Hit The Road

 

Gottago Taxi packing them in

The Amherst Select Board on Monday night will consider a "Recommendation to NOT approve a taxi license -- GottaGo taxi."  But fear not, 15 minutes later they will vote on a "New Taxi Business License Application:  Funky Cab."

So the net number of taxi cab companies licensed to do business in the town of Amherst will in all likelihood remain the same (9). 

The Selectboard renewed all the taxi licenses back in December, but that was "subject to outstanding documentation" including the positive recommendation of Police Chief Scott Livingstone.  GottaGo Taxi was the only company he did not recommend.

The Chief's memo will appear in the Selectboard packet tomorrow, but until then this incident should provide a little background.  The owner will have the right to respond to the Chief's recommendation  (or lack thereof) at the Monday night Select Board meeting.

He may not want to drive one of his cabs to the meeting.

#AmherstMA Police Chief recommends NO GO for GottaGo tax business.  Selectboard decides Monday to pull permit.  http://t.co/6KHDHbqV3X
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) January 24, 2014

Liquor License For Rent

The average person probably thinks a beer/wine permit in a college town like Amherst is a license to print money.  And to some extent that's true.  So it will be interesting to see who applies for the only open on-premise Wine & Malt license (out of eight) currently available, at the annual bargain basement price of $1,000.

The Select Board will award the golden ticket to one lucky entrepreneur at the their regular Monday night meeting March 17.  Yes, St. Patrick's Day -- not to be confused with the "Blarney Blowout" held the Saturday before the official holiday to allow the downtown bars to tap into the "college aged youth" who abandon Amherst for Spring Break just prior to March 17.

Considering the mayhem that occurred at the last two Blarney Blowouts the Select Board should probably also post a set of suggested guidelines for potential liquor permit seekers on expected business practices.

As in not hyping immature events that promote ethnic stereotyping, while encouraging bad behavior.

 

Souper Bowl went out of business in June, giving up their Wine & Malt permit

Paper, Plastic, Polystyrene

 

Paper cup left (but plastic lid), Styrofoam cup right

Call out the SWAT team, the Dunkin' Donuts on University Drive is still serving their hot coffee (and presumably tea and hot chocolate, oh my!) in Styrofoam containers in defiance of the Amherst ban which went into effect at midnight.  

Well, maybe defiance is a tad strong.  Since Amherst is one of only four communities in Massachusetts with such a ban, maybe the big multinational corporation was simply never aware -- although they are home based in Massachusetts.  

With the college aged youth demographic (59%) so prevalent in our little college town we are probably a highly profitable market segment.

And yes, since the Board of Health can only fine them $100 - $250 day, that would probably only require a half-hour's worth of sales to cover. 

Thoughtful Customers

 Food For Thought Books ends the year on a positive note

Food For Thought Books will live to see their 38th year in business thanks to generous customers who came together via the Indiegogo fundraising site to the tune of over $40,000.  Not bad considering the goal was $38,000.  Actually not bad period. 

The left of center bookstore has been a mainstay in the downtown since the early 1970s back before Al Gore invented the Internet.  But now, everything has changed -- and bookstores, newspapers and video rental stores are under the gun.  More like an assault rifle. 

Meanwhile just around the corner, fair and balanced Amherst Books -- also in a building owned by Barry Roberts -- seems to be weathering the storm. 

And Another One Gone

Portabella Fine Foods

At least they ceased operation via their own choosing (owners are retiring), unlike a lot of small businesses who shuttered their doors this past year in Amherst, and the rest of the nation.

Historic Building Sold (Again)

 40 Dickinson Street, Amherst 

Amherst College, the number one landowner in town, just purchased the former Paige's Chevy, aka Classic Chevy, building at 40 Dickinson Street for $474,000.  A tad more than the former owner of Classic Chevy business paid for it back in August ($325,000) but still well below its assessed value of $548,200.

Thus if it goes off the tax rolls, like the vast majority of Amherst College owned property, it will no longer pay the town treasury just over $10,000 in annual property taxes.

The two-story brick building to the rear of the more recent office addition dates back to 1880,  so if Amherst College is going to raze the building to "put up a parking lot" they will need the permission of the Amherst Historical Commission.  Currently the Commission has the power to implement a one year demolition delay to protect historic structures.

The property also touches the overgrown remains of "Kelley Square", another historic, albeit forgotten, piece of history intertwined with the most historic figure in town history.

Or as faithful servant One-Armed Tom used to call her, "Miss Emily."

