Berkshire Business Journal May 2024

Beyond ski season

Shorter, more volatile winters compel several Berkshire County resorts to adapt, attract visitors to spring, summer and fall o erings. Page 2

service requested

Berkshire Business Journal

MAY

2024 I VOL. 3, NO. 5

Building equity

An ambitious partnership looks to help underrepresented firms develop affordable housing here and throughout the Commonwealth

projects like

BY JIM M. T HERRIEN

PITTSFIELD — The nation’s largest publicly led program to create growth opportunities for developers who’ve been underrepresented in the industry is gearing up across the commonwealth.

Efforts to develop more affordable housing in Massachusetts are expected to directly benefit from the initiative’s significant resources.

In March, the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. and MassHousing announced the organizations will partner to launch a $50 million Equitable Developers Fund.

“The fund,” the organizations stated in a press release, “will diversify the state’s housing delivery system by providing enterprise-level financing to active developers from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds and communities.”

EXPANDING THE RANKS

“Ultimately, we want to see more developers helping to solve the affordable

into a ordable housing units, in which MassHousing and Berkshire

housing crisis in Massachusetts,” MHIC President and CEO Moddie Turay said in an interview with the BBJ.

“Developing a public-private partnership that draws upon MassHousing’s and MHIC’s decades of affordable housing and community development financing experience provides the critical foundation upon which to establish the Equitable Developers Fund,” he said.

Turay said a defining aspect of the fund is that it will help developers with pre-development financing — offering the type of resources larger, established developers normally have greater access to when planning and constructing a real estate project.

DIVERSIFICATION

A goal of the fund, Turay said, is to diversify the state’s housing delivery system by providing enterprise-level financing to developers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and communities.

“We are thrilled to partner with MHIC

AFFORDABLE HOUSING, Page 9

MHIC President and CEO Moddie Turay said the Equitable Developers Fund “is for essentially emerging developers; it’s not for the well-established, well-capitalized developer.”

MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay said her group’s partnership with MHIC will “help unlock new opportunities for housing growth,” given the organizations’ “intimate knowledge of the barriers of entry to the Massachusetts a ordable housing ecosystem.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF MASSACHUSETTS HOUSING INVESTMENT CORPORATION

BEN GARVER

More

the conversion of Eagle Mill in Lee

Housing Development Corp are participating, could be encouraged through the Equitable Developers Fund.

MIKE RITTER

Withstanding climate change

With the view of the slopes in the background, and temperatures in the high 50s and low 60s, people enjoyed refreshments from Lift Bistropub on the second

Mountain on March 6, 2022. Last month, Nate Bouvard, Bousquet’s mountain manager, said, “With winters getting shorter, we have to rely more on spring, summer and fall to maximize use of the property.”

Berkshire ski resorts adapt during and after the season to our increasingly volatile winters

BY JOHN TOWNES

With another winter of warm temperatures and volatile weather patterns squarely behind them, several Berkshire County ski resorts are looking to the “off months” to generate more business, adding to the diversified offerings and efficiencies that have become mainstays of their high season.

“With winters getting shorter, we have to rely more on spring, summer and fall to maximize use of the property,” said Nate Bouvard, mountain manager of Bousquet Mountain in Pittsfield. While Bousquet had sponsored some activities in nonwinter months, under its new ownership (Mill Town Capital purchased Bousquet in 2020) Bouvard said it has pursued seasonal diversification more actively.

Bosquet has increased its sponsorship and hosting of events including a series of summer concerts and festivals, a car show and a Mountain Day in July. It offers recreational activities, such as footraces, a cornhole tournament and disc golf. And it has been cultivating a role as a venue for weddings, conferences and other private gatherings. A new 17,500-square-foot lodge includes a restaurant and bar, as well as space for private gatherings. The restaurant and bar are open year-round and are open to the public when they are not being used for private events.

Bosquet also added a wedding platform at the top of the mountain.

Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock began to expand its summer offerings as far back as the 1970s, when it opened an alpine slide, said Katie Fogel, director of marketing. That grew into Mountain Adventure Park, with activities including rides, a giant swing and trails for hiking and mountain biking. It also has an Aerial Adventure Park, featuring a rope course, zipliner and other activities in the trees.

A single small ski lodge at the base of the mountain evolved into a village and welcome center, several seasonal or year-round restaurants and pubs, a children’s center, fitness facilities,

shops and other amenities. Jiminy also became a venue for private events, such as weddings, corporate meetings and other private activities. There are also numerous lodging facilities in The Country Inn and residential condominiums in villages within the property and across the road.

“The condominiums are privately owned, but they benefit Jiminy by attracting more people to the area,” said Fogel.

Ski Butternut in Great Barrington continues to focus on the ski season, but it has made its grounds available in other seasons for events, including the Berkshires Arts Festival from July 5 to July 7 and the Garden Grove Music Festival on July 20.

The resort doesn’t emphasize the off-season, focusing instead on winter sports as its priority, said Dillon Mahon, Ski Butternut’s director of marketing.

“Our strategy is to continue investing in snowmaking and grooming to provide the best conditions and facilities for our original role as a family ski resort,” said Mahon. “That’s how we started and it’s what we’re still most passionate about as our driving force.”

ADAPTING TO THE WEATHER

Climate change is the No. 1 threat to the snow sports industry, according to the National Ski Areas Association, a trade organization. A recent study by the University of Innsbruck and the University of Waterloo compared ski seasons in the 1960s and 1970s to the years 2000 to 2019. It indicated that seasons had been shortened by an average of five to seven days, which has cost the U.S. ski industry $5 billion over the past two decades, or an average of $252 million per year.

In New England, climate change has meant less snow that melts more rapidly and, according to a 2020 study from the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, it “is diminishing [the region’s] distinctive four-season climate ... resulting in changes to [its] ecology and threatening [its] rural economies.”

“Climate change is definitely an

Ideal Commercial Location:

Building One at the Lenox Commons, Located on rt 7/20 with 35,000 cars passing per day! Easily accessible with a traffic light located at the entrance. Directly across the road from the Marriott Courtyard Hotel.

GILLIAN JONES

floor deck at Bousquet

Business updates

PITTSFIELD

Grants for North St. businesses

Downtown Pittsfield, Inc. and the Pittsfield Economic Revitalization Corporation are co-facilitating the 2024 Boost! North Street Cohort made possible with funding from MassDevelopment’s Transformative Development Initiative.

Competitive grants of $7,500 will be awarded to 10 North St. businesses that are accepted into the 2024 Boost! North Street Cohort. Awardees will be required to attend one mandatory in-person cohort meeting on June 4 (either 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.) and engage in at least two one-on-one Zoom meetings with a business consultant to guide district business improvements and use of funds.

Businesses in the cohort will be required to file a final budget or application with administrators upon completion of consulting to access funding.

This grant is now open, and the application is due April 30. To access the online application in English or Spanish, visit downtownpittsfield.com.

PITTSFIELD

Citizen police academy returns

The Pittsfield Police Department has announced the return of a Citizen Police Academy. The academy provides an opportunity for individuals to gain a better understanding of department operations, issues and topics affecting modern day policing.

Interested citizens, volunteers, local business leaders, community-policing partners and educators, at least 18 years of age and either living or working in Pittsfield, may apply.

Classes will be held at the Pittsfield

Police Department and the Berkshire Innovation Center on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and run from April 30 through June 4. Applicants will be subject to a criminal history background check. Prospective applicants should contact Sgt. Shaun Gariepy at sgariepy@ cityofpittsfield.org. The deadline to apply is Monday, April 22.

GREAT BARRINGTON Fundraising to help farmers

Berkshire Agricultural Ventures kicked off its 2024 Market Match Fund campaign this week with a goal of raising $30,000 during the month of April to increase sales for local farmers and make fresh food more available to low-income households in the Berkshire region. Thanks to a significant donation, the first $10,000 raised in the campaign will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

This year’s theme of “Boost SNAP, Build Community” recognizes the positive difference that SNAP matching makes in the community. Now in its third year, BAV’s Market Match Fund is amplifying the impact of SNAP matching at Berkshire-area farmers markets by providing reliable funds to fully support Market Match programs. This centralized funding source enables partner farmers markets across the region to consistently offer a $1-to$1 SNAP match up to $30, giving SNAP customers a total of $60 to spend on fresh food grown and produced by local farmers.

To date, BAV’s Market Match Fund has supported more than $370,000 in SNAP sales for local farmers and doubled well over 8,000 SNAP purchases at 11 farmers markets in the region.

NORTH ADAMS

MountainOne aids homebuyers

MountainOne Bank, with branches across Berkshire County and the South Shore of Massachusetts, has been selected to participate in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Equity Builder Program and its Housing Our Workforce Program, which assists local homebuyers with down-payment and closing costs, homebuyer education and counseling. The Equity Builder Program also provides rehabilitation assistance.

Anyone interested in learning more about how they may qualify for Equity Builder Program or Housing Our Workforce Program funds can contact MountainOne Bank via the www. mountainone.com website or via phone at 855.444.6861.

MountainOne is a mutual holding company headquartered in North Adams.

BECKET

Farm among grant recipients

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll recently announced more than $3 million in grants to support Massachusetts farmers through programs that improve composting efforts, food safety, cranberry bog restoration, stewardship and business planning.

Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle also announced the formation of the Massachusetts Agricultural Youth Council. Comprised of high school seniors, the Ag Youth Council aims to cultivate and foster the next generation of leaders in the agriculture industry in Massachusetts.

Among the grant recipients is Mt. Toby Farm in Becket, acquiring more than $38,000 through the commonwealth’s Agricultural Composting Improvement Program for the purchase of a windrow turner and compost spreader.

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CHESHIRE

Sonrisas gets accessibility grant

To help it promote belonging in Berkshire County, Sonrisas in Cheshire has been awarded $10,000 from the Healey administration. It’s part of $167,000 in Inclusive and Accessible Event grants provided to 21 organizations and municipalities to improve ease of access to outdoor recreational activities for low-income residents, communities of color and people living with disabilities.

The grants are being administered through the Massachusetts Office of Outdoor Recreation.

Sonrisas cultivates empowerment and autonomy within marginalized communities of Berkshire County. It will host Finca Luna Búho, a land collective with a mission to create a rural place of refuge and knowledge sharing for immigrant, BIPOC, queer, poor and disabled communities. Sonrisa’s partner — Mixed Faces, Wild Spaces — seeks to foster connection with the outdoors for mixed-race and gender-diverse people, people who experience marginalization, and anyone who has felt excluded in or from the outdoors.

Through this grant, they will provide free and recurring outdoor educational and recreational programming located along the Ashuwillticook Bike Trail for more than 280 participants. Events will occur twice a month and include biking, hiking, plant identification and outdoor education.

GREAT BARRINGTON

New spring nonprofit webinars

Nonprofits can sign up for several short webinars on “Increased impact through Strategic Partnerships.”

Presenter Alice Ruhnke from GrantStation will provide practical insights and actionable strategies for nonprofit leaders to harness the power of partnerships across various sectors for greater impact and success. Upcoming

BUSINESS UPDATES, Page 4

The mission of the Global Interdisciplinary Green Cities Conference is to share scientific knowledge and research and contribute to achieving a net-zero carbon emission economy by the year 2050 In June 2024, the conference will be in the United States for the first time at the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield, MA Throughout the conference, hundreds of university faculty and industry participants from across the globe will share knowledge and information about

Business updates

topics include: Increase Your Impact Through Nonprofit Partnerships (May 6); How to Cultivate Local Government Support (May 20); Unlock Partnerships with Financial Institutions (June 3); and Partner with Communities of Faith for Social Impact (June 17).

Participants can watch live or view a recorded version afterwards. All sessions run from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Information at npcberkshires.org.

NORTH ADAMS

MountainOne donates more than $116,000

MountainOne recently completed its 2024 first-quarter round of community giving, with total donations and sponsorships to communities in the Berkshires and Boston’s South Shore exceeding $116,000.

MountainOne’s community giving in the Berkshires included $25,000 to the Berkshire Running Foundation to support the community’s engagement with healthy activities and $25,500 to Berkshire-based Hillcrest Educational Foundation to help support its students in residential and community-based day programming.

MountainOne also awarded donations to Friendship Home in Norwell, Community Access to the Arts in Great Barrington, Pine Cobble School in Williamstown and 18 Degrees’ Kids 4 Harmony in Pittsfield. Funds are also going to MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board’s readiness training for Berkshire youth, Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires and Southern Vermont, and the North Adams Regional Hospital by Berkshire Health Systems.

GREAT BARRINGTON

Dare Bottleshop opens 2nd store

Mary and Benjamin Daire have opened their second shop, this time on Railroad Street. This Great Barrington location features small production artisanal wines from independent, family-owned producers and winemakers alongside curated selections of local beer, cider, non-alcoholic beverages, and salty and sweet snacks.

Their first retail wine and specialty goods shop opened in Lenox in 2021. Both stores offer dinner party and apéritif “essentials,” personal service and a demystified approach to wine buying.

Dare Bottleshop also organizes the annual Berkshire Wine Festival, now in its second year and happening Sept. 21. Tickets and information are available on the Dare web site.

PITTSFIELD

City businesses make ‘impact’

Two Pittsfield businesses, Hot Plate Brewing Co. and Interprint, respectively have been named silver and bronze winners of the 2023 MassEcon Economic Impact Awards.

The Economic Impact Awards celebrate companies throughout the Commonwealth for their contributions to the state’s economy. Each awardee must meet three criteria including locating a new operation in Massachusetts or expanding operations resulting in added jobs and facility investment, social impact with community involvement/philanthropic efforts and internal/external equity, diversity and inclusion practices.

Hot Plate Brewing Co. opened in Pittsfield in early 2023, bringing craft beer to the heart of downtown. Interprint, a Pittsfield manufacturing business since 1985, is constructing a 57,000 square foot manufacturing facility to accommodate a project that includes

three new printing presses. Each has received funding support from the city and its development arms. The city asks other business owners wishing to expand their operations to visit www. businesspittsfield.com.

