Property Update

Category: Property Update

CategoriesProperty Update

Table Talk Pies Begins Construction on New Facility

By Chacharone Properties,
What lies beyond the pandemic? MassForward is MassLive’s series examining the journey of Massachusetts’ businesses through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.


The coronavirus pandemic has done all it could to dismantle Worcester’s Renaissance. Dozens of restaurants across the city navigate through uncertain futures. Concert and performance venues have been emptied for months. College campuses are vacant.

On Thursday, though, Worcester fought back with a pair of ceremonies that injected life into the city’s future.

City officials celebrated as the final beam of steel became part of Polar Park in the morning. A few hours later, many of the same faces broke ground on Table Talk Pies’ 120,000-plus square foot bakery within the former Crompton & Knowles Complex in the Main South Neighborhood.

“Its perfect bookends to a great day in Worcester,” City Manager Edwards Augustus Jr. said. “I’ll tell you, 2020 has been a sucky year in Worcester, a sucky year in the country between COVID and all sorts of other challenges, but it’s so nice to have days like today where we can remind ourselves of all the progress that’s going on in the city.”

Despite all the speed bumps 2020 laid out in front of each project, officials said Polar Park is scheduled to be complete on time in April of 2021, and Table Talk Pies’ facility should open in August of 2021.

When the company announced the project in January, the original completion date for the new bakery was June of next year.

The delays haven’t soured Table Talk Pies owner Harry Kokkinis.

“The one advantage we have is people love to eat pies. No matter it’s good times or bad times,” Kokkinis said. “Pies are a comfort food.”

Kokkinis compared the pandemic to the Great Recession of 2008 when the company continued to invest in itself.

“As long as the virus doesn’t impact people’s desire to eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, I think we’ll be OK,” Kokkinis said.

As the city prepares to climb out of the pandemic in 2021, Table Talk Pies will be adding at least 50 jobs as it moves to its new home.

Table Talk says it plans to employ 180 full-time operation staff at the new location, including 130 current full-time production staff that will relocate from the Kelley Square bakery. More than 60% of Table Talk’s employees live in Worcester.

As part of the Tax Increment Financing policy with the city, all employees would earn $15 an hour within six months after beginning at the company.

“This day is not just a groundbreaking for a building, it’s groundbreaking for opportunities,” Augustus said. “There’s going to be decades of people who are going to come to work every day at Table Talk and with the paychecks they’re going to earn coming here every day, they’re going to put their kids through college. They’re going to buy a house. They’re going to do all the things that are a part of the American dream.”

Table Talk Pies was founded in 1924 in Worcester by Theodore Tonna and Angelo Cotsidas, two Greek immigrants who came to the U.S. looking to better the lives of their families.

Kokkinis said the company never wants to lose sight of its roots, including its current home. The company has started to speak with parties potentially interested in the Green Street location, nestled next to Polar Park.

“Now that we finally figure out our home and stuff, we’re starting to look at that a bit,” Kokkinis said. “All I know is we want to make sure Table Talk still has a presence in Kelley Square and that our store is still there. That old building, 153 Green Street, that means a lot to us.”

Table Talk’s new home is seven acres of blank canvas ready for demolition and construction.

As it searched for the location, Kokkinis’ mother had only one request: that Table Talk Pies remain in Worcester.

“I can finally go back to telling my mom, ‘I listened to you this time,’” Kokkinis said.

Masslive.com

CategoriesProperty Update

Table Talk breaks ground for new headquarters in South Worcester

By Chacharone Properties,

Steven H. Foskett Jr. Telegram & Gazette Staff @SteveFoskettTG

WORCESTER – Drawing on the South Worcester neighborhood’s rich manufacturing history, Table Talk Pies officials Thursday afternoon reminded the audience gathered on the cobblestone-lined section of Tainter Street that its new 130,000-square-foot headquarters will still be making things – small, round things that taste really good.

