PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The city of Pittsfield, the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority and Mill Town Capital announced an $11 million investment to reimagine Site 9.
What You Need To Know
- The construction taking place at Site 9 is expected to finish in October
- Mill Town Capital will be buying 4.7 acres of Site 9
- Mill Town plans to use the site for an office building with additional space for future development
- Site 9 is apart of General Electric's former industrial facility left abandoned
The work on the site started earlier this year, and Mill Town Capital now says it intends to buy 4.7 acres of the 16.5-acre parcel for an office building and other development space. They also acquired three acres for future mixed-income housing and retail development on Woodlawn Avenue and Kellogg Street.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine Pittsfield. Thoughtfully integrated commercial and residential spaces allows us to tackle the housing challenges, create new job opportunities and increase the city’s tax revenue while continuing to consider the neighborhoods fabric and history,” said Mill Town Capital CEO Tim Burke.
The project to reimagine Site 9 started under former Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer, who was in attendance and excited to see the vision start to become a reality.
“It’s an improvement to the neighborhoods that surround Site 9, and it’s also preparing the parcel for future development. So as Tim from Mill Town mentioned, if it takes some time to see development there, in the meantime, it’s a beautiful space that the neighborhoods can feel proud of,” Tyer said.
“As someone who grew up in the Morningside neighborhood, it gives me great pleasure to be able to say here we are on the next level to rebuild the neighborhood that has been, you know, basically a GE property for a really long time and turn it back into a great residential use,” Mayor Peter Marchetti said.
Marchetti said he hopes to have more announcements in the near future on the property.
“We are working on probably three, four other possibilities and as soon as we have those, I’m not going to be a stranger to the press to be able to say we’ve landed another company, or we’ve been able to have another success story. And we are working diligently to make sure that that happens in the city,” said Marchetti.
Funding for the project to prepare Site 9 for redevelopment came from many different sources:
- MassDevelopment Brownfields Grant, $264,000
- MassDevelopment Site Readiness Grant, $880,000
- Economic Development earmark, $500,000
- MassWorks Grant, $3,000,000
- GE Landscaping Find, $1,300,000
- PEDA Foundation Fund, $400,000
- American Rescue Plan Act, $4,500,000