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Home improvement company Window World is moving into the former TD Bank property this year.

Window World Opening Location in Adams by End of the Year

By Brian RhodesiBerkshires Staff
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ADAMS, Mass. — Window World of Western Massachusetts plans on opening its third location at 10 Center St. 

 

Tim Drost, owner and home improvement specialist at Window World, said the business is beginning the necessary steps with the town to open and plans for operations to start by the end of the year. Window World purchased the former bank building for $350,000 in February. 

 

"We've done work in the Berkshires for many, many years. We would just come out of our Westfield location," he said. "The family has thought about it for multiple years and, looking in all the towns in the Berkshires, we really liked the feel of the town." 

 

Drost said the new location should make it much more convenient for people living in the area to shop at Window World. He explained the business already gets significant interest from people in Berkshire County. 

 

"Between windows and doors and siding, we probably install close to $5 million with the business already," he said. "We do a lot of work in that area now. So we feel strongly about the growth in that area." 

 

In addition to the showroom at 10 Center St., Drost said Window World is also looking for a potential warehouse location.

 

"We'll probably look to purchase other properties in Adams within the next year," he said. "We're going to establish some roots in the town, for sure. It was a multiple-year decision, and we felt that the areas and the towns that we work in that Adams was a perfect location for us."

 

Aside from the store itself, one way the company will benefit Adams, according to Drost, is Window World's multi-year carpenter apprentice program. He said this program has been successful in their other stores. 

 

"We have multiple people on our teams that come from Belchertown and went through the apprentice program or are still in the program. So I think it will be good for the community," he said. 

 

Beyond just the location, Drost said the ongoing growth in Adams was another reason they chose the town for their third location. 

 

"The past couple of years, there's been a lot of stuff done in Adams. The revitalization of the town and the investment in the town and in the older homes. And we like the feel of that," he said. "Our other locations are more in a small town. Belchertown is a similar feel, and we're a family business, and that's where we like to do business. In that type of community." 

 

The 10 Center St. building has been vacant since 2013 when TD Bank closed.


Tags: new business,   home improvement,   

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Letter: Progress Means Moving on Paper Mill Cleanup

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Our town is facing a clear choice: move a long-abandoned industrial site toward cleanup and productive use or allow it to remain a deteriorating symbol of inaction.

The Community Development team has applied for a $4 million EPA grant to remediate the former Curtis Mill property, a site that has sat idle for more than two decades. The purpose of this funding is straightforward: address environmental concerns and prepare the property for safe commercial redevelopment that can contribute to our tax base and economic vitality.

Yet opposition has emerged based on arguments that miss the point of what this project is designed to do. We are hearing that basement vats should be preserved, that demolition might create dust, and that the plan is somehow "unimaginative" because it prioritizes cleanup and feasibility over wishful reuse of a contaminated, aging structure.

These objections ignore both the environmental realities of the site and the strict federal requirements tied to this grant funding. Given the condition of most of the site's existing buildings, our engineering firm determined it was not cost-effective to renovate. Without cleanup, no private interest will risk investment in this site now or in the future.

This is not a blank check renovation project. It is an environmental remediation effort governed by safety standards, engineering assessments, and financial constraints. Adding speculative preservation ideas or delaying action risks derailing the very funding that makes cleanup possible in the first place. Without this grant, the likely outcome is not a charming restoration, it is continued vacancy, ongoing deterioration, and zero economic benefit.

For more than 20 years, the property has remained unused. Now, when real funding is within reach to finally address the problem, we should be rallying behind a practical path forward not creating obstacles based on narrow or unrealistic preferences.

I encourage residents to review the proposal materials and understand what is truly at stake. The Adams Board of Selectmen and Community Development staff have done the hard work to put our town in position for this opportunity. That effort deserves support.

Progress sometimes requires letting go of what a building used to be so that the community can gain what it needs to become.

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