Pittsfield Finance Subcommittee OKs TIF for Interprint

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The finance subcommittee on Tuesday supported a 10-year tax increment financing agreement for Interprint that is expected to save the company $482,000 over the next decade on an estimated $1.9 million more in valuation.

The TIF will provide 100 percent forgiveness of the incremental increase in property taxes resulting from the construction of a building expansion in the first and second years and decrease by 20 percent every two years.  The current valuation of the property is $5,580,300.

"We want to let Interprint know that we very much appreciate what the company has done for Pittsfield over the years," Business Development Manager Michael Coakley said, adding that the city wants to support the decorative printing company and keep them local.

Interprint announced last month that it will be investing $22 million into its Central Berkshire Boulevard facility for additional printing presses and is planning a 57,000-square-foot expansion.

The expansion will create 20 more jobs at the facility by 2025, bringing the company's staff to about 185.

With a separate $7 million investment to replace its oldest press with a new one capable of printing on both paper and film, it brings the total investment to about $28 million.

The company is also receiving $300,000 in state Economic Development Incentive Program credits through the state's Economic Assistance Coordinating Council.

Originally located on Pecks Road, Interprint has operated in the city since 1987 when Bill Hines, Sr. helped expand the German company by opening a second location in the United States.  The current facility on Central Berkshire Boulevard was built in 2006 and has been expanded three times before: in 2008, 2016, and 2018.

Co-Managing Director Bill Hines, Jr. explained that the company launched a product for the luxury vinyl tile industry in 2017 that has become an important driver for this expansion.

The growth rates for LVT are now six times that of laminate flooring.  Hines Jr. reported that the company experienced "major growth" with a major producer on the product over the last few years, fulfilling the cost of a $12.5 million dollar film machine that was installed a couple of years ago.

In 2021, Interprint printed 16 million square meters of LVT on a market of 593 million square meters, only supplying about 2.7 percent of the U.S. market.

"I think creating 20 jobs on top of the 170 you have currently is what we're looking for. We don't see too many manufacturers in the Northeast.  Georgia is probably very happy to have you. It's probably cheaper utilities down there, you don't have to pay for heat, just examples like that, I mean, this is an opportunity for Pittsfield."

Similarly to Marchetti, the way he sees TIFs is that it is not lost revenue because there is no revenue if the project doesn’t get done.

Kronick speculated that the city should think about how it can maintain manufacturing with a competitive disadvantage to the South.

The TIF will go back to the City Council next week for final approval.

Lenox Class of 2024 'a Really Good Bunch of Kids'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
08:43PM / Sunday, June 09, 2024

Valedictorian Genevieve Collins tells her classmates that they have had a bountiful harvest in what they had experienced at Lenox Memorial. See more photos here. 

LENOX, Mass. — The Lenox Memorial High School class of 2024 will be remembered as "a really good bunch of kids."

 

Superintendent William Collins said they earned the label early on — it's followed them from kindergarten through high school. 

 

"There was something special about the chemistry and history of individuals comprising the class of 2024," he told the family and friends in the Shed at Tanglewood for graduation ceremonies. I need not remind you that this is a class that began high school during the pandemic, a fate undeserved by anyone. It is a testament to their resiliency. They not only returned to in-person instruction but they made up the lost time. They've done a lot."

 

Collins called the 61 graduates on the Tanglewood stage "doers, achievers and accomplishers, highly intelligent and exceedingly kind."

 

He noted that the pursuit of happiness was held as equal to life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. And rarely is the shortest line between two points the fastest road to happiness. A study on common factors of happiness, he said, found that rather than material wealth, "having a happy, connected friends for a wide social network, we are more likely to bring about enduring happiness."

 

"Circuitous routes are the best routes, serendipity by its very nature lives where we don't expect a pleasant surprises lie waiting unseen and unforeseen around the next bend on paths that we've never expected or intended to do," he said. 

 

Don't be afraid to ask for help, Collins said, make friends, or a friend. Know that Lenox Memorial is a better place because of the class, he said, "we know that you will carry a piece of us with you whether you stay in Lenox or travel halfway around the globe."