Joined by local and city officials, Table Talk kicked off construction of its vast new manufacturing space that will stretch across 8 acres in the neighborhood with a traditional groundbreaking ceremony. Most of the buildings at the former Crompton & Knowles facility have been torn down, and seven different parcels attached to various owners have been combined to make the project work. Nearby Gardner Street – the facility will be called the Gardner Street Bakery – will be lowered under the railroad bridge to accommodate expected tractor-trailer traffic.

Table Talk President Harry Kokkinis said construction equipment is here and ready to start digging the foundation of the new facility. He said in just about a year, the facility should be complete.

Kokkinis said the goal for Table Talk in its search for a new headquarters was always to stay in Worcester, but “pad-ready” sites that could accommodate the company’s needs were hard to come by. He said it took some convincing, but working with the city and the state on the various moving parts of the project, including a tax increment financing deal and funding to facilitate the Gardner Street redesign, is coming to fruition. Around 70,000 square feet of old, rundown factory buildings have been demolished, he noted.

“This is 8 acres of open space in the middle of Worcester,” he said. “Where else could you find it?”

Mayor Joseph M. Petty said the project is an extension of industrial and community-level progress the neighborhood has made over the years, including the South Worcester Industrial Park, in which Table Talk already operates a facility.

City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. noted the project is an example of the city helping facilitate development outside the downtown area – he said that’s an unfair criticism, considering its efforts to attract projects like Table Talk and the biomanufacturing initiatives on Belmont Street.

“We are cooking on all burners here in the city of Worcester,” Augustus said.

He said that around the time the Pawtucket Red Sox were negotiating with the city for what would become Polar Park – right next door to Table Talk’s current Kelley Square headquarters – the city approached Table Talk to explore the idea of moving away from Kelley Square, where game-day crowds and traffic could impact the company’s ability to get trucks out on the road.

District 2 City Councilor Candy F. Mero-Carlson said the Table Talk project will help keep good jobs in the city accessible to city residents.

Worcester Telegram

CategoriesProperty Update

Brownmed launches temporary manufacturing site in Central Massachusetts

By Chacharone Properties,

Site will focus solely on Personal Protective Equipment and provide paid summer internships for Worcester high school students.

WORCESTER, MA, UNITED STATES, July 23, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — Today, Brownmed announced the successful launch of a temporary production worksite to produce lifesaving PPE to protect health care workers and others from the spread of COVID-19.

The launch of the site was made possible through an innovative partnership with The Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP), Worcester Public Schools and Chacharone Properties.

“As a company, we’ve been continuously exploring ways to increase our manufacturing capacity for PPE since March” said Kylia Garver, President of Brownmed. “We reached out to MassMEP in early June and quickly realized there was an opportunity to engage with students in the Worcester community who were actively searching for summer jobs. Chacharone Properties stepped in to help us find a great location and we were up and running in less than three weeks.”

The site launched June 22nd and will be staffed through the summer by sixty-five high school students from seven schools including interns from the Innovation Pathways Advanced Manufacturing Program. Brian Cummings, a Worcester Technical High School program instructor, has assumed the role of site manager.

John Killam, President of MassMEP, is a strong supporter. “Building a pipeline of future employees who want to make things is a high priority for manufacturing companies and MassMEP. Our partnership with Brownmed leverages resources that provide hands on instruction through programs like Advanced Manufacturing Training which is part of Lieutenant Governor Polito’s Innovation Pathways Program.”

Drew Weymouth, Director of Innovation Pathways with Worcester Public Schools, agrees. “The connection with Brownmed via Karen Myhaver and MassMEP is an incredible opportunity for the students of Worcester. In this heightened health care crisis, the opportunity to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 by producing face shields for health care providers allows students to make an essential and active contribution. Additionally, the chance to earn money and work with other students from across the city allows them to build professional skills.”

In addition to healthcare workers, teachers, dentist offices, salons,
manufacturing operators, meatpacking plants and retail workers are just some examples of the people who will use these face shields daily for added protection from COVID-19.

About Brownmed
Brownmed is a leader in manufacturing products aimed at improving the quality of life for patients and has been for more than 50 years. From First Aid to Arthritis Care, from PPE to Pain Relief, all Brownmed products have a solid medical foundation and all new product design starts with patient comfort in mind. The result is a higher quality product, improved patient compliance and increased overall product efficacy.

