North Adams Bank Building, Former Pizzeria Sold
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Two more Main Street properties have sold this month.
The former TD Bank that closed in April was sold on Dec. 9 to Ginko on Main Street LLC for $600,000. The property had been assessed at about $800,000.
The former Pizza House on the corner of Main and Eagle streets was sold by Mark and Robert Moulton on Dec. 22 for $200,000 to Impactful Art Factory LLC.
The principal of Ginko is John S. "Jack" Wadsworth Jr., who has been involved in a number of properties in the city including Porches and the UNO Community Center.
The bank building had been listed as being owned by First Massachusetts Bank, which purchased it from Bank Boston NA (Bank of America) in 1998 for $391,067. First Massachusetts merged with TD Bank in 2005.
The 20,000 square foot property is prohibited from being used a bank or other insurance or financial services institution for a period of five years.
There has been a bank in that area of Main Street for more than a century. The site had been the former North Adams National Bank that was demolished in 1963 along with its marble lobby. The bank had earlier merged with what was then Hoosac Savings Bank across the street.
First Agricultural Bank, which had offices next door, purchased the former bank building and another property and razed both, the first buildings taken down for urban renewal. The current 6,900-square-foot building was constructed by First Agricultural as its new offices.
The two-story Pizza House property consists of three addresses: 117 Main St. and 3-5 Eagle St. The principal of Impactful Art Factory is Andrew Fitch of East Quincy Street.
Mark and Robert Moulton Jr., whose family also operates Moulton's Spectacle Shoppe next door, bought the building in 2004 from John and James Varellas. James and Stacy Varellas had run the Pizza House there for more than 30 years.
The Varellases had also owned a Pizza House in Adams on McKinley Square and on Spring Street in Williamstown, as well as in Boston, Lee and Great Barrington.
The corner continued as a pizzeria, first as Moulton's Pizza and as several other entities, including Supreme and Bella Roma. It's been closed for more than a year.
The property had originally been Rice's Drug Store, first established in 1866. The corner had been colloquially known as "Rice's Corner" for decades. The business had been in the Rice family, though former Mayor Archie Pratt was a partner for a time, until it closed in 1965. It had stopped selling prescription drugs in 1961. It was owned by Star Realty Co. before the Varelllases bought it in 1971.
Three other recent sales were the Holiday Inn and 85 Main St., the New Kimbell Building.
