Maplewood luxury condos eyed
$4M project hailed by downtown boosters

By Jack Dew
Berkshire Eagle Staff
Saturday, March 12, 2005 -

PITTSFIELD -- In what is being hailed as a breakthrough for the redevelopment of downtown, a partnership is planning to build 20 luxury condominiums in a former women's school and hotel that has sat empty for nearly a year.

Yesterday, local developer Grace LLC and Albany-based First Columbia an-nounced plans for a $4 million project to convert the former Maplewood Hotel near the corner of Maplewood Avenue and North Street into upscale condominiums.

With an estimated price tag of $200,000 to $400,000 for the condominiums, the project represents a large-scale return of market-rate housing to the North Street corridor, which has been undergoing a slow metamorphosis from depressed downtown to revitalized city center.

"When I first looked at this building, I thought it was incredible in terms of architecture, age and history," said Beth Pearson, the principal of Grace. "I considered both apartments and condominiums, and decided that downtown needs residents, people who could stay in town, work in town and enjoy some of the cultural activities in town."

City officials and downtown boosters have been pursuing a North Street renaissance for more than a decade, seeking to bring life back to a downtown that had been drained by the opening of the Berkshire Mall in Lanesboro and hurt by the slow disappearance of jobs from the General Electric plant.

They mounted an effort to renovate the Central Block from an empty department store to a mix of office and retail space, are pushing plans for a six-screen movie theater in a preserved historic building, and are supporting the restoration of the Colonial Theatre to a working stage.

But residential housing has been a missing component, said Peter Lafayette, president of the Berkshire Housing Development Corp. and a member of the board of Downtown Inc. He described the Maple-wood development as a harbinger of rapid growth.

"This shows a belief that the downtown revitalization is working and that the turnaround is real," said Lafayette, who has been one of the driving forces for the cinema center.

The first phase of the revitalization was the creation of more office space, Lafayette said, followed by the push to bring arts and entertainment back downtown. The third phase will be an explosion of new restaurants, retail space and residential housing.

"We are at that tipping point, and a project like this shows it, and I think we will now see other buildings changing hands. There is already movement out there, and a number of developers are looking at different properties for sale and people are calling about restaurants and looking for different spaces."

Grace and First Columbia have formed a limited liability corporation, Grace FCA, to restore the Maplewood building. They purchased the property for $650,000 from a trust, the trustee of which is local developer Richard C. Kielman, according to a deed recorded at the Middle Berkshire Registry. The sale closed Monday.

Pearson renovated a building at the corner of Bradford and Center streets in Pittsfield that had been run down and frequently targeted by police for drug raids. She advertised the 12 units as "Boston-style apartments," and all were rented by the time construction was completed last year. She said that experience convinced her there is a pent-up demand for quality urban housing in the rural Berkshires. Kevin Bette, the president of First Columbia, the partner developer, said his company has seen the same trend.

"We have worked in a lot of downtowns around the country. You just get a feel for which downtowns have potential and which ones don't," Bette said.

Boost for upper North

In Pittsfield, he said the preservation of historic buildings, the cleaning up of North Street, and the plans for the movie theater and the Colonial Theatre are all indicators of that potential.

Mayor James M. Ruberto said the Maplewood renovation "is exciting for Pittsfield and especially exciting for North Street." He said it would further strengthen upper North Street, which has already benefited from the restoration of the Greystone building by George Whaling; it is now the home of the Bellissimo Dolce cafe and M Designs, an upholsterer.

Residents living in the North Street corridor will "bring a nighttime component to downtown," Ruberto said. "We have all been scratching our heads and trying to encourage the owners of downtown property to convert the upstairs of retail space and office buildings into downtown housing, simply for the reason that it will change the composition of the street. This will do that."

The Maplewood was built in 1824 on what was then the 20-acre campus of the Pittsfield Young Ladies Institute. In 1884 it closed, and in 1889 it became a hotel, according to Pearson's research. By 1937, one wing had been converted into the Maplewood Apartments.

Pearson said the renovation plans call for 20 condominiums ranging in size from 1,100 square feet to 1,400 square feet and most will have one or two bedrooms. She said each unit will retain the building's "original grandeur, including fireplaces, high ceilings and preservation of the building's original plaster, hardwood floors and molding work."

A model of a residential unit is expected to be ready by early June and construction is slated to be completed by March 2006.