Berkshire Mall Owners Find Partner for Senior Living Project
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Berkshire Mall owners are partnering with a local health-care company to bolster its plans for hundreds of senior housing units.
JMJ RE Holdings LLC has announced its collaboration with Integritus Healthcare to redevelop the shuttered mall into campus-style senior housing that includes supportive and ancillary retail space.
"They will be working with us in the planning, reimagining, and eventual operation of the senior housing facilities that we propose to amount to over 400 units across several housing types and a campus-style community," consultant Timothy Grogan, of the Housing Development Corp., told the Select Board on Monday.
"… We could not have found a better collaborator, as they are not only mission-driven and incredibly good at what they do, which I’ve seen firsthand, but they are a true Berkshire County organization with immense local expertise."
Integritus operates 21 facilities in Massachusetts ranging from independent living to long-term care, including North Adams and Williamstown Commons in North County and Kimball Farms in Lenox.
The mall closed more than five years ago and has sat vacant since. Planners estimate that most of it will need to be torn down, except Target, which owns its property and continues to operate.
In 2023, JMJ pivoted away from cannabis cultivation plans and toward senior housing, citing Target's refusal to dissolve prohibitive restrictions and oversaturation of the market as reasons for the change.
In a press release from JMJ, principal Jay Jones said he was "elated to be working alongside such a highly respected, mission-driven, and local organization who will be instrumental in the realization and future operation of this impactful project."
Similarly, President and CEO of Integritus Healthcare Bill Jones, is quoted saying, "Our organization is honored to have a role in assisting and consulting with the developer in the reinvigoration of the former Lanesboro Mall. As the leading not-for-profit provider of post-acute care, long-term health care, and senior housing provider, we look forward to applying our industry experience in support of the expansion of much needed services and employment opportunities in Berkshire County."
Initial plans are to create a housing campus with at least 400 apartments for independent living, assisted living, memory care, active adult residential, and senior-restricted affordable housing "to revitalize the long vacant mall and address the rising housing needs of the senior population throughout the State, but palpably felt within the Berkshires," planners say.
The Baker Hill Road District has sued the mall owners for unpaid taxes on the Route 7-8 Connector road, and on Monday, Grogan again insisted that JMJ will not be paying those funds unless a judge orders it. He said the mall owners pay almost five times as many taxes as other businesses in Lanesborough, and have offered bridging solutions to the town if the district were dissolved.
The BHRD is an independent municipal district within the town with a governing body that oversees the maintenance of the connector road as a public way. It is charged with ensuring the timely payment of the Berkshire Mall's bond and that the mall meets obligations to the community regardless of ownership.
Tags: Berkshire Mall, nursing home, senior housing,
