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North Adams Peebles Store Changing Name, Focus

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Peebles Department Store in the downtown is going to be turned into a Gordmans, a discount retailer, early next year.

The 13-year-old store has been having a major summer sale over the past two months but the words "closing" appeared in the windows on Monday. The store will close in the days leading up to the grand opening of the new Goodmans early next year.

Blakeley Graham, brand publicity manager for Peebles' parent company Stage Stores, confirmed that the location would remain in the Stage family.

"Both Peebles and Gordmans are part of the Stage community of stores. Gordmans is an off-price retailer, which means that it has a wide array of merchandise for the entire family at the lowest possible prices compared to department stores," Graham said by email from the company's headquarters in Houston.

Current employees will be offered jobs at Gordmans, Graham said, and a job fair for new employees will be held early next year. Peebles credit cards and gift cards can be used at any of the Stage Stores and the Style Circle Rewards program will continue.  

The store is currently having an "everything must go" sale with markdowns of up to 40 percent off listed prices.



Both Gordmans and Stage Stores have roots going back a century; Gordmans (named for one of the founders) first opened a "1/2 Price" store in 1975 and the discount division survived several restructurings and bankruptcies until the name and 48 stores were purchased by Stage in 2017.

Stage reportedly is repositioning Gordmans to be more along the lines of a T.J. Maxx or Burlington model and opened the first newly branded Gordmans in Texas in March 2018. Stage Stores is transforming 89 of its locations into Gordmans this year alone and another 100 is planned next year. By 2020, the number is expected to exceed 400 and make up more than half the company's sales.

"The continuation of strong performance in prior period conversions, in addition to the outstanding initial results in our June conversions, provided the impetus for us to expand our 2020 pivot to off-price," said Michael Glazer, president and chief executive officer of Stage Stores, in a press release posted on BusinessWire.

Stage Stores operates more than 600 Bealls, Goody's, Palais Royal, Peebles and specialty stores in 42 states, along with the more than 150 Gordmans that have already been converted or opened.

The downtown Peebles opened to much fanfare in 2006 as part of the rejuvenation of the former Kmart plaza under owner Hartford Realty that included Staples, Olympia Sports, and the North Adams Cinemas in the former department store. Since then, Staples closed and was replaced by the V&V liquor store and Olympia recently closed. The building also has a Planet Fitness that is being upgraded.


Tags: business changes,   chain store,   department store,   store closings,   

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North Adams Council to Take Up Sullivan School Sale

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council will be asked Tuesday to authorize the sale of Sullivan School to Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation for $50,000. 
 
The nonprofit plans to turn the long vacant school into affordable artists' housing and use classrooms on the lower level for music education in the summer. The proposal will create short-term rental spaces and condominiums catering to artists, designers and production personnel along with single-family modular housing on the 12-acre property.  
 
"Through a carefully planned redevelopment process, we aim to create a multi-use space that serves the needs of residents, uplifts the neighborhood, and upholds the property as a beneficial community asset," according to the foundation's proposal, along with the wooded parcel. "Our vision will reimagine this landscape as a community amenity, extending existing pathways and responding to Kemp Park to create an activated and accessible neighborhood green space." 
 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey is asking the council to OK the plans on Tuesday to allow the foundation's 120-due diligence to begin immediately. 
 
Michael Murphy Studio and Creative Development Partners are listed as the designers and developers of the $15 million project. 
 
Sullivan School, built as East School in 1965, has been closed since Colegrove Park Elementary School opened in 2016. The property — valued at $2.6 million in 2024 — has been put out to bid several times in the last decade and twice the City Council has rejected proposals for reuse. 
 
In 2020, the newly formed Berkshire Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Center had offered a $1 and the promise to invest $14 million into the deteriorating building to turn it into a workforce training center and entrepreneurship hub. 
 
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