Lanesborough 2025 Year in Review: What's Going On With the Berkshire Mall?
LANESBOROUGH, Mass.— The town's biggest headline in 2025 was the Berkshire Mall.
There wasn't much news about the shuttered property since owners, JMJ Holdings, announced that they were pivoting from cannabis cultivation to senior living in 2023. The Select Board ordered them to pay unsettled taxes in late 2024, and lawsuits transpired.
JMJ and the Baker Hill Road District remain in a standoff over unpaid taxes for the Route 7/8 Connector Road. JMJ argues that they are being under-represented and over-taxed by the independent municipal district and want it dissolved, while the BHRD wants to take the mall back.
The Berkshire Mall closed more than five years ago and has sat vacant since.
Its current owners are planning an assisted living, mixed-use build, and secured Integritus Healthcare as a partner. First, the decrepit mall must be taken down.
In May, JMJ reported that the project was entering the design process for a nine-figure overhaul of the property into 420 to 450 units of senior housing, and it was confirmed that town taxes were paid, totaling $293,380.
The holdings company filed a lawsuit against the BHRD, which had filed a December 2024 lawsuit seeking $545,000 for taxes due in May 2024. JMJ said the property is charged six times more taxes than other Lanesborough businesses.
In August, JMJ announced that it is partnering with a local health-care company, Integritus Healthcare, to bolster its plans for hundreds of senior housing units.
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.
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.
Town officials had worried that the BHRD's budget shortfall would affect the tax rate, but after conversations with the state Division of Local Services and the Department of Revenue, they found they could fine-tune estimated receipts to close a good portion of it. The road district also receives payments from Target, which owns and operates its building.
Towards the end of the year, local public safety officials urged the demolition of the mall, as the property was attracting urban explorers, teenagers partying, and other activities. JMJ's Principal Jay Jones agreed to apply for demolition permits, and the 600,000-square-foot mall is estimated to cost as much as $7 million to take down.
The mall's project team said the road district is the reason there has been inaction on the property.
In November, JMJ offered the town funds to dissolve the independent governmental road district within Lanesborough in return for an incremental rebate that caps the property's post-development value at $20.5 million for 10 years. The Connector Road would be taken over by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
On the other hand, BHRD attorney Mark Siegars reported that Target positively responded to being a partner with the road district in the property's redevelopment.
Siegars said the genesis of the road district was for economic development, and while it doesn't have the power to take the mall by eminent domain, it could be done through partnership with the town. He asked the board to establish a working group to mull the option.
No decisions were made during that meeting, and the Select Board asked that a representative from Target speak for themselves. Target did not answer iBerkshires' request for comment.
A couple of weeks later, the Lanesborough Fire Department reinstated a 2022 order to secure the Berkshire Mall, giving JMJ 14 days to respond. Failed fire-suppression systems triggered a court order to repair or secure the building years ago, but it was attached to the previous owner and didn't transfer over when JMJ purchased the mall in 2023, Fire Chief Jeff DeChaine said.
The property saw repairs after the sale, but is now seen as a liability, and the town wants it secured or demolished to prevent further break-ins and trespassing.
But it wasn't all bad. The year ended on a high note for Lanesborough Elementary School fifth graders taught by Gina Wagner, who won the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's "Name A Snowplow" contest with "The Blizzard Boss."
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations.
The town also continued to grapple with its public safety facility needs.
In April, the Select Board again voted advance a $7.3 million combined police/emergency medical services facility to a town vote, discarding the option for a $6.5 million separate build. The same design, then priced at $5.9 million, was shot down in 2023.
One of the considerations for the project was the crowded space EMS and fire shared at 180 South Main St., which is owned by the Fire Association. Over the summer, the Select Board went into negotiations for EMS space in the South Main Plaza next to the rented space for the Lanesborough Police Department.
Tags: Berkshire Mall, year in review,
