NORTHAMPTON — Another piece of the Pleasant Street puzzle is coming together, two business leaders announced this week.
Business mogul Eric Suher has entered an agreement with Pat Goggins, who has begun aggressively marketing 15 of Suher’s vacant properties along Pleasant and Main streets.
“I fully expect we’re going to get them all rented, here, in the very near future,” Goggins said.
Suher said in a press release Goggins seemed like the best man for the job, seeing as he’s already in charge of marketing units under construction along the Pleasant Street gateway.
“It made sense for me to have Pat handle our storefront leasing on Pleasant Street, as he is already handling the commercial leasing for the new construction at 155 Pleasant Street and 256 Pleasant Street. It is my hope that with Pat’s experience, we can attract some excellent new tenants to help reshape this important gateway,” Suher said. “Goggins and his team have years of commercial experience in downtown Northampton, along with a remarkable sense of commitment to this community.”
The joint effort mirrors investments at the two mixed-use buildings — HapHousing’s Live 155 and the old Lumber Yard project underway by Valley Community Development — as well as public investments from the state and City Hall.
“Mr. Suher retaining Goggins Real Estate and working with Pat Goggins to fill some of his vacant properties bodes very well for downtown, and I’m excited by the news,” Mayor David Narkewicz said.
“The larger strategy is to try to extend downtown south onto Pleasant Street, to make Pleasant Street less of a highway-business zone and more into a dense downtown zone where people want to live, where they want to shop, where they want to work,” the mayor said.
Suher’s Pleasant Street properties include the former Grub restaurant at 88 Pleasant St., the former Deals and Steals space at 76 Pleasant St., and several units within the large space previously occupied by Marinello School of Beauty.
Additionally, Goggins has taken over another several units within the building at 54-56 Main St., formerly occupied by Spoleto Restaurant.
Goggins said Suher is already in negotiations with potential owners of the large commercial property once occupied by the restaurant, which moved down to Bridge Street in fall 2012. The property has been vacant ever since the move.
Goggins and Narkewicz said they expect the activity along Pleasant Street should provide the incentive required to occupy those properties.
“That Pleasant Street thing has been the subject of a lot of discussion as a way of improving that gateway,” Goggins said. “What you’re seeing there is the result of that — as the public spends money to improve that as a gateway … the consequence of that, if it’s done properly, is you then start to see people start to put money into their properties.”
Narkewicz said he’s happy to see the public investments paying off, as he’d hoped it would spur a chain reaction for the private sector.
“I think this is one more example of the success of that approach,” he said.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.