Category: Retail

Michael D. Balise, vice president of Balise Motor Sales Co., which has Chevrolet and Buick-GM dealerships in the area, said Thursday that sales were up about 14 percent last year.  “There is a lot of pent-up demand,” Balise said. “It is not that the economy is good. People can’t fix their cars anymore and have to buy new ones.”

“We want to be careful about how we grow” and not grow too fast, he says. Generally focused on “modest, planned growth,” the company’s goal is to add a couple stores per year as Big Y Foods moves forward.

Big Y had bought the Pleasant Street property for $4.25 million in September 2010 from the F.L. Roberts Co. of Springfield. F.L. Roberts formerly operated Diesel Dan’s truck stop plaza on the lot, which is located off Route 2 of the Massachusetts Turnpike. The company planned to convert the space into a $21.5 million travel plaza, but sold the property to Big Y when the economic downturn caused those plans to fall through.

Jobs and tax revenue are being weighed against increased traffic and a possible fast-food restaurant with a drive-up window in the consideration of a proposed $16 million supermarket project.

A lifelong city residents, owner Salvatore Circosta runs the emerging business with his two friends Nunzio Bruno, who is the business manager, and Santino Bruno, who is the operations manager.

Most officials have heralded the project because of the estimated 250 jobs and $520,000 to $590,000 a year in property taxes the developer has said it would generate. About 30 people, in addition to more than a dozen city officials and consultants with the developer, attended the Planning Board hearing at City Hall. O’Connell Development pitched its plan for a 110,000-square-foot project at Homestead Avenue and Lower Westfield Road during the site-plan review hearing.

Friendly Ice Cream Corp. emerged from bankruptcy protection Monday after its corporate owners repurchased the iconic brand for $122.6 million, and in the process closed more than 100 locations and wiped away $297 million in debt.

Big Y representatives say the company will not build its planned supermarket in Foxfield Plaza because of state permitting difficulties.

Louis & Clark Drug Stores has sold its two pharmacies at 471 Breckwood Drive in Springfield and 459 Main St., Wilbraham to Big Y Foods Inc. so the pharmacy can concentrate on its medical equipment, custom compounding and specialty pharmacy businesses.

The 58,692 square-foot expansion will allow Walmart to establish additional sales areas, parking and access and a new loading dock. The store will also enlarge existing stormwater management areas at the 141 Springfield Rd. site.

In 1936, 30-year-old Paul D’Amour was a route sales driver for Wonder Bread. One of the markets on his delivery route, a 900-square-foot store in the Willimansett section of the Western Massachusetts city of Chicopee at an intersection where two roads converged to form a “Y,” was available for purchase.

Peter J. Pappas, a local developer, confirmed Thursday that he is teaming up with a Boston group that is seeking to open a Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill at the former Visitor Information Center on the riverfront.

Big Y Foods Inc. will open its new store in Lee this week, bringing 150 jobs and a second major retail grocer to Lee for the first time in nearly 25 years.

He said it’s not just the product on sale that is the consumer’s focus, but the result. That idea places importance on the staff’s ability to help people use a product like paint and the availability of all the stuff that might go with it, like the right brushes, masking tape and filler to take care of those pesky pinholes in the walls.

“I can literally say that I started from scratch, and with the help of my wife, my brother, my sisters, and my parents, plus hard work and perseverance, our company is growing and prospering,” the typed speech reads. Don D’Amour noted that he and his cousin, company President Charles D’Amour, will be called upon for remarks at the 75th gala, and that, while he hadn’t yet finalized his remarks, he was quite certain that they would strike a very similar theme, although the second generation certainly didn’t start from scratch, a point he emphasized many times.