Today, Brownmed employs more than 90 people with executive offices in Boston, sales in Kansas City and an 81,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Brownmed is a 6-time recipient of the Inc. 5000 award, as one of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the United States, and manufactures and sells more than 100 different products to a worldwide market.

Learn more at www.brownmed.com.

About MassMEP
MassMEP is one of 51 MEP Centers throughout the United States and Puerto Rico that operates through a cooperative agreement between the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the Department of Commerce. MassMEP was established as a non-profit in 1996 to provide consulting services to small and medium-sized manufacturers, as part of the MEP National Network and it’s 1,300 manufacturing experts at over 400 service locations.

About Innovation Pathways
Innovation Pathways are designed to give students coursework and experience in a specific high-demand industry, such as information technology, engineering, healthcare, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.
Innovation Pathways are designed to create strong partnerships with employers in order to expose students to career options and help them develop knowledge and skills related to their chosen field of study before they graduate high school.

About Chacharone Properties
Chacharone Properties, established in 1982, develops, manages and leases quality properties in Central Massachusetts. Today, the firm’s multi-faceted approach has resulted in the creation of nearly 2 million square feet of prime commercial property in one of the state’s most vibrant regions for economic growth.

Media Contact
Matt Garver
VP – Marketing 857.317.3363 matt.garver@brownmed.com

EIN Presswire

CategoriesProperty Update

Table Talk breathes sigh of relief with new 30,000 sq.ft. cold storage facility

By Chacharone Properties,

By Zachary Comeau

A new 30,000-square-foot building will house Worcester dessert maker Table Talk Pies’ finished products and eliminate the need for several smaller freezer units throughout the Northeast.

The freezer building on Armory Street in the South Worcester Industrial Park was officially opened Thursday as city officials joined Table Talk representatives and developer Chacharone Properties for a ribbon cutting.

The facility will be primarily leased to Table Talk, but the facility will be available to lease for other operators as well. The facility was built by Tippman Innovation, an Indiana cold storage builder.

Prior to constructing the building, Table Talk had been using 36 refrigerated trailers in four different warehouses.

“It’s been a major problem,” said Table Talk President Harry Kokkinis.

The scattered location of the company’s finished products has been a logistical problem when orders are ready to ship, Kokkinis said.

“It will have a profound impact on our company,” he said. “Finally, the job of shipping our product will be easy and not the tortuous adventure that we often have to engage in to get our products to our customers.”

The building was developed by Worcester builder and landlord Chacharone Properties and will be managed by Maryland cold storage facility operator H&M Bay, which has local operations in Uxbridge.

The facility is adjacent to Table Talk’s 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility,  which it opened in 2017.

The opening of the new freezer building comes as Table Talk continues to have reservations about the future of its Kelley Square facility, which abuts a proposed $101-million ballpark being constructed for the new home of the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Mayor Joseph Petty referenced that issue Thursday, thanking the company for working with the city in the industrial park and in Kelley Square.

After the ceremony, Kokkinis said the company is continuing to look for a new space for its main facility.

Worcester Business Journal

CategoriesProperty Update

Sterling Crossing project to finish in November

By Chacharone Properties,

A Saint Vincent medical office is expected to open on Nov. 1 in the first floor of the 96-102 Leominster Rd. property in Sterling, named “Sterling Crossing.”

Other medical offices are still in the works, said Jim Chacharone, founder of Chacharone Properties LLC.

“Nothing’s firm yet,” Chacharone said. “We’re serious with a physical therapy facility and two other doctors.”

Chacharone Properties owns the Leominster Road property and several other properties in Massachusetts that total around 2 million square feet, he said. They focus on properties with easy commuting access and neighborhood conveniences like area restaurants and shops.

While the company focuses on building medical and professional office space, he said the building that is just south of the Chocksett Road roundabout has attracted mostly medically focused interest.

“It’s just what’s happening,” he said.

