image description
The Board of Selectmen asked Town Manager Paul Sieloff to sending a welcoming letter to Walmart.

Lanesborough to Walmart: Come Build Here

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — If Pittsfield doesn't want Walmart, Lanesborough will take it.
 
The Board of Selectmen have asked Town Manager Paul Sieloff to reach out to Walmart officials and ask if they'd consider building the proposed supercenter on the Berkshire Mall property instead of in Pittsfield. 
 
"Our tax rate is much cheaper than Pittsfield's, we'd be glad to have you, and there is plenty of parking," said Chairman John Goerlach.
 
Waterstone Realty is looking to build a Walmart Supercenter at the William Stanley Business Park in Pittsfield and closing the existing one at Berkshire Crossings. But, as of Thursday, the company has still not filed any applications. The project has faced heated debates in the city but Lanesborough officials would welcome the additional tax revenue.
 
"Let's grab a hold of that one if [the city] wants to keep fighting them," Goerlach said. 
 
Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers says developers had placed a call to Town Hall in the last six months but it was misdirected and he is unsure of what ultimately happened. 
 
Of course, there are some challenges facing such a move. First, the town does not own the property. Kohan Retail Investment Group owns the mall. However, the Baker Hill Road District, a quasi-public entity, is making a move to purchase it. The district still needs state authorization for that.
 
A second question is what that would mean for Target. Target owns its space in the mall and could be upset with a direct competitor moving onto the same land parcel. Goerlach, however, doesn't want to wait. He wants to get in contact with Walmart first to see if there is any interest. If Target opposes it, then he's sure the Selectmen will be made aware of it.
 
While Waterstone may not have applied for city permitting yet, the company did place a $20,000 non-refundable deposit on the land. The company has a purchase and sales agreement in place as well. It will still need a special permit from the City Council and already there have been multiple petitions asking the developer to change designs and perform an economic impact study — both of which have yet to get approval.
 
The project has both opponents and proponents in Pittsfield, which have been arguing over the proposal for almost a year since it was first proposed.
 
Meanwhile, the Berkshire Mall has been losing tenants with the most notable being Macy's, Best Buy, and soon J.C. Penney, three anchors. The taxable value of the mall has been decreasing at an alarming pace from $60.4 million in 2008 to $19.5 million this year. Kohan purchased the mall for $3.5 million. Town officials say the owners are not fully up to date with tax payments either.
 
That loss of revenue is sounding alarms with Lanesborough officials who are looking for ways to bring in more revenue. The commercial space at the mall with availability seems a logical place to recruit new companies. 
 
Sayers also asked Sieloff to contact Ipswich Pharmaceutical Associates, which was just denied the ability to build a medical marijuana cultivation facility in Becket. 
 
"That might be a good tax revenue for the town," Sayers said. 

Tags: Berkshire Mall,   Walmart,   

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

Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 
View Full Story

More Lanesborough Stories