NORTH ADAMS

BFAIR holds annual meeting

BFAIR will hold its annual meeting on May 14 at the Berkshire Hills Country Club from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m.

BFAIR provides adult family care, residential, employment and day services for adults and children with developmental disabilities, acquired brain injury and autism. Its meeting agenda includes awards for employees with five or more years of service, special awards and an inaugural presentation of the Hart Family Fund Award for tuition reimbursement, educational assistance and appreciation of BFAIR employees. To register, tinyurl.com/c735cjcp or visit bfair.org.

PITTSFIELD Class completes BIC academy

The Berkshire Innovation Center has graduated the second cohort of its Manufacturing Academy. The core of the Academy is the STAT training program, which stands for Systems Thinking for the Application of Technologies. The program is designed to address two key industry needs: developing employee troubleshooting and systems thinking and enhancing human skills.

A dozen individuals completed the Academy’s 22-week program while also holding down jobs such as manufacturing engineer, operations data analyst and production chemist at businesses in Pittsfield, Lee and Dalton.

A third Manufacturing Academy cohort will begin on May 15. The format will be 16 weeks and online. For more information: berkshireinnovationcenter.com.

COPAKE, N.Y.

Rapid Care Center to reopen

Columbia Memorial Health has announced it achieved its fundraising goal necessary to reopen the Copake Rapid Care Center later this year.

In 2016, Columbia Memorial Health established the Rapid Care Center and relocated its existing Callan Family Care practice in a new facility adjacent to the rescue squad on 283 Mountainview Rd., in Copake. But amid the post-Covid nationwide provider shortage, the Rapid Care Center could not be appropriately medically staffed and was forced to temporarily close in December 2022.

The launch in 2023 of the Copake Rapid Care Fund, created for the purpose of re-establishing rapid care services in Copake, has now met the threshold necessary to do so. The center is tentatively scheduled to reopen in early June.

BOSTON

State energy office launched

Gov. Maura Healey has announced the establishment of the Office of the Energy Transformation and the appointment of Melissa Lavinson as its executive director. The Office is charged with the execution of the clean energy transition, including ensuring the availability and readiness of electrical infrastructure, electric and gas transition coordination, and a just transition for impacted workers and businesses.

Lavinson will also convene an Energy Transformation Task Force with industry, labor and supply chain representatives, among others, to accelerate cooperation and understanding of the current state of the energy transition in Massachusetts. This is the first position of its kind in the nation.

Lavinson previously was head of corporate affairs at National Grid, New England. She assumed her new position on May 1.

L E E B A N K + L O C A L B U S I N E S S E S

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

‘A powerful thing’

happens here

Dream Away Lodge expanding, with new and familiar faces

By Jane K aufman

BECKET — Amy Loveless was a teenager when she first saw the Dream Away Lodge. She came with a group of friends who drove through a dense fog, and thought the driver had missed the turn.

“And all of a sudden, in the fog, the neon Dream Away signs and beer signs started, it just — the fog was lit up,” she said. “I think a lot of people have a similar experience coming here.”

Loveless later became the longtime chef of the the mountaintop venue at 1342 County Road with a storied past dating to the 1940s. But when the pandemic shut down the restaurant and it later sold to new owners in 2022, Chef Amy’s meals that famously warmed the tables of the farmhouse’s side porch stopped.

But on May 17, longtime fans of the Dream Away Lodge will recognize familiar faces, including Loveless’, when the Becket destination reopens for the summer season.

Loveless, the Dream Away’s longtime chef, will head the kitchen. Bartender Kristen Parker is returning as general manager. And Daniel Osman, who owned the venue from 1996 until 2022, will be maestro of special events.

New to the Dream Away will be partner Daniel Giddings, who is shaping the future of an expanded Dream Away Lodge. Specifically, he’s converting a post-and-beam building behind the main farmhouse into an events venue. That building will also have the Dream Away’s second bar, fashioned from the old main desk of the Stockbridge library. After a glamping concept for the property tanked in March 2022, Scott Levy and Andrew McDowell bought the Dream Away for $615,000 on Sept. 27, 2022, and reopened it in the summer of 2023. Sheryl Victor Levy, Scott Levy’s wife, is also a partner. McDowell has since left the partnership and Giddings, 53, has replaced him.

Giddings has a deep background in the New York restaurant scene. A contractor by trade, he’s literally built restaurants. He ran his first for 10 years, a successful Brazilian place in Brooklyn, N.Y., called Beco, which he gave to the bartender. Giddings still has his hand in a few other restaurants.

He first toured the Dream Away in the fall of 2021, at the invitation of Levy. At the time, the property was under contract to a group that planned to turn the Dream Away into a glamping resort.

Then-owner Osman and Loveless threw a dinner for Giddings in the front dining room of the 200-year-old rambling farmhouse.

Loveless cooked a Mexican plate, and memorable to Giddings, talked with him about nixtamalization, the process used to make hominy.

“There’s a powerful thing that sort of happens here, with the lighting and the people, and the fact that you can’t get on your device because there’s no service, and there’s the music venue and the walking around the property — it takes you away from everything,” Giddings said. “I was able to be very present.”

Giddings was smitten with the place that holds a special spot in Berkshire lore: most famously for music events, and a surprise stop made by members of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour in 1975, at the encouragement of local musician Arlo Guthrie.

“I left and felt like I made a mistake and hadn’t been here earlier or the timing wasn’t right,” he said.

‘IT’S ABOUT CONNECTING’

But now, the timing is right and Giddings is committed to making the Dream Away an affordable dinner option for families, not just for the summer set, he said.

Osman is appreciative of the energy that Giddings is bringing, though he has regrets that the glamping plan failed.

He bought the property from Tessa Frasca, whose mother Maria Frasca, transformed the Dream Away Lodge from a farm to a destination. Mama Frasca, as Maria was known, was a musician herself, and there are many photographs of her with celebrities, including one color photo of her with Liberace.

“It is now and always has been a project of passion,” Osman said. “This should always feel a little bit like grandma’s house and a little bit like a college dorm. It should have that kind of vibrancy and liveliness.”

He sounds relieved that Giddings seems to understand this and that he was able to recruit Loveless back to head the kitchen.

At the Dream Away, Loveless has run the kitchen from the post of expediter and prep — and when staff was short, taking her place on the three-person line.

Now, at 67 and after two recent knee replacements, she’s hoping to take a less active role physically as chef. She’s also looking forward to opening the Dream Away’s kitchen to the occasional chef in residence.

“All of a sudden, this whole other magic happens,” she said. “I love sharing.”

Loveless cooks in a style she calls ethnic eclectic with local ingredients. She isn’t certain of exactly what the menu will hold, although there is sure to be a burger. House-made focaccia baked in an outdoor oven will also be served.

Osman is “liking the vibe” being set by this ownership so much, he’s planning to return some of the items that he had previously taken with him after the 2022 sale.

“It’s about connecting,” he said. “It’s about more than food. It’s about culture and music. It’s about Dylan and the Rolling Thunder going through. It’s about Arlo [Guthrie] living up the street and his kids growing up here. It’s about all of that.”

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The Dream Away Lodge in Becket is set to reopen on May 17 with a full slate of food and entertainment. Headlining opening night will be The Mammals, the contemporary folk rock band founded by Mike Merenda and Ruth Ungar.

Portraits of Maria “Mama” Frasca, the founder of the Dream Away Lodge in Becket, are on display throughout the venue.

Amy Loveless, left, will return as the head chef at the Dream Away Lodge. Daniel Giddings is now a partner in the ownership group.

Want to own a neighborhood bar?

O’Laughlin’s Pub is for sale. Its owner looks to retire after running it for 15 years

By Jane K aufman

PITTSFIELD — Even before his feet could touch the floor from his perch on a bar stool, Michael Wendling has been coming to O’Laughlin’s Pub.

As a child, Wendling’s father brought him there for lunch.

“When I became of age, this kind of became my spot,” Wendling said.

For the past 15 years, Wendling has owned the business. At 60, he’s ready to sell his beloved neighborhood bar.

The business at 342 Merrill Road is listed at $399,900.

“O’Laughlin’s, Pittsfield’s favorite pub, is on the market,” reads the listing by Steve Ray at Berkshire Real Estate. “The owner wants to retire and pass along this longtime local favorite for over 50 years. The property includes additional income possibilities with additional building that was formerly a motel. Sale includes real estate, furniture, fixtures and license along with a profitable history, located across from General Dynamics.”

The restaurant and bar seats 65 outside and 49 inside.

When Wendling was growing up, the owners were Robert V. O’Laughlin Jr. and William J. Wilkinson. Robert O’Laughlin Sr. founded the business, transforming what had been a hot dog restaurant into O’Laughlin’s.

Wendling considered buying when it was on the market in the 2000s, “but I didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger.”

He had a second chance four years later. In 2009, he bought the business and neighboring motel property from Timothy J. and Allison L. Kearns for $180,000, slightly less than the $185,000 the couple paid for it in 2005.

Wendling financed his purchase with a $135,000 mortgage, which he paid off in 2016. Then, in December 2020, he took a $75,000 mortgage with Pittsfield Cooperative Bank to create outdoor seating and update the premises.

Having worked two to three jobs most of his life, he’s now ready for a break.

Wendling remembers when General Electric had three shifts running. That lasted until 1987, when GE essentially shut down in Pittsfield.

“Every gate in GE had a bar outside of it.” At that time, he said, “This place was open from 7 in the morning to 1 o’clock in the morning.”

During the pandemic, Wendling added a beer garden on the lawn out back as well as outdoor seating under a roof.

He rarely said no when O’Laughlin’s was asked for donations to nonprofit causes. In the past, he’s sponsored youth hockey programs and a coed softball team. He still sponsors two adult hockey teams. The business also holds a ninehole golf tournament annually.

The interior has four television screens, usually tuned to sports, as well as curtains that are green, white and orange, mimicking the Irish flag, along with

Michael Wendling has been coming to O’Laughlin’s Pub since before his feet could touch the floor from a bar stool. Now he wants to sell the pub he’s owned for 15 years.

‘I’m usually a nervous wreck on St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s definitely, without a doubt, our busiest day.’

— michael Wendling, owner of O’Laughlin’s Pub

sports memorabilia and signed photos from hockey players.

On a recent Friday at mid-afternoon, the bar was full of a gregarious group of mostly men watching golf.

Pub fare is on the menu, including burgers and fish and chips, but the Friday night special of prime rib and the Saturday special of prime rib sandwich are O’Laughlin’s most popular menu items. On Sunday afternoons, O’Laughlin’s hosts live music, usually classic rock.

“I’m usually a nervous wreck on St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s definitely, without a doubt, our busiest day,” he said.

Wendling grew up nearby and graduated from Taconic High School where his major was carpentry. His first job was de-

livering The Berkshire Eagle.

He served in the U.S. Army for four years in Arlington, Va., and in the Panama Canal zone, when the canal was under control of the United States. He worked for 32 years for Berkshire Gas as a construction supervisor, only retiring three years ago.

After buying the restaurant, he said his biggest surprise was “how much time you have to put into it.”

He handles administrative aspects of the business, which has seven employees and more in the summer.

“I’m not a bartender,” Wendling said.

“I’m not a cook, but my nickname here is ‘Mike, the mingler.’”

He appreciates the work of his loyal

staff, including chef David Melle, who’s been working at O’Laughlin’s for longer than Wendling has owned it.

Owning the restaurant, he said, has been a good experience.

Jerry Orbach, the late television actor of “Law & Order” fame, used to come in frequently because his wife was from Pittsfield, Wendling said, but as to other celebrities, staff usually tries to give them their space.

“I really enjoy the people,” he said. “We have a great customer base, a lot of loyal patrons that come in and out. They’ve been coming here for a long time.”

Once he sells the business, Wendling will “definitely be a regular,” he said. While the bar has craft beers on tap and Guinness, his favorite beverage is Coors Light.

Looking to the future, “There’s not a lot of neighborhood pubs left,” he said. “If you look around town, you know, a lot of these places don’t exist anymore. So I would like to keep it the way it is.”

BEN GARVER

GILLIAN JONES-HECK

‘The Heritage will stay

The Heritage’

Annie Selke buys property, and hands over tavern to longtime co-managers

By ClarenCe Fanto

LENOX — The Olde Heritage Tavern has new owners, but staff and patrons at the downtown mainstay will be happy to learn that no other changes are in store.

After months facing an uncertain fate, the establishment was purchased by home decor entrepreneur and local resident Annie Selke.

But Selke and her husband, retired attorney and current legal counsel Jim Crane, told The Eagle that while they now own the property, they have turned over the tavern business to longtime co-managers Becky and Rachel Piccolo for a “very nominal consideration.”

The property and business were seized by the U.S. Marshals Service last September in the fallout from former FTX cryptocurrency executive Ryan Salame’s guilty plea last year to two criminal charges. It was put up for sale recently, and just before noon on Thursday, Crane said, Selke signed off on a contract with the U.S. government for the real estate and the assets related to the Heritage Tavern.

For the Piccolo sisters, co-managers for more than 20 years, it was a day of smiles, hugs and celebration.

“It was pins and needles anxiety, at least,” Becky said of the days since the seizure. “I’m sleeping very well now; we’re a big family here, and I feel confident. The Heritage will stay the Heritage, the place everybody loves, for sure.”

The Piccolos, while owning the business, will be leasing the space as paying tenants of Selke. Four apartments on the top floor of the 1884 building will continue to be rented year-round.

The offer was submitted last Saturday ahead of a Monday 8 a.m. deadline, and Selke learned by 5:30 p.m. that her offer had been accepted. She plans to form a limited liability corporation to own it, likely to be named Girl Power LLC.

