpine Trail, Unit 16-C, Pittsfield, to Molly F. Berg, $670,000.

Zackery E. Robinette and Cynthia R. Robinette, formerly known as Cynthia R. Kent, sold property at 30 Foote Ave., Pittsfield, to Amy Lucy and Joseph Duda, $260,000.

Shaun M. Stack, personal rep. of the Estate of Elizabeth Ann Stack, sold property at 29 Day St., Pittsfield, to Joseph M. Massaro, trustee of the MEM Family Trust, $70,000.

Donald A. and Barbara A. St. John, individually and as co-personal reps. of the Estate of Ernest W. St. John Jr., and Danielle Fonti, personal rep. of the Estate of Valerie Albano, sold property at 120 Elberon Ave., Pittsfield, to Justin and Krysten St. John, $110,000.

Jay M. Ellis sold property at 181 Bartlett Ave., Pittsfield, to Scott Williams and Jodi N. Blessing, $465,000.

Theofanis Theofanous and Veronica Arroyave sold property at 18 April Lane, Pittsfield, to Irvin Torres Roman and Veronica Negron Pagan, $225,000.

RICHMOND

HMA Properties LLC sold property at 2312 State Road, Richmond, to Paul J. and Susan M. Dyson, $330,000.

Robert R. and Susan M. Benner sold property at 39 Lake Road Ext., Richmond, to Andrew Littman and Barbara F. Shatkin, $685,500.

SANDISFIELD

Rudolph L. Annecharico and Andrew F. Annecharico sold property at 83 Sandisfield Road, Sandisfield, to Switzerly LLC, $180,000.

SHEFFIELD

Richard A. Pepino sold property at 1742 Home Road, Sheffield, to Louis Dieffenbacher and Jo Ann Dieffenbacher, $349,000.

Custom Classics LLC sold property at 142 Main St., Sheffield, to Four One Tree Realty LLC, $260,000.

John Dale Kuhn and Karen Ann Kuhn sold property at 554 Sheffield Egremont Road, Sheffield, to 554 Sheffield Egremont LLC, $1,365,000.

Paula Friedman, trustee of Paula Friedman Declaration of Trust, sold property at 320 Salisbury Road, Sheffield, to Louis Friedman, $220,000.

STOCKBRIDGE

Paul Rothsetein, individually and as personal rep. of the Estate of Sandra L. Rothstein, sold property at 4 Arthur Fiedler Lane, Stockbridge, to Steven Jay and Judy Orich, $470,000.

Sean Brenner sold property at 1 Stone Ridge Road, Stockbridge, to Varaquest Advisors LLC, $435,000. Notre Reve Inc. sold property at 30 East St., Stockbridge, to Coco Lulu Hospitality Inc., $1,850,000.

Leslie Beal, personal rep. of the Estate of Rosalie Beal, and Leslie Beal and Helaine Koch as devisees, sold property at 1 Emerson Lane, Stockbridge, to Thomas G. Jones and Leslie P. Beal, $567,000.

Nagih and Marilyn Nejaime sold property at 11 Park St., Stockbridge, to Lian Colleary Moore, $425,000.

Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC and Fiona E. Gangell sold property at 16 Goodrich St., Stockbridge, to Lenox Mountain Realty LLC, $230,000.

Kevin C. Charlton sold property at 11 Glendale Road, Stockbridge, to

Peter Arger and Heidi Reis-Arger, $180,000.

TYRINGHAM

Ruth S. Swart, trustee of the Brace Road Realty NT, sold property at Brace Road, Tyringham, and Beartown Mountain Road, Monterey, to Berkshire Natural Resources Council Inc., $1,600,000.

Berkshire Natural Resources Council Inc. sold property at Brace Road, Tyringham, and Beartown Mountain Road, Monterey, to Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, $1,010,185.

WEST STOCKBRIDGE

Maria E. Gennari, Rosemary J. Gennari, Gino J. Gennari Jr., and Paul A. Gennari sold property at Route 41, 50 Albany Road, West Stockbridge, to NMBS LLC, $300,000.

WILLIAMSTOWN

160 Water LLC sold property at 160 Water St, Unit 310, Williamstown, to Edward A. and Lisa A. Matson, $575,000.

Charles W. Fox sold property at 16 Water St., Williamstown, to 16 Water Street LLC, $2,625,000.

