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.’” want to discharge the mortgage, Harris said.

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