There’s still a 6 to 8,000-square-foot of Class A office space available for lease, Chacharone said. Building is expected to finish Nov. 1, the date most of the leases finalized on the property are anticipated to begin.

 

The Landmark

CategoriesProperty Update

New buildings unlock opportunity at South Worcester Industrial Park

By Chacharone Properties,

WORCESTER – Take about 11 acres of land, buy much of the property, tear down decrepit buildings, give new construction a tax break and then resell available parcels to developers.

That’s the recipe the city of Worcester followed with the South Worcester Industrial Park over close to two decades, a swath of land wedged between Canterbury Street and railroad tracks. The land was once home to metal and machine manufacturers, a foundry and an auto salvage business.

Today, the park is home to a pie maker and a manufacturing equipment seller. Soon, a modern manufacturing building for small businesses or startups will rise on another parcel. All of the parcels bought and cleared by the city have been sold or have deals in place.

It’s a project that has rejuvenated a previously underwhelming stretch of Worcester business land and tapped into a market brimming with demand for modern production, distribution and warehouse space.

For Harry Kokkinis, president of Worcester-based Table Talk Pies, it was also the answer to a frustrating search for expansion space in the city that had long been home for the privately held producer of pies. TableTalk now occupies a new building the size of a football field on Southgate Street, where it makes and distributes snack pies.

“My mother was pretty happy when we found this,” Mr. Kokkinis said last week, as he walked through the 51,000-square-foot building while 4-inch cherry pies rolled out of an oversize oven.

The South Worcester Industrial Park, sometimes abbreviated as SWIP, didn’t always look to be a success. The city acquired about 8 of the 11 acres, mostly after owners failed to pay taxes, according to Paul Morano Jr., assistant chief development officer for the city of Worcester. The parcels were crowded with old, abandoned buildings.

Yet the properties had a long history of industrial use and were close to freight rail lines and highways, including Interstate 290.

Absolute Machinery Corp., a privately held company that sells new and used machinery to the plastics manufacturing industry, had already moved in to 92-94 Gardner St. in 2006. The company’s partners liked the access to rail lines, and neighbors were supportive, said Nathan Smith, co-owner. Still, the neighborhood needed work.

“We had our crew, on a regular basis, pick up the trash, weed-whack and mow a quarter-mile stretch up Gardner Street,” Mr. Smith said.

The city took years lining up federal and state grants plus other funds to tear down old buildings, deal with contamination and re-work the roads. The total bill was close to $7 million.

By 2013, the city created an economic opportunity plan for the area, clearing the way for property-tax breaks for new construction. Finding buyers for the city-owned land, however, initially proved difficult. Mr. Morano said.

“We always try to identify companies,” Mr. Morano said. “But it’s difficult to find a company that is willing to or even wants to build their own space. Most manufacturers want to be tenants. So we switched gears, and rather than deal with the tenants, we went right to developers.”

That included Jim Chacharone, president of Chacharone Properties LLC of Worcester, a company that specializes in developing commercial and industrial properties. Chacharone Properties bought three parcels and is negotiating to buy another in the park.

The company built the Table Talk Pies facility and is leasing it to Table Talk, with an option for Table Talk to buy it. Mr. Chacharone said he’s planning to build two more facilities in the park. Chacharone Properties does not have tenants lined up for the properties yet.

“Usually, when you put a building up, a tenant will come,” said Mr. Chacharone, who estimates he’s invested about $6 million in the park so far and will likely spend another $2 million to $3 million. “Without a building, no.”

Especially now, modern industrial space is at a premium in Central Massachusetts, said James G. Umphrey, president of Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates Inc. of Worcester, a commercial real estate business.

Conversion of industrial space to other uses near Boston has driven users to look for existing buildings or construction-ready space elsewhere. In addition, the growth of online shopping is fueling demand for warehouses and distribution centers close to population centers.

“The majority of the industrial market has moved away from just general manufacturing to distribution and fulfillment,” Mr. Umphrey said.

Top-of-the-line industrial space typically features ceilings about 32 feet high, few interior columns, powerful sprinkler systems and plentiful, well-placed loading docks for trucks.