After the transaction goes through the Middle Berkshire Registry, the assets of the tavern itself, including all the furniture and fixtures, the entire interior, will be turned over to the Piccolo

sisters, “essentially free.”

Crane said he could not disclose the cost of the real estate purchase because of a confidentiality agreement with the U.S. government.

When the transaction closes, the exact price will be available to the public. But it was substantially above the asking price set by the U.S. Marshals Service of $953,700, the official appraised value of the property. “It was significantly over $1 million,” Crane acknowledged.

Selke stated in the offer to the government, a “heartfelt letter” from Becky Piccolo was included, discussing her experience, “just to make sure.”

The end result was a clear message to the Marshals Service that “it was our intention” to turn over the business to the sisters, Crane added.

Playing a middle-person role in the deal with the Piccolos was Jane Blanchard, owner of the Firefly Gastropub restaurant on Church Street since earlier this year. Blanchard had been the manager for Salame’s now-defunct Lenox Eats collective, which at one time included the former Cafe Lucia as well as Firefly.

Crane noted that he met Selke six years on the Bumble online dating app, and he subsequently relocated to Lenox, “an incredibly special place.”

The couple quickly became “semi-regulars” at the Heritage, and became interested in a purchase soon after the U.S. Marshals Service posted a seizure notice Sept. 28 and “we reassured the staff that everything was going to be OK,” Selke said over lunch in the typically busy pub.

“Becky and Rachel have always been the heart of this operation,” Crane pointed out.

Selke also acknowleged the loyal staff.

“Ryan was hands-off; he let you do what you do, brilliantly, and he gave you the confidence,” she said. “As an entrepreneur, I recognize the skill set in other women. We really wanted to see Becky and Rachel take over and handle it. I have no experience in the restaurant business, so I thought, Eureka! I’ll be the landlord.”

Selke sold her Annie Selkie Cos. in

October 2023 to Rugs USA, a discount retailer of rugs, furniture and other home decor. She still owns the 33 Main bed and breakfast in Lenox, while the retail store still bearing her name is owned by Rugs USA.

Among the other bidders was former Heritage owner John McNinch, who spent two decades building up the tavern before selling it to Salame in April 2022 for $1.5 million, plus an undisclosed premium for the value of the business.

“I was never overly confident that we’d be getting it,” McNinch told The Eagle on Thursday. “I had a price I was willing to pay, but it went for higher than that; so be it.” He said his final offer was above the asking price, but he declined to specify how much.

“We still have two restaurants to concentrate on, and we’re more than happy to do that,” he said. The McNinch Restaurant Group, which includes his son, Tucker, owns Patrick’s Pub at 26 Bank Row in Pittsfield and operates the

101 Restaurant & Bar inside the Holiday Inn & Suites at 1 West St. Salame, the former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO, has pleaded guilty to two felony counts following the collapse in November 2022 of the FTX crypto exchange founded and run by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last month.

Salame’s sentencing date has been rescheduled again — it’s now set for May 28, according to a filing at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan. No reason was given for the second delay. He had originally been due for sentencing on March 28.

The Sandisfield native was charged with conspiring to make $10 million in illegal political contributions, as well as conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmission business.

He has been free on a $1 million bond after providing information to prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Longtime sisters and co-managers Rachel and Becky Piccolo, center, are flanked by Jim Crane, left, and his wife, Annie Selke, at The Olde Heritage Tavern in Lenox. After purchasing the property at auction, Selke and her husband have turned the business over to the Piccolo sisters, longtime co-managers of the tavern.

He’ll be riding into the sunset

Old Mill owner to close the doors and hop on his bike

By A m A ndA Burke

EGREMONT — For the past 46 years, Terry Moore has been the architect of hospitality behind The Old Mill restaurant.

But later this spring, Moore will trade in his nightly rounds in the eatery’s dining room for a trip around the country on his motorcycle.

For Moore, 80, the marathon ride is just the first of his plans for retirement. It also happens to be his second trans-American journey in as many years.

Moore has made the decision to close his restaurant, which he opened on June 22, 1978, sometime in early June.

“I’ve had a great run, and I want to leave while I’m still on top,” Moore told The Eagle on Friday. “I’ve got a lot of ideas of what I wish to do for my future years.”

Moore bought the restaurant at 53 Main St. in the 1970s. He was working in the hospitality industry in New York City but struggled to find reliable business partners amid the party scene of the era.

He decided to look for a place to launch his own establishment somewhere within a two-hour radius of the city. What he found

was a historic structure along a brook in South Egremont that once housed a blacksmith forge.

The mill was a locus for industry in the late 1700s, said Moore, a stop along trade routes bound for barges headed to New York.

“The mill was a very central part of this little community,” he said.

When Moore purchased the mill, an antique shop was housed within. Over the years, Moore has grown to know the unique structure, gaining particularized knowledge about how its aging components fit together and function.

That’s part of the reason why he has no plans to sell the mill, despite bringing its life as a restaurant to a close.

“I’m very attached to the building and it means a lot to me, having been here for so many years, knowing all its quirks and little things that old buildings always need,” Moore said.

The Old Mill restaurant made its name serving seasonal dishes that honored the offerings of New England, while the interior set diners in a simple yet polished atmosphere.

Moore said he’s been fortunate to work with committed professionals, including man-

be

ager Ginny Filkins, who he’s worked alongside for more than four decades.

Such staffers have been constant, but other things have changed, he said. Moore has seen the arts flourish, and saw a growing community of “wonderful, generous people who support what’s going on here.”

It’s thanks to two groups of people that Moore has enjoyed his time as a Berkshires restaurateur: His guests and his employees. He said he sought to support members of both.

“That’s what hospitality is. Hospitality is taking care of people, whether it’s employees or guests,” he said.

Moore is reticent to provide an exact date for his last day in business. But he’ll bring things to a close knowing he cooked on high heat for just the right amount of time.

“I’ve put everything into this business. And it’s time for me to say goodbye,” Moore said.

Roadside Cafe: Razed, rebuilt and reopening

By JA ne k Aufm A n

MONTEREY — Ready, set, breakfast.

The Roadside Store & Café will reopen at 7:30 a.m. on May 15 — just a few days after a ribbon-cutting celebration is held at 4 p.m. on May 11.

The tiny breakfast and lunch establishment on Route 23 was torn down last year after closing in 2021. The new restaurant has been built on the same spot from the foundation to the roof. The project also included extensive site work.

The new building at 275 Main Road is more spacious and has more windows, with indoor seating for 20-to-28 indoors and 12-to-16 al fresco.

The Roadside is a project of Gould Farm, the therapeutic community on 700 acres that is two miles away. It includes a working dairy and beef farm, vegetable garden, forestry program and bakery.

Guests of Gould Farm are adults 18 and up diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression and anxiety, including those with a history of substance use. The therapeutic model is based on a three-pronged approach: work on one of the farm’s teams, living in community and clinical care and supports.

Between five and eight guests of Gould Farm will help staff the Roadside. They will begin training in the coming days. Four staffers will also be involved, including Joachim Kearns, assistant manager.

Meantime, it’s full steam ahead preparing the new venue to open, which replaces the restaurant that Gould Farm owned since 1978 and operated continuously except during the pandemic. Hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Menu items will include the Roadside‘s pancakes — small, medium or large — with large being a single cake the size of a hubcap, according to manager Francie Leventhal.

There will be some new menu items and some that were developed during the pandemic, including a bacon and

avocado breakfast sandwich and a kimchee grilled cheese sandwich.

For the first time, the Roadside’s burgers will be made from Gould Farm‘s beef.

Gould Farm products will be for sale, including dairy, pastries, breads and frozen beef.

An espresso machine will expand options for hot drinks, including a maple latte and a minty thyme tea, made from herbs grown on Gould Farm. No. Six Depot in West Stockbridge has created

a Roadside blend.

Lisanne Finston, executive director of Gould Farm, said the organization didn’t quite meet its $1.25 million goal to help pay for the $2 million project that has has been termed Roadside 2.0. She said there’s about $125,000 left.

“We’re just super excited,” Finston said. “I think the Monterey community is super excited. It’s a really beautiful space, and I can’t wait to be in the space with the people because it’s the people that make Roadside.”

If you go

Roadside Store & Cafe ribbon

cutting

What: Light refreshments and brief speeches

When: May 11, 4 to 5 p.m.

Where: 275 Main Road, Monterey Parking: Please park on Curtis Road. Shuttles will be available to transport people.

BEN GARVER

Terry Moore, chef/owner of The Old Mill in Egremont, said he’ll

closing up shop for the final time at the end of spring after 46 years in operation.

FILE PHOTO

The Roadside Store & Cafe will have a ribbon cutting May 11, with a planned opening at 7:30 a.m. May 15. Francie Leventhal, manager, left, is with Lisanne Finston, standing, and Kelley Ellsworth. The Roadside is a project of Gould Farm, where all three work.

Affordable housing

to launch the Equitable Developers Fund,” said MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay. “Our two organizations have intimate knowledge of the barriers of entry related to the Massachusetts affordable housing ecosystem. Working together, we will help unlock new opportunities for housing growth, while creating a path for more developers to participate in confronting the state’s housing challenges.”

The Equitable Developers Fund is expected to address disparities in capital access by providing developers with pre-development and growth capital through lines of credit and other financial assistance.

Expanding the capacity and increasing the number and diversity of developers is expected, in turn, to accelerate the commonwealth’s overall production of affordable housing, the organizations’ leaders said.

In addition to the enterprise-level capital the fund will make available, MHIC plans to provide at least $10 million for loans for project-level pre-development, acquisition and construction financing to projects receiving assistance through the Equitable Developers Fund.

MHIC and MassHousing also intend to expand the reach of the Equitable Developers Fund by raising an additional $25 million from private investors.

BERKSHIRE PERSPECTIVES

“The Equitable Developer’s Fund is an important offering for the Commonwealth’s affordable housing efforts,” said

Eileen Peltier, the president and CEO of Berkshire Housing Development Corp. “Here in the Berkshires, the capacity of Black and Hispanic developers is limited. The fund will not only help to address this inequity, it will also expand affordable housing development capacity across the county.”

She added, “With increased availability of affordable housing capital through the Affordable Homes Act, there will be an opportunity to develop more affordable apartments. For this to happen, new and creative partnerships are needed.”

“We have our own [housing] supply and demand issue,” said Jonathan Butler, president and CEO of 1Berkshire. “It’s not unique to the Berkshires, but we have our own flavor of it. It is a crisis state type of thing.”

Butler said of the new initiative, “What’s encouraging is that’s not an insignificant pool of money if it is going to be targeted in a way to provide resources for developers coming from under-represented communities. For us, that would definitely be a bonus in the Berkshires.”

This area has “a lack of developers in the first place,” he said. “It’s kind of a small bench in terms of developers that have done multiple projects or have a business model in place to manage properties afterward. So anything that can expand upon the ranks of developers we have is a good thing.”

It also isn’t only a matter of finding the money for projects, he said, “You have to find the party that is willing to go down

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Eileen Peltier, president and CEO of Berkshire Housing Development Corp., said the Equitable Developers Fund will help address inequities faced by Black and Hispanic developers. It “will also expand affordable housing development capacity across the county,” she said.

the road of a very involved project.”

APPLICATIONS

Turay said interested developers will qualify for business loan underwriting through an application process that began in late April.

“Developers will start submitting their information regarding their company themselves,” he said.

“This is a loan product; it is a small business loan, essentially,” he added. “So we will do the underwriting; we will speak with the developers; we will try to get an understanding of the work that they’ve done; and to qualify, you have to have done at least one project and have one that you are teeing up next.”

Asked to estimate the potential impact on creation of

BEN GARVER

Jonathan Butler, president and CEO of 1Berkshire, said targeting the fund’s resources to developers from underrepresented communities “would definitely be a bonus in the Berkshires.” The area has “a lack of developers,” he said.

affordable housing statewide, Turay said, “Given the amount — because we can go up to, say, a hundred or so units per project — I imagine it could be pretty substantial.”

Housing projects can also be as small as a three-unit development, he said.

The fund is expected to attract emerging developers who will have experienced societal issues that negatively impact entry into or advancement in the business world and are economically disadvantaged; have some experience developing rental, homeownership or mixed-use developments; intend to pursue rental, homeownership or mixed-use development within one of the eligible geographies listed above, and meet the program guidelines for eligibility and underwriting.

Applications will be made

available through an online portal for developers that meet the eligibility criteria. Technical assistance may be provided to applicants as needed.

To receive information about the program as it becomes available, email contact information to edf@mhic.com.

THE PROCESS

MHIC will lead day-to-day operations of the fund, including developing the fund’s financial products, evaluating and underwriting developer applications, and servicing loans.

MassHousing will work with developers to provide technical assistance as it relates to understanding the state’s affordable housing development opportunities and financing sources.

MassHousing and MHIC will collaborate on outreach to prospective borrowers.

“We will be putting together a portal system,” Turay said, “that I think will be both accessed from our website, https://www.mhic.com/ or we are creating an entire webpage dedicated to that.”

Interested contractors and others also can email edf@mhic. com for information about the Equitable Developers Fund and the program.

LISTENING TOUR

The program, Turay said, “is for essentially emerging developers; it’s not for the well-established, well-capitalized developer.”

He noted that the program evolved after a five-stop Emerging Developers Listening Tour that MassHousing organized across Massachusetts in 2022 to hear from socially and economically disadvantaged real estate

AFFORDABLE HOUSING, Page 10

Affordable housing

developers.

MassHousing conducted the tour to understand disparities and identify opportunities to increase participation in the affordable housing ecosystem among developers from communities and backgrounds that are underrepresented in the industry.

The sessions were held in collaboration with the Mel King Institute https://www.melkinginstitute.org/ and the Builders of Color of Coalition https://buildersofcolor.com/ and identified access to capital as a significant barrier to growth.

The two organizations referred to a 2023 report https://reports.groveimpact.org/breaking-the-glass-bottleneck/ by Grove Impact and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City that found Black and Hispanic real estate developers accounted for less than 1 percent of the industry.

