Marshall Street Property Sold at Auction

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The former Mohawk Garage was sold at auction on Thursday afternoon for $210,000 to an unidentified buyer.

The building has gone through a number of transformations over the years, from car dealerships to shopping center to its current set up as offices and meeting space. Longtime owners John R. and Edith T. Leu said it "was just time to let it go" as they look to retirement.

The auction took about 6 1/2 minutes but the auctioner had to do some coaxing to get the bidding going at $100,000. Despite the number of interested parties, it was clear that only two individuals were in it. The bidding moved fairly slowing until topping out at $210,000.

As an "absolute" auction, the highest bid determined the sale. The property was sold as is.

The winner declined to give his name or his designs on the property. "We're not ready to talk about it yet," he said. The loser, Duncan Brown, a principal of North Adams Development Trust, also declined to discuss his interest in the property.

The winning bidder has 30 days to complete the sale or forfeit the $20,000 deposit, although attorney Howard D'Amico, representing the Leus, said an extension to 45 days could be negotiated to complete any financing packages.

Leu bought the building in 1957 and changed the name from Mohawk Garage to Mohawk Motors. In time, an Amoco gas station was added and the Mohawk Ambulance operated out of the building. In 1969, the building was refurbished to include a shopping center, featuring a furniture store, Helen's Yarn Shop and later the former Tropical Gardens aquarium store. The pumps were removed and the garage and auto body shop closed sometime later.

More recently, the Brien Center had operated out of the building until relocating to the former Transcript building on American Legion Drive.

The property had been for sale through Steepleview Realty when the Leus decided go with the auction, conducted by Aaron Posnik Auctioneers. The 22,600 square-foot brick building has two stories, about 50 foot of frontage and 22 parking spots in a prime location in the downtown. There are no current tenants.

"It's the end of an era," said Edith Leu afterward.

North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Thursday, May 02, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey updates members of the former YMCA on the status of the roof project and plans for reopening. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has plans to keep the former YMCA as a community center.

 

"The city of North Adams is very committed to having a recreation center not only for our youth but our young at heart," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said to the applause of some 50 or more YMCA members on Wednesday. "So we are really working hard and making sure we can have all those touch points."

 

The fate of the facility attached to Brayton School has been in limbo since the closure of the pool last year because of structural issues and the departure of the Berkshire Family YMCA in March.

 

The mayor said the city will run some programming over the summer until an operator can be found to take over the facility. It will also need a new name. 

 

"The YMCA, as you know, has departed from our facilities and will not return to our facility in the form that we had," she said to the crowd in Council Chambers. "And that's been mostly a decision on their part. The city of North Adams wanted to really keep our relationship with the Y, certainly, but they wanted to be a Y without borders, and we're going a different direction."

 

The pool was closed in March 2023 after the roof failed a structural inspection. Kyle Lamb, owner of Geary Builders, the contractor on the roof project, said the condition of the laminated beams was far worse than expected. 

 

"When we first went into the Y to do an inspection, we certainly found a lot more than we anticipated. The beams were actually rotted themselves on the bottom where they have to sit on the walls structurally," he said. "The beams actually, from the weight of snow and other things, actually crushed themselves eight to 11 inches. They were actually falling apart. ...