image description — The second floor interior will be refurbished to contain 45 hotel rooms.

Renovation Plans Emerging for New Pittsfield Hotel

By Joe DurwinPittsfield Correspondent
03:49AM / Saturday, May 24, 2014Print Story | Email Story

The Historical Commission toured the site of the new Hotel on North last week.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Extensive structural renovations planned for the anticipated Hotel On North will seek to create a unique boutique lodging experience that also pays homage to the building's historic character, members of the city's Historical Commission were told on a site tour last week.

"The purpose of the tour is to introduce you to the building and to give you an idea of what's here," Project Manager Michael Makes told the commission as he began to lead them through the two connected 1880s-era buildings that will become the new hotel.

The new hotel project, officially announced by the recently formed Main Street Hospitality group in February, is expected to cost about $11 million.

Makes said the current design plan calls for 45 guest rooms, down from 50 originally slated, so that the hotel can maintain the smaller of two upstairs event spaces, while the larger ballroom will be refitted into accommodations.

The size of the ground-floor Spice Dragon restaurant will be reduced by half, with the current secondary bar and lounge areas becoming part of the main hotel, which will also include a bar of its own. No major changes are intended to the other downstairs restaurant, Mad Jacks BBQ, aside from taking about four feet for a ramp.

In addition to existing elevators on opposite ends of the building's rear, a new main elevator will be installed in the central lobby area. An antique elevator carriage that has been a longtime popular fixture of one of Spice's ladies' rooms will be preserved as a decorative fixture in the hotel after the removal of those bathrooms.

"When Joyce and Larry were doing this, they found it in the basement, and it was just in terrible shape," said building manager Jim Wright, referring to previous owners Joyce Bernstein and Lawrence Rosenthal. Wright said the couple had it painstakingly rehabilitated as part of their multimillion dollar restoration of the building a decade ago.

The hotel is slated to open in 2015, though the exact timetable remains unclear. The owners are seeking a combination of federal and state funding through historic tax credits, and are awaiting word back from applications expected later this summer, after which work may begin.

"We are hoping for August," said Makes. "It's quite a process, very detailed."

"This is fabulous," said commission member Eileen Leahy Meyers.

"This was a good idea," said Chairman Will Garrison. "Hopefully, we can all come back and take a tour in 2015."

Hotel on North Floor Plan by Joe Durwin

Tags: historical commission, motels, hotels, North Street, renovation,

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Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:04AM / Sunday, April 05, 2026

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing.

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said.

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today."

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback.

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director.

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care. Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires.

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs.

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said.

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025.

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