HOLYOKE — The state’s housing and economic development chief continued a statewide tour of small businesses on Tuesday, hosting roundtable discussions about the Baker administration’s COVID-19 relief spending plan and hearing from business owners about the problems they still face after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Secretary Mike Kennealy’s 25-community tour stopped in Holyoke, Northampton, Chicopee and Springfield, where local and state legislative officials told him about efforts to help downtown businesses recover from the pandemic.
“We tried to be the best, most engaged and committed partner we could be to small companies during the pandemic, and now we’re trying to focus on what’s next,” Kennealy told a noontime gathering outside the Wauregan building at 420 Dwight St., before walking into several businesses there and on High Street to meet the owners.
Chelsea Falcetti and Tiffany Duchesne, co-owners of the beauty salon The Plan, told Kennealy and a contingent of state officials about their effort to stay afloat when shutdowns and then occupancy limits went into place. They opened the business less than a year before the pandemic hit in March 2020, in a section of the city with a high number of vacant commercial buildings.
“The whole area has so much potential, and there are so many small businesses that are risking so much to open right now, even after (the pandemic),” said Duchesne during a roundtable luncheon at El Paraiso Colombiano. “It would just attract more people if it was all aesthetically” improved.
“Some of these buildings, we don’t even know who the owners are,” said Falcetti. “The last papers we have are from 1991.”
Aaron Vega, the city’s director of planning and economic development, said the buildings in question are in need of code upgrades, some of them costing $1 million or more, before they become fit for reuse. He added that absentee landlords and tax scofflaws are a burden on the city’s economic base.
Massachusetts received about $5.3 billion in direct aid through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. The Baker administration is proposing to use $2.9 billion on priorities including housing and homeownership; economic development and local downtown businesses; job training and workforce development; and infrastructure and health care.
The administration’s plan sets aside $1 billion for housing and $350 million for small business support.
The Holyoke tour stopped at the Crave restaurant, where owner Nicole Ortiz told Kennealy about turning her food truck business — opened one month before the pandemic started — into a High Street storefront operation with 14 employees.
City Sports Bar & Lounge owner Gabriel Reyes explained how a $52,000 grant from the Small Business Administration kept the business alive when, even though he was not allowed to open during the pandemic, he still needed to pay his $3,400 monthly rent — while taking care of eight children at home.
Reyes told Kennealy that after the business spent $24,000 to build a kitchen, Holyoke Gas & Electric in January 2019 issued a citywide moratorium on new natural gas service due to a lack of pipeline capacity. The building is heated with natural gas, he said, but the utility will not install the larger gas meter that he needs in order to cook, too.
“They told me they would put me on a waiting list for a year or two. It’s been three years,” said Reyes. “Now I’ve got to switch over all my setups to propane. … A kitchen would be helpful, but we’re dealing with that. We’re basically running it like a nightclub.”
Kennealy met Northampton officials outside City Hall at 2 p.m., then walked to the Iconica Social Club — a cafe, library and art gallery at 1 Amber Lane. He met co-owners Will Swyers and Ximena Salmerón, actors by trade who took over the business in August 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. The business abuts the Masonic Street parking lot, which is closed for reconstruction.
Salmerón said they were worried that live performances would not return “for a couple of years, so we thought (the business) could be a creative outlet for us, and then, at some point, turn it into a little black box theater once things went back to normal.”
“We were just able to do our first performance since the pandemic started,” said Swyers. “We sold out all four nights.”
Swyers said much of the pandemic relief in previous rounds was directed to employees and employers, rather than to owners.
“We’re a bakery, an event space, a cafe, an arts space, and a performance space, and it’s run by two people. We do everything here. We built the website ourselves,” said Swyers. “‘Labor’ is different when it’s the owners. It was hard to get aid that was super useful for us.”
Jody Doele, co-owner of Thornes Marketplace, met with Kennealy after he stopped at other businesses on Main Street. Doele told him that further pandemic restrictions, such as stay-at-home orders or “doing mask compliance,” would be “a serious, serious problem” for downtown shops.
“I can’t even believe I’m saying this to you, but it’s almost like it’s time for the folks that are choosing not to get vaccinated to have some sort of consequence,” said Doele. “Maybe we need a vaccination passport, or some assistance for landlords like us who wrote hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks to get (through the pandemic).”
She said the building is fully leased except for one retail space at the front entrance, which is a “phenomenal result” of Thornes operating like a caring business community.
The tour wrapped up with another roundtable discussion at Eastside Grill. Local leaders including Mayor David Narkewicz and state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, were in attendance, along with the owners of Bishop’s Lounge, The Roost, Goggins Real Estate and other businesses.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.