DAVID MIXER believes in The Berkshires

This down-home Berkshires native, following a successful career, is rolling up his sleeves and investing in the future

BY CLARENCE FANTO

These days, a growing number of Berkshire locals know of him as the fellow who founded Mill Town.

If the name Mill Town doesn’t ring a bell, its results will. The dramatic renovation of Bousquet Mountain Ski Area in Pittsfield? The Gateways Inn in Lenox? The new, market-rate apartments along Tyler Street in Pittsfield?

That’s Mill Town.

And Mill Town is David Mixer’s community investment company, the one he created in 2016 to revitalize aspects of the city of Pittsfield and beyond in the Berkshires.

Mixer calls the Berkshires “a beautiful place to live,” one that offers “year-round recreation” and “great cultural assets” within two and a half hours from Boston and New York City.

“So we keep our focus on making it a better place to live,” Mixer said. “Ideally, we’d like to have enough money to do strategic projects down the road — something bigger that could have a transformational impact on the area.” 

In Bousquet’s ski lodge, David Mixer sat down with Berkshire Landscapes magazine and emphasized that “the underlying point in everything we’re doing is sustainability — doing things well with a business mentality — and that means it has to make money.”

This Wahconah Regional High School graduate — Class of 1970 — went on to attend Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. While an undergraduate, he studied abroad in Spain and Colombia. He spent a summer at the University of California, Berkeley, “when it was still kind of cool,” he said.

The young man tried several majors — going from mechanical engineering to mathematics to psychology — until he landed on economics.

His economics thesis? The Peace Corps.

After Union College, Mixer pursued his business education. Though he wasn’t the traditional Harvard guy — “I was kind of a hippie, a Peace Corps-oriented guy from Dalton, Massachusetts, whose parents didn’t go to college” — he graduated from Harvard Business School in 1977.

And off he went: During his three-decade career as an international entrepreneur and venture-capital investor specializing in media and internet technology, he co-founded Columbia Capital in Washington, D.C., with Mark Warner, who went on to become a senator from Virginia. The pair ultimately raised more than $3 billion through six funds supporting 170 companies.

Mixer also co-founded Point Judith Capital, a New England venture capital firm with Gina Raimondo, former governor of Rhode Island and current U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

And he co-founded Middleland Capital, focusing on agricultural technology investments. Mixer also started several private equity and venture capital firms overseas.

Over the years, Mixer and his family primarily resided in Florida and Rhode Island.

Now, with Mill Town’s portfolio closing in on $100 million and a growing staff of more than 200, Mixer — who at 70 is a self-described “proud townie” from Dalton and now a Pittsfield resident — is not resting on his laurels. (In fact, Mixer’s flannel shirt projects that authenticity: Yes, he’s the guy-next-door, down-home Berkshires native who, after a successful career, is rolling up his sleeves here.)

Mill Town’s mission is wide-ranging — community partner, business investor, real estate developer and operator of major local assets. Working on neighborhoods will continue as a top priority, he emphasized.

“We’re only in the top of the second inning,” Mixer said.

Citing Mill Town CEO and Managing Director Tim Burke, Mixer pointed out that “we have a good team of people, and we’re trying to create an entity that can live without me.”

Mixer continued, “We have to build an organization and imbue a culture so people understand how this should operate. We’re early in the game, still figuring this out. We’re guessing that something unpredictable will pop up and we want to be ready.”

At 1Berkshire, the county’s economic development agency, President and CEO Jonathan Butler told us that “Mill Town has been a welcome addition to the economic development landscape of Pittsfield and the larger Berkshires.”

Mill Town has made “a massive investment in our region … with an eye toward prioritizing strategic impact,” Butler said.

Butler cited Mill Town’s investments in housing infrastructure that “speaks directly to addressing the current crisis around housing in the Berkshires, while their investments in outdoor recreation show their commitment to both expanding our economy while also enhancing signature properties (Bousquet) for the benefit of future generations.”

Mixer acknowledged that “it’s taken us a while to gain trust from the community.”

“People would ask, ‘What’s the angle? What’s the deal?’” Mixer said. “Over time, as our actions met our words, I think we’ve gained trust and people are getting it. But we have a long way to go. The goal is to get everything sustainable, getting it to last.”