Among statistics cited in the report were that Black developers represent 0.40 percent of the industry, while Hispanic developers represent 0.16 percent of the industry.

Examples of the pre-development assistance the fund will provide, Turay said, include money to make payroll, hire consultants and cover similar types of functions for an emerging developer.

“That’s the kind of capital that’s super hard to find in the marketplace,” he said, adding, “What we are saying is that we are actually going to fund the company itself, and that is going to hopefully do a number of projects — and help them build the capacity to do that.”

Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation provides funding for a range of projects, he said, “but we’ve never had a fund that is focused this way, specifically funding a company. We have done it in a different context, but not for real estate development.”

One of five MassHousing Listening Tour stops made to better understand industry disparities and boost affordable housing was at Reevx Labs in Springfield in September 2022, where approximately 30 people attended. The other four tour stops were in Boston (Artist for Humanity), Worcester (Worcester Idea Lab), Lawrence (Duck Mill Apartments), and New Bedford (SouthCoast Community Foundation).

PROGRAM PARTNERS

Founded in 1990, MHIC https://www. mhic.com/ is a private, nonprofit financier of affordable housing and community development, providing financing that would not otherwise be available, and extending the impact of that financing to ensure the broadest possible benefit, especially to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

MHIC evolved from a Massachusetts-based loan pool into a full-service capital markets platform of debt and

equity products serving New England.

MHIC has invested more than $3.2 billion for 658 developments, representing more than 25,500 homes and 6.9 million square feet of commercial space.

MassHousing https://www.masshousing.com/ (the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency) is an independent, quasi-public agency created in 1966 and charged with providing financing for affordable housing in the state.

The agency raises capital by selling bonds and lends the proceeds to low-

and moderate-income homebuyers and homeowners, and to developers who build or preserve affordable and/or mixed-income rental housing.

MassHousing does not use taxpayer dollars to sustain its operations, although it administers some publicly funded programs on behalf of the Commonwealth.

Since forming, MassHousing has provided more than $30 billion for affordable housing.

our

Dan Kinney Amanda Goewey

MASS HOUSING

Climate change

FROM PAGE 2

important issue,” said Bovard. “Its effect on the ski industry is a constant reminder of that.”

Bovard said that in general the periods of cold, snowy winters in the Berkshires have become shorter. He noted that at Bosquet, the goal is to achieve at least 100 days of operation during the season. This past season fell short, with the number of operational days in the mid-80s.

“Historically, St. Patrick’s Day has been the end of our season,” said Bovard, who is responsible for all of the resort’s outdoor operations, including snowmaking, grooming, lifts and ski patrols. “We made it this year, but just barely. A difference of several days can make a dramatic difference.”

Bovard added that the climate has also become more erratic, with shorter day-to-day temperature fluctuations and freeze-thaw cycles in which warmer and colder days alternate more frequently.

“We’re not seeing consistent cold spells like we used to,” he said. “That’s the hardest thing to accommodate.”

Also challenging the ski resorts is the impact the warming weather makes on prospective skiers’ perceptions.

Ski Butternut’s Mahon said this past ski season “was not a great year for natural snow. If we had to rely totally on that we may not have been able to offer skiing this year.” But Mahon added that “it was a good year for artificial snow, and we were able to provide 100 percent snow coverage throughout the season.”

The challenge for ski areas, Mahon said, is to make people aware of that. “Snowfalls are natural marketing,” he said. “When that doesn’t happen and the ground is bare in town, we have to fight the perception that there has to be natural snow to go skiing. We continue to push the message that even though you don’t have snow in your backyard there’s great snow on the mountain.”

While

seasons for events,

to offer quality skiing with less reliance on the weather, they significantly add to operating costs and energy use and require sources of water. Consequently, one goal of the industry has been to develop more efficient systems that are cost-effective, environmentally sustainable and reduce carbon footprints.

Jiminy Peak took a highly visible step in 2007, when it erected the first megawatt wind turbine in the ski industry.

The 378-foot structure, named Zephyr, is at the summit of the mountain and generates 1.5 MW, supplying 30 percent or more of the resort’s electricity. With Zephyr and other projects and initiatives, including an adjacent 12-acre community solar facility, Jiminy Peak reports it now gets 100 percent of its power from renewable sources.

“Climate change has added greater urgency to the goals of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, though those have been high priorities at Jiminy for many years,“ said Fogel. “Energy efficiency is also the best thing to do for our business by reducing our expenses.”

Energy efficiency is critical, said Ski Butternut’s Mahon. Noting that the industry’s technology is constantly evolving, Mahon said, “You can’t change the laws of physics, and you need temperatures that are cold enough to make snow. But newer equipment is amazing. We’re continuing to increase our capacity to efficiently make quality snow under a wider variety of conditions.”

Bousquet’s Bovard said, “Without snowmaking, many [ski] areas would not be in business.” She said Bousquet’s snowmaking also incorporates efficiencies: It’s “100 percent new, all-electric [the previous system was diesel powered] and includes automatic snow guns with indicators that can sense weather conditions and make adjustments.”

DIVERSIFICATION, PROMOTIONS PROVIDE A LIFT

Adding new generations of winter sports, such as snowboarding, tubing and terrain parks, along with offering up a raft of seasonal promotions, have worked to sustain or grow revenues — though

Melting snow streams o a Berkshire County ski resort mountain after days of warm weather and rain.

many prospective users, including those on fixed incomes, complain they no longer can afford industry prices.

Eliza Lindberg, marketing and resorts program manager at Bousquet, said the resort offers a variety of discount promotions at the beginning and end of the season. It also provides other incentives, such as a promotion with the city of Pittsfield for lessons and rentals for residents who are first-time skiers.

But, for Lindberg, it’s also those off-season offerings — existing independent of, and impervious to, the region’s warming and increasingly volatile winters — that will ensure area ski resorts remain fixtures of Berkshire County.

Thanks to Bosquet’s increased off-season activities, Lindberg said attendance at the mountain is moving toward being roughly equivalent in winter as in other times of the year.

75

1949-2024 years

PHOTOS STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Ski Butternut makes its grounds available in nonwinter

including the Berkshires Arts Festival. Festivalgoers get the opportunity to meet with sculptors, painters, potters and jewelers, as shown here in July 2021.

Berkshire voices

Celebrating power — and potential — of youth

Liana Toscanini

Nonprofit Notes

Each year, as nominations for the Berkshire Nonprofit Awards begin to roll in, I am struck by the power and potential of our local youth — a fact that leaves me feeling hopeful for the future.

A perennial question presents itself each spring: What is it about the local environment that allows these young people to blossom? As in all things, the factors can

be fickle: Some get invaluable career experience at local businesses while others receive guidance and gumption from mentors who support and encourage their passions.

Despite the myriad differences among these eight emerging leaders, there is a common tie that binds each to the next: They all belong to a community at- large that has proven nurturing young people — cultivating their curiosity and providing fertile ground in which to develop deep roots — is an invaluable investment.

Kudos to this year’s nominees, their

29 years of combined service to nonprofits in the Berkshires, and, from among them, our 2024 Samya Rose Stumo Youth Leadership honoree (named after the Sheffield resident and active volunteer who died in a plane crash at the age of 24).

Here is a list of all the nominees considered for the award, including this year’s honoree, Noelia Salinetti:

• Chris Ortwein is a leader and role model at Berkshire Pulse. For more than six years, he’s been quietly making space for young dancers to dream about their role in the performing arts —

especially boys fearful of pursuing their passions due to stereotypes and stigmas. As a graduating senior, he is equally at home participating in the Young Choreographers Initiative as he is welcoming new students to the studio. “[As a teaching assistant, Chris] shares his time and energy to ensure that students in the [Musical Theater Collective] class feel supported,” said teacher Gillian Ebersole of an integral member of the organization.

• Juliana Ospina is a team-player committed to personal development.

BERKSHIRE NONPROFIT, Page 13

2024 Berkshire Nonprofit honorees chosen

GREAT BARRINGTON — For their exceptional accomplishments and dedication to the people who work in the nonprofit sector, seven area individuals will be feted on May 21 at the 7th annual Berkshire Nonprofit Awards, held by the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires in partnership with The Berkshire Eagle.

A panel of 21 judges from the business and nonprofit sectors deliberated via Zoom to choose the seven honorees in each of seven categories from among 62 nominations.

“Reading through the nominations is always inspiring,” said Nonprofit Center founder Liana Toscanini. “I’m reminded of how much one person can enhance the inner workings and success of a nonprofit organization.”

The Nonprofit Awards are made possible by sponsors Berkshire Bank, Berkshire Health Systems, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Berkshire United Way, Blackrock Foundation, Feigenbaum Foundation, Fitzpatrick Trust, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Lamar Advertising Company, NBT Bank, Warrior Trading and Williamstown Community Chest.

The descriptions of the 2024 honorees, and their respective categories, follow:

CHRIS MELSKI/ BERKSHIRE COUNTY ARC

Honored for Lifetime Achievement

As vice president of residential services at Berkshire County ARC for 38 years, Melski oversees the quality of life for 400 individuals with disabilities, 50 properties, 37 vans, and a staff of 600. Always in compliance with ethical and regulatory guidelines, he makes the health and safety of those served his priority. From placing individuals with disabilities in the right setting, to taking them to lunch, or visiting them in the hospital, Chris has a heart of gold.

JESSICA VECCHIA/ROOTS RISING

Honored for Executive Leadership

The executive director and co-founder of Roots Rising, Vecchia is a bold and energetic leader with a passion for food justice and community building. Over 12 years, she worked to launch the Pittsfield Farmer’s Market in a “food desert,” Youth Crews to offer meaningful, paid work and enrichment opportunities to teens, and soon, a youth farm. A change-maker dedicated to youth development, environmental stewardship and community engagement, Jess helps provide life-changing experiences for young people.

BRENDA PETELL/ BERKSHIRE UNITED WAY

NOELIA SALINETTI/MONUMENT MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR

KATE BARTON/BERKSHIRE IMMIGRANT CENTER

Honored as a Rock Star Petell, director of volunteer engagement for Berkshire United Way, is committed to service and inclusive engagement. She is the “go-to” resource for volunteerism, and a supportive team-player. A serial volunteer in her personal life, Brenda has organized food drives, helped expand the Thanksgiving Angels meal program and establish the first mobile farmer’s market. She also serves as a VITA volunteer, and works to make immigrants feel supported.

JUDITH WESSELMAN/BERKSHIRE

COMMUNITY ACTION COUNCIL

Honored for Youth Leadership Salinetti is a high school senior, student leader, activist and BIPOC and LGBTQ advocate who serves on several advisory boards including Railroad Street Youth Project’s Inclusion Task Force. In December 2023, Noelia helped organize a school walkout in response to a police investigation of the book called “Gender Queer: A Memoir.” A role model and change-maker whose work has ripple effects beyond school, Noelia demonstrates how young people have the power to make a difference.

Honored for Board Leadership A steady “handson” leader with Southern charm and signature silver lame sneakers, Barton, board chair of the Berkshire Immigrant Center, led the nonprofit through a major reorganization, leadership transition, pandemic and strategic planning while expanding services and helping to increase BIC’s annual benefit revenue from $17,000 to $125,00 in just four years.

Attend the awards breakfast

Honored for Volunteerism For 14 years, Wesselman has tirelessly volunteered for Berkshire Community Action Council’s Elf Warm Clothing Program, serving 2,000 children annually. She also helps raise funds and volunteers for the Elks. A generous soul, Jude is committed to making a difference in the lives of others, donating 295 hours of her time annually and demonstrating that one person can have a large impact on a community.

KAREN RICHARDS/MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER/ WAM THEATRE/DU BOIS CENTER/ THE MOUNT

Honored as an Unsung Hero For 12 years, since retiring, Richards has worked and volunteered for the Mahaiwe, the Du Bois Freedom Center, WAM Theatre and The Mount. Reliable, unflappable, authentic and humble, Karen’s deep contributions to the functioning of these cultural organizations makes her an invaluable and highly valued resource.

The Berkshire Nonprofit Awards breakfast will run from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. May 21 at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge. The celebration will feature breakfast and networking, a performance by Kids4Harmony, remarks by Kripalu CEO Robert Mulhall, a video message from Attorney General Andrea Campbell and presentation of awards.

Tickets: $25 and can be purchased online at npcberkshires.org.

Wesselman

Salinetti

Petell

Richards

Vecchia

Melski

Barton

Berkshire Nonprofit

She brings curiosity, skill and generosity to her role as shop manager at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. From overseeing a staff of at least 25 individuals to delivering exceptional customer service to guests, Juliana stretches beyond her comfort zone every day by not only speaking but also advocating for others in English, her second language. “Juliana proves that age does not need to define an individual’s leadership,” said Emily Cohen, her supervisor. Juliana’s colleagues agree: She is willing to do what is needed. Period. Without a question.

• Lucia Pantano is a staunch advocate for others, one who is keenly aware of the social and economic barriers that exist for certain groups — especially teens in Berkshire County. “Lucia is humanistic by nature and cares deeply for her peers, her siblings and her community,” said Chad O’Neill of the McCann Principal’s Award recipient whose work with the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition is addressing youth-specific challenges from bullying to drugs. Keen on giving back, Lucia’s dual enrollment in Cross Cultural & Social Justice Studies at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

has opened her eyes to a world beyond Berkshire County and how to effect change there.

• Isabella Penna-Ward brings a holistic approach to understanding and addressing the intersection of agriculture, community and the environment. At Roots Rising, the Williams College student’s dedication to positive social change — coupled with determination, kindness and optimism — has impacted myriad arenas since assuming her inaugural role with the nonprofit in 2018.

