Pittsfield’s transformation specialists

Julie Copolous and her team are trying to revitalize North Street through the TDI program

By L iam G orman

PITTSFIELD — “Brooklyn of the Berkshires.”

That’s how the Financial Times referred to Pittsfield in 2010.

That was when the city was first beginning to explore the development of the commercial corridor along downtown North Street. Back then, The Financial Times saw Pittsfield as an example of how post-industrial cities can bounce back from economic decline.

A lot has changed in the past 13 years. Downtown Pittsfield has gone through several ups and downs. Some of the small businesses that were originally attracted to Pittsfield by North Street’s potential didn’t last and others failed to pan out. Several vacant storefronts now pockmark the landscape post-COVID.

There have been some recent bright spots — the buzz surrounding the opening of Hot Plate Brewery and the coming expansion of Dottie’s Coffee Lounge are two. Yes, there are fewer businesses on North Street than there were before, but the planning to continue to revitalize the area hasn’t stopped.

Helping to heal some of these post-pandemic wounds is a Mass Development program, known as the Transformative Development Initiative, or TDI, which is available to the state’s 26 Gateway Cities, whose westernmost outpost is Pittsfield. The TDI program has three goals: to stimulate business; drive economic growth; and help communities thrive across the state. It is designed to “accelerate economic growth within focused districts.”

This the second TDI program that has been located in Pittsfield. A similar initiative took place in the Tyler Street area from 2017 to 2019. The current program is designated for the area of downtown Pittsfield located between Dottie’s on the corner of North Street and Maplewood Avenue to just south of Park Square, according to Julie Copoulos, the current TDI Fellow who has been assigned to Pittsfield.

“North Street has a plethora of incredible community minded entrepreneurs and business owners,” Copoulos said.

In her role as the Pittsfield fellow, Copoulos is the TDI’s on-the-ground point person. She not only helps entrepreneurs navigate the financial opportunities brought by the TDI, she is also helping coordinate the collaboration between businesses and local partners who have a stake in seeing Pittsfield thrive.

“I think often we think of planning as taking place only in City Hall,” Copoulos said, “but TDI is really effective in building this planning from the ground up and engaging residents and community members in it.”

Copoulos started her three-year stint in Pittsfield last fall. She immediately made an impression with the Halloween event, “It’s Alive”. Partly funded by a TDI “Quick Win” grant, the idea was to give people a reason to celebrate the district.

“That event brought over 1,000 people to North Street. That in and of itself is a success,” Copoulos said. “I also think that event was an excellent proof of concept that people are willing to engage with the street.”

Former Entrepreneur

Copoulos brings real world experience and expertise to her position as Pittsfield’s TDI Fellow. She knows the ins and outs of small business, having previously run her own enterprise, Small Oven Bakery in Easthampton.

“I think just having the base understanding of the challenges that go along with being an entrepreneur and having a business and trying to balance operations with business growth, I can come in as a TDI fellow and offer support in some of the growth and strategy channels that businesses who are in the day-to-day operations can’t necessarily see,” she said.

Copolous was also familiar with the TDI program having seen its effects first hand when she served as executive director of the chamber of commerce in Chicopee, which is also a Gateway City.

“My work at the chamber overlapped with a TDI district in Chicopee Center,” Copoulos said. “We were able to accomplish a number of goals including moving properties that had been stuck, including activating vacant spaces. One project in particular that I’m very proud of was a former gas station that we turned into a food truck park.”

While a food truck park might be a very public-facing accomplishment, it’s the behind-the-scenes work with stakeholders in the community that can make TDI a success.

“This is all very partnership driven,” said Copoulos, who meets with the Pittsfield partnership group once a month. “Over the next three years, we’re working to advance community engagement. We want to support small business, arts and culture and real estate development, improve space activation, improve how North Street feels as a pedestrian when you walk up and down it.”

The Pittsfield partnership group includes Allegrone Real Estate Group, Berkshire Bank, the Berkshire Family YMCA and local organizations like the Berkshire Black Economic Council and Downtown Pittsfield Inc. Together, these entities recently launched the Vibe North Street grant program, which is funded by TDI. The grant program offers businesses the opportunity to receive between $7.500 and $25,000 in local TDI funds to help cover the costs of relocating to vacant storefronts along the North Street corridor..

“The potential is to activate between four to six commercial storefronts in our downtown through capital assistance to attract new businesses,” said BBEC President A.J. Enchill. He sees the grant program as an opportunity to revive North Street in time for the summer.

“If the stars align, it should work that during our peak tourist months, we can inspire visitors and residents that visit downtown to see the Pittsfield we’ve all envisioned it to be,” he said.

A recent informational session for Vibe North Street attracted nearly a dozen entrepreneurs including Ashley Mendonca. She and business partner Neil Davis are planning to take over the space on North

Street that formerly hosed Maria’s European Delights, a Eastern European deli that closed at the end of last year. The small storefront housed a fitness facility before it was a deli.

Davis runs another small business, So Cal Shred, that is located above Maria’s. When Davis and Mendonca heard Maria’s was closing they saw an opportunity.

“We plan to open an eatery with quick accessible food items at the front and in the back have an area to sit down,” said Mendonca, who has a background in food services and holds a degree in culinary arts and hospitality from Berkshire Community College. “Our priority is a salad bar because that would be big for