The developer REDPM opened an office in the former Woolworth building last fall. The Selectmen have been frustrated with the progress of the rehabilitation.
Creating a commercial kitchen and shared restaurant space will promote local farming and attract tourists, according to the new plans.
Stenson believes this will help support a wellness center that can be an incubator for related services.
The shared restaurant space will be able to take advantage of outdoor seating on both ends.
Stephen Stenson and Heather Cachat, left, give the board an update on the new plans for the Mausert Block.
ADAMS, Mass. — The owner of the Mausert Block is assuring the Selectmen that there's progress being made at the former Woolworth building across from Town Hall.
Stephen Stenson provided the board with a project update on Wednesday after remarks were made at a past meeting about the slow pace of work over the last six years.
He said the renovation of 10 apartments in the upper floors are nearing completion and there are plans for a shared restaurant and kitchen space as well as wellness collaborative on the first floor.
"This is not the end but the beginning of the end and I think we are moving forward and wrapping up the apartments," Stenson said. "We are going back to reinvest more money into the restaurant area and we hope that is the first step in developing these ideas."
Tensions flared during a May board meeting when Selectman Joseph Nowak aired his grievances about the lack of progress on the empty building since Stenson purchased it in 2011.
"I say if he wanted to be in the fabric of our community he should do something over there instead of just doing it in little waves," Nowak said at the time. "People walk by there and they don't even think anything about it they see it as a vacant building and it always is going to be a vacant building."
The Stensons purchased the structure as Braytonville LLC for $60,000 and are developing it through their real estate management firm REDPM, which stands for real estate development property management. Exterior work on the 1920 brick structure was largely completed in 2013. REDPM matched a $125,000 federal grant the town received in 2011 to overhaul the exterior and storefronts and the got a $700,000 MassDevelopment in 2014 for interior work.
However, work has been slow and last fall REDPM finally got to the point it was able to open an office on the first-floor. The apartments had been gutted for renovation but were largely put back together except for finish work and installing kitchens and baths.
Stenson in the past has pointed to "regulatory" difficulties and financing as holding up the project for several years.
The board had invited Stenson to a meeting to provide an update and a new vision for the building.
Rather than the restaurants that had been advertised for years as "coming soon" on the first floor, Stenson said updated plans are to install a shared commercial kitchen facility in the historic building
"There is no commercial kitchen in the Northern Berkshires. The closest one is in Greenfield," he said. "We are talking to individual people and culinary artists. They can have access to a commercial kitchen and they can provide their services to North County."
The second piece of the collaborative space would be a shared restaurant.
"Instead of just relying on the services of the kitchen, we are actually allowing people to open up restaurants, pop-up restaurants, open up for an event, just a weekend, open for a festival," he said. "So there is a range of things."
He said there is the potential for outdoor seating along the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail in the back of the building and the new street-side windows can all open to bring new life to Park Street
Heather Cachat, a small-business owner who had been involved with downtown efforts, said this would be the first step in creating a food innovation district in downtown Adams.
"Its purpose is to connect and promote food and agricultural activity in the area," she said. "We have a lot of farms but we need to connect them all together and promote them ... we want to support and develop the business community."
There would be an effort within the community to use local produce, Cachat said, and instead of trucking food across the country, the food district would look to connect local farmers to businesses, schools, organizations, and the community at large.
She said this district could put Adams on the map and not only create jobs but attract tourism.
"Right now the Berkshires are trying to brand themselves and each town is trying to brand themselves," she said. "North Adams and other towns are cultural art destinations and people are driving through Adams every day ... Adams could be a destination for diverse cultural food."
Stenson also introduced local yoga and meditation instructor Howard Rosenberg to present the third piece of the Mausert Block vision and he said the plan is to open a collaborative wellness area.
"Most people know what it takes to be healthy ... but how many people actually do it," Rosenberg asked rhetorically. "So the idea is to create social groups of five to 10 people and have them meet in groups and expose them to the wellness practices in the area, which there is no shortage of."
He added with the kitchen, they can also help train people how to cook more nutritiously.
Stenson said he is in the process of applying for a MassDevelopment co-working grant but could not disclose how much he has applied for. He said the grant would be awarded in the fall.