Mill Town’s commitment to Pittsfield has not gone unnoticed at City Hall.

“Our city is a thriving community because of the many doers like Dave Mixer who see a need and step right in,” Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer said.

Bousquet Mountain is a perfect example of Mill Town’s “tremendous impact,” she said.

For 90 years, Tyer said, Bousquet “entertained generations of families in Pittsfield, throughout the Berkshires and beyond. However, there came a point when the future was unclear for this local treasure.”

And when Mill Town bought the mountain and introduced its redevelopment plan, the city of Pittsfield “eagerly joined the effort and invested $1.5 million in water and sewer infrastructure to support the future of Bousquet Mountain and Bousquet Sport, which sits across the street,” Tyer said.

“Now, we can expect Bousquet to remain a staple of enjoyment in our city for many years to come,” she said.

On his other high-profile venture in Pittsfield, Mixer acknowledges that the Tyler Street residential redevelopment project is a work in progress, but is headed in the right direction.

So far, the commitment to rejuvenating and creating additional housing in Pittsfield includes:

• “Parkview” at 771 Tyler St, 16 units of market-rate housing;

• “Woodlawn Park” at 748 Tyler St., 20 units, also market-rate housing;

• “Morningstar,” a redevelopment at the former St. Mary the Morningstar Church on Tyler Street between Parker and Plunkett streets, 29 units, in partnership with CT Management Group.

Along with other properties, Mill Town has 198 units of residential rental housing in the city.

“Tyler Street’s revitalization is in full swing, and we know that central to this work includes the availability of market-rate housing,” Mayor Tyer said. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to know that Mill Town’s substantial investment of market-rate residential units provides much-needed high-quality housing for our community members who reside in the Morningside neighborhood.”

Here are some key questions we put to Mixer:

QWh at brought you back to Pittsfield 50 years after leaving and what were the goals you had in mind?

DAVE MIXER: When I grew up, it was probably one of the best times in the history of this area. Everything was booming, it was a great place to live.

I had a very busy business life but a couple of things happened in my life. So six years ago, I decided I was going to do something for the Berkshires.

After a lot of thinking and talking with people, I decided to focus on Pittsfield. It needed a lot of help — it still does — and it was complicated, a challenge I was used to. We’re just scratching the surface.

I was very comfortable investing in companies but realized it was not going to make a significant change. So I started focusing on housing and neighborhoods. Companies like General Dynamics were having trouble recruiting and retaining younger people: In Pittsfield, there are not many neighborhoods for young professionals. That’s when we started focusing on the Tyler Street area because you can make a walkable neighborhood and all the GE land around there hopefully will someday get improved. I’m pretty optimistic something new can be created there. You need to have a desirable place to live if you’re going to get companies to locate here.

Q How has your vision evolved, based on six years of experience here and the unexpected impact of COVID?

MIXER: We’re getting back to a more normalized world, so we’re pushing ahead and trying to make everything work; all these businesses are tough. A major renovation is going to start at Bousquet Sport.

Ideally, at the end of the day, all of this is philanthropic in some way. … The higher-level thinking is that if you can create an entity that has enough money coming in from investments, you can help cover the cost of other things that aren’t going to make enough — somewhat of an endowment idea, but to have assets focused in Berkshire County instead of stocks and bonds. If everything works out perfectly, you have enough money to do pure philanthropic giving.

There are endless needs here. Look at all the nonprofits; they all need money.

Q What’s your take on the Tyler Street redevelopment project? And which investments may have fallen short of your expectations?

MIXER: I think it’s going OK. The new buildings are fully occupied, so that’s good, and there’s a demand for a lot more.

But it’s just a slow process. All the GE land, that’s the dominant landscape. And if you do something with that, you’ll redefine the whole area.

We’ve been working on it in discussions, pushing and nudging for years, and I think something will happen, but there are a lot of moving parts and politics.

I’m disappointed but not surprised [about the closing of The Lantern Bar and Grill and Mission Restaurant, both of which were located on North Street in Pittsfield]. You can lose money only for so long; these are not entities that should need long-term subsidies. They’re little places, maybe workable with an owner-operator, but for us it was difficult. We’ve learned a lot. We haven’t given up on food and beverage.