Going, Going ... Gone

It took less than three hours to auction off 40 years worth of equipment accumulated by one of the area's premier landscaping businesses, as the auction attracted over 200 bidders, with some items bringing in $10,000 or more.

 

Heavy duty trucks

The large crowd, predominantly men, consisted of contractors, farmers, landscapers, homeowners with large yards, and perhaps someone interested in buying a memento of an old fashioned family business, now but a fond memory.

 

Fleet of pick up trucks

Strike!

 Striking union workers, Triangle Street, near the High School

So no, I don't know the particulars of the grievances the union has against Warner Brothers, Inc or Gagliarducci Construction Corp -- but I do know from first hand experience, as a proud member of the Teamsters Union thirty year ago, that strikes are kind of like nuclear weapons:  most effective when used as a threat, but destructive when actually detonated.

But strike they have done.  

Since the International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union 98 is involved with the reconstruction on Triangle Street it has now become a town concern, as that important project seems to have come to a standstill.

 North Pleasant Street, UMass

Both construction companies have a reputation for doing excellent work (one reason they won the construction bids).  But you only do good work by hiring highly skilled workers.

I hope they work it out.  Soon.

Amherst's Twin Towers

Boltwood Place under construction August, 2011

Boltwood Place, Amherst's first downtown tall building in more than a generation, will soon have a sister clone rising into the not so rarefied air, only in this case not quite as close in proximity as those iconic Twin Towers knocked down on 9/11.

 

Kendrick Place lot (near Bertucci's)

Archipelago Investments LLC will go before the Planning Board on September 18 seeking approval for Kendrick Place -- a five story, mixed used building located at the very Gateway to UMass on the corner of Triangle Street and East Pleasant directly opposite Kendrick Park.

 Boltwood Place today

The views alone from the Penthouse suites will be worth the lease payments.

The new building will also be LEED certified, and co-developer David Williams is hoping for Platinum Certification one step up from Boltwood Place's Gold Certification.

 

Kyle Wilson standing, David Williams seated

Archipelago is currently before the Planning Board seeking a Special Permit for the construction of a 75 unit, 236 bed dormitory style development on Olympia Drive known as Olympia Place.  The private (therefor on the tax rolls) student housing project would replace a run down rowdy frat house.

These visionaries also instigated the joint project between UMass and the Amherst Redevelopment Authority for the ill fated Gateway Project, a mixed use plan that would have created badly needed student housing and high end commercial space in a prime location connecting UMass to Amherst downtown.

Archipelago Investments LLC is transforming the landscape of Amherst -- both figuratively and literally.  It's about time. 

#####

UPDATE

The Gazette caught up with this story about 8 hours later (on the web) and it appears in print today, Wednesday.  Odd headline.  Originally they used "Second Apartment Building Proposed For downtown Amherst" but then changed it before going to print.

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1:00 PM

Now they've changed the digital headline for a 3rd time (much better) and added this nifty stock photo.  But they can't exactly recall the 20,000 or so printed editions delivered this morning with the odd "ups ante" headline.  

A New Business Worth Cheering About

 

Oriental Flavor, 25 South Pleasant Street, Amherst town center

The crowd who packed Monday night's Select Board meeting to vociferously advocate the town squander $6.5 million to absorb 154 acres of woodland as a means of scuttling a proposed student housing development in northeast Amherst gave new business owner Chenghui Zheng a warm round of applause after he received his "Common Victualler License".




He also  announced Oriental Flavor's "Grand Opening" was scheduled for the next day, Tuesday July 30.  So far reviews are positive (with the picky Internet crowd).

Built Chevy Tough, No More

An American icon

About 75 people showed up this morning to attend the Classic Chevy, aka Paige's Chevrolet auction at their historic 40 Dickinson Street location, within hubcap toss of the Dickinson Homestead.

Almost all of them were men dressed in work clothes, similar no doubt to the uniforms once worn by the 17 dedicated employees who are now out of a job.

 

Crowd gathers round the auctioneer at former Classic Chevrolet

Amherst has lost its last auto dealership and it's unlikely to see another one anytime soon.  Just as a supermarket or hardware store will never reappear in the downtown.

Or a phone booth.

Flying Super Extra Gas pump 1960s:  When Paige's was in its prime

Parts of the Trade

How to for professionals (before the Internet)

Hills Hat Factory molds, circa 1850s stored in the attic

Final Curtain

 316 College Street, Amherst

After 28 years serving families of Amherst and surrounding towns, the New England Dance Quarters on College Street is no more.

Summers are always tough in Amherst, a "college town" where almost half the population abandons ship by June 1st.

