Great Barrington — In the auditorium of Monument Mountain Regional High School the Selectboard Wednesday night resumed its public hearing for The Berkshire, an upscale hotel on Bridge Street, plans for which were revised after a vocal group objected to the original plans for the now 88-room hotel. The plans involved razing the former and historic Searles High School, centrally located downtown, yet next to the banks of a delicate natural gem, the Housatonic River, and a tight residential neighborhood.
In response to their critics, hotel developers Vijay and Chrystal Mahida have redrafted their original plans and are now proposing to save Searles’ main structure for their AAA 4-Diamond hotel, while still removing the newer gymnasium and annex. The Mahidas decided to rework the hotel for the sake of “community peace,” and what Chystal Mahida says was an evolution process for her family’s business. A drop in the room number was a byproduct of adaptive reuse, and a concession in an industry that works with tight profit formulas, and that considers, in most cases, room numbers under 75, a death sentence.
The redesigned configuration of the Berkshire Hotel, preserving and restoring the core features of the Searles School.
And a 4-diamond hotel, the Mahidas say, requires elements like elevators, a pool, and a restaurant, all of which take up space.
“This will be a true community asset,” said Chrystal Mahida, who along with her husband, Vijay, “listened” and eventually embraced criticism that varied over aesthetics, size, materials, traffic and the overall concern that the project does not conform to the town’s 45-room limit bylaw. The bylaw, however, allows exceptions in the few cases where redevelopment of languishing historic buildings is desirable. The town’s lawyer told the town that the bylaw requires that at least a portion of the historic building be redeveloped or reused.
But the Mahidas bowed to the community in deciding to do it one better, they say.
“We’ve made it about as easy for you as we can in demonstrating that we’ve met that [bylaw] criteria,” Mahida architect Gavin Cockfield told the Selectboard. “We’re taking the school back to its more original state, in some ways, after it was modified in the 1970s.”
A rendering of the original Searles School.
The building was modified several times in what the Historical Commission thought, he said, were “negative improvements in the 1970s.”
“It essentially will be the same building with a few modifications — these will go back in time,” and make the renovated Searles “much more historically accurate.” Cockfield was mainly referring to what are called “hyphens,” two recessed sections of the main structure that connect the middle and both ends.
Preserving the gym, however, may be one concession too many, though the Historical Commission did note that it was a significant example of art deco architecture. “The only way to make the project work, is to take down the gym building,” Cockfield said. Later, several people said they would like to see it preserved.
Selectboard chair Sean Stanton asked if a contractor who specializes in adaptive reuse had been selected yet. Cockfield said one had not, that it was premature.
Vijay Mahida answers questions from the Selectboard, while Elizabeth Orenstein waits her turn to speak.
The Mahidas are still deep in their permitting and review process with several boards. Mahida Family Hospitality Interests Director of Operations Dave Carpenter said they have worked closely with the Great Barrington Land Conservancy and the Housatonic River Walk project to mitigate the hotel’s impact on the river. Land Conservancy President Christine Ward, speaking on behalf of her organization and River Walk founder Rachel Fletcher, said the organization “enthusiastically supports” the project. The Mahidas, she said, began working with them early on in the process.
While the potential for traffic snaggles during the summer months still worries residents and some members of the board, and will continue to be evaluated, most residents who spoke last night said they were now in favor of the project, mostly for the rebuilding of a blighted area, and the Mahidas’ projected $450,000-plus tax revenue to the town.
Berkshire Hills Superintendent Peter Dillon spoke in favor of the hotel plan.
Berkshire Hills Regional School District Superintendent Peter Dillon spoke in favor of the project over tax revenue alone. The district has suffered from budget troubles and saw its plan to renovate Monument Mountain High twice killed over rising property taxes. The school needs around $11 million in repairs.
And Walter “Buddy” Atwood III who, along with his parents and grandparents, went to Searles, said “66 percent of the acreage in Great Barrington isn’t paying its fair share [of taxes]” due to nonprofit and agricultural status, and that the Mahidas are paying for the hotel privately. “Vijay is going to be paying his fair share,” he said to applause.
Pat Mulluzzo said she was “dismayed by the sad state of the school.” And Stephen Donaldson said, “we need to convert a decaying liability into an asset — period.” He also noted other benefits, like the Mahidas’ decision to hire mostly local businesses.
Hotel investor Marc Fasteau said he doesn’t think 88-rooms qualifies the hotel as “boutique.” He is concerned that the Mahidas’ experience operating chain hotels will not translate. His wife, Ann Fredericks, said the town doesn’t need more hotel rooms, and that the “town is potentially throwing a lot of citizens under the bus” with regard to traffic and other issues. Both said the town should get an independent analysis as to whether it’s a good idea, and whether the numbers work.
The Mahidas used a large hospitality consultant to determine success and profitability, they say, and further used an independent accountant to confirm the tax revenue estimates.
William Caligari is the interior designer for the Berkshire Hotel.
Great Barrington Architect Steve McCallister said Mahida “knew nothing about hotels when he first started,” however. McCallister says he no longer has the “reservations” he once did about the project, and that he is not qualified to determine the potential success of it. He said he assumed the Mahidas have carefully studied what will be a nearly $30 million investment.
Others were worried about noise from hotel systems. Engineer Jim Scalise said noise mitigation was in the plan.
The Mahidas’ Great Barrington-based interior designer, William Caligari, said the Mahidas “have addressed all the concerns I have.” He added that it was “incredibly difficult to build a 4-diamond hotel…it’s really lucky for us to have.”
Bruce Finn, former COO of the Main Street Hospital Group and the Red Lion Inn, affirmed the value of the proposed hotel to the Great Barrington economy and culture. Photo: Heather Bellow
Not that the Mahidas needed a rescue at this point, but they got one anyway in Bruce Finn. The former COO of Main Street Hospitality Group, which owns and operates four of the Berkshires most notable and successful hotels, including the Red Lion Inn, said “this town and other towns need the type of property that The Berkshire will be.” He said it adds “an aesthetic business class” necessary to compete with Albany, for instance, and that more meeting room space in the area was needed. He said from his experience, the Mahidas’ tax numbers are “solid,” and there are “indirect advantages like vendors stopping at the Co-op on their way home, stopping for gas…”
It appears, however, that right up to the moment contractors don hard hats at Searles, the Mahidas won’t be the only cooks in that kitchen.
Elizabeth Orenstein wanted to know what brick and clapboard materials would be used. Answer: the original brick, and a cement-board clapboard that looks like wood.
Carol Diehl wanted to know if the hotel’s windows would open. They will, Vijay Mahida told her. Diehl said she didn’t think a pool was a good idea. But Mahida, who operates five hotels in the Berkshires says in his experience, people are looking for pools, particularly skiers. “A pool is very important,” he told her.
“Our work is not yet done,” said Bola Granola owner Michelle Miller. “We all want the same thing, which is the best we can get.”
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The Selectboard will continue its public hearing on February 22 at 6 p.m., at Monument Mountain Regional High School.
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