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Date: 12/20/2022
CHICOPEE – Cabotville Mill and its owner SilverBrick continues to undergo legal litigation with Chicopee, according to Mayor John Vieau. Vieau provided the City Council an update on the ongoing process during the council’s Dec. 6 meeting.
Background
Tenants of the 165 Front St. complex were suddenly informed of the space’s immediate closure on March 1, with the city issuing a letter that ordered an immediate shutdown of the complex and its 55 tenants. The city provided a one-month, 24/7 fire watch in March to allow the involved businesses to evacuate the space.
SilverBrick is ran by 4 Perkins LLC. SilverBrick acquired Cabotville in July 2016 under Mayor Richard Kos’ administration.
SilverBrick’s property at Cabotville Mills, which became known as SilverBrick Mills during its operation, remains dormant after the city closed the space due to safety concerns with the building’s fire and sprinkler systems. During a Feb. 28 press conference, Mayor John Vieau and other city officials issued a strong denouncement against the property owner’s practices.
“[The spaces] are inadequate, deficient, not working properly and putting people in harm’s way. Frankly, that’s just not okay … It is their responsibility to provide safe tenant spaces for each tenant that is occupying the building. The city is not doing this, it is the negligence of the current owner,” said Vieau during the Feb. 28 press conference.
The tenants aired a united denouncement of SilverBrick’s practices with the Cabotville Mills location. During a nearly six-hour Zoning Committee meeting on Feb. 23, business owners lamented that SilverBrick knew about deficiencies in the space, such as broken elevators, flooded bathroom spaces, leaks in the stairwells and emergency exits being blocked off. They also criticized SilverBrick for not keeping them informed during the months leading up to the space’s closure.
“We’ve all invested a lot of money in our businesses … it’s a lot of loss we are going through. I have a full-time job, but some people don’t, and they depend on these businesses to take care of their families. Now, they are being stripped of it,” said business tenant Leann Vera during the meeting.
After the Zoning Committee continued SilverBrick’s special permit requests twice, the committee ultimately denied a SilverBrick request to withdraw their permit application during a March 30 meeting. The decision prevents SilverBrick Mills and owner Aaron Papowitz from making a special permit request for two years unless significant changes, such as new ownership, occur within the space.
Shortly after the vote, the city and SilverBrick began undergoing a legal process in court on April 1.
In September, Vieau provided an update to City Council on the SilverBrick property. He shared that a security team has been present at the SilverBrick location since the location’s closure. The city is currently paying the security expenses after SilverBrick paid for a month of security. Vieau shared that the city is awaiting the conclusion of the city’s legal case with SilverBrick to receive restitutions for the security expenses.
“Our goal is to make sure the appropriate parties pay for security … we do believe that the private party should be paying for security of their building,” said Vieau in September.
Despite SilverBrick’s current lack of security compensation, the mayor stressed the importance of the city maintaining security watch of the vacant, 770,000-square-foot building.
“It is vacated, and we want to make sure that nothing happens,” said Vieau in September.
Cabotville Update
Vieau debriefed the council during a mayor’s order for $50,000 to the building special account for emergency security from the city’s stabilization fund. The funds will be utilized to pay for security measures from September to the end of November.
Vieau said the measure became essential as the city, the Fire Department and the Building Department wanted to continue safely securing one of the city’s largest vacant structures.
“We have a 7700-square-foot empty shell that frankly could be a major problem here in the city of Chicopee without security,” said Vieau.
The city is now going back to court with SilverBrick over the reimbursement of the city’s allocated security funds. Vieau said he is “confident” that city funds will be reimbursed via court order.
“The city of Chicopee is looking to recoup this $50,000 that we spent to secure the building for the past two months,” said Vieau.
As part of a recent Nov. 28 court order, SilverBrick will be responsible for all security expenses for the property going forward, according to City Solicitor Marshall Moriarty.
Ward 9 City Councilor Mary-Elizabeth Pniak-Costello, who stood against granting SilverBrick continuations for their special permit request in Zoning Committee meetings along with Ward 3 City Councilor Delmarina López, reaired her frustrations with the property owner.
“This has been a complete white elephant … This particular project, it’s been one problem after another,” said Pniak-Costello.
The City Council ultimately supported the $50,000 order to pay for the Cabotville Mill security watch in a unanimous vote.