NORTHAMPTON — The Live 155 building at 155 Pleasant St. opened for occupancy in June last year, and while its 70 apartments have been in high demand, the same cannot be said for the 2,522 square feet of commercial space on the ground.
The Live 155 building was developed and is managed by Way Finders, a nonprofit based in western Massachusetts.
Goggins Real Estate began marketing the property months before the building’s occupancy, but it took around a year for the space to secure its first renter, Rovithis Realty. Even so, 1,870 square feet of commercial space in the building remains unrented.
Patrick Goggins, who owns Goggins Real Estate, said he is marketing the remaining Live 155 commercial space as one unit, but leaving all options open.
He said much of the commercial activity downtown has been tenants pre-leasing spaces for recreational marijuana businesses. Three recreational marijuana businesses that have pre-leased spaces on Pleasant Street expressed interest in the Live 155 commercial space, he said, though Way Finders chose not to go forward with any of them.
“They have eliminated themselves from that discussion,” Goggins said.
Williams said that Way Finders is not considering recreational marijuana businesses because marijuana is federally illegal. On the residential side, Williams said that nearly all of the building’s 70 affordable and market-rate units have been rented.
Goggins said that while he expected the commercial space at Live 155 to have been rented by now, he is optimistic it will be filled soon because a number of the other commercial spaces in the area have been pre-leased for recreational marijuana and there is less supply. He said one factor that could be deterring potential tenants at Live 155 is a lack of parking.
Way Finders also has another commercial space available on Pleasant Street, in the Lumber Yard affordable housing project that it developed in partnership with Valley Community Development Corp.. That space still has some construction materials in it, so Goggins said that it will be a month or two before there’s a big push to show it. However, he did say that the parking onsite does give it an advantage.
“It’s always good to have parking,” he said.