“Isabella stands as a living example of the transformative power young individuals possess,” said Executive Director Jess Vecchia, calling the Youth Crew Alumni and current board member’s impact on the Berkshire community “profound and wide-reaching.” Her active role in key decision-making processes and willingness to speak at fundraising events make her an invaluable asset.

• Noelia Salinetti is a passionate and courageous advocate for their peers — one committed to amplifying issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

As a member of the Student Adult Advisory Board, the Monument Mountain Regional High School senior is committed to making school feel safe

for students of color and those who identify as queer. Powerful ripple effects extend into the community where Noelia’s involvement at Railroad Street Youth Project spans more than three years and includes collaboration with the Southern Berkshire Health Coalition and Stoke Collective. “Noelia has consistently shown up around advocacy and education in all areas of their life,” said mentor Sabrina Allard of RSYP. “Noelia has immense courage, conviction and a deep sense of empathy that converges to make them a formidable leader,” said Sean

NONPROFIT CENTER OF THE BERKSHIRES Florence Afanukoe, center, was last year’s Samya Rose Stumo Youth Leadership Award honoree. She’s framed by Jennifer Connor, left, of Shumsky/Greylock Federal Credit Union, and state Rep. Tricia FarleyBouvier at the 2023 Berkshire Nonprofit Awards breakfast.

Flynn, a guidance counselor at MMRHS, adding, “[Salinetti’s] determination and resolve are extraordinary.”

• Lydia Shustack is keen on demonstrating that youth have the power to make a difference. Driven by a personal pursuit to be part of the community in which she lives, Lydia has inspired others of all ages to follow suit — equally engaging peers and adults in the work of strengthening their community. At Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, she is a youth leader, mentor and participant in the Youth Leadership Program; at ROOTS Teen Center, she serves on the Youth Board. “Lydia’s presence and strong character have been a positive example to her peers, helping bring other youth into our programs,” said Executive Director Amber Besaw of nbCC.

• Jacob Tullo has spent a significant portion of his life helping others. As a cancer survivor who was diagnosed at age 13, Jacob has chosen to pay it forward by supporting and advocating for children with cancer diagnoses — even in the midst of his ongoing treatment. “[Jacob] impacts his environment, without being asked, all the time,” said Josh Meczywor of the volunteer, mentor and talented 3D printing artist whose many talents (including meeting with gaming kart com-

panies and fundraising to purchase consoles) have benefitted the AYJ Fund—a nonprofit that helped him through his own diagnosis, surgery and later chemotherapy — to support research for Gliomatosis Cerebri and other brain cancers.

• Cashey Young has a powerful voice, one she is using to change systems and make them more inclusive. As a Rites of Passage and Empowerment program (R.O.P.E.) scholar, she has worked tirelessly to amplify voices too often left out of the conversation — in particular, those belonging to youth of color.

“[Cashey] is deeply passionate, selfless and consistent with her commitment to serve,” said R.O.P.E. Founder Shirley Edgerton of the creative thinker and compassionate leader. By bringing awareness of issues and concerns to those who can change situations and systems, Cashey is leading by example — and her peers are taking notice.

The 7th Annual Berkshire Nonprofit Awards will be held at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health on May 21. We’ll be celebrating everything that’s great about Berkshire nonprofits, including these passion-filled young leaders — each of whom is poised with a vision for effecting change in the future. Hope springs eternal, indeed.

Liana Toscanini is the founder of Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires.

PHOTO BY SARA WRIGHT

Noelia Salinetti is the 2024 Samya Rose Stumo Youth Leadership honoree.

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

The 7th Annual Nonprofit Awards will be held May 21 at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge.

Make Berkshires a climate tech leader

In January, Sublime Systems — developers of a fossil fuel-free, scalable, dropin replacement for traditional cement in concrete — announced that, after a diligent search period, it had selected a 16-acre site in Holyoke for its first commercial manufacturing facility.

Sublime Systems was founded at MIT by Dr. Leah Ellis and Professor Yet-Ming Chiang, both experts in material science, electrochemical systems, and sustainability research. The company was supported in its formative stages by The Engine Accelerator in Cambridge, which curates programs and provides labs, equipment, tools, and workspaces — and convenes broader ecosystem partners — all in an effort to support entrepreneurs who are trying to take transformative technologies from idea to impact.

turer, Clean Crop Technologies, made a significant announcement. Clean Crop, which is solving crop loss via a fully automated solution that removes seed-borne pathogens before they infect plants in farmer fields, declared that it had also selected Holyoke as the site of its first manufacturing facility.

Clean Crop was founded and initially located at a laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where it utilized the Institute for Applied Life Science Innovation Fund and tested and validated its first prototype. After it graduated and was looking for a place to scale, Holyoke emerged as the ideal municipal partner.

While formed and nurtured in Cambridge, for pretty obvious reasons, Cambridge is not a practical place to site a 16-acre commercial concrete manufacturing facility. However, because of the company’s roots and the ecosystem support that it had built over the years, establishing their first plant within the commonwealth of Massachusetts was a priority as the firm weighed its options.

Sublime’s selection of Holyoke for its commercial expansion was a result of a collaborative effort by the city and the Healey-Driscoll administration, and included two critical incentives: A state tax credit from the Economic Development Incentive Program and a local Tax Increment Financing from the city to help offset property taxes. Sublime intends to create dozens of high-quality jobs and is already partnering very closely with local community organizations and business development groups.

Shortly after Sublime’s announcement, another climate tech manufac-

So, why Holyoke, what can we in the Berkshires learn from this, and how do we position ourselves to land some of the scaling firms born from technology coming out of the labs at MIT, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell, Northeastern, RPI, WPI, and some of the other amazing institutions in our catch basin?

In answering the “Why Holyoke?” question, both Sublime and Clean Crop make similar observations.

First, they point out that there is affordable room to grow. For industrial decarbonization companies, success means that their technology gets bigger and quickly requires more space. The average rental cost in the Boston area ranges from $30 to $63 per square foot, while the number is close to $12 to $21 per square foot in the Pioneer Valley. Clean Crop has a robust, 14,000-squarefoot purpose-built facility, which makes the price of real estate very important. Sublime settled on a 16-acre site.

Second, they point to the ready-made advanced manufacturing ecosystem that they can partner with. Springfield was the birthplace of the US defense industry

A laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,

was the origin of Clean Crop Technologies. The climate tech company has selected Holyoke as the site of its first manufacturing facility.

in the late 18th century, and Holyoke, colloquially referred to as the Paper City, produced 80 percent of the United States’ writing paper in the late 19th century.

That legacy persists today, with a strong ecosystem of advanced engineering, materials, and machine shops supporting the aerospace and material science industries. As Clean Crop has said, “Leveraging the tribal knowledge in this ecosystem has been invaluable at multiple points in rapidly iterating on our core technology.”

Third, they point to a strong talent pipeline through UMass and the Five College Consortium in the Pioneer Valley, as well as institutions like Spring-

field Technical Community College and Holyoke Community College. Like any growing firm, the people are most important, and strong relationships with local and regional educational partners are essential for sustained growth.

Finally, both Sublime and Clean Crop point to a partnership with the local utility, Holyoke Gas & Electric, which provides material incentives for new entrants to the city, including a 10 percent discount off natural gas and electric bills for a period of three years.

Critically, HG&E’s electric mix is 56 percent renewable and 95 percent carbon-free, primarily because 56 percent of their

ELLA ADAMS — STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

above,

CLIMATE TECH, Page 15

Ben Sosne News from the BIC

Climate tech

electricity is sourced from a local hydro-renewable plant. This approach allows them to provide clean energy at a fraction of the price of other utilities.

On the first three points, the Berkshires stacks up very well. We have great space available — indeed some perfect space right next to the BIC at the William Stanley Business Park — and the price is right for these types of developments. Our advanced manufacturing ecosystem similarly has very deep and strong roots, particularly around material science, precision manufacturing, electrical engineering, and plastics expertise.

The tribal knowledge in our region is vast and impressive and is something that we can do a better job highlighting. Finally, our talent pipeline is coordinated and committed.

From our vocational schools — McCann Technical and Taconic high

schools — to our more traditional high schools, we are seeing increased interest in technical fields and increased opportunities for students. Berkshire Community College has a fabulous new mechatronics program and MCLA continues to build out a new quality control / quality assurance track.

Most importantly there is tremendous collaboration between these partners, most often coordinated through Heather Boulger and her team at MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board. Of course, the BIC plays a key role here, both as an organization that stands up programs like the BIC Manufacturing Academy and as a connective tissue making sure industry is at the table as needs are identified, and new programs are developed.

On the fourth factor, there is no question that Holyoke has an advantage. The cost of power in the Berkshires is high and the options for renewables are not as evolved as those in Holyoke. Our elected representatives and business leaders are very aware of this situation and are very focused on it. If solutions

were easy, they would have been laid out and resolved a long time ago.

That said, new technologies in energy generation, storage, and transmission are coming quickly, and both Massachusetts and New York are at the cutting edge. There are also a host of new federal programs and incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act and Gov. Maura Healey, in her Mass Leads legislation, is proposing a $1 billion, 10-year climate tech initiative.

We see the global energy transition happening before our eyes. Industrial decarbonization is a critical effort to hitting state and national goals. Technology developed in Massachusetts is leading the way, and we are seeing that technology scaled in places like Holyoke.

We also are seeing great examples of climate tech firms leveraging the Berkshires region and the BIC, including Berkshire-born SolaBlock. Given our history and local expertise, there certainly is be a tremendous opportunity to lead in efforts around plastics. The BIC has identified William Stanley Business

Park as an ideal place for climate tech manufacturing and the U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded the BIC with a small planning grant to further pursue the concept.

As we like to point out, Gov. Healey speaks of a climate corridor stretching from the Berkshires to Barnstable. It’s exciting for the entire commonwealth. Right here in the Berkshires, an opportunity to leverage our assets and become true leaders in this energy transition work and use that position to simultaneously drive local economic development. Nonetheless, for this effort to bear fruit, we must be persistent and highly coordinated in our efforts. But make no mistake, the pieces are lined up for us and ready to be pulled together. The question that rises up for me lately seems like a proper call to action to coordinate our regional energy efforts: If not now, when?

Ben Sosne is executive director of the Berkshire Innovation Center.

Spruce up your resume and workspace

Spring is here! The flowers are beginning to blossom, baseball is back, and soon we can open up the windows and let the fresh air in. It’s also time to dust off the winter blues and reorganize and refresh your workspace and your workflow. Like it or not, it’s time to do some spring cleaning!

Spring cleaning at work accomplishes many of the same things it does in our homes. It makes us more organized, reduces stress and clutter, improves time management, and helps streamline processes, which makes us more productive. In fact, a recent study also indicates that for every hour a person spends cleaning, it boosts their overall happiness by 53 percent and who doesn’t want more happiness in their life?

Here are a few tips that will help you “spring clean” your business and your career.

Do a digital sweep. Many people complain about the sheer volume of daily email and what a struggle it is to keep up. From hard drives filled with photos, documents and spreadsheets to email apps, digital clutter not only makes us less productive, it also distracts us throughout the day. Go through your computer and get rid of any files that you don’t need. Create folders to keep things organized on your computer, and unsubscribe from newsletters and blogs that distract you and waste time. Dust off and streamline processes. Review the processes that happen in your organization and determine if they could be completed in a more efficient manner. Review laws, regulations, employment records and job descriptions to

make sure you are prepared and current. Talk to your team. Ask your team for advice on streamlining operations and improving productivity and engagement. You may not be able to act on or change everything your team has issues with, but you will likely find some good ideas and advice. Plus, your team members will appreciate the open dialogue.

Clean your office. Yes, physically. Make sure it is clean and inviting on both the inside and outside. If you don’t have the time to clean, hire a crew. A clean place of business isn’t just good for sales and employee morale; it’s good for your health, too. Research now points to clutter as a stressor; and dust, mold and debris aggravate allergies, asthma and infections.

After tidying up your physical and digital space, your mental focus will naturally refresh as well. Take short breaks throughout the day to reflect and reset, organize your thoughts, and focus on one thing at a time, rather than trying to solve every problem at once.

If you’re job searching, now is the time to dust off that resume and polish up your career plan. Here are a few ideas that may inspire you to rejuvenate your job search.

Prepare your resume. Scrub out the typos, declutter the jargon, throw out what doesn’t work anymore and slap on a new coat of paint. Be brief, be specific, be active, be selective and be honest! Look over your resume regularly to keep it fresh and current.

Refresh your strategy. Stay up to date with online job sites, career blogs and your social media accounts. Research workshops, training, volunteer work and job clubs to help you stay in the job game.

Polish your networks. Experts say that 70 percent of people end up in their current position thanks to networking. Don’t let your networks get stale. Take a

few minutes each day to give your contacts a call or email or message them on social media to find out what opportunities they might have caught wind of and ask them to keep you in mind if anything comes up. Also consider expanding your contacts through staffing firms or LinkedIn to help your network bloom.

Spruce up your interview strategies. Be prepared and sell yourself both as an employee and as a solution. Do research on the company and the position you are applying for and identify some of their major challenges. Show them how you can help them achieve their goals with your skills and motivation. Do a practice session to help you answer top interviewing questions.

Your resume is a living document that will be edited and updated through the course of your job search and your entire career. Taking a good look at it this spring, and at the start of every season, will help you get more interviews, and ultimately, better job offers.

If you are struggling with or just want to freshen your job search, make April the month you connect with a job counselor at the MassHire Berkshire Career Center, www.masshireberkshireCC.com, and turn those April showers into new blooming job opportunities!

Heather Boulger is executive director of the MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board

in Pittsfield.

GETTY IMAGES

Heather Boulger says cleaning your office this spring is just one of several ways to reorganize and refresh your workspace and workflow, and boost your productivity and happiness.

Heather Boulger Inside the Job Market

Plaine’s is looking for a new home

After 50-year run, owners hope to keep ski/bike shop in Pittsfield

By M att M artinez

PITTSFIELD — Bob Geller said he’s been buying gear at Plaine’s Bike Ski and Snowboard for more than 40 years.

