Lanesborough Hopes for Continued Talks on Mall Sale
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Select Board is optimistic that talks for the Berkshire Mall sale will continue.
Chair Deborah Maynard and Vice Chair Juli Baker were to meet with mall owner JMJ Holdings, the Baker Hill Road District, and proposed buyer Cypress Equities on Tuesday to discuss next steps. As of Wednesday, iBerkshires had received a "we are optimistic" from Maynard on the talks. The Berkshire Eagle reported a response from a Cypress representative saying talks will continue.
Baker had updated the Select Board on Monday about the status of the sale and the efforts being undertaken by the renamed Baker Hill Economic District.
Cypress Equities pulled out of a purchase-and sale-agreement with mall owner JMJ last week for the following reasons.
- Not enough water service/pressure to the property to support redevelopment without constructing costly water tanks.
- The current septic system and former treatment facility is not acceptable for a project of the scale and magnitude proposed.
- There is existing asbestos and bad soil from the treatment system that needs to be remediated off site.
- And the current structure and tax assessment of the Baker Hill Road District.
Baker has been working with what is now being called the Baker Hill Economic District and said she and the district members are happy that Cypress has decided to leave the door open to more discussions and that they have been working hard to try and address the company's needs.
Last month, the town had asked state Sen. Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III to support the state Department of Transportation taking over the Connector Road, funding for a mall connection to Pittsfield's wastewater treatment plant and a connection to the town's water main.
Baker said an amendment has been drafted to cap the district's taxes to not grow more than 2.5 percent a year. She noted that, historically, taxes have not grown by more than one percent per year, so it won't be difficult to meet that cap.
"Cypress has been looking for some assurance that there would be predictable taxation from the special tax district," she said. "Cypress was interested in continuing to work with the Baker Hill District because the district offers some economic development benefits to a developer, they just didn't want to have an uncertain level of taxation over time."
The road district was established through legislation as a taxing entity when the now defunct mall was built in the 1980s to maintain the Connector Road and cover costs for police and fire services.
Baker said the district expressed interest in changing the structure of governance to increase its Prudential Committee from three to possibly to five members and specify how representatives are appointed as well.
She hopes the town can also help limit the property taxes owed through a tax increment financing option.
"The town … has offered a tax increment financing option, which is called a TIF, to Cypress to limit the property taxes owed while they are demolishing the mall, and while they're rebuilding it," Baker said. "So during demolition and construction, and then taxes, the property taxes would increase to back to the normal rates when the retail establishments start generating some income.
"So, in all those financing incentives that the town is offering and that district is offering have been discussed with Cypress, the town, and the road district, and continue to be of interest to Cypress."
While much discussion has been around the dissolution of the road district — a factor in the mall's sale — Cypress said it would be interested in sustaining the district if it could help with redevelopment.
"Cypress has repeatedly told us that they work with business and economic development districts all the time in other locations, and they are interested in also the fact that the district has the ability to explore infrastructure cost remediation through loans and bonds," Baker said. "Cypress would leverage those financial instruments and then be able to pay back over time to the road district, kind of like how the road was built in the first place."
Currently, the Berkshire Mall property is under a tax lien because of unpaid taxes equating to around $2 million since 2024. A clean title to the property will not be available until the lien is satisfied or discharged.
Chair Deborah Maynard read an email from JMJ representative Blake Mensing, who proposed dissolving the road district and creating a new special taxing authority in its place.
"JMJ has been working with Cypress and Representative Barrett to identify a path that resolves the outstanding obstacles to a single legislative mechanism. The proposal is JMJ, Cypress and the town proceed together toward a special town meeting vote to dissolve the Baker Hill Road District," Maynard read from Mensing's email. "Simultaneously or immediately thereafter, Cypress and the Select Board negotiate a replacement district directly without Baker Hill Road District's Prudential Committee as intermediary, Cypress gains the financing structure it needs to complete the infrastructure work, and its disfortunate [sic] tax assessment litigation is dissolved. The town retains its special taxing authority over the mall property and continues receiving payments for police and public safety."
Maynard said Barrett had advised the board what had to happen for the lien to be forgiven: the road district dissolves the lien through special legislation or the road district itself dissolves.
"So there's just so many things that we need to discuss with JMJ to find out what they're willing to do, to find out from Baker Hill what they're willing to do, because this $2 million has been a sticking point right along because they just haven't paid their taxes," Maynard said.
Select Board member Michael Murphy said the property has not been touched since JMJ bought it and that it is a safety hazard. There were comments about trash and, this week, someone posted a picture on Facebook of a fallen streetlight outside what had been Macy's.
Murphy thinks dissolving the district is not the best way with the work it is trying to do.
"That property is a disaster. It's a danger. The ring road's a danger ... we have seen not one thing done, he said. "Now I can tell you that the district has worked hard with the city of Pittsfield to bring sewer to that property, they've worked with and continue to work with Laura Brennan of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, and Laura herself has worked with members of the state to line up some funding possibly to help with this, and Lanesborough Fire and Water District has also worked to bring water and has a plan to bring water to that facility."
He said district brings expertise as Cypress Equities has explained, and while it might need to change, it shouldn't go away.
"So there are plans in place, and I think the challenge is I'm not disagreeing that things about the district need to be changed, but to assume that the only way to change them is for the district to go away is a mistake."
Residents also raised concerns about the deteriorating mall, unauthorized entry, fire protection, and the safety of first responders and the public. Finance Committee member Kristen Tool asked whether the town could require fencing, restrict events, move the farmers market, or take other steps to address the hazards.
Police Chief Robert Derksen reported that, over the previous 12 months, police recorded 13 breaking-and-entering incidents, three trespasses, and seven suspicious-activity incidents. He said the mall had improved after being boarded up, but people were still getting inside. (There have been several "urban spelunking" videos of the mall on YouTube.) It takes a long time for officers to search the large building, sometimes with assistance from other departments.
Maynard said the fire chief was satisfied with what JMJ has done to protect the property. But residents and officials questioned whether that assessment reflected current conditions. A resident said a door had been pulled apart and that water service had been shut off, meaning there is no fire suppression system in the building, raising concerns about the ability to fight a fire.
The Select Board said it would ask the town attorney to speak with the fire chief again about current conditions and possible additional measures.
"That frankly is horrifying to me as a member of this community to know that that building is so unsafe. Can the town take steps to compel the owner to demolish the building? Can the building be condemned?" asked Tool. "I mean, it's really thinking about that this could lead to someone losing their life in that property, and if there's something that the town can be doing to prevent that, we absolutely need to be doing every single thing we can. And if that means saying to JMJ, you need to put a fence around the entire property because people are just pulling the boards off, then I think the town needs to say that."
She said the condition of the building was appalling and "if any of our homes or businesses were in this condition I imagine the Select Board would compel the property owner to condemn them and have it be torn down."
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