Steven Rothschild, who has launched a number of businesses, including commercial lighting business Access Fixtures LLC, said he learned what tenants need while trying to market space he owns in an older building.

Prospective tenants “start asking questions,” Mr. Rothschild said. ”″Does it have a loading dock? Does it have this feature?′ ‘Yes.’ ‘Does it have that feature?’ ‘No.’ Click. I decided, how would it go if I could design a space that I could say yes to everything?”

Mr. Rothschild is building a 22,000-square-foot manufacturing building in the park that will be called the Armory Business Center. He expects the one-story building to feature ceilings up to 30 feet high and eight or nine units for small manufacturers. It should open by the end of 2018. Mr. Rothschild estimates his investment at $4 million.

Those who have bought or taken space in the park say a critical element in the city’s oversight of the neighborhood was property tax relief. Worcester taxes commercial and industrial property at $34.03 for every $1,000 of valuation. That’s more than double the rate of some Central Massachusetts communities that tax all real estate at a single rate.

At Table Talk Pies on Southgate Street, Mr. Kokkinis said the tax relief was critical to staying in Worcester.

“It leveled the playing field to the outside surrounding towns,” he said.

Now, after investing about $4 million in Table Talk’s new site, he’s planning to install a second production line. The plant employs about 40 workers.

Nearby, Absolute Machinery has spread out, adding additional space for its related businesses. Absolute Haitian Corp. sells injection molding machinery in North America. Absolute Robot Inc. distributes robotic equipment used in manufacturing. Absolute businesses employ about 25 people in Worcester.

Mr. Kokkinis said he hopes that as more buildings open in the park, they will focus on industrial uses.

“I do think (the park) is an example of showing what can work to do economic development in the city,” he said.

 

Worcester Telegram

CategoriesProperty Update

Table Talk breaks ground on 1-million-pies-per-week facility

By Chacharone Properties,

Table Talk Pies broke ground on a new manufacturing site in Worcester that will produce 1 million pies a week once it comes online.

The groundbreaking took place at the South Worcester Industrial Park on Thursday morning and was attended by numerous city officials, representatives of Table Talk as well as James Chacharone, founder of Worcester-based Chacharone Properties that is developing the site.

The Table Talk project covers the construction of a 50,000-square-foot modern industrial building set to be completed in approximately six months. The site will bring 30 jobs from the company’s existing facility on Water Street and create an additional 50 full-time jobs.

Table Talk Pies is a family business that was established in 1924. Harry Kokkinis, president of Table Talk Pies, said that the company spent four months looking for a proper site for the expanded manufacturing capacity and could not find an existing structure in Worcester.

The property’s construction is being handled by RP Masiello Inc. of Boylston, which has worked on eight other projects with Chacharone Properties.

 

CategoriesProperty Update

Chacharone Properties adds solar panels to property

By Chacharone Properties,

WORCESTER – Chacharone Properties, a local commercial property developer and manager, has partnered with Solect Energy to install a 650 kilowatt (kW) solar system on the roof of its office and industrial property located at 220 Brooks St. The installation will allow the company to grow its business while saving on energy costs.

“Solar has provided us with a new non-traditional source of revenue, improved our environmental footprint, and helped modernize our company all in order to achieve our primary goal of providing quality commercial space in Central Massachusetts,” said James Chacharone, principal at Chacharone Properties, in a news release. “It’s been incredibly satisfying to witness the positive response from our tenants and business partners.”

Prior to exploring solar energy, Chacharone Properties implemented other initiatives to go green. Many of the company’s spaces use motion sensor lighting, and the firm is in the process of converting to LED lighting. Currently, 20 percent of Chacharone’s properties have transitioned to LED lighting systems, and the company is evaluating plans for its remaining properties.

In addition to the company’s cost savings and the environmental benefits, Chacharone has taken interest in modernizing its business. Part of that strategy includes taking advantage of the newest technology available to the commercial real estate market. The company plans on evaluating each of its existing properties, as well as its upcoming projects, for solar energy installations and will implement them where it is most beneficial to its business model and tenants.

 

Worcester Telegram

Solar Industry