Since 1983, the Alpine ski coach at Pittsfield High School has shopped there for himself, his students, his children — and now grandchildren.

“Last year, we were in with the third generation of Gellers,” he said, recalling a recent visit to buy a helmet and some ski gloves for his 3-yearold granddaughter.

It’s also the place where he and his son, Cameron, met Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Schiffrin in 2014 — an experience he still talks about to this day.

Now, owners of the store, which has been at the corner of West Housatonic and Elizabeth streets since 1974, are looking for a new home.

The building containing the bicycle and outdoor supply shop at 55 West Housatonic St., is up for sale or lease by Mitchell Plaine, who owned the business until 2022.

Plaine sold the business two years ago to Kenver Ltd., an Egremont-based ski and outerwear business owned by the Los Angeles-based OvareGroup. He still owns the building, and is looking to lease or sell it to new occupants after the business’s current owners decided not to renew their lease for the upcoming year.

Interested parties can lease the space for $8,500 a month or buy the building outright for $700,000, according to the space’s listing.

Paul Reid, president of Ovare Outdoor, made it clear that

the Plaine’s business was moving, not closing. Reid said that Plaine’s will temporarily move into the same space as Kenver at 39 Main St. in Egremont as a “store-in-store,” while the owners look for another space near the Pittsfield area.

That move will happen by June 1, Reid said. The store’s next location would ideally be in or around Pittsfield, he added, and the owners are hoping

to have the shop in place by the start of the next ski season.

Reid said the ownership is hoping to move the business to a smaller location with more foot traffic, while working with suppliers to maintain its inventory.

“We want to stay a part of the Pittsfield community,” Reid said.

Kevin McMillan, the general manager of Bousquet Mountain in Pittsfield, said that

Plaine’s has been a “great resource” especially for athletes looking to purchase skis. He hoped that the business would return to Pittsfield quickly, noting that there are few options to buy equipment elsewhere in the immediate area.

In the meantime, McMillan said that skiers in need of gear can get a seasonal rental from Bousquet. Visitors can visit the Bousquet Mountain website or

call 413-442-8985 to learn more.

Plaine said he’s had some local and regional interest in the building so far. The property has been on the market since Dec. 19, but the “for sale” sign was placed on the business over the weekend.

The building has over 10,000 square feet, three floors and is situated on a busy traffic corner in Pittsfield, Plaine said. According to an estimate from Dalton Appraisal Co., the business has an average daily traffic volume of about 16,837 travelers.

While Plaine thinks that any business could do favorably in the corner spot, he thinks it’s set up particularly well for another ski and bike business to move in.

“The footpath is already well-worn for a business like that,” Plaine said.

For Geller, the PHS coach, the shop’s greatest strength was service. The store’s longtime employees had a knack for remembering details about customers and knew what their clientele needed, he said.

“If you were in the store you felt like family, you know?” he said.

Geller said that the people who made Plaine’s work were “straight shooters” — that they never gave you the wrong impression just to sell you something, and always found a way to be helpful.

When purchasing ski equipment, which is often an expensive proposition, that can make a world of difference, he said.

“If they promised something, it happened,” Geller said. “That gave you a lot of confidence. You could relax. If you had that experience once, that’s probably why people went back to Plaine’s.”

STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Plaine’s Bike Ski and Snowboard has been on the corner of West Housatonic and Elizabeth streets since 1974.

BEN GARVER

The building that houses Plaine’s Bike Ski and Snowboard at 55 West Housatonic St. is up for sale or lease by Mitchell Plaine. The shop is looking for a new home.

‘One of those fell-in-love moments’

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

New owner aims to polish up the Apple Tree Inn

By ClarenCe Fanto

The Berkshire Eagle

LENOX — For Claire Collery, it’s a long-held dream come true.

Collery, who has a background hotel management, had been searching for her own inn for the past year.

She looked first on Cape Cod — where she held her first job as concierge at the famed Chatham Bars Inn — but found nothing suitable. Last summer, attending a Tanglewood concert and exploring Lenox and vicinity, she had her “Eureka!” moment and decided to focus her search nearby.

Collery recently purchased the 34room Apple Tree Inn overlooking Tanglewood from previous owners James and Maxwell Khagan. The price: $3,385,000 including $500,000 for the business assets.

The Khagans had placed the 21.5-acre property on the market last May, initially for $4.9 million before a substantial price reduction.

Collery, 35, is a native of Pelham, N.Y., in Westchester County just north of New York City, but she has family roots in the Pioneer Valley.

She attended the Andover Phillips Academy, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, moved to Sydney, Australia for several years working in real estate development, and later graduated from the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Hoping to carve out a hotel development career, she interned for Rosewood Hotels and Resorts in Los Angeles before becoming a hotel asset manager at Starwood Capital Group, a real estate management firm, in its San Francisco office.

“I always thought I wanted to do something on my own,” she said, so she moved to Boston in 2022 and by last December focused on the Berkshires as she searched

Gregory Smith, an assistant at the Metropolitan Opera, and his wife, Aurora, owned the inn from 1983 to 1989, when they put it up for sale at $3.5 million. In 1996, Sharon and Joel Walker purchased the property in 1996 for $1.8 million.

for a hotel, working with Pittsfield-based broker Jamie Nugent of TKG, The Kinderhook Group. After seeing the Apple Tree, she recalled, “it was one of those fell-in-love moments.”

In recent years, the inn has received mixed reviews, favorable for the 13-room main house but not so much for the 21room 1950s-style motel-like lodge. But Apple Tree won an enthusiastic local following for its nightlife entertainment at the inn’s tavern, named the Ostrich Room, with music booking coordinated by Johnny Irion, formerly married to Sarah Lee Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie’s daughter.

During two months of transition, with guest rooms available on weekends before seven-day operation this summer,

Collery will be hiring front-desk clerks, kitchen staff and servers for the tavern’s nightclub, which she intends to reopen on weekends with a pub menu. She may rename it, but it will continue to offer live entertainment programmed by Irion.

“I would love this to be a gathering place for the community,” Collery said. “It’s a great space and property, and I hope I can get people back up here.”

After consulting visitor reviews, Collery hopes to get through the busy summer season, “figure out how everything works, how people use the space, what everybody’s priorities are, and then regroup in the fall and make some bigger decisions then. I’ve pulled out the major problems and themes, and I have a handle

on what needs to be changed.”

The original part of the estate was called The Orchard and eventually became the Avaloch Inn, Alice’s at Avaloch under Alice Brock’s ownership from 1976 to 1979, and Portofino.

Gregory Smith, an assistant at the Metropolitan Opera, and his wife, Aurora, owned the inn from 1983 to 1989, when they put it up for sale at $3.5 million. In 1996, Sharon and Joel Walker purchased the property in 1996 for $1.8 million.

Now, the Apple Tree’s appeal rests on its potential, Collery acknowledged.

“In the reviews, the things that were bad are fixable, and the things that were good were the incredibly beautiful, original historical spaces and being across from Tanglewood,” she said. “Those are the fundamentals that sold me on this, and there’s a lot we can work on.”

She sees potential for events and for upgrading breakfast and eventually lunch, even opening for outside patrons.

“These are all dreams,” Collery pointed out. She will have help from a college friend and now a business partner, Danny Chaffetz.

“I don’t think this is going to be easy,” Collery said. “I love this area, this property, and I hope I can make something of it.” She’s brimming with optimism, energy and enthusiasm, also aiming to start a family with her husband, Christopher Tucker, who goes by “Toph.” They will be living here full-time in the owners’ residence on the property.

“It feels like the problem I want to work on, and I’m excited to do it, make some friends along the way and create good experiences for people,” she said. “This is what I wanted to do my entire life. I love the vibe; there’s something good here.”

Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@ yahoo.com.

The Apple Tree Inn in Lenox is under new ownership by Claire Collery, who plans to have the inn fully open to guests by the summer season. “I would love this to be a gathering place for the community,” she said. “It’s a great space and property, and I hope I can get people back up here.”

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

New grandparents ready to move on

John and Patti Campbell hope to sell the Shaker Mill Inn in West

By Jane K aufman

WEST STOCKBRIDGE — Having owned the Shaker Mill Inn for nearly six years, John and Patti Campbell are ready to pass along the keys to the nine-room inn to a buyer.

To that end, the Campbells, the inn’s fourth owners, have put the property on the market for $1,550,000. It’s a modest increase over what they paid for the inn in 2018 — $1,095,000 — especially in a market that has skyrocketed in value for residential listings.

Here’s how the listing reads with The B&B Team in part:

“The Inn offers 9 spacious and well-appointed guestrooms and suites, most with external entrances. The extensively appointed and spacious efficiency guest rooms and suites all offer either kitchenettes or full kitchens and are very well equipped for short- or longer-term stays. Many of the rooms have fireplaces and the expansive Honeymoon Suite has a two-person whirlpool tub. Other marketable features include private patios, decks, and balconies. The Inn is very family-friendly (and pet-friendly too), with some of the rooms offering connecting doorways and sofa beds, perfectly situated to accommodate families.”

The listing also mentions “a beautifully landscaped rock garden with fire pit, with a side lawn well suited for relaxation, lawn games, or small social gatherings.”

When they lived in Ohio, the Campbells thought they might buy an inn, but they had a young family and the timing wasn’t right.

Only after they moved to Sturbridge and their three children graduated from high school did they consider it as an option. They hoped to find a property in New York or Pennsylvania, but before they could put in offers, places they were interested in went under contract.

So, in 2017 when John found the listing for the Shaker Mill Inn, the couple decided to take the hourlong drive on the Mas-

sachusetts Turnpike to see the property.

The first thing they noticed: the logo of an apple tree painted on the side of the red building.

“Patti for most of our married life had decorated her kitchen with red and apples,” John said. “So we thought that was sort of a sign.”

In 2018, they sold their Sturbridge condominium and moved into the owners’ apartment on the third floor.

Patti was already familiar with housekeeping, having done it professionally in nursing homes.

With experience in management in aerospace and defense manufacturing, John understood budgeting. When a business he worked for sold, he cashed out his stock to pay for the purchase of the 2 Oak St. property.

Now, nearly six years later, they have a granddaughter in Ohio and figure there

may be more in the future. They’d like to free up their lives to travel to visit their three children in Ohio and California.

“The lifespan of an innkeeper is typically about seven years,” John said. “You start when you’re in your late 50s. By the time you get into your mid-60s, late 60s, you’re grandparents now and it’s time to move on.”

The Campbells are still enjoying running the inn, but know it can take time to sell a property like theirs.

“It has its ups and downs,” John said. “If we hired a bigger staff, we’d probably have more free time, but we like doing the work ourselves.”

Each guest room contains original art for sale by members of the Guild of Berkshire Artists. John places a card somewhere in the room with the names of the artists and the price list. One of the rooms, for example, contains a dozen

Stockbridge

pieces by seven artists.

In addition, they set out a bottle of Crane Lake Merlot and two wine glasses for guests who check in for a twonight stay or longer. Crane Lake Pinot Grigio is also available if the guest prefers white wine.

Breakfast is offered in the suites’ kitchenettes, placed there before guests arrive.

The Campbells have made a point to patronize local businesses to cater. They offer locally prepared quiche, breakfast sandwiches, apple strudel and scones, as well as cereal, oatmeal, fruit and yogurt.

One of their first decisions as innkeepers was not to answer the phone at 2 a.m. to make up rooms for unexpected guests.

“We did it twice, and that was it,” said Patti.

The client base was already solid when the Campbells took over, John said, but they’ve also expanded it with many returning guests.

The pandemic shut down the inn in March 2020 for nearly three months, a time the Campbells spent painting the inn, inside and out.

Afterwards, when the inn reopened in late spring, they used contactless checkin at their guests’ request.

“So now we do kind of a hybrid thing,” John said.

The inn is busiest from June through October, with many guests heading to Tanglewood and showing up to peep autumn leaves. The year-round inn also serves visitors interested in skiing and snowshoeing.

John said the best part of innkeeping has been the friends they’ve made of their guests.

John and Patti also take a lot of pride in their work appointing, landscaping, gardening and painting the inn, and appreciate guests responding to the homey feeling they’ve tried to imbue it with.

John said, “They really appreciate the hard work that we put into it.”

Owners John and Patti Campbell outside the Shaker Mill Inn in West Stockbridge, which they purchased in 2018. “The lifespan of an innkeeper is typically about seven years,” John said.

The “Honeymoon” room at the Shaker Mill Inn in West Stockbridge sports a large jacuzzi bath as one of its amenities.

Hinsdale Pizza sees first night frenzy

After deluge of orders, owner regroups for a reopening

By M att M artinez

HINSDALE —

If it wasn’t for a knee injury during his days as a FedEx delivery driver, Jason Reed might never have realized his dream.

While recuperating, Reed revisited a long-held ambition from when he was a kid: to own a pizzeria. It stemmed from his days working at Domino’s as a teen; he also worked nights there when he was making his way through school at Berkshire Community College.

Reed originally wanted to own a Domino’s franchise, but found the company’s overhead requirements too large to meet. Instead, he found himself looking at local joints in need of new ownership.

“I just started looking for local pizza shops and I found Anna’s (Pizza and Greek Restaurant in Hancock) while I was rehabbing my knee,” Reed said.

“I was like, ‘This could be my ticket out of a truck.’”

Reed ran Anna’s Pizza and Greek Restaurant, at 175 Lebanon Mountain Road along Route 20, for about three years. Then, he got a chance to move closer to home — right around the corner, in fact. He’s lived in the town with his family for seven years.

He opened his new establishment, the Hinsdale Pizza House, at the corner of Plunkett Avenue and Main Street in Hinsdale.

Then, the orders started flying in.

On the first night, the restaurant was supposed to be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., but ...

“The phone was off the hook at 5 p.m.,” Reed said. “We just couldn’t keep up.”