It’s very important to create things to do, places to go for younger people. We’re actively looking into how and where we can do concepts similar to Mission, somewhere. Gateways [in Lenox] has been a learning process for us. … All these businesses are tough, but everybody now feels optimistic.

Q Of all your projects and investments, what are you most pleased with and proud of? MIXER: I’m most pleased and proud of the organization we’ve built, the people of Mill Town. The group is pretty unique for this area — a very energetic, optimistic, hard-working group of young people. We’ve had three people acknowledged in 40 Under Forty [awarded by Berkshire Community College].

It’s creating and building the engine, and Bousquet is the showpiece. For locals, it’s the most iconic thing in Berkshire County. They all went to Bousquet, or their parents went here or knew someone who worked here.

This is a culturally important place. Its location is a great advantage. It has the opportunity to be a very good venue, which is proving out already. Next year will be even more so; you can have weddings on the top: Ride up on the chairlift, have the ceremony on the top of the mountain, have the bride and groom come down on the chairlift, and then have the reception here. That would be pretty cool.

And I’m really proud of one of the first things I did, in Dalton [in developing Mill+Main at 444 Main St., which turned a large, private home into a public space, housing entities like the town’s Community Recreation Association].

One of the things of which I am really proud is the Stanley O’Brien Center for Collaboration and Engagement at Union College. I was a trustee of Union College and the lead funder for adding this center to adjoin the admissions building. Stanley is a friend, classmate and long-term trustee of Union. The center is the first building on campus named for a person of color. I wanted to make a simple statement, by not naming the building for myself, but for another very deserving person. I hoped that others would think about the importance of relationships formed at college.

Q For pleasure and recreation here, what are your favorite pursuits?

MIXER: I’m pretty active physically, I was a Josh Billings Iron Man, pre-COVID. I play tennis; hike. I started learning skiing and snowboarding last winter. My simple goal this year is to get comfortably down from the summit of Bousquet on skis and a snowboard. I have people who have a vested interest in teaching me and not killing me! ■

MILL TOWN’S PORTFOLIO:

Operating businesses:

Bousquet Mountain Ski Area, Pittsfield

Bousquet Sport,

Pittsfield Camp Arrow Wood, a coed sports camp, on Richmond Pond, Pittsfield.

The Gateways Inn, Lenox

Berkshire Yankee Suites, Pittsfield

Green Apple Linen, a commercial linen service, Pittsfield.

Framework Coworking

Mullen Self Storage & Archive, storage facilities Adams and Pittsfield, and three in nearby New York State.

Real estate operations:

Blueprint Property Group: property management services

Real estate development:

41 Wendell Ave. in Pittsfield, development of preschool for tenant Ready, Set, Learn

45 Walker St. in Lenox, development of new office headquarters for tenant Renaissance Investment Group

771 Tyler Street, market-rate housing development (16 units) “Parkview”

748 Tyler Street in Pittsfield, market-rate housing development (20 units) “Woodlawn Park”

St. Mary the Morningstar Church redevelopment in Pittsfield, market-rate housing development in partnership with CT Management group (29 units)

The Lantern restaurant, renovation and development in partnership with owner Bjorn Somlo (since closed)

Real Estate Holdings: 198 units of residential rental housing in Pittsfield

19 units of commercial rental space in Pittsfield

Former Skyline Country Club (Lanesborough)

Former Pontoosuc Golf Club (Pittsfield)

Venture Capital:

Artistory (Great Barrington)

Whole Life Pet (Pittsfield)

Sustaine (Williamstown)

Marty’s Local (South Deerfield, formerly Richmond)

Vidmob (Pittsfield engineering base)

Lever (North Adams) –regional investment fund and accelerator in which Mill Town is an investor

Community Leadership and Partnerships:

Tanglewood in the City Bousquet Summer Concert Series

Roots Rising

West Side Legends

Berkshire United Way

Barrington Stage Company

The Mount

Jacob’s Pillow

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Shakespeare & Company.

Hancock Shaker Village

Berkshire Museum

Berkshire Theatre Group

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

EforAll

Berkshire Dream Center

Berkshire Community College

Mastheads

Berkshire Community Action Council

Downtown Pittsfield Cultural Association

Berkshire Natural Resources Council

Greenagers

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission

Berkshire Health Systems

South Congregational Church Food Pantry