NORTHAMPTON — Downtown day spa Brooks & Butterfield has closed.
A sign on the door of the business, located on the second floor of 140 Main Street, announced the closure: “Please be advised that Brooks & Butterfield The Day Spa has permanently ceased business operations. We greatly appreciate your past patronage.” The spa’s website now reads only, “Thank you for your patronage … ”
Business partners Patricia Butterfield and Lenore Brooks opened the business in 2001. Brooks’ daughter, Shannon Fleury, was the most recent owner, according to Butterfield. Efforts to reach Fleury were not successful on Wednesday.
Butterfield called it the “first real day spa in Northampton” in an interview with the Gazette on Wednesday. “Now there are several,” she added.
“I have a lot of empathy for the employees that learned they no longer have jobs,” said longtime customer Michelle Spaziani, 45, of Greenfield. “I can only say good things about the people and the services they provided,” she continued. She said she frequented the business for more than five years.
On Tuesday, Spaziani received an email notification that her Thursday appointment, which she booked about two weeks ago, was canceled as the business was closed.
Spaziani said she was hesitant to speculate as to why the spa closed. She added that there is a demand for beauty services, such as manicures and pedicures, in the area.
The seemingly sudden closure isn’t the only one in Northampton recently — popular retail store Faces closed without warning nearly three weeks ago, and Sam’s Pizzeria closed in early March.
Suzanne Beck, executive director of the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, said after closings, it’s easy to generalize and think “downtown is losing its edge,” but she said that often the reasons why businesses close are complex, and in her view, Northampton has a successful track record for keeping businesses thriving downtown.
Of the recent closure, she said, “Certainly, Brooks & Butterfield is one of the businesses that helped build downtown in Northampton as a destination for spa services.”
Spas and salons are a draw to downtown with offerings that “you can’t find on the internet,” Beck said.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com