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General manager and owner Derek Dubie, left, and service manager Norm Haskins in front of a lifted truck in their expanded service center.

North Adams' K-M Toyota Expands Service Center

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
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The service center is located next to the main building at 51 West Main St. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — K-M Toyota has revamped its old body shop on West Main Street to better accommodate the service needs of its customers.
 
The body shop was closed down a few years ago, and has been used intermittently since, said Dennis Dubie, owner of K-M Toyota.
 
He decided it would be a great service area because it has enough room to be able to work on bigger vehicles. That took some investment and renovation.
 
"We had to take and change everything in the body shop to make it desirable for a service area," Dubie said.
 
He explained that Toyota had historically manufactured smaller automobiles but models and the brand have changed during the 62 years K-M Toyota has been in business in the county.
 
"Years ago Toyota was all small cars and now they've grown to very large cars so we knew that we had to make a change," he said. "We decided rather than just have it as a regular area to go in and service your Corolla, so to speak, we had a lot of room in there and the thing to do was to probably set it up for full-size vehicles."
 
A new heavy duty lift, new compressor, and two cranes have been installed. It also has more space for technicians to work around trucks and sport utility vehicles.
 
"With the equipment that we put in there, it is designed right now where we not only can do big engine and transmission repairs we can replace engines, we can replace transmissions," Dubie said.
 
The new equipment and space will help technicians work on bigger-sized trucks and SUVs regardless of the make or model whereas before the service area was limited. 
 
The space also has new scan tools to diagnose vehicles, new tire machines to accommodate bigger tires, and upgraded garage doors.
 
With these upgrades and the expansion, said Dubie, K-M will be able to help more customers and service more vehicles.
 
"We want to hang around for a while, we want to be here and we want to continue to service cars," he said. 
 
The service center is located at 51 West Main St. and the dealership is located at 1300 Curran Highway. Contact the service center at 413-663-7406 or schedule an appointment online. Contact the sales office at 413-663-5731.
 

Tags: automotive,   

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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

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