Robert G. and Sarah H. Sullivan sold property at Ide Road, Williamstown, to Gary J. Jacobsohn and Elizabeth M. Michaels, $332,500.

James J. Sisto, personal rep. of Nancy M. Gaudette, sold property at 51 Lindley Terrace, Williamstown, to Marzio Gusmaroli and Marcia Ann Schrock, $449,500.

160 Water LLC sold property at 160 Water St, Unit 307, Williamstown, to George W. Ahl III, trustee of the Aleutian Vineyard Trust, $875,000.

WINDSOR

Roger A. Bigelow, trustee of the Roger A. Bigelow Irrevocable FT dated March 29, 2018, sold property at 884 Cheshire Road, Windsor, to Jonathan Kolis, $485,500.

IQ EQ Trust Company U.S LLC, trustee of the Carl F. Piontkowski FT, sold property at 429 East Windsor Road and East Windsor Road, Windsor, to Windsor Terra LLC, $135,000.

FT — Family Trust LLC — Limited Partnership LT — Life Trust NT — Nominee Trust RET — Real Estate Trust RT — Realty Trust RVT — Revocable Trust

The real estate transactions are provided by the Middle Berkshire, North Berkshire and South Berkshire Registry of Deeds offices.

People in the Berkshires

ADAMS — Adams Community Bank has promoted nine employees who work in the bank’s operations center.

Becky Crouse has been promoted to vice president BSA Officer. She joined the bank 22 years ago as a teller. Throughout the years, she’s earned various financial certificates and diplomas and has received multiple promotions. She is currently enrolled in the New England School for Financial Studies.

Renelle Moser has been promoted to marketing and communication officer. Moser rejoined the bank six years ago as a marketing specialist and, in 2020, was promoted to marketing manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Eddie Roireau was promoted to retail operations manager. Roireau brought nine years of banking experience with him when he joined the bank in 2021 as a retail support and quality assurance

specialist.

Komeja Green was promoted to senior IT project lead. Green joined the bank as a teller in 2019 and was promoted in 2020 to IT project lead. She is in the process of obtaining a project management certificate from Syracuse University.

Melanie Rowland has been promoted to senior payment processor. Rowland has 17 years of banking experience, including nine years at Adams Community Bank. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in economics from MCLA.

Pat Albareda has been promoted to senior deposit operations support. She joined the bank 13 years ago, has worked as a teller in multiple branches and was recently promoted from deposit operations support. Albareda is a member of the Adams Lions Club.

Jenna Laughlin and Andrea Stump were both promoted to senior loan processors. Laughlin began her career with the bank seven years ago as a loan processor. Stump started her career with the bank 11 years ago as a customer service representative, and was most recently promoted from loan processor. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the

Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and also serves on the ProAdams Board.

Jess Robinson has been promoted to IT help desk specialist. She joined the bank seven years ago as a teller, and has spent time at multiple branches. In 2022, she was promoted to community banker II. Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree from MCLA and participates in various volunteer efforts, including coaching youth sports.

PITTSFIELD — Christopher May has been named vice president, consumer lending at Greylock Federal Credit Union.

“Chris brings years of experience in direct and indirect lending in the credit union space,” said Jodi Rathbun Briggs, Greylock’s senior vice president, chief lending officer. “Adding a talented leader like Chris to our lending team will help Greylock continue to offer the best products and services to our communities.”

In this role, May oversees all consumer lending activities including vehicle, personal and credit card lending and reports to Rathbun-Briggs. He resides in Suffield,

Conn. with his wife and daughter.

NORTH ADAMS — Veteran curator Denise Markonish has been promoted to chief curator at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the first person to hold this position in the museum’s nearly 25-year history.

Markonish joined Mass MoCA in 2007, and has over 20 years of experience producing and commissioning large-scale and experiential exhibitions and publishing catalogs, previously at the Fuller Museum in Brockton and Artspace in New Haven, Conn. She has published three books, edited two books and co-edited another.

Markonish has taught at Williams College and the Rhode Island School of Design; and was a visiting curator at Artpace’s International Artist in Residency Program in San Antonio and The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. She has also served as an adviser and co-conceiver of the SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence Program in Mountain View, Calif.; and was a visiting curator at the Haystack School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine. PITTSFIELD — Sonja Haecker has been named executive vice president of Berkshire County Arc.

