DevelopSpringfield has already funded 7 rehab projects as part of Corridor Storefront Improvement Program.
Nick Fyntrilakis, chairman of DevelopSpringfield and assistant vice president of community responsibility at MassMutual Financial Group, speaks at the podium during a press conference about the State Street Corridor Storefront Improvement Program. The event was held at Mirkin's Clearners at 583 State St., one of the businesses that has benefited from the program.SPRINGFIELD - DevelopSpringfield showed off the results of its Corridor Storefront Improvement Program Thursday just a block away from the State Street location it’s identified as a good spot to build a new supermarket.
A 7-acre site across State Street from the Springfield Technical Community College Technology Park and bordered by Walnut, Oak and Union streets would provide plenty of room and access, said Nicholas A. Fyntrilakis, chairman of DevelopSpringfield and assistant vice president of community involvement for MassMutual Financial Group.
The Oak and Walnut streets site provides good access to people who live in the neighborhood as well as those who work downtown or at the Technology Park, he said. Plans now call for a 55,000-square-foot supermarket with 27,000 square feet of other retail.
DevelopSpringfield is talking with supermarket operators and with landowners, including the Springfield Technical Community College Assistance Corp., owner of the park and of a parking lot on the site.
“Anything that improves the neighborhood is good for the park and its tenants,” said Paul D. Adornato, chairman of the Assistance Corporation.
He said the park will need to replace the parking on the site.
Zaida I. Govan, clinical director of Martin Luther King Family Services, said her group already provides transportation for Mason Square residents to nearby supermarkets. “The health disparities in our neighborhood are troubling. It’s because they can’t eat healthy, not because they don’t want to,” Govan said in reference to the lack of grocery stores and fresh produce in Mason Square for residents.
John T. Horrigan, general manager of Mirkin’s Cleaners at 583 State St., said retailers can do well in the neighborhood.
Business at Mirkin’s increased once Horrigan installed a sign with the help of DevelopSpringfield’s Corridor Storefront Improvement Program, Horrigan said. Thursday’s news conference was at Mirkin’s Cleaners.
“We’ve had so many people come and say they didn’t know we were here,” he said.
So far, DevelopSpringfield has funded seven completed projects including Mirkin’s, and there are more on the way accounting for $97,500, Fyntrilakis said. Businesses pay a 25 percent match toward the project that can include signs, awnings, doors, windows or anything to improve the appearance of the building.
DevelopSpringfield started in 2008 as a nonprofit economic development agency focused exclusively on Springfield. It started the program with $1 million, $500,000 in city money and $500,000 in corporate donations. Fyntrilakis said DevelopSpringfield is reaching out to the Latino Chamber of Commerce in hopes of recruiting more minority-owned businesses.
Anyone interested is asked to contact the Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund at (413) 420-0183, extension 107.