Registry Could Move to Main Street
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| The building at 33 Main St. once housed Roberts Co. and later MindBranch. |
A proposal has been filed with the city to move the registry into the former Roberts Co. building on Main Street, not far from where it used to be located.
"That's a possibility," Charles W. Fox, owner of the registry's current home at 420 Curran Highway, said on Tuesday. "The lawyer's courier got to Boston 20 minutes too late to submit our proposal ... observing the letter of the law, they wouldn't accept it."
The registry's lease on Curran Highway is up Friday and the state had put out a request for proposals, the standard bidding process, said registry spokeswoman Ann Dufresne on Monday.
Dufresne said she couldn't comment further on the future location of the North Adams office. She did say that any relocation would have to meet all local regulations.
Scarafoni Associates, which owns the Main Street building, is requesting a change of use from a private office to allow the registry to occupy approximately half of the 5,000-square-foot usable space on the first floor. The registry would be located in about 2,500 square feet of space along the back of the building.
A hallway separating the registry from another area for retail/office space in the front of the building would allow access from Marshall Street and from off Main Street. There are no plans to change the exterior.
In a letter accompanying the application, David E. Carver, managing partner of Scarafoni Associates, noted that "the registry was in the downtown for more than 20 years" and should not significantly affect traffic in terms of parking or road tests.
The registry had been housed in the structure immediately behind the Berkshire Bank, along Center Street. Since then, the demolition of Sculley's Tavern next to it had created 15 more parking spaces, Carver wrote. Pedestrian traffic is estimated at 100 per day, or 12.33 an hour.
An employee at Scarafoni who declined to be identified said "nothing is set in concrete, nothing is written in stone" regarding the move. Carver, reached Wednesday, said the bids were submitted in October.
The proposal is scheduled to go before the Planning Board on Monday, March 10, at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers.
Fox said he had signed an agreement with the registry on Tuesday to extend its lease through the end of 2008. The Williamstown real estate developer and partner Gordon Leete bought the Curran Highway property last year with hopes of turning the former K-K Home Mart building and its three acres into a centralized location for public service and professional offices, with the registry as the anchor.
He didn't think it was a good idea to move the registry downtown because the current location offers plentiful parking and easy access for traffic - something a matter of 20 minutes shouldn't change.
"We have to hope that practicality will prevail," said Fox.
Edited with new material on Feb. 28, 2008.