In this new position, she will oversee the agency’s community services programs, including Adult Family Care Program, Family Support & Advocacy, Employment & Vocational Services, Day Habilitation Programs, and Community-Based Day Services. She will also oversee the Clinical Department, and Respite Services. She will also assist President and CEO Maryann Hyatt with

Levante VP & Commercial Banking Relationship Manager 413.446.5051 glevante@nbtbank.com

Kinney Business Banking Regional Manager 413.243.4061 dkinney@nbtbank.com

Crouse

Moser

Roireau

Green

Rowland

Albareda Laughlin

Stump

Robinson

May

Markonish

PEOPLE, Page 22

strategic planning initiatives.

Haecker previously served as vice president of community services at Berkshire County Arc. In that role, she expanded the Adult Family Care program, strengthened Family Support Services, and successfully spearheaded several new agency initiatives. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of New England, a master’s degree in education from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where she is a distinguished alumna, and a bachelor’s degree in social work from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y.

GREAT BARRINGTON

— Stephanie McNair, the manager of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty’s Berkshire brokerages in Great Barrington and Lenox, has been chosen as the company’s 2022 Manager of the Year. She was selected from among 17 managers companywide.

McNair earned the award in her first year in the role, which entails overseeing 36 agents and staff in the firm’s two Berkshire offices. It is also the first time in the firm’s history that a Massachusetts brokerage manager has received the accolade.

Since she assumed her current role in May 2022, McNair has increased the firm’s community and charitable involvement and recruited top-performing agents. She currently serves on the board of the Berkshire County Board of Realtors, making a contribution to the

professional community and building ties with other firms.

COPAKE, N.Y. — Chef Jeremy Rock Smith, who has held positions at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health and Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, has been named culinary camp director at Berkshire Hills Culinary Camp.

Smith will teach culinary skills at the facility, which is part of Berkshire Hills Eisenberg Camp. Campers spend half the day learning alongside friends in the camp’s state-of-the-art kitchens with trips to local farms, specialty food makers, restaurants and the Culinary Institute of America.

Smith, who has served as demonstration chef at Canyon Ranch and executive chef at Kripalu, will begin his new duties this winter for the summer season. Information: bhecamp.org/culinary-camp/.

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Community College has added 10 new staff members, welcomed back one employee, and promoted another.

Michael Carnevale has been named special programs coordinator. Raised in Bradenton, Fla., Carnevale has lived in the Berkshires for 14 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in movement science from Westfield State University and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Previously, he was a physical therapist aide at Williamstown Physical Therapy and director of affiliate programs for Tax Titans.

Kate Fletcher, who recently moved back to the Berkshires from Texas, has

been named assistant professor, nursing division. She graduated from New Mexico State University in 2015 with a master of science degree in nursing, and also holds a bachelor’s degree of science in kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Matthew Gingras has joined the facilities department as maintenance equipment operator II. Previously, he worked for the city of Pittsfield Parks Department, where he maintained all school and park grounds. Gingras was born and raised in Pittsfield and briefly attended BCC.

Tina Hale has been named assistant professor, nursing division. She began her career at BCC in 2022 as a clinical adjunct instructor. Hale has more than 10 years of experience in acute care, including emergency department and critical care units. She is an alum of the BCC nursing program, graduating in 2013, and holds a master’s degree in nursing education from Chamberlain University.

Elaine Harwood has been named coordinator of learning services, overseeing testing and tutoring. She holds

a bachelor of arts degree in music from Bennington College, a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Antioch University New England, and is enrolled in a doctorate program in education policy and leadership at the State University of New York at Albany. Harwood comes to BCC following a 14-year career with the Capital District Educational Opportunity Center in Troy, N.Y.

Shelly Ruocco has been named interim executive director of human resources. Ruocco launched her human resources career in higher education at Tufts University as a human resources representative and was soon named director of employee relations and employment. She worked for Hampshire College as the associate vice president of human resources and Title IX coordinator for seven years and has also held positions at Smith and Amherst colleges.

