Greenfield Business Association focuses on boosting biz in Wells Street Corridor

GREENFIELD — In a roundtable discussion on how to bring business to the Wells Street Corridor, the Greenfield Business Association floated the idea of bringing festivals, public art installations and additional signs to the area.

Over beer and light refreshments, GBA members gathered at Four Phantoms Brewing Co. on Thursday to discuss ways to boost business in the region of the city known as the Wells Street Corridor.

The meeting, co-sponsored by PV Squared Solar, served as the last roundtable discussion of the year, after the organization held similar meetings on the Deerfield Street and Mills Street corridors, along with downtown safety, over the summer and fall.

“The Greenfield Business Association’s intention is to deeply understand the needs of business owners, the wants of business owners,” GBA Director Hannah Rechtschaffen said. “I have realized over being here this last year and a half that another lacking thing that I feel like I have the skill set to address is some places where the sense of community and the sense of pride in the Greenfield business ecosystem has dropped off a little bit or maybe not been nurtured as it should.”

Noting the fact that the Wells Street Corridor is a primarily residential neighborhood with businesses located sporadically throughout it, Four Phantoms owner Drew Phillips said his 301 Wells St. location relied heavily on word-of-mouth to bring customers through the door.

Phillips said although his business’ location outside of the Central Commercial District keeps him somewhat isolated from the business booms that occur during large events downtown, the events to which Four Phantoms has been invited brought the brewery a significant financial boost.

“When there’s a big downtown event or something like that, we are often left out of the conversation. Especially, since we’re a service industry business, bodies in the door are how we thrive,” he said. “Just having that presence downtown for events could be really cool. Sometimes at events like [the Fall Festival], if we can do direct sale, we can make an entire month’s worth of sales in one day.”

Discussing ways to bring business into the area, Garden Cinemas owner Isaac Mass proposed increasing signs downtown that advertise Wells Street Corridor businesses. He added that rebranding the area might also help local businesses and organizations secure grant funding.

Mass also floated the idea of renaming the area and investing in public art installations in an effort to market the area to new customers through social media.

“There are grants for murals and that kind of thing and the GBA could be a conduit for applying for those, rather than individual businesses applying,” Mass said. “We’ve been talking about marketing neighborhoods and giving them their own character and nickname, so to speak, for branding. … When I’m doing grant applications and say I’m in the Downtown Historic District or the Crossroads Cultural District, it really drives that grant application.”

GBA members discussed other business-accelerating initiatives, such as declaring October “Cooperative Month” and hosting a block party to bring foot traffic to the area.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected] or 413-930-4429.