U.S. Sen. Edward Markey was in the Berkshires on Thursday to visit the county's two cities.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey is impressed by the city's effort to spark economic development in the downtown and beyond.
He spoke with officials and stakeholders Thursday at Dottie's Coffee Lounge and browsed a couple of North Street businesses. After visiting Carr Hardware and Dolc'e Rose Beauty Supply, he ended the downtown visit with an ice cream cone from Empire Pizza.
"It's pretty clear to me that the businesses are feeling a clear uptick in their opportunities, their economic outlook for the future," said Markey, who had made a visit to North Adams earlier.
"And they are excited about the mayor's plan for more housing downtown, more people walking the streets. We can feel the dramatic reduction in the number of vacancies in the storefronts."
He believes the city is at a "historic economic inflection point."
"You can feel the economic energy on the street in Pittsfield," the senator said. "And I just want to be as helpful as I can be in partnering with the mayor and all of the rest of the economic partners to see ultimately, the 21st century be even greater than the 20th or 19th century was for Pittsfield."
Mayor Peter Marchetti was excited to report that for the first time in a long time, about 90 percent of downtown storefronts are occupied. This, coupled with two upcoming housing projects in the Wright Building and at the corner of White Terrace, hopes to bring sustainable foot traffic to the corridor.
Housing was a common topic amongst the business and community leaders gathered at Dotties.
President and CEO of 1Berkshire Jonathan Butler explained that the region is struggling with recruiting talent because of the high cost of housing. Additionally, it's retain a local population that can't afford a home in the Berkshires and doesn't have access to market-rate quality housing, he said.
He recognized that some great housing projects in Pittsfield have shown the way for others but there is still a great gap.
In late 2020, 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission assembled a working group of regional partners and created A Housing Vision For The Berkshires, which identifies critical issues and 62 strategic actions to solve them.
Issues such as unaffordability, scarcity, declining stock, and lack of resources were called out among many others. Strategies are categorized into four broad categories: education, advocacy, financial resources, and building a supportive environment.
BRPC's Executive Director Thomas Matuszko explained that its role with housing is to work with municipalities to get in the position for housing development — which also means welcoming it.
"Housing is not bad," he added. "I think there still is a message in Berkshire County that housing is bad and we want to try to work with that."
President and CEO of Berkshire United Way Thomas Bernard added that housing is "critically important."
"We're a sector that employs about 25 percent of the population of the Berkshires. Folks in our work struggle to find housing just as they do everywhere," he explained.
Homelessness and the need for additional mental health support were also addressed. Bernard pointed out that the organizations at the table already collaborate on regional issues, especially through data provided by BRPC.
"What you see here is a group of organizations and individuals who do collaborate regularly," he said.
Markey also heard from the Berkshire Black Economic Council, which is located at 33 Dunham Mall and has plans for an incubator space in the William Stanley Business Park.
BBEC received a $450,000 earmark from congressionally directed spending to support the schematic design for a proposed incubator space. The goal is to have it completed by 2027.
"This will be a new site where we develop storefronts for local businesses, we would provide workshops, host different trainings, and truly let businesses incubate," President A.J. Enchill said.
"Sort of like a nest where they could grow and learn, scale their businesses, and then eventually they would move and leave the nest and occupy a vacant storefront in downtown Pittsfield."
Marchetti told Markey that Pittsfield is a "GE rebound."
In late August, it was announced that William Stanley Business Park's largest parcel was purchased by Mill Town Capital, which intends to construct a commercial building upwards of 20,000 square feet to provide office and lab scape for growing local businesses.
Site 9 is seeing an $11 million redevelopment after previously being viewed as a "scar" that looks like the surface of the moon. Now, it is greened and ready for a new life.
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