Michaela Scapin has been named enrollment counselor. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in English with an emphasis in secondary education from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Also a local fitness instructor, Scapin taught at the high school level for six years in Colorado and Massachusetts before returning to the Berkshires in June 2021

Tina Tartaglia has been named spe-

PEOPLE, Page 23

McNair

Smith

Carnevale

Fletcher

Gingras

Hale

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cial programs coordinator — dual enrollment coach. She attended BCC for one year before transferring to Arizona State University for undergraduate studies in social work. She then earned a master’s degree in education/ school counseling at UMass Amherst, where she worked in the office of student disability services. She has previously worked as a youth substance use educator at The Brien Center, a guidance counselor at Herberg Middle School and a community health worker apprenticeship coordinator at Holyoke Community College.

Hope Tornquist has joined the business office as accountant II, where she assists with billing. Tornquist has many years of business office experience, most recently at Berkshire Health Systems, where she had served as an accounts receivable specialist since 2013.

Nicole Tucker has been named assistant professor — physical therapy assistant. Tucker holds a master’s degree in physical therapy from Nova Southeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from the University of New Hampshire.

Craig Ptak has returned to BCC as recreational facilities supervisor III at Paterson Field House, where he worked from 2014-20. A BCC graduate, Ptak also holds a bachelor’s degree in movement science from Westfield

State University and has been an American Council on Exercise certified personal trainer since 2008.

Maryrose Williams has been promoted to director of nursing after serving as assistant professor and chair of the associate degree in nursing. She graduated from BCC’s nursing program in 2005 and subsequently earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern New Hampshire University.

NEW MARLBOROUGH — Paula Hatch, Fran Lartigue, Matt Sheffer and Katherine Slingluff have been appointed to the board of directors of the New Marlborough Land Trust, which increases the panel’s membership to 12. Hatch is the former director of the Berkshire Bach Society and, previously, the South Berkshire Education Collaborative.

Lartigue is a longtime educator who serves as the senior content and curriculum specialist for ParentPowered Benefit Corp. Lartigue has developed

science and technology curricula for the Flying Cloud Institute in Great Barrington, and served on the New Marlborough/Monterey PTA and the Southern Berkshire Regional School District School Committee. She holds a master’s degree in early childhood education from Bank Street College. Sheffer has an extensive background in land conservation and regenerative agriculture. He is the managing director of Hudson Carbon in Hudson, N.Y. a research and policy organization focused on sustainability.

Slingluff is a photographer, musician and textile designer. Her creative energies and love for nature were displayed when she performed at the Land Trust’s GoodTimes@Goodnow event in September.

The New Marlborough Land Trust owns and manages approximately 900 acres featuring miles of public hiking trails. Information: www. nmlandtrust.org.

CHATHAM, N.Y. — Amanda Merk , of Great Barrington, Mass., has been named the director of the Chatham Public Library by the Chatham Board of Education. Merk replaces Jen McCreery, who resigned in October.

She has extensive previous experience in this field having worked for

libraries large and small in Massachusetts and Vermont.

Merk, who is also a yoga teacher, holds a master’s degree in library and information studies from Simmons University in Boston and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from McGill University in Montreal. She has also undertaken post-graduate coursework in children’s and school library teaching.

PITTSFIELD —

Following a nationwide search, Greylock Federal Credit Union has selected Rachel Melendez Mabee of Pittsfield as its first vice president of DEI, culture and brand.

In this new role, Melendez Mabee will play a critical role in leading the overall strategy as the credit union deepens its DEI journey. She will be the driving force behind their IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) principles, ensuring that every Greylock employee values the power of diversity, community and the importance of fostering belonging, support and trust.

Melendez Mabee comes to Greylock from PGA of America, where she led that organization’s DEI efforts.

She is a graduate of the University of Georgia and the Berkshire Leadership Program. She was recognized by 1Berkshire on its 40 under 40 list in 2019. She has been highlighted in publications like Black Enterprise, Essence, Latin Business Today and on the Golf Channel.

She serves on the board of trustees for the Berkshire Museum and the board of the Berkshire United Way, where she leads the DEI committees for both organizations. She also serves on the board of the Elizabeth Freeman Center and the national board for the Women in Golf Foundation.

Tornquist

Tucker

Ptak

Williams

Hatch

Slingluff

Melendez Mabee

Lartigue

Sheffer

Merk

The Pittsfield Cooperative Bank + Love Us and Leave Us

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O wner, Love Us and Leave Us