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Date: 5/2/2023
NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton City Council on Community Resources met on April 24 to hear updates on the city’s Vibrancy Project.
The initiative has been created by local leaders and volunteers to enact a 20-month long initiative — from May until December 2023 — designed to help businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic and to reinvest in Northampton as a regional destination for entertainment, shopping and dining by supporting job growth, promoting events and activities, and driving new business developments.
The coalition is led by the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee, which is a group of 40 community volunteers and business owners, and the Downtown Northampton Association (DNA), in partnership with the city and other organizations, influencers and stakeholders.
Background
Randy Krowtowski, the Vibrancy Project leader and community volunteer on EDC, told Reminder Publishing back in 2022 that many EDC members are small business or shop owners who were heavily impacted by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.
“We decided as a committee that we need to figure out, is there anything we can do,” Krowtowski told Reminder Publishing.
At the time, Bob Fazzi, a retired business owner and community volunteer who serves on the EDC, conducted a survey with businesses in Northampton and determined the key themes and issues that everyone was facing.
“Everyone in our community has a role to play in Northampton’s recovery and we want to put the spotlight on the things that make Northampton the Paradise City,” said Fazzi. “The Vibrancy Project leverages existing partnerships and programs and opens the door for new collaborations to attract new businesses and give people new reasons to return to downtown.”
Through this survey, the EDC was able to determine five themes that will help drive the revitalization of Northampton: programs to help increase staffing, an expansion of downtown events and activities with broad generational appeal to increase foot traffic, a focus and support for new business owners and entrepreneurs, leveraging of partnerships to improve branding for tourism, and developing methods to increase and sustain funding to support downtown events.
Updates from the EDC
During the April 24 meeting, Leslie Laurie, the chair of the EDC and Western Massachusetts regional director at New England Treatment Access, provided updates about The Vibrancy Project since its inception in May.
The EDC created different committees to push this project forward: a funding and resource committee, a staffing committee, events committee, a building buzz committee and a new business committee.
At the time of the project’s inception, Krowtowski said that the EDC would look at ARPA funding, and how that can be utilized to ramp up downtown and see if festivals and other events can be scheduled faster.
Since then, the EDC has been able to secure funding for many different areas of business development.
According to Laurie, the funding and resources committee has received $300,000 in this type of money, with $125,000 going toward small business support, $75,000 for new business grants, as well as $50,000 for a ventilation program in bars and restaurants.
Aside from funding, the EDC has also been successful in supporting the expansion of the business community in Northampton by currently creating an inventory of all the businesses in Northampton and finding different ways to help entrepreneurs fill vacant storefronts.
Beyond that, the EDC is also supporting grassroots initiatives sprouting throughout the community.
For example, Laurie talked about how the new business committee is supporting a new effort called Sphere Northampton, which is primarily focused on building and fortifying the community of women entrepreneurs in the city.
“Since so many of the businesses are actually owned by women in Northampton, what we wanted to do was actually help with that networking,” Laurie said, of their support.
When it came to the staffing committee, Laurie said that the group found that many businesses in the community have had a difficult time maintaining sufficient staff, which has led to many businesses cutting hours or closing.
To appease this issue, the EDC has worked with the Franklin/Hampshire MassHire to work on new pathways for people to get hired, like working the five college area on internship programs and inviting Holyoke Community College to last year’s Taste of Northampton for a work day.
Aside from staffing and business expansion and support, the EDC has also focused on ways to bring vibrancy back to the events portion of Northampton by looking at different ways the city’s most iconic venues can finally reopen or by supporting different festivals like the recent Back Porch Festival and the city’s Ice Art Festival.
In the venue realm, defining places like the Iron Horse Music Hall, Calvin Theater, and Pearl Street Night Club have largely been closed since the coronavirus pandemic with very little signs of reopening due to property mogul Eric Suher’s reluctance to consistently open them.
Recently, the city’s License Commission decided to cancel Suher’s liquor license for Pearl Street Night Club since it has not reopened, and Suher is in danger of losing two more including for the Iron Horse Music Hall.
Laurie said she hopes the revoking of the liquor license for Pearl Street will light a fire under Suher.
“We have been encouraging the city to try to make sure that we can do what we can to open some of the venues that have been closed,” Laurie said. “We need to have venues for the great musicians that are in this area.”
A lot of this work has happened thanks to the many committee members and volunteers, one of which is Ward 4 Councilor Garrick Perry, who has an extensive background in the restaurant and entertainment industry, including managing the Bishop’s Lounge.
“It’s been really wonderful watching folks try to address these big issues,” said Perry, who co-chairs the events committee during this process. “We’re trying to revitalize our city.”
According to Perry, the events/entertainment committee is working on different ways to activate the restaurant and retail industry by working with venues like 33 Hawley and organizations like the Northampton Arts Council.
One example he gave during the meeting is inviting different podcasters from and beyond Northampton to jumpstart their own segments on food and other businesses with the city. Perry said they also hope to work with the schools and Northampton Open Media to help students with their own aspirations of a podcast.
“Part of what we want to do is take some of these podcast events and create some highlight reels of some fun things that we have accessible in this city,” Perry said.
The entertainment/events committee is also looking at ways to bolster current events in Northampton, according to Perry, by looking for ways in which tourists can engage with the city when they attend an event and collaborating with artists from all different expertise and backgrounds.
“I think it has been for myself and some of the people in the creative scene to see that the city is looking toward the future and trying to give creatives a chance to help shape what we think the city can be,” Perry said. “Our goal is celebrate some of the things Northampton has to offer.”
Readers can learn more about the Vibrancy Project by visiting the website: https://www.northamptonchamber.com/the-northampton-vibrancy-project/.
Readers may also watch the full Community Resources meeting on Northampton Open Media’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkPH3aAuwaE.