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Former Moderne Studios Building Sold at Auction

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The former Moderne Studios building at 19 Eagle Street that has been vacant for several years sold at auction for $100,000 on Tuesday.

$100,000 was the lone bid for the property, despite several interested parties showing up for the auction. Prior to the bidding, potential bidders were given a tour of the three-floor, 5300-square-foot building.

Skip Barry of The Barry Group Real Estate, who placed the winning bid, said he is unsure what he plans to do with the property but spoke highly of the building itself and its location on Eagle Street.

"I think it's a fabulous location and a fabulous building," he said, noting that he owns other properties in the downtown area."

Barry said he has no connections to any businesses or owners previously involved with the property.

Irving Shechtman & Co., Inc. ran the auction.

The building has been vacant for several years, with visible damage to the building's outside brickwork and woodwork.

The property received new electrical work in 2003 before its purchase by the previous owner in 2005. In 2008, an excavation of the basement took place, in addition to the construction of a rear egress from the second floor. In 2009, the previous owner added beams and structural steel.

The building can house one commercial space on the first floor and four residential units on the second and third floors.

MCLA in Talks With Anonymous Donor for Art Museum, Art Lab

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Monday, April 29, 2024

Andre Lynch, the new vice provost for institutional equity and belonging, introduces himself to the trustees, some of whom were participating remotely.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts may be in line for up to a $10 million donation that will include a campus art museum. 

 

President Jamie Birge told the board of trustees on Thursday that  the college has been in discussions for the last couple years with a donor who wishes at this point to remain anonymous.

 

"It's a donor that has a history of working with public liberal arts institutions to advance the arts that those institutions," he said.  "This donor would like to talk with us or has been talking with us about creating art museum and an art lab on campus."

 

The Fine and Performing Arts Department will have input, the president continued. "We want to make sure that it's a facility that supports that teaching and learning dynamic as well as responding to what's the interest of donor."

 

The college integrated into the local arts community back in 2005 with the opening of Gallery 51 on Main Street that later expanded with an art lab next door. The gallery under the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center had been the catalyst for the former Downstreet Art initiative; its participation has fallen off dramatically with changes in leadership and the pandemic. 

 

This new initiative, should it come to pass, would create a facility on MCLA Foundation property adjacent to the campus. The donor and the foundation have already split the cost of a study. 

 

"We conducted that study to look at what approximately a 6,500-square-foot facility would look like," said Birge. "How we would staff the gallery and lab, how can we use this lab space for fine and performing arts."