Chamber supports Tennis Road project

AGAWAM The Agawam Chamber of Commerce has announced that they will support the Tennis Road shopping center project that is currently in a heated debate within the city.

The project in question is for National Retail Development Corp. of New York to develop a shopping center to be built on the access way of Tennis Road located off Route 57. It has been announced that both big box Target specialty and Lowe's Home Improvement stores have committed to being the anchors for the shopping complex.

Donna Safford Fleury, President of the Agawam Chamber stated, "The board of directors wanted the input of their membership before a decision was to be made."

She went on to say that "each board member was assigned a list of Agawam chamber members and was asked to call them and record if they were for the project, against the project or had no opinion." The overwhelming majority of members voted yes for the project."

When asked why the Chamber's support was so important to this venture, Fleury said, "The Agawam Chamber of Commerce is a business organization. We are always looking for new business to welcome to our city and assist those business people in any way we can."

Fleury went on to say, "The Chamber's involvement is very important to the decisions on companies that locate here. Lowe's and Target are upscale retail stores and will be an asset to our community.

"Although the Agawam Chamber does support the proposal, we are still concerned with some of the issues such as the traffic problems. However, with the proposal on the table and the assurances of the National Retail Development owners to solve that problem we feel confident that the Tennis Road project will be a benefit to the whole community overall," she said.