Francesca Maltese said she planned to spend the first few weeks in January working with a design firm to develop some marketing materials for one of O'Connell Development's latest projects, the Crossroads Development Park off Bobala Road.
She hasn't gotten to it yet, but she's not too unhappy with the delay.
That's because she spent much of that time fielding inquiries about the development and actually showing a few prospective tenants the rugged terrain that will soon become Holyoke's newest business park.
"The phone started ringing Jan. 2, and it hasn't really stopped," said Maltese, development manager for O'Connell and project manager for the endeavor known simply as Crossroads. "We don't have any marketing materials out there, but people know about what we're doing, and there's been a lot of interest expressed already."
The even better news is that the interest is coming from companies from well outside the 413 area code, she told BusinessWest, which could translate into new jobs for Holyoke and the region, not merely jobs moved from one side of the Valley to the other.
Crossroads is merely one of a number of intriguing developments in the Ingleside section of Holyoke, an area that has always been long on potential because it had available land, and is now starting to fulfill that potential, said Jeffrey Hayden, director of the Holyoke Office of Economic and Industrial Development.
The area, put on the map by the Holyoke Mall, has already seen new retail developments (Holyoke Crossing) and some additional manufacturing (Marox Corp.) in recent years. PeoplesBank acquired 330 Whitney, a nine-story office tower, in late 2001, and is steadily moving more of its offices into that facility. Meanwhile, a new office complex is already under construction near the entrance to the Crossroads development, there are plans on the drawing board for a new hotel, and the once-tenant-challenged Kmart plaza is seeing a revival.
There was a recent setback with the closing of Gretag Imaging, which employed more than 150 people at its facility on Whitney Avenue, but that property should not be vacant for long, said Hayden.
"We've already had a few calls on it ... it's a nice facility in a prime location, and it gives people something else to look at," he said, adding that, between Crossroads, the Gretag facility, and two sites-11 and 18 acres, respectively-on Whiting Farms Road that were acquired as part of the Hadley Falls Dam purchase, Ingleside now has a large inventory of sites.
"Five years ago, companies didn't have any place to go in that part of the city," Hayden said. "Now, they have lots of choices."
Location, Location, Location
Maltese has several theories about the genesis of all the sudden interest in Crossroads. For starters, she believes that manufacturers, especially those in other parts of the country, are confident that the long-awaited economic turnaround will become reality later this year. Meanwhile, she says savvy business people know that the best time to buy land or build is when the economy is slow and the price of property and cost of construction are lower.
But she believes the real key is the name of the project itself. It refers to the site's location-only a few minutes from both the Mass. Pike and I-91-which is turning heads in the development and site-selection communities. "People are keeping their eyes on this corridor."
Crossroads is taking shape on an 88-acre parcel near the West Springfield border that was part of a larger site once targeted for a massive mixed-use development, conceived by Monarch Capital, known as Signature Place. Monarch's demise and then the recession of the early '90s put those plans on the shelf, said Hayden, adding that the Holyoke Economic Development and Industrial Corp. (HEDIC) purchased the property in 1995. It sold part of the site to Marox, which built a 46,000-square-foot plant on Whitney Avenue in 2001, and eventually sold other parcels to O'Connell, for Crossroads, and to Pearson Systems, which is currently building the first of two office buildings on its parcel.
Stephen Fisk, a project manager for O'Connell, said the Crossroads site has been difficult to develop because it is "topographically challenged," as he put it. It sits on a hill and is not yet serviced by any of the city's utilities. O'Connell is currently building a road to the sitea project slowed by the severe winter-and expects that portion of the project to be completed by summer.
The parcel includes six sites that can accommodate buildings ranging up to 100,000 square feet. All are permitted, with only individual site plan approvals needed. Maltese said interest has been widespread and crosses several different industry groups, from light manufacturing to technology. "The economy and the terrain appear to be our biggest challenges," she said, adding that the former may be less of a hurdle than originally expected, and the latter can be overcome as well.
Maltese said O'Connell took on the Crossroads project, despite its challenges, because the shrinking inventory of permitted real estate in the area, coupled with this site's location, made the risks well worth taking. "Ingleside is becoming an increasingly popular address ... this is a good business neighborhood," said Maltese. "We can see that in the level of interest we've had before we even started marketing the site."
Setting Their Sites
Location was also the prime motivator for Pearson Systems, the West Springfield-based company that plans to build two single-story office buildings of about 16,000 square feet each at the site. The first is under construction, and a major tenant, the engineering firm Coler & Colantonio Inc., has been signed to lease more than 8,000 square feet.
Based in Boston, and with an office in South Deerfield, Coler & Colantonio was looking for a location along major highways that would allow easy commutes to its various facilities, and there are other companies in that same situation, Korecki said.
Pearson, a general contractor, also has a number of real estate development projects in the area, including Whitney Place, the sixstory office building just down the street from Crossroads. Korecki said the company is expecting leasing opportunities to develop as leases expire at 330 Whitney and PeoplesBank absorbs more of that space. "We're in the right place at the right time."
That phrase could become the new motto for Ingleside, which is seeing new developments in manufacturing, retail, financial services, and hospitality.
The Holiday Inn Holidome on Whiting Farms Road has undergone extensive renovations in the past year, and a new hotel is being planned for land adjacent to 330 Whitney near Exit 15 of I-91. Published reports say Marriott International will build a 120-room facility, but Hayden said a deal has not been finalized.
However, one should be inked within the next few weeks, and when the new facility is built, it will give Holyoke dozens of new jobs, more business meetings and conferences, and a host of other economic spinoffs that come when a new hotel opens its doors in a community.
"Hotels are a great asset to any city,'" said Hayden, adding that Holyoke has actively lobbied the major chains to consider the city. "They're a resource for businesses, and they bring in dollars from outside your community."
Other developments in Ingleside include continued progress at the Kmart plaza on Route 5. said Hayden, noting that the facility, like many others, Aas hurt by the construction of area malls and Interstate 91. However. Indiana-based Equity Investments Group, which owns the lower portion of the mail, has successfully filled it with new tenants that include Manny's, East Coast Marketplace, Joanne's Fabrics, and others.
"They've filled it up ... it hasn't been easy, but they've really worked it," said Hayden. "Overall, we're optimistic about seeing Route 5 being a strong retail area again."
What's in Store
Optimism abounds in Ingleside, despite general uncertainty about the economy, especially in this region. That area has what many business owners are looking for-land to buy, office space to lease, and easy access to the state's major arteries.
While the name is still synonymous with the mail, Ingleside is home to much more, and a number of new developments have moved past the blueprint stage.
As Maltese told BusinessWest, this is becoming an increasingly popular address.
