NORTHAMPTON — Three years after acquiring the former First Baptist Church downtown for $3 million — a move that drew criticism from some residents — Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra says that plans to convert the space into a long-planned Community Resilience Hub have effectively reached a standstill due a lack of available federal grants.
“Until we can identify funding to finish the building, it’s sort of in stasis,” Sciarra said. “It’s too bad, because the need is growing every day.”
The city announced in December 2022 it had entered into a purchase agreement to buy the former church on Main Street as the future home for the hub, which advocates envision as a way to bring several local social service agencies under one roof to combat the issues of mental health and homelessness, as well as provide an emergency shelter in the case of climate-related disasters.
Since then, the city has held several community meetings to discuss the goals of the hub, laying out a timeline for its completion, led a tour of the incomplete interior and discussed its potential impact on public health in the city. The city expected to open the hub in late 2025.
Sciarra said that federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency meant to support such projects were suspended under the administration of President Donald Trump. The project can’t move forward until the city can secure grant funding needed to renovate the space, she said.
Northampton’s goal for the resilience hub predates Sciarra’s mayoralty. The city conducted study groups and a planning committee under her predecessor David Narkewicz to address issues relating to homelessness and panhandling. That eventually led to the proposal for the city to purchase a building to bring several city and nonprofit organizations together to tackle the issue, including the city’s recently established Division of Community Care (DCC).
The idea of a resilience hub is not novel to Northampton. Across the country, from Hawaii to Baltimore, numerous centers exist that combine social services, community centers and environmental justice. But under the Trump administration, the EPA has stopped tens of millions of dollars worth of grants meant to support such centers, under the direction of the agency’s Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Trump appointee.
The city purchased the former church in 2023 from Eric Suher, a local real estate mogul who has been the subject of public ire after refusing to reopen several music and entertainment venues after the COVID-19 pandemic. Suher eventually sold off some of the venues, such as the Iron Horse Music Hall, after the city threatened to revoke his liquor licenses, although others like the Calvin Theater remains closed.
Before selling the venue to the city, Suher had done some work on the building’s interior with the intention of converting it into a banquet hall. A due diligence report submitted to the city by local Jones Whitsett Architects in 2023 stated that “much of the structural and architectural work required” to renovate the building had been completed under Suher’s ownership, but many aspects needed to be completed before the hub could become operational.
Such work includes the installation of a lighting control system, plumbing, kitchen equipment, and Sheetrock and plaster for walls and ceilings, according to the due diligence report. Suher had also built an elevator shaft as part of his remodeling, but the elevator cab itself still needs to be installed.
Since the acquisition, the city has yet to perform any additional work on the building, other than routine maintenance. Jones Whitsett has also worked on several design and development aspects of the hub, including renderings of the project.
In addition to the DCC, other local nonprofits currently involved with the hub include Manna Community Kitchen, which serves as a host for similar services out of St. John’s Episcopal Church on Elm Street, providing meals and connecting residents to services. Kaitlyn Ferrari, the development director for Manna, said the organization supported the creation of the hub and was on standby to provide its food program.
“When it’s ready, we’re ready,” Ferrari said. “It’s nice to have more than one service in one place. It provides more access for people dealing with language or transportation barriers.”
In September 2024, the city announced that local nonprofit Clinical & Support Options (CSO) would be the lead agency overseeing the work of the Resilience Hub. Since then, CSO has also opened its own shelter, located on Industrial Drive.
Geoffrey Oldmixon, a spokesperson for CSO, said that given the current situation, the organization had begun to reconsider its strategy when it came to the hub.
“We have started to reevaluate and see what the scope is,” Oldmixon said. “The landscape has shifted, but the need hasn’t.”
But Oldmixon also emphasized that the idea of a resilience hub in the city still had merit, with its potential to bring multiple organizations with the same goal in the city together.
“The idea is a conceptual collaboration among service providers,” Oldmixon said.
Public scrutiny
Public scrutiny of the Resilience Hub has derived mainly from the price tag the city paid to buy the building from Suher. The $3.1 million to buy the building came from a variety of sources, including $1 million from the American Rescue Act Plan funds, cannabis revenue, federal Community Development Block Fund Grant funds and a donation from Smith College. While the city may not have touched its own surplus cash to make the purchase, many residents have questioned whether the money could have been better spent elsewhere.
David Murphy, a former city councilor and a realtor by profession, has long been critical of the project. Murphy ran unsuccessfully for a council seat during this year’s municipal election, but drew applause at a candidate’s forum this fall when he referred to the project as a “boondoggle.”
“The dollars don’t make any sense, the location doesn’t make any sense, the physical plan doesn’t make any sense,” Murphy said in a recent interview with the Gazette. “What we really need are bed spaces for people that are living outside. Why are we creating a social service office building and drop-in center?”
Murphy, along with other critics of the city’s plan, hired Boston brokerage firm Colliers International to conduct their own appraisal of the building. That appraisal valued the property at $1.6 million, about half what the city paid for.
“The appraisers do not provide a reasoned analysis with good documentation and insight,” the Colliers report says, adding that it did not “find the value conclusion to be reliable within a reasonable range.”
Sciarra has previously defended the city’s appraisal and purchase of the former First Baptist Church, noting that the city used a local brokerage who sent representatives to view the site as part of the process.
Murphy said he understood the reasoning behind the hub’s creation, acknowledging that Sciarra had a background in social services before becoming mayor. But he said the city’s reliance on grants and one-time funds to purchase and construct the building is not good financial practice.
“It totally defies logic and it certainly is a terrible business practice,” he said. “The private sector would never have done something like this.”
Sciarra told the Gazette she understands that the “conversation has shifted” around support for the resilience hub, but continued to emphasize its importance in supporting many in the community struggling with mental health issues and homelessness.
“The federal government is stripping away more and more resources in terms of housing insecurity, food insecurity, many of these mental health resources,” Sciarra said. “I would argue this is something that is critically needed, and needed by a growing section of our community.”
Despite the setback, Sciarra remains committed to bringing the resilience hub to Northampton, and that the city would continue to seek ways to fund its completion without relying on its own revenues.
“I’m sensitive to the fact that there doesn’t seem to be an interest in expending city funds for it,” Sciara said. “So we are searching for outside funding.”