MassDevelopment

New life for Wilson’s: With grocery and 65 apartments, shuttered store will be reborn as downtown anchor in Greenfield


November 16, 2022 : Greenfield Recorder, by Mary Byrne


GREENFIELD – After three years of vacancy, Wilson’s Department Store will see new life with the relocation and expansion of Green Fields Market into the first floor of the building and the redevelopment of the upper floors into mixed-income rental apartments.

“Wilson’s has long been an anchor in our downtown and its closure certainly left us with a gap in our downtown,” Mayor Roxann Wedegartner said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “We, in the city, could not let this property remain vacant and sought to work with any party that wanted to go along with our vision for a livable, walkable, shoppable downtown, with a more centrally located workforce and income-adjusted housing.”

Wilson’s Department Store, which was one of the last independent, family-owned department stores in the country, closed in January 2020, shortly after Kevin J. O’Neil, former president of the 137-year-old retail store, announced his plans to retire. O’Neil started at Wilson’s in 1981, working his way up to the top position when his father-in-law, Robert S. Reid Jr., retired.

Mark Abramson, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Commercial Upton-Massamont Realtors, previously said the property, which includes the parking lot behind the building and two lots on Chapman Street, was priced at $3.95 million when it officially went on the market a year ago in October.

Wedegartner said the city worked in partnership with The Community Builders, MassDevelopment and the Franklin County Community Cooperative, which operates the market, in the acquisition of the property. She emphasized the city did not purchase the property, though it will invest $300,000 in funds that are required to be used for affordable housing.

“This represents a public-private partnership at its best,” she said.

The multimillion-dollar redevelopment project will include 65 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with a blend of workforce and income-adjusted apartments, according to Wedegartner. The redevelopment of the historic property will be financed in part by a combination of federal and state low-income housing tax credits, new market tax credits and historic tax credits, pending approval from state agencies.

Franklin County Co-op Board Vice President KC Ceccarossi said the relocation of Green Fields Market, currently situated about a block away, will allow for the food cooperative to double the sales floor and increase local sales, and grow job availability by an estimated 20%. Currently, the market employs about 100 people.

“We’re thrilled we’ll remain a downtown anchor business,” Ceccarossi said. “We’ve been here for the last three decades and it’s a critical part of our identity. We see this as such an important moment for the city. … There aren’t a lot of towns that can boast a community-owned, full-service grocery store on Main Street.”

Owners of the three businesses that currently lease space in the building — Clearly Jewelers, Hens & Chicks, and Lucky Bird — were informed Wednesday morning of the sale and told they’d be expected to vacate the space by the spring, news that was met with mixed emotions.

Kelly Archer, who has owned Lucky Bird on Main Street for five years, said Wednesday afternoon she wasn’t sure yet what her next move was. She said she was happy for the city but needed time to process the information she’d been given earlier in the day.

“(My time here) has been awesome,” she said.

Justin Vincent, who has co-owned the consignment boutique Hens & Chicks with his wife, Mindy, since June 2018, also said he was “very happy for the cooperative.”

“It’s unfortunate that it comes at the expensive of three businesses,” he said.

Vincent said they have more than 1,000 consigners, most of whom are from Greenfield.

“Our plan is to continue,” he said. “We just don’t know where that will be.”

Wedegartner said Thursday that the city and its partners will work with the businesses through the transition.

“We want them to stay in Greenfield,” she said. “All of them — they’re all really important to downtown Greenfield. … I’m hoping we will find each and every one of them the spot they want on Main Street to continue the business that they have.”

Director of Community and Economic Development MJ Adams said she was glad that after a year of working out the details, the city was able to reveal the partnership.

“It’s going to be transformational to our downtown,” she said.

Construction of the co-operative is expected between 2023 and 2024, with residential construction not beginning until 2025. With a year or more of construction anticipated, it will likely be four or five years before apartments will be available for rent.