And this time of year is especial tough on high-energy fitness related businesses as most folks do not want to be indoors dancing up a storm on a gorgeous summer day.

I also have to wonder if the declining target demographic -- young families with children -- isn't also a major factor:

According to the Amherst Housing Production Plan, "Young families are rapidly declining as adults age 25 to 44 decreased from 7,323 in 1990 to 4,009 in 2010 a drop of 45.3%. The widening affordability gap will continue to present a substantial obstacle to young families being able to live in Amherst."

Meanwhile, two doors down:

Amherst Downtown Business Shake Up

 
 Alex Krogh-Grabbe addresses Amherst Select Board

The Amherst Business Improvement District announced rather suddenly this morning by way of unscheduled email that rookie Director Alex Krogh-Grabbe will step down as Director on July 1st, start of the new fiscal year.

Krogh-Grabbe was hired last year to lead the fledgling BID which, like the Director,  is still in its start-up year.

The Amherst Select Board gave final approval for the BID in October of 2011 after business icons Barry Roberts and Jerry Jolly spent two years laying the groundwork for formation of the district.

Northampton created a BID in 2009.

According to Executive Committee Chair Barry Roberts the decision of the Executive Board was unanimous and mutually agreeable to the current director, as the BID "needed somebody with different management skills."

According to Krogh-Grabbe, "I'm proud of everything we've done at the BID in the past year, and I look forward to seeing the BID do many more exciting things in the years to come!"

The Executive Board will meet this Thursday and the full board on Friday to discuss the immediate future of the position.

And Then There Was One

 The DV Den, 320 College Street Amherst

The second to the last movie rental store left in Amherst, The DV Den, has called it quits.  Or as they say in Hollywood, "Fade to black."

While the business was ahead of the curve at one time -- becoming the first rental operation in the area to phase out video tapes and go all-DVD in 2006, in the end it was a technological shift in the delivery of movies that all but exterminated the storefront movie rental industry.

Netflix made rentals as easy as point and click for instant access to thousands of movies, and if you did not mind waiting a day or two, first run DVD movies delivered to your mailbox.  All with a comparatively cheap low monthly subscription cost. 

The recent rise of Redbox was probably the final blow as first run moves were conveniently available in ubiquitous vending machines located near and far (one of them within disc throw of The DV Den) where the discs could be returned to any location and only costs $1.20 per rental, almost four times cheaper than the price charged by The DV Den.

Redbox, 360 College Street, Amherst

But you cannot ask a vending machine for a movie recommendation, or briefly discuss how your day is going thus far.

Efficiency always seems to be at the expense of humanity; and Amherst is now diminished because of it.

30

 Happy Birthday Collective Copies

In old fashioned journo 30 means "end" of the story, but in business -- when measured in years -- it means an extraordinary accomplishment, especially when you are a niche entity to begin with.

Amherst worker owned collectives account for less than 1% of the businesses in town, but Collective Copies also stands out because they have withstood the test of time.

And they would not have lasted this long if not fulfilling job #1 for any service business:  customer service.

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Collective Copies Open House today 3pm: self-publishing workshop, and a raffle of co-operative-made merchandise. All events are free and open to the public!

Badly Needed Competition

 356 College St.  From Pizza to Pizza

The number one reason Amherst has such a high property tax rate (well, besides the gold plated schools) is simple math:  half of all the property in town is owned by tax exempts and the other half is disproportionally make up of homeowners and rental units which shoulder 90% of the tax burden.

Commercial property makes up a desultory 10%.

So it's always sad to see commercial property become residential such as the old Watroba's General Store in North Amherst Center.  Which to be fair, happened a long time ago, well before the recent purchase by Jamie Cherewatti.

 

Watroba's General Store circa 1960s

From the book North Amherst and Cushman

But I find it telling that this 100 yard swap is taking place in East Amherst where Pioneer Valley Pizza is moving from 20 Belchertown Road, to 356 College Street.  Sure, maybe it's that they need less space than their previous 1,350 square feet spot, or maybe they got a better deal on rent.

10 Belchertown Road, former location Pioneer Valley Pizza

Or maybe it's because the building itself is in much better repair.

Yes it's the oldest saying in the evil book of capitalism: "When products compete they get better".  And what Amherst desperately needs is competition in the student rental business.  Because now, with such huge demand and a strangled limited supply, the competition is at best token.

If developments like The Gateway, now dead, or The Retreat, now under attack, were allowed to happen off-campus students would flock to them like swallows to Capistrano.   The Mom-and-Pop operations that do a despicable lousy job of upkeep would have to step up their game to compete, or sell out to a more responsible investors. 