He did ask for a letter of support from the town, which Selectmen obliged.
But Nowak also read from myriad articles about the Mausert Block, quoting Stenson and noting project deadlines that were missed.
"It's hard for me to sit here seeing the building the way it has been for a long time and feeling confident that this is going to happen," he said. "Personally I think you have been holding this town hostage because that is a premier building ... and very little has been done since your ownership. I wish you well but I also wish your word would equate to something over there."
Stenson said he did not feel it was the place to dig up the past and preferred to look forward.
"We have been working on this for a long time and we have been dedicated to the building and have been invested in this building," he said. "What we are talking about is the future of the building and we can keep looking to the past and have a post-mortem but I don't think this is dead yet. It is not the time for post mortem."
Chairwoman Christine Hoyt stopped the exchange and although she shared Nowak's frustration, she said it is time to look ahead.
"Stephen has opened the door to have more conversations with our board," Hoyt said. "He has invited us in and there are some things that are going to be happening then we can go on and have further discussions. I understand the frustration but we are trying to move on and I think this has been a really nice update."
Stenson did extend an invitation to the board to see the apartments when they were complete and the Selectmen agreed they were looking forward to the tour.
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A Rare Bird: Koperniak Stands Out in Triple-A
By Frank MurtaughThe Memphis (Tenn.) Flyer
With Major League Baseball’s September roster expansion just around the corner, Berkshire County baseball fans will be watching to see whether 2016 Hoosac Valley High School graduate Matt Koperniak gets the call from the St. Louis Cardinals. Heading into Tuesday night’s action, Koperniak had 125 hits this summer for the Cards’ Triple A affiliate, the Memphis (Tenn.) Redbirds. He is hitting .309 this season with 17 home runs. In his minor league career, he has a .297 batting average with 56 homers after being signed as a free agent by St. Louis out of Trinity College in 2020. This week, sportswriter Frank Murtaugh of the Memphis Flyer profiled Koperniak for that publication. Murtaugh’s story appears here with the Flyer’s permission.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- I’ve interviewed professional baseball players for more than two decades. There are talented players who, honestly, aren’t that interesting away from the diamond. They’re good ballplayers, and baseball is what they know. There are also very interesting baseball players who aren’t all that talented. Now and then, though, you find yourself in the home team’s dugout at AutoZone Park with a very good baseball player who has a very interesting story to share. Like the Memphis Redbirds’ top hitter this season, outfielder Matt Koperniak.
That story? It began on Feb. 8, 1998, when Koperniak was born in London. (Koperniak played for Great Britain in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.) “My dad was in the military,” explains Koperniak. “He was in Italy for a bit, then England. But I have no memories of that time.” Matt and his family moved back to the States — to Adams, Mass. — before his third birthday.
Koperniak played collegiately at Division III Trinity College in Connecticut, part of the New England Small College Athletic Conference. He hit .394 as a junior in 2019, but beating up on the likes of Tufts and Wesleyan doesn’t typically catch the eye of major-league scouts. When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his senior season, Koperniak received an extra year of eligibility but, having graduated with a degree in biology, he chose to sign as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’ve always loved baseball,” says Koperniak, “and it’s helped me get places, including a good school. My advisor — agent now — was able to get me into pro ball, so here we are.” He played in a few showcases as well as for the North Adams SteepleCats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, enough to convince a Cardinal scout he was worth that free agent offer.
The Redbirds hosted Memphis Red Sox Night on Aug. 10, the home team taking the field in commemorative uniforms honoring the Bluff City’s Negro Leagues team of the 1930s and ’40s. Luken Baker (the franchise’s all-time home run leader) and Jordan Walker (the team’s top-ranked prospect) each slammed home runs in a Memphis win over Gwinnett, but by the final out it had become Matt Koperniak Night at AutoZone Park. He drilled a home run, a triple, and a single, falling merely a double shy of hitting for the cycle. It was perfectly Koperniak: Outstanding baseball blended into others’ eye-catching heroics.
“It’s trying to do the little things right,” he emphasizes, “and being a competitor. The Cardinals do a great job of getting us to play well-rounded baseball. Everybody has the same mindset: How can I help win the next game? You gotta stay in attack mode to be productive.”
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