The $16 million project at the former Atlas Copco factory could be open by late 2012.
This updates a story posted at 8:34 p.m.
HOLYOKE – The City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a zone change that will allow for a project anchored by a Big Y supermarket and 250 jobs at Lower Westfield Road and Homestead Avenue.
The $16 million project would occupy the former Atlas Copco factory.
The 14-0 vote of the council at City Hall changes the property zone from the current Industrial Park to General Industry, which would permit a supermarket.
The project that will also have two or three other retail stores is set to open in late 2012 or early 2013, officials said.
O’Connell Development, of Holyoke, owns the site and is working on the project with the D’Amour family, which founded Big Y in 1936.
Big Y would provide 150 to 175 jobs, with 38 to 44 of them full-time. Other retail stores yet to be chosen would yield another 100 jobs, officials said.
Frank J. Horacek, vice president of real estate and development with Big Y, and Francesca Maltese, development manager for O’Connell Development Group, said they were happy the council vote was unanimous.
Aside from concerns raised at a public hearing last month about traffic and noise, the project drew little opposition.
“It’s a community based project that serves the neighborhood and gives people the services they want,” Horacek said.
Councilors discussed the project only briefly before voting. Ordinance Committee Chairman Diosdado Lopez said his committee recommended the full City Council grant the zone change, as did the Planning Board, with no dissenters.
The project would net the city $520,000 to $590,000 a year in property taxes, up from the $100,000 the site now generates, Maltese said at the May 24 hearing.
Councilor at Large Patricia C. Devine checked herself out of knee-replacement rehabilitation to attend the meeting and vote in favor of the zone change.