Carriage Shops Sunday 11/6
Carriage Shops Monday 11/7
The l-o-n-g awaiting demolition of ye old Carriage Shops originally built as the Carriage Inn Motel back in the early 1960s happened today and the actual demolition took less than six hours.
One East Pleasant, Amherst by Larry Kelley on Scribd
Archipelago will soon start construction of One East Pleasant Street not far from their other five story mixed use Kendrick Place or further uptown's Boltwood Place.
Archipelago will have built three new 5-story mixed use buildings this decade
The downtown is finally seeing revitalization. Now we just need a new improved government.
18 comments:
But, but the downtown is getting revitalized under our current system, isn't it? We've got multiple buildings either built or in the works.
But it's being revitalized by local developers who have a vested interest in the town and have amazing capacity to negotiate all the hurdles put in front of them.
In other words, the same people that will be developing the downtown no matter what. After all, they own the land.
and just to think.... the tip of an iceberg...soon the whole block will be multi-story....about time for a grande dame high rise hotel for Amherst-convienant to the colleges ... !!!!
Never going to happen. The area is already over hoteled. Occupancy is only tight at graduation.
This building spree shows the fallacy of the charter movement. More is being built now than in 50 years. North Amherst, the center of town. Olympia Village. And we're about to get a new school.
And what about those "Jersey barriers" jutting out across the sidewalk and bike lane, forcing cyclists and pedestrians into the main travel lane to continue northbound on E. Pleasant? Will they be moved before another accident (like the fatal one you covered yesterday in front of the of the post office) happens there tomorrow?
Speaking of Vince, was he publicly for or against the Carriage Shops removal?
So sad. Hate to see the character of town destroyed like this. Multi level buildings all over the place. Pushing rent even higher than it is now, making our beloved town less affordable by the day. Hate to see it. Goodbye quaint town, hello Northampton wannabe.
New school is a lock. It won't even be close.
Amherst was a characterless town (except for Vince). Now these horrible buildings and others will go only to be replaced by modern characterless buildings. Perfect for Amherst!!!!
They are ripping down a dilapidated former motel. Don't get so overheated about it.
Tiffany,
I understand your nostalgia. Shopped there many times and liked the ambience. Especially miss the jazz-themed Loose Goose.
But multiple, town sponsored studies have found that high rents in Amherst are primarily a function of too little supply. And there are plenty of people who won't live here at all because of the generally rundown state of residential options. According to these studies, increasing supply of premium apartments should take the pressure off "quainter" rental options.
Can you please support your reasoning to the contrary?
So Amherst, a top college town in the country, a top, financially secure town in Massachusetts, is getting new development that you want--and therefore Town Meeting must be destroyed? Larry explain your logic.
Vince was in favor of a building that conformed to the zoning by-law regulations for a four-story, 50 foot building, twenty foot setback from the cemetery etc. Not this jail house being built with such high rents no local resident can afford when mortgages cost less at 3.5%. Dumping on Vince means no one remembers Eric the Rat with his torn genes!!
He had torn genes? Don't you mean jeans? Haha!
Larry, I believe that the motel was actually built in 1962.
Charlotte
While it's certainly long past time for the Carriage Shops to go, and any additional housing options in the town are desperately needed, I can't help but feel that the new building "closes off" a big chunk of space in the town that used to be more porous. It's a big change from the older character the town had, which was still small-town New England but with a lot more vitality than many others in the region. Probably a big part of that is the style of the building, which is very much at odds with the other "tall" structures in the town. The contrast is jarring, and the orange color (which may not be the final one) just makes it worse.
As others have pointed out (sorry, I'm late to the party), this still doesn't do much to alleviate the true source of housing pressure, since most college kids aren't going to be able to afford to stay here. Anyway, .02 contributed.
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