Reed was used to handling 30 tickets on a typical Friday night in Hancock, but on a Wednesday and Thursday night in Hinsdale, he easily cleared double

that figure. When the shop opened, he had just one fulltime employee besides himself to deal with the rush.

Foot traffic was a large contributor to the unexpected customer flock, he said, having managed a roadside shop on a highway as opposed to a storefront in the heart of town.

The restaurant’s kitchen setup includes an oven capable of cooking four large pizzas at a time, he said, which takes about 12 minutes to complete. He can cook about 20 pizzas an hour with that equipment layout, which wasn’t close to meeting the demand.

The result was long wait times for some patrons, and a decision to close the restaurant temporarily until he could work out the

kinks. Hinsdale residents have been gracious and supportive of the business so far, he said, but he wants to ensure that he gets it right the second time around.

Reed has since reopened on a takeout-only basis.

He has made major changes since the first night, hiring five more staffers, including one more full-time employee. The rest are part-time workers covering shifts. The new hires are exclusively kitchen staff, he said.

Reed is also moving more kitchen equipment into the restaurant, opening up a storage room in the building that was previously going to be unused to set up more ovens and stoves. A range hood that was already in the building proved to be a wind-

fall for him, as he’ll be able to move appliances right in.

“I wasn’t going to utilize it,” Reed said. “I didn’t know what to expect. But now that I know I need a staff, I can have people two rooms away and still be out front.”

The range hood was installed by one of the business’s previous owners — who played no small part in its storied legacy.

The Hinsdale Pizza House’s location is a fixture in the town’s history. It’s the site of Naughton’s Market, a corner store that first opened in 1900, owned and operated for decades by the successors of founder John Naughton, Sr.

Subsequently, it was Glenn’s Hinsdale General Store, owned

by the late Glenn Wnukowksi. Visitors to the pizza shop can still visit “Glenn’s Corner,” named in Wnukowski’s honor.

For the last few years, it operated as Birch and Cork Furniture, Co., whose owners installed the “Glenn’s Corner” sign.

Wnukowski was the one who installed the range hood that is helping Reed to adapt the business so quickly.

Reed hopes that his pizza joint, distinguished by each pie’s homemade sauce and dough, can fit right into the beloved community spot, too.

“I built relationships out at Anna’s; I’ll do the same here,” Reed said. “After a while, I’ll know your name when you walk in … it’s like a small town feel.”

Luau Hale site joins Lenox auto mile

Will provide storage for Audi, VW, BMW

By ClarenCe Fanto

LENOX — Add another facility to the burgeoning “Lenox Auto Mile” on state Route 7/20.

The McGee Automotive Family is acquiring the former Luau Hale Restaurant property, just across the busy highway where the automotive group is currently building a new home for its Berkshire Audi, VW and BMW dealership on Pittsfield Road.

Luau Hale Restaurant, a Chinese-Polynesian landmark at 365 Pittsfield Road, closed at the end of March after 53 years in business.

Jeffrey Lynch, McGee’s Lenox attorney, announced the purchase this week, calling it a “positive addition” to the new dealership location.

“After careful consideration of various traffic plans related to the new dealerships, McGee felt the Luau Hale site to be a key acquisition and actively pursued its purchase during the winter of 2024,” Lynch stated in his announcement. “With this property incorporated into the Audi/VW and BMW dealerships, McGee anticipates improved traffic conditions on the Pittsfield Road.”

The site will be used for “the offloading

and onboarding of vehicles and inventory storage,” according to the announcement.

“This investment was also made to better satisfy the concerns of neighbors regarding noise and loading and offloading of vehicles at the current site,” Lynch explained.

“McGee Automotive Family is looking forward to a long-lasting relationship with its neighbors and the Town of Lenox.”

Permits for the new location are expected to go before the zoning board in June following final acquisition of the former restaurant site later this month, said Lynch.

Price of the purchase and details about the use of the additional location and the traffic impact on the heavily traveled state highway will be available when the site plan and special permit application is submitted to the Zoning Board of Appeals later this spring.

The quarter-mile of Pittsfield Road from the city line to New Lenox Road has seen multiple projects emerge this year. These include:

• Construction of new headquarters for the Berkshire Mazda dealership long established on East Street in Pittsfield;

• Berkshire Mazda’s recently unveiled plan to acquire the Yankee Candle site across the highway for used-car sales;

The Luau Hale Restaurant closed the end of March. The McGee Automotive Family called its purchase of the property “a key acquisition.”

• A Lipton Energy car wash at the former Dakota Restaurant property, diagonally across from the existing Golden Nozzle car wash;

• And a Starbucks drive-through to be built on Pittsfield Road, just south of Guido’s Marketplace.

McGee Automotive acquired the land for its main dealership for $1.9 million last fall, leading to the razing of half a dozen structures, including the former Different Drummers Kitchen and properties owned by members of the Flynn family.

McGee officials told The Eagle that the buildout of the dealership, at a cost of about $14 million, could be completed by early 2025.

MATT MARTINEZ

Owner Jason Reed stands in front of the Hinsdale Pizza House, at the corner of Main Street and Plunkett Avenue in Hinsdale. His opening night was so busy he decided to shut the doors for a bit to prepare to serve his customers better. He has since reopened.

PHOTO VIA GOOGLE MAPS

Real estate transactions

ADAMS

Thomas E. Dubis and Susan Cadieux sold property at 5 Cedar Lane, Adams, to Nicholas K. and Kevin Kordana, $189,000. Carrie L. Nowicki sold property at 45 Burt St., Adams, to Carmen Fago, $177,000.

Redesigned Dwelling LLC sold property at 45 East St., Adams, to Emily Martinez, $250,000.

Summer NA Street LLC sold property at 84-90 Summer St., Adams, to Longrun Management LLC, $600,000.

Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency sold property at 40-42 Grove St., Adams, to Trevor W. Crombie, $112,000.

BECKET

Laurie Campbell sold property at Luce Road, Becket, to Ann C. Sullivan, $40,000.

Kyle T. Bailey sold property at 1034 Benton Hill Road, Becket, to Noah Baumwoll, $279,000.

Citizens Bank N.A. sold property at 27 Prentice Place, Becket, to Louis Tallarita, $142,000.

PHH Mortgage Corp. and David A. Bonney sold property at 71 Pine Dale Circle, Becket, to PHH Mortgage Corp., $175,227.59.

Kenneth and Susan Ginsberg, trustees, Kenneth Ginsberg RT 2007, sold property at 166 Partridge Lane, Becket, to Ira Weiss, $459,900.

CHESHIRE

Sandra and William G. Kristensen sold property at 100 Lakeshore Drive, Cheshire, to Carol Gould, $200,000. William A. and Bonnie J. Millette sold property at Outlook Avenue, Cheshire, to Ursula M. Nowak and James F. Nowak Sr., $38,000.

CLARKSBURG

Dorothy L. Ransford and Charles R. Ransford Jr., co-trustees of the River Road NT, sold property at East Road, Clarksburg, to Briggsville Water District, $30,000.

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB, trustee, sold property at 59 Carson Ave., Clarksburg, to Alejandro Belalcazar, $67,000.

DALTON

E. Jon and Stephanie Friedman sold property at 88 Warren Ave., Dalton, to Mathieu C. Brzostek and Lauren H. Venne, $184,000.

Wayne R. Carver sold property at 79 Flansburg Ave., Dalton, to Chad Gingras, $227,000.

David George Dyer sold property at 34 River St., Dalton, to Royanne Luzia Jordao, $20,000.

Joan E. Blazick sold property at 60 Oak St. Extension, Dalton, to Dinah Russell, $260,000.

James R. Kendall sold property at 57 Pinecrest Drive, Dalton, to Robert J. and Mia C. Davis, $615,000.

Kim Tinney, Geri Hart and Robert Hart Jr. sold property at 60 North St., Dalton, to James A. and Janet Zeltmann, $197,250.

TMR Realty LLC sold property at 146 Pleasant St., Dalton, to Kate Hopper, $310,000.

EGREMONT

Richard L. Stern sold property at 14 Pine Crest Cross Road, Egremont, to 17 Sheffield Road LLC, $1,150,000.

FLORIDA

James P. Cummings sold property at Mohawk Trail, Florida, to John Sampson, $15,000.

GREAT BARRINGTON

Robin R. L. Hyman sold property at 29 Church St., Great Barrington, to Berkshire Plastic Holding LLC, $675,000.

Benjamin S. Doren and Mariah C. Doren sold property at 89 Taconic Ave., Great Barrington, to Hillary G. Holmes and Rory Holmes, $800,000.

HLP Realty Holdings LLC sold property at 6 Omega Road, Great Barrington, to Stephen Thomas Whitworth and Amy Fields Whitworth, $655,000.

Flawless Holdings LLC sold property at 0 Nolan Drive, Great Barrington, to Beans In Their Ears LLC, $967,000.

Estate of Edward Allen Keefner sold property at 55 Lake Buel Road, Great Barrington, to Victoria Gonzales and Michael Kotleski, $400,000.

Susan G. Farnum sold property at 87 East St., Great Barrington, to Shimon Rotches and Natali Roches, $175,000.

Werner Georg Kunz-Cho and Mimi Y. Cho-Kunz sold property at 14 Humphrey St., Great Barrington, to Julia Glover Blomqvist, $415,000.

HANCOCK

Charles Weinstein sold property at 84 Lebanon Springs Road, Hancock, to Harrison Steed and Catharina Giudice, $450,000.

Hinsdale

Patricia A. Malanson sold property at 231 Ashmere Road, Hinsdale, to John L. and Grace R. Gardner, trustees, Gardner Investment Trust, $364,000.

Vincent G. Della-Giustina sold property at Hinsdale Road, Hinsdale, to Charles Kendall, $1,000.

Gregory W. Duguay sold property at 62 Curtis St., Hinsdale, to Augustus Joseph Schnopp IV and Congetta Marie Wagner, $245,000.

Lakeview Loan Servicing LLC sold property at 48 Curtis St., Hinsdale, to Edgar Ramos, $30,000.

Leonard W. Phair sold property at Shore

Drive, Hinsdale, to Heron Hideaways LLC, $200,000.

LANESBOROUGH

Old Williamstown Realty LLC sold property at 1155 North Main St., Lanesborough, to Thomas S. and Susan B. Hodgson, $120,000.

Charles Hobby and Amelia Wilson sold property at 61 Greylock Estates Road, Lanesborough, to Thomas A. Cappaert and Kimberly A. Munroe, $475,000. Pontoosuc Iroquois LLC sold property at 14 Iroquois St, Lanesborough, to Raymond J. LaCroix and Colleen A. Murphy-LaCroix, $515,000.

Sean J. White, personal rep. of Patrick Edward Galliher, sold property at 159 Balance Rock Road, Lanesborough, to David and Katie Klimowicz, $320,000.

LEE

Nationstar Mortgage LLC and Cathy A. Williams sold property at 90 Maple St., Lee, to Wicked Deals LLC, $117,000. Patrick A. Allen sold property at 110 Tyringham Road, Lee, to Julia T. Suor, $260,000.

Rita M. Chittenden, trustee FRJF NRT, sold property at 300 & 305 Church St., Lee, to James R. and Cassidy Kendall, $100,000.

Rita M. Chittenden, trustee, FRJF NRT, sold property at 307 Church St., Lee, to James R. and Cassidy Kendall, $850,000. Steven Moritz sold property at 190 Willow St., Lee, to Katz Partners LLC, $225,000. Eagle Mill Redevelopment LLC sold property at 73 West Center St., Lee, to BHDC-RLD Lee LLC, $1,512,000.

Jeannette Y., Donna M. and Marie Y. Rotondo, Kathryn A. LaGrant, Linda J. Pascoe, and Elaine J. Lovato sold property at Stringer Avenue, Lee, to Thomas H. Joyner II and Rebecca L. Joyner, $1,000. Shannon G. Beattie sold property at 190 Summer St., Lee, to Kyle Shepard, $430,000. REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS, Page 22

Real estate transactions

Pamela J. Ferris, trustee, Testamentary Trust, sold property at 535 Meadow St., Lee, to Chenoe E.M. Renner, $150,000.

Timothy D. and Janice LePrevost, trustees, Fifty West Center Street NT, sold property at 50 West Center St., Lee, to KAB Properties LLC, $560,000.

LENOX

Jill A. Wollins, trustee, Jill A. Wollins RVT, sold property at Evergreen Trail, Lenox, to Hangyan Luo, $627,000.

North Sandy Brook LLC sold property at 6 Tucker St., Lenox, to Michelle Patricia Looney, James Edward Looney and Patricia Saupe, trustees, Michelle Patricia Looney RT, $275,000.

William J. and Judith M. Hopper sold property at 45 Holmes Road, Lenox, to 474 Pittsfield Road LLC, $90,000.

Miriam G. Gluck sold property at 8-12 Rolling Hills, Lenox, to Gregory J. and Mary Jo D. Maichack, $310,000.

Gregory and Mary Jo Maichack sold property at 2-3 Morgan Manor, Lenox, to Elisabeth S. Chapman, $276,000.

K Bruder Residential LLC sold property at 10 Crystal St., Lenox, to Liam C. Moore, $450,000.

Mickey Natoli, Mary Hocking and Lois Ostrander sold property at 30 West St., Lenox, to Mickey and Patricia Natoli, Robert and Lois Ostrander, $220,000.

Gregory A. Adams sold property at 805 and 809 East St., Lenox, to DSRW LLC, $2,449,000.

MONTEREY

Paul O’Reilly Hyland sold property at 605 Main Road, Monterey, to Jeffrey Franklin Chyatte and Meredithy Fuchs, $1,200,000.

Shaun G. Tucker, trustee of Pearl Realty Trust, sold property at 0 Maple St., Monterey, to Spencer Reilley and Jo-Ellen Reilley, trustees of Maple Grove Nominee Trust of 2024, $40,000.

