image description
Anton Melchionda of Waterstone Realty presents plans for the proposed Walmart during Monday's forum at Morningside Community School.

Residents Pepper Walmart Developer With Questions at Ward Meeting

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

Don Harr from Atlantic Retail Properties said his experience shows that such a development will bring a new vibrancy to the area.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — If Anton Melchionda, principal with Waterstone Retail, had a manufacturer looking to move to the teens section of the William Stanley Business Park, he'd build the building. 

He challenged anyone, including City Councilor at Large Melissa Mazzeo, to find one.

"Based on the economics. It goes back to the dollars it needs because of the mess that was left here. You guys were left with a mess, a toxic mess from people that completely disregarded the community, packed up their bags, put a chain link fence, and left," Melchionda said of the contaminated site on former GE land.
 
He later added, "I would be the first one to love to champion that process of taking what was once a vibrant, very, very well respected manufacturing part of this city and bring it back. We would all look like we were heroes. I can't do that because it is not possible. In all the years we've been here we've said, if we are missing something and someone has a company, if someone has an idea, and you can build a manufacturer here, I'd love to build the building."
 
Instead, Melchionda is proposing to develop a Walmart Supercenter. The retail giant is looking to build a 190,000 square-foot new store and move from Berkshire Crossings to the parcel bordering Tyler Street and Woodlawn Avenue. Waterstone is proposing a $30 million project and has been given a letter of intent from the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority to pursue city approvals. 
 
At a Ward 1 and 2 meeting on Monday night, Melchionda told around 50 residents that there is value for retailer in the some 40,000 cars that drive by the location. The land has little value for anything else, he said. Walmart would be spending upward of $163 per square-foot on the property for that access and manufacturers can find other parcels or vacant buildings in the Berkshires for as low as $8 per square foot. 
 
The proponents used Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing's purchase of a 116,000 square-foot building in Lee for $1 million as an example of manufacturing sites that are "10 times" lower in costs. Another property in Lee with rail access cost $1.5 million. At PEDA, the proponents say they will be spending upward of $14 million — an increased cost since the last estimation — on the foundation work alone for the $30 million project.
 
The William Stanley Business Park was never meant for retail and language even excluded such a use in the consent decree with GE that signed over the land. Many who attended the meeting got into heated back and forths with the developers arguing against Walmart because of its impact to small businesses and on the future of the park. 
 
Mazzeo opposes the project and says she believes that manufacturing is possible. She asked residents to wait until the Berkshire Innovation Center is completed with the hope that development will spur from there. The proposal overall just "sounds too good to be true" she said of Waterstone's plan and remains skeptical.   
 
Waterstone's plans include some 350 construction jobs to build the building and then another 80 to 100 additional retail jobs by including a grocery component to the store's operations. The store is moving the current 200 or so employees to the new location as well.
 
"Pittsfield has 2,000 unemployed people today. We need 80 to 100 jobs, it doesn't get rid of the problem but it helps," Al Maiorino, president of Public Strategy Group, who is working on the project, said. 
 
The new Walmart is expected to be valued $200,000 more than the current location, and the company will work to find a new tenant in Berkshire Crossings, which its expect to have in less than two years after vacating the location. The developers say it will solve what they term is a "food desert" in the Morningside neighborhood. 
 
But most importantly, the developers say they will be capping the PCB contamination, grinding down layers of the currently uneven foundation, and putting in a new stormwater drainage system to comply with a draft permit issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 
 
Diane Marcella of the Tyler Street Business Group said the company fixing the stormwater issue eases the burden off the city in the future.
 
"As a benefit to Pittsfield, we need to at least touch on how if you guys don't come in and do it in the near future, the city has to pick up the tab," she said.
 
For Rinaldo Del Gallo, that $14 million figure for site work doesn't add up. He said he was told that the property was supposed to be "shovel ready" years ago and if what the developers are saying about its toxicity is true, then General Electric should still be held responsible. 
 
Mazzeo said if the site truly needs that much work, "we should be irate at everyone who sat at the table and sold us down the river."
 
Melchionda says he wasn't here for those negotiations so he can't comment on that situation but it is his belief that right now, no manufacturer will want the site.
 
Further, Del Gallo, a local attorney and recent state Senate candidate, says he's read studies that show for every one job Walmart creates, three are lost. The impact the big-box retailer has on small businesses is devastating. The retailers, however, say they have their own studies that show jobs aren't lost and areas become revitalized. They envision the store to be an anchor for future development.
 
"I haven't heard it that way. I've heard the opposite that the little businesses get clobbered," Del Gallo responded.
 
Another resident said the store's move would endanger the likes of Carr Hardware and Harry's Supermarket. He said Walmart replaces the mom-and-pop shops with big-box stores and sometimes then closes shop and leaves.
 
"They kill a community," the resident said.
 
Melchionda countered that in his town, the local hardware is busy and surviving even with competition from big box stores. He added that Walmart has been in Pittsfield for 22 years and Carr and Harry's are still surviving. 
 
"We are simply moving from one area to another and we are adding grocery," Maiorino said.
 
The move is bringing it closer to the downtown, and the developers say in other places where they've done such a development the downtowns remained, or became, vibrant even with the store in closer proximity. The company's plans is to put in the suburban model of the Supercenter, similar to that in North Adams, to replace what they call a Division 1 store. 
 