Either way, increasing the supply of safe, quality and affordable housing is the answer.  And we need it now. 

Presidential E-X-P-A-N-S-I-O-N

Presidential Apartments, one of the first big complexes to arise fifty years ago in a mutual symbiotic relationship with UMass, our largest employer, has been granted a special permit by the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals to expand significantly (54 units) from the current 85 units to 139, or an increase of 96 tenants.

The 54 new units will spread out over nine new buildings and consist of a dozen one bedroom units and 42 two bedroom units.  Six of these units will be "affordable" and will count towards Amherst's Subsidized Housing Inventory.

The town is currently at 10.8% and if it falls below 10% a developer can use a state CH40B wild card to build a rental housing mega-complex.

According to the Amherst Housing Production Plan between 1980 and 2010 housing production decreased by 12.8% in a town where 59.4% of the population are college students.

Presidential Apartments is also one of the complexes that is professionally managed by Kamins Real Estate and seldom shows up in Amherst police logs.

Stone Cold Ovens

 

Alpha Pizza Pi, 356 College St, Amherst RIP

We don't call Amherst a "college town" for nothing.  Obviously our #1 industry is education and along with that all the accessory commercial activity:  rental housing, food and alcohol being at the top of the short list.

And of course "food" usually means pizza or Chinese.

While proven pizza veterans Antonio's, Sibies, and Bruno's continue to thrive, and downtown newbie Arise Farm to Table Pub & Pizzeria seems to be packing them in, this location at 356 College Street has now had the second failure in four years as a pizza storefront. 

But that will not stop a young entrepreneur with more passion than sense from opening up a business here in the near future.  Pizza anyone?

Vegetables to Offices

 0 University Drive abuts Newmarket Center

Amherst could get more office space, not that it seems there's pressing demand, if this large 5.8 acre tract of land near UMass on University Drive should sell.  Since it is zoned "office park" that kind of narrows down the options for development.

The Planning Board tried to change the zoning a few years back to a more diversified commercial designation but naturally the NIMBYs shot it down at Town Meeting, where a two-thirds vote is hard to muster.

The land is owned by Mohammad Idrees who purchased it for the bargain price of $22,000 back in 2003 at the Lincoln Pulp and Paper Company auction, with the original idea of building a Mosque.  Since Amherst is not overly flush with Muslims that plan went by the wayside and he briefly tried selling fresh vegetables.

 Mohammad Idrees and his vegetable stand  in 2008 (photo by Mary Carey)

The property has been in Ch61A for the past ten years, and much of it is wetlands, so it doesn't pay much of anything in taxes to Amherst ($94.00).   But the assessor estimates a $40,000 windfall to the town if it should sell for the $890,000 asking price and put to commercial use. 

But these days it seems anytime "open space" goes on the market neighbors simply petition the town to buy it using Other People's Money.

Much Needed Development Planned

Cowls woodland since 1888 

Up to 170 cottage style student housing units sheltering a total of 680 tenants could soon be developed in the Cushman Village Center near Amherst's number one employer and target demographic, the University of Massachusetts. 

Landmark Properties bills "The Retreat" as a "cluster conservation subdivision" that will "provide students with an award winning, high quality, highly amenitized lifestyle in their own community of single family and attached homes."

Map of proposed development (click to enlarge)

 
The 154 acre parcel is currently owned and manged by the W.D. Cowls company, the state's largest private landowner. The property is in Chapter 61 Forest Conservation.  As a result the wooded acreage is current valued at $67/acre or a little over $10,000. 

The Amherst Select Board will have to sign off on releasing the land from Chapter 61, and they have 120 days to implement a"right of first refusal".

Considering the $6.5 million purchase price, it's highly unlikely the town will buy it.  Amherst could, however, transfer the right of first refusal to another non-profit agency, such as the Kestrel Land Trust.  But again, at that price, hard to match.

If developed by a private entity the project would also pay Amherst hundreds of thousands in property taxes annually.  

Amherst currently has an exceedingly tight 3.5% vacancy rate and conversions of single family homes to student rooming houses have caused problems all over town.

A classic Catch 22:  any proposal to add student housing is met with NIMBY resistance for fear of it becoming a riotous Frat Row.  Because no dense developments have been constructed to match increasing enrollment at UMass, the penny ante developers have converted traditional single family homes to student housing with no professional management, a recipe for disaster.

Safe to say locals are already sharpening their pitchforks and soaking torches in gasoline.

Letter to abutters from developer