NEW ASHFORD

Kathleen M. Dunlop sold property at 585 Williamstown Road, Route 7, New Ashford, to Alice S. Crane and Nicholas J. Briggs, $751,000.

New Marlborough

Janine S. Begasse sold property at 48 Cross to Canaan Valley Road, New Marlborough, to Bradley J. Sanzenbacher and Jamison Nicole Herbert, $896,000.

North Adams

Andrew Brock sold property at Rich Street and Mohawk Trail, North Adams, to Brett J. and Taylor J. Gibeau, $20,000.

Marjorie Minkin, Michael E. and David L. Gordon, trustees of The North Adams Loft NT, sold property at 243 Union St, Unit 307, North Adams, to John C. and Nancy C. Hotchkiss, $400,000. Compass Ridge LLC sold property at Old State Street, North Adams, to The 515 LLC, $5,000. Gretchen Jennings, Catherine Forrestall and Gregor, Kristen and Thomas W. Bernard sold property at 68 Autumn Drive, North Adams, to Debra A. Whiting, $275,000.

Gregory V. Quinn sold property at 13-15 Freeman Ave., North Adams, to Tanya Lee Briggs, $156,250.

137 Bracewell LLC sold property

at 137 Bracewell Ave., North Adams, to Andrew Super and Melissa Olen, $265,000.

Maia Robbins-Zust, trustee of Rex Realty Trust, sold property at 13 Pebble St., North Adams, to Likai Wang and Jun Dong, $130,000.

Walter M. Andrzejewski Jr. and Kathleen Polidoro sold property at 136 Prospect St., North Adams, to Joseph Norman, $185,000.

Moshe Holender and Elijah Donnebaum sold property at 3 Gregory Ave., North Adams, to Ann Chaney Futch, $107,500.

Thomas S. Verni and Joseph C. Moran sold property at 101 Furnace St., North Adams, to Eli A. Feiman, $217,500.

Christopher A. and Earl F. MacDonald-Dennis sold property at 23 Taft St., North Adams, to Yuzhou Bai, $215,000.

D&B Real Estate Ventures LLC sold property at 516-518 Union St., North Adams, to 20 Gregory Farm LLC, $107,500.

Kurt B. Collins sold property at 497 Barbour St., North Adams, to Regan Marie Schwartz and Patrick Eamonn Bradley, $275,000.

OTIS

Mark J. and Pamela K. Jakubiec sold property at Marcy Road, Otis, to Casey Egerton and Melissa Sullivan, $65,000.

Melanie Brochu sold property at 759 North Main Road, Otis, to Norman and Colleen Leitch, $94,501.

WF Master Reo II LLC sold property at 1156 Monterey Road, Otis, to John Wilson, $150,000.

David W. Fish sold property at 137 Rainbow Road, Otis, to OTISFISH LLC, $70,000.

PERU

Gary S. and Denise McGee-O’Clair sold property at Pierce Road, Peru, to Benjamin, Jonathan and Jaclyn Boehm, $60,000.

PITTSFIELD

Lisa A. Martin sold property at 9 Zoar St., Pittsfield, to Alona B. and Jennifer E. Humphries, $170,000.

Tributary Ventures LLC sold property at 180-182 Brown St., Pittsfield, to Nikolaos Dionysopoulos, $134,000.

Steven R. and Debra A. Cobb sold property at 189 Mohegan St., Pittsfield, to Donald Menard and Gail Broderick, $95,000. Nancy J. Bowman, personal rep. of the Estate of Thomas J. Blalock, and Nancy J. Bowman, Robert J. and Susan A. Blalock, devisees, Estate of Thomas J. Blalock, sold property at 113 East Housatonic St., Pittsfield, to Caddy Hall LLC, $355,000. Stephen J. Demastrie sold property at 82-84 Lyman St., Pittsfield, to Hurricane Properties LLC, $170,000.

PennyMac Loan Services LLC and Amber E. Steele sold property at 52-54 Merriam St., Pittsfield, to Carlos Rigonato and Marcio Joao da Silva, $135,000.

Mountain Stream LLC sold property at Churchill Street, Pittsfield, to Eric Krochmal, $290,000.

Liborio W. Scaccia sold property at 395 Lebanon Ave., Pittsfield, to Allen C. and Danielle M. Scac-

cia, $320,000.

Kelsie M. Reynolds sold property at 9 High St., Pittsfield, to Brenda Grace and Francesca Bigelow, $185,000.

Detar LLC sold property at 13 Elmhurst Ave., Pittsfield, to Isabeau Leva Jo Bryan, $225,000.

Rigonato Construction LLC sold property at 26-28 Wellington Ave., Pittsfield, to Taylor and Robert Botto, $250,000.

Roberta Orsi Elliot, trustee, Orsi FNT, and Bruce, Ross and Michael DeBlois sold property at 37 Elaine Drive, Pittsfield, to David Kokindo Jr. and Kaleigh T. McLellan, $270,000.

Michel Jon and Christine Moniz Mayberry sold property at 146 Imperial Ave., Pittsfield, to Timothy J. Boughal and Catherine J. Yu, $420,000.

Cross Development Berkshires LLC sold property at 139-141 Madison Ave., Pittsfield, to Carlos Rigonato and Marcio Joao da Silva, $140,000.

Paul Michael and Ursula Allen Maloy sold property at Pondview Drive, Pittsfield, to Jacqueline Gilardi, $230,000.

Timothy F. Horrigan sold property at 40 Baldwin Ave., Pittsfield, to Hazhen Talat Mama and Razhan Madhar, $338,000.

Gerald F. Colvin Jr. sold property at 195-197 Onota St., Pittsfield, to Zucco’s Real Estate LLC, $155,000.

Yellowbrick Property LLC sold property at 147 Mill St., Pittsfield, to Joy Duffy, $216,900.

Freedom Mortgage Corp. and Jamie L. Jeske sold property at 3 Burke Ave., Pittsfield, to Freedom Mortgage Corp., $128,951.47.

David S. Jaggi, personal rep. of the Estate of Chaula Hopefisher, sold property at 6 Putnam Ave., Pittsfield, to Kari Chapin Nixon, trustee of Nixon NRT, $345,000.

Matthew B. and Elizabeth Valenzuela sold property at 88 Taylor St., Pittsfield, to Joshua A. Kelleher and Emma W. Kanze-Eaton, $248,000.

Gail Anne Perillo sold property at 18-20 Myrtle St., Pittsfield, to Thupten Khangsar, $230,000.

Roger W. Gavin III and Michelle M. Gingras sold property at 80 Plinn St., Pittsfield, to Daniel and Marie Helene M. Yameogo, $293,750.

Kenneth L. MacAlpine sold property at 58-60 Curtis Terrace, Pittsfield, to Wilfrido Euclides Mendez Vanegas and Gladis Magnolia Bravo Saico, $170,000.

Kevin M. and Joan T. Grise sold property at 304 Dalton Division Road, Pittsfield, to Javier Matos, $585,000.

Matthew J. Gentile sold property at 14 Pacific St., Pittsfield, to Jose Gustavo Delgado-Morales and Gustavo Adolfo Delgado Hernandez, $140,000.

Mountain Stream LLC sold property at Churchill Street, Pittsfield, to Canez and Connie Tout-Puissant, $49,900.

H1 Coastal LLC sold property at 44 Meleca Ave., Pittsfield, to Jeffrey and Erin Burke, $349,000.

Stephen A. Chrzanowski sold property at 130 Oliver Ave., Pittsfield, to Amanda R. Poussard and Justin D. Hill, $511,000.

Kimberely M. Wendling sold property at 114 Barker Road, Pittsfield, to Alice E. Parry and Benjamin P. Cole, $235,000. Douglas Slick, trustee, Slick Family NT, sold property at 180

Montgomery Ave. Extension, Pittsfield, to Jo Ann Sinopoli, trustee, Joann Sinopoli RT, $300,000.

Ellies Holdings LLC sold property at 82 Acorn St., Pittsfield, to Benjaman C. Higa, $250,000.

Jonathan W. and Douglas B. Light sold property at 12 Cherry Hill Drive, Pittsfield, to Michael D. Kitsis and Ichun Lai, $555,000.

Baumann Real Estate LLC sold property at Downing III, Pittsfield, to J.W. Kelly’s Enterprises Inc., $15,000.

Timothy S. and Linda S. Galok sold property at 1647 East St., Pittsfield, to William H. Ratel V, $280,900.

James L. Gaudette sold property at 60 Plinn St., Pittsfield, to Marissa A. Maher, $269,900.

Daniel and Julie Colello sold property at 433 Lebanon Ave., Pittsfield, to Miriam Jeannette Wood and Gustavo Enrique Euceda, $265,000.

Kathleen A. White sold property at 6 Mountain Drive, Pittsfield, to Kaitlyn Wiles, $325,000.

Lois A. and John C. George, trustees, Lois A. George LT, sold property at 18 Lillybrook Road, Pittsfield, to James and Alicia Andersen, $90,000.

Pilgrim Memorial Church sold property at 249 Wahconah St., Pittsfield, to 249 Wahconah Place LLC, $68,250.

Berkshire Home Rentals LLC sold property at 75-77 Briggs Ave., Pittsfield, to Bella Art LLC, $250,000.

City of Pittsfield sold property at Columbus Avenue, Pittsfield, to Beverly Bolden, $790.

City of Pittsfield sold property at Bradford Street, Pittsfield, to Beverly Bolden, $1,150.

City of Pittsfield sold property at Burbank Street, Pittsfield, to Chis-Home LLC, $3,501.

RICHMOND

Leslie Haller, Naomi Rosenberg, Beth R. and Frederick B. Richter Jr., trustees, Beth R. Richter RVT, sold property at 292 Shore Road, Richmond, to Fern Cliff Properties LLC, $423,000.

Wendy C. Philbrick sold property at 1055 Lenox Road, Richmond, to Sean L. and Kristen E. Phillips, $970,000.

Darren M. Lee, trustee, Barbara Malnati 2021 LT, and Darren M. Lee, personal rep. of the Estate of Barbara Malnati, sold property at 1064 East Road, Richmond, to Charles E. Hayward, $495,000.

SAVOY

Wendy Scott Baker and John H., William W. and Elizabeth F. Scott sold property at 90 Hosford Road, Savoy, to Lawrence D. Bradley and Elizabeth Scott, trustees of the Bradley-Scott Family 2022 Trust, $135,000. Richard D. and Kathleen J. Luczynski sold property at 410 Main Road, Savoy, to Joseph D. Burke, $149,000.

SHEFFIELD

Fotios Efthimiou sold property at 342 Clayton Road, Sheffield, to Segundo R. Lliguichuzhca, $155,000.

Robert L. Boyett Jr., trustee of Cooper Hill Farm Nominee Trust, sold property at Cooper Hill Road, Sheffield, to The Trustees of Reservations, $1,300,000.

Nancy McGirr and Francis Dsouza sold property at 510 Silver St., Sheffield, to Melissa L. Levangie Ingersoll, $160,000.

Town Crest Property Group LLC sold property at 272 Clayton Road, Sheffield, to Jackie Lee Harvey and Ronald Braun, $290,000.

Laurence John Halloran sold property at 42 Cedar St., Sheffield, to Kyle C. Pastori and Dustin R. Farnum, $45,000.

STOCKBRIDGE

Susan M. Rabbitt, personal rep. of the Estate of Susan W. Bonak, sold property at Glendale Road, Stockbridge, to Peter Pieropan, $45,000.

Terrence Cronin sold property at 25 Nielsen Lane, Stockbridge, to Richard W. and Terrell F. Poeton, trustees of Richard W. Poeton RT and Terrell F. Poeton RT, $900,000.

TYRINGHAM

Julia T. Suor sold property at 21 Jerusalem Road, Tyringham, to Melissa Ying, $625,000.

WASHINGTON

Craig A. and Dorothy G. Walton sold property at 280 Middlefield Road, Washington, to Shani King and Gabriela Ruiz, $484,000. West Stockbridge Estate of Susan W. Bonak sold property at High Street & Glendale Road, West Stockbridge, to Peter Pieropan, $45,000.

William E. Bennett and Liza Bennett sold property at Austerlitz Road, West Stockbridge, to J. Scott Jenny and Michelle L. Laramee-Jenny, $6,000.

WILLIAMSTOWN

Cable Mills Investors LLC sold property at 194 Water St., Williamstown, to 194 Water Hoffbros LLC, $182,500.

John M. DeGraff, personal rep. of Linda Gail DeGraff, sold property at 171 Main St., Williamstown, to James M. Harris and Christina D. Mills, $325,000.

Christopher L. Hays and Patricia A. Leahey-Hays sold property at 83 Candlewood Drive, Williamstown, to Stephen D. and Laureen E. Majetich, $342,000.

Shannon L. Ingham sold property at 930 North Hoosac Road, Williamstown, to Vincent R. Martel, $250,000.

Elizabeth A. Smith sold property at 35 Longview Terrace, Williamstown, to Cheung Lun Tsui and En-Ting Hsu, $423,000.

160 Water LLC sold property at 160 Water St, Unit 207, Williamstown, to Douglas Gilbert, $525,000.

160 Water LLC sold property at 160 Water St, Unit 110, Williamstown, to Theresa and Michael F. Cyran, trustees of the Cyran Family Revocable Living Trust, $450,000.

WINDSOR

Patricia L. Beaulieu sold property at 539 Flintstone Road, Windsor, to Michael and Ashleigh Anthony, $225,000.

Richard B. Bator sold property at 1195 East Windsor Road, Windsor, to Brian and Melissa Vreeland, $91,368.

FT — Family Trust

LLC — Limited Partnership

LT — Life Trust

NT — Nominee Trust

RET — Real Estate Trust

RT — Realty Trust

RVT — Revocable Trust

The real estate transactions are provided by the Middle Berkshire, North Berkshire and South Berkshire Registry of Deeds offices.