Commercial development continues in Chicopee

Date: 2/15/2011

Feb. 16, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — In a far-ranging discussion conducted in the City Council chamber at City Hall on Feb. 9, Mayor Michael Bissonnette and Carl Dietz, director of the Office of Community Development, not only discussed the city's side of redevelopment in the downtown area, but private development there and in other parts of the city.

About 30 people attended the meeting at which the upcoming reconstruction of the Davitt Bridge was discussed, as well as what would be needed to bring a Lowe's home improvement store to Center Street, among other issues.

Dietz said additional improvements to the downtown area would include resin-imprinted crosswalks, the addition of benches, a clock and trashcans on the plaza opposite City Hall on Front Street and a reconstruction of School Street.

The demolition of the Market Street Billiards building will take place either in the spring or summer, he added. In its place will be a municipal parking lot.

Dietz said the city has been awarded a planning grant for the western sector of Chicopee center.

Bissonnette said the city is considering taking the property on which there had been a gas station on Center Street and combining it with the former Rucki's parking lot. Another additional parking area would be the Ferris lot on Center Street, he said.

If the downtown area could attract several more restaurants — in combination with additional parking — it would be "uniquely positioned," Bissonnette asserted.

"Downtown Springfield has a lot of issues. Downtown Holyoke has a lot of issues. We don't have as many issues as they do," he said.

Bissonnette noted the former Freddy's Market building is being reconstructed and will have two apartments on the second floor and a gourmet deli on the first floor.

The mayor, noting the proximity of the parking area for Baystate Medical Center (BMC) employees on Center Street, said the goal is to "try to create a market environment that would attract BMC employees and Elms College professors."

He said BMC has purchased the former go cart track on Center Street for parking, as part of the lot on the site of the former American Bosch plant has been slated for a new outbuilding.

He said the owners of the Rivoli Theater are "almost done with the interior of the theater" and have invested $800,000 of their own money into the project. If all goes according to plan, he said the renovated theater would be open this summer.

The Valley Opportunity Council has purchased the Ferris Building and should be opening offices there that would bring new people to the downtown, Bissonnette added.

Although building a Lowe's home improvement store on Center Street has been discussed in the past, Bissonnette said the clearing of the junkyard on the site would cost about $10 million.

The reconstruction of the Davitt Bridge will take place at the same time as the Willimansett Bridge, Bissonnette said. The two projects should begin construction in late summer and could take up to two years to complete.

"It will be inconvenient, but we don't have the chance of new bridges too often," he said.

City Planner Kate Brown announced the former Casey Chevrolet site on Memorial Drive would be the home of a new Aldi's Supermarket, a Firestone store and one other yet-to-be announced retail outlet.

Bissonnette said because the population of Chicopee has grown according to the 2010 census, the city should see additional federal aid.