PRESS RELEASE
Facemate Lot #1 (former Baskin Parcel) Redevelopment Announcement
For immediate release April 7, 2021
CHICOPEE, MA - CHICOPEE, MA – In a joint event held in front of the former Baskin warehouse building, Mayor John Vieau and Treasurer Marie Laflamme, along with other City Officials, announced the City’s selection of Singing Bridge, LLC as the preferred developer for Facemate Lot #1 (former Baskin Parcel). Redevelopment of Lot #1 represents the third redevelopment project advanced as part of the RiverMills at Chicopee Falls Vision Plan and substantial Brownfields assessment and cleanup actions completed by the City through its Brownfields Program.
Lot #1 is located adjacent to the RiverMills Senior Center and represents the last remaining acres of the former Facemate property to be marketed by the City for redevelopment. Singing Bridge’s development proposal includes a mixed-use scheme that reflects the RiverMills Vision for the former Uniroyal and Facemate properties. Mayor Vieau stated, “this is a significant and exciting milestone for the City of Chicopee. Generations of Chicopee residents have intimate memories, and connections to the RiverMills sites and we are excited that future generations will again be able to leave their marks on these former industrial properties.”
Facemate Lot #1 occupies approximately 4.05 acres along the Chicopee River and includes a nearly 10,000 square foot brick warehouse building. The property represents the final redevelopment parcel created from the former Facemate property, a historic textile mill complex of 20 acres that included seven (7) buildings. The site is a central element of the RiverMills at Chicopee Falls Vision that, upon redevelopment, will continue the effort to reconnect the Uniroyal and Facemate properties to the surrounding neighborhood while responding to contemporary community needs. The project will benefit from the future expansion of the Chicopee Canal and RiverWalk currently under design that will connect Chicopee Center to Chicopee Falls.
The site’s programming will consist of an estimated 102-unit residential building, an approximately 54,000 square foot multi-sport facility, and redevelopment of the former Baskin warehouse building as a 10,000 square foot restaurant/brewery and office space. The proposed project is projected to create 52 new jobs at the site and will see an investment within the Chicopee Falls neighborhood of nearly $40 million. City Treasurer Marie Laflamme stated, “We are excited by this proposal from the Singing Bridge partnership as it represents a significant, transformational investment in this tax title parcel returning productive uses to the site and allowing it to support the City’s tax base once again.”
Singing Bridge, LLC represents a partnership between ADC Communities (ADC), Brisa Development, LLC (Brisa), and Chicopee Sports Center, Inc. (CSC). ADC and Brisa are national developers of mixed-income, and mixed-use developments and CSC is a local entity of long-standing Chicopee residents, sports coaches, and entrepreneurs.
Hammad Graham of Brisa Development stated, “this is a fantastic opportunity to bring a diverse set of uses to a site that already has so many innate qualities; especially being adjacent to the Chicopee River. It’s also exciting to work with a forward-looking municipality like Chicopee who is planning for the future by enhancing the built environment now.”
Further bolstering the transformative effects of this development, Director of Planning & Development, Lee M. Pouliot noted that, “this project not only creatively reactivates an underutilized historic mill property into a dynamic mixed-use development, it also demonstrates the City’s commitment to prioritizing development proposals that promote elements that residents identified during the development of the RiverMills at Chicopee Falls Vision Plan.” Pouliot further noted, “the City of Chicopee is grateful for the ongoing partnership between the City of Chicopee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and MassDevelopment - agencies that have all played a significant role in preparing this parcel for redevelopment.”
The Singing Bridge Team is working to advance the conceptual site plans into final development plans to move through the local permitting process.
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Aerial image of entire site plan
Angled image of the entire site with building renderings