"[Walmart] feels this will handle this area and Southern Berkshire County and North Adams will handle Northern Berkshire and Southern Vermont," Maiorino said.
 

Residents asked many pointed questions about the project from impacts to businesses, to the extent and liability with digging up the foundation, to details of the traffic improvements planned.
Others raised concern about traffic patterns and worry that the intersection cannot be renovated without taking land. Melchionda said the plan is not to take any land but to put a signal in at Woodlawn and Tyler and other improvements suggested by traffic engineers. The signal will also be timed with the light on East Street and Woodlawn.
 
"We are going to reconfigure that entire area there, widening the street, putting in sidewalks, we'll be putting in crosswalks," he said. "We pay for that. That is part of our project."
 
Another resident asked if the company was willing to pay for road maintenance, which the developers said is part of the taxes the company will pay as soon as the store is open. And yet another asked for a contribution to help policing the site.
 
"As part of our project, we don't have any commitments or any plans to be part of the emergency management," Melchionda said.
 
The developers tried to balance a line of keeping focused on the parcel on which they are planning to build while still suggesting that it could be a trigger for future growth. They said they do not have any plans to market and try to develop the rest of the William Stanley Business Park. But, at the same time, they said in other cities a development of such a parcel has led to other growth.
 
"We believe Walmart will anchor and stimulate the growth at the William Stanley Business Park," Don Harr, of Atlantic Retail Properties, said. 
 
The developers feel Tyler Street is "going to be shopped more" and that other businesses will see that the William Stanley Business Park is developable.
 
"We believe as we committed to the mayor that once we do that you will see other people who want to be part of the development," Melchionda said. "We'll start in the corner, build a beautiful building, make all the improvements, and we will show the world that it can be done."
 
But, he later added, "We are not at all presenting the idea that we are going to be the solution to redeveloping the entire William Stanley Business Park" meaning he can't promise that it will actually trigger future businesses. He also said he couldn't promise that no other nearby business wouldn't close but the other developments of this nature hasn't shown that to happen, he said.
 
Harr later said he'd expect a new vibrancy to come to the Morningside neighborhood that will raise home values for those living nearby.
 
Maiorino added that the Pittsfield residents are currently spending some $5.5 million in Walmarts outside of the area, and sometimes the state. Those numbers are tracked, he said, by use of credit cards and doesn't even include cash customers. He said city residents are going to the bigger and better Walmarts and building the new super center will now keep those dollars local.
 
But if it is the same store just with a grocery component, why would residents drive more than a half hour away to shop? Mazzeo asked. They responded that the bigger stores allow the company to carry a wider variety of brands for the various items.
 
"I don't see myself driving over to a different Walmart because there are more brands," Mazzeo said.
 
The developers also said they will try to keep the construction, design, and engineering jobs local. Melchionda says his company gives first and last looks to local businesses and prefers to work locally as long as the price is reasonable.
 
"We are going to great lengths to make sure all of that work stays here," he said. 
 
The meeting was the first of three Ward Councilors Lisa Tully and Kevin Morandi are holding on the Walmart proposal.
 
"We really want to engage the public. We want them to get educated and by holding these public meetings, we are certain it will do that. We certainly hope people express their feelings to her or I. We want to know. This is an important project for the William Stanley Business Park. It is important for the Morningside area, important for the city of Pittsfield," Morandi said. "You heard that tonight, a lot of people expressed their feelings."
 
The crowd was divided with some supportive but many others skeptical. It had gotten heated at times with residents loudly expressing their view points and being curtailed by others. Morandi said that is fine because that back and forth is the type of discussion he wants.
 
"It was well attended people came out and people really wanted to illustrate their views tonight for or against. We heard some real good conversation out there tonight and that's what we hoped, to engage the people and we hope throughout the process they are going to be engaged," Morandi said. 
 
Waterstone hasn't yet filed a petition with the city for permits but said that will be coming soon. 

Tags: business park,   PEDA,   Walmart,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

MassDOT Project Will Affect Traffic Near BMC

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Prepare for traffic impacts around Berkshire Medical Center through May for a state Department of Transportation project to improve situations and intersections on North Street and First Street.

Because of this, traffic will be reduced to one lane of travel on First Street (U.S. Route 7) and North Street between Burbank Street and Abbott Street from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday through at least May 6.

BMC and Medical Arts Complex parking areas remain open and detours may be in place at certain times. The city will provide additional updates on changes to traffic patterns in the area as construction progresses.

The project has been a few years in the making, with a public hearing dating back to 2021. It aims to increase safety for all modes of transportation and improve intersection operation.

It consists of intersection widening and signalization improvements at First and Tyler streets, the conversion of North Street between Tyler and Stoddard Avenue to serve one-way southbound traffic only, intersection improvements at Charles Street and North Street, intersection improvements at Springside Avenue and North Street, and the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of First Street, North Street, Stoddard Avenue, and the Berkshire Medical Center entrance.

Work also includes the construction of 5-foot bike lanes and 5-foot sidewalks with ADA-compliant curb ramps.  

Last year, the City Council approved multiple orders for the state project: five orders of takings for intersection and signal improvements at First Street and North Street. 

The total amount identified for permanent and temporary takings is $397,200, with $200,000 allocated by the council and the additional monies coming from carryover Chapter 90 funding. The state Transportation Improvement Plan is paying for the project and the city is responsible for 20 percent of the design cost and rights-of-way takings.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories