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Date: 10/6/2023
EASTHAMPTON — During a meeting on Oct. 3, the Easthampton Planning Board approved a special permit that allows Overlook Industries to establish a new general manufacturing use in the building on 195 Northampton St. where the cannabis company Pleasantrees used to be.
Overlook Industries, a medical equipment supplier that currently houses its operations at 193 Northampton St., announced on its website that it had procured the former Pleasantrees building back in June 2023.
The new building, which is 16,000 square feet in total, sits right next to Overlook’s current facility and houses 14,000 square feet of open production space and 2,000 square feet of office and general use space.
Rebecca Thibault, an attorney at Doherty Wallace Pillsbury & Murphy representing Overlook, said the permitting process for the prior occupant occurred in March 2019 and the Pleasantrees property was developed between 2019 and 2021.
The changes made at that time were the demolition of then-existing building, reuse and renovation of the building that is there now and extensive site landscaping, among other things. Pleasantrees opened in July 2021 but closed in January 2023.
Now, Overlook Industries is moving in for “general manufacturing use,” which means that they plan to convert the space into a state-of-the-art production facility that will include a brand new 1,800-square-foot ISO-7 cleanroom, increased controlled storage space and a 3,000 square foot component manufacturing and machine shop.
For the past 30 years, Overlook has designed and manufactured fully-molded, single-use fluid path pump and manifold assembles as well as single-use and 316L stainless steel filling needles for pharmaceutical companies around the world.
“Simply, what they’re doing is creating or fabricating components used by the pharmaceutical industry, which are then used to prepare and deliver certain pharmaceuticals,” Thibault said, of Overlook’s activities.
Morin added that the components Overlook makes are specifically used for the packaging of liquid drug products.
“We sell products all over the world,” Morin said. “The company has grown considerably.”
Thibault added that the activities performed at Overlook, including the manufacturing of silicone components in their clean room, are commonly not hazardous or “noxious.”
According to John Morin, Overlook’s president, Overlook operates in a “clean environment” where the company is very mindful of how air is circulated within their current building at 193 Northampton St, which is where they have operated for the last 15 years.
Cohen-Sherry said Overlook plans to operate in the same way at 195 Northampton St., but a lot of the different rooms will be bigger.
According to Thibault, no changes are needed to the exterior of the 195 Northampton St. building and there are minimal changes to the façade of the building itself.
Morin said the majority of the current operation will be moved to 195 Northampton St., but they plan to maintain the space at 193 in some capacity.
“I think this is a great example of a local business growing and succeeding, and I applaud [Overlook] for that,” said Planning Board member Daniel Hartman.