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North Adams Airport Admin Building Will include Restaurant
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
12:19AM / Thursday, March 17, 2016
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Plans for a new administrative building at Harriman & West Airport include a restaurant.

Commissioner Trevor Gilman told the Airport Commission on Tuesday that the floor plans for the 4,500 square foot building are 95 percent complete and should be ready to send out to bid by June 30.

He said the new design encompasses airport needs while setting aside 1,100 square feet of the building for a restaurant that he hopes will attract the public.

"The whole design and the goal with this building was to be able to help provide services that have been missing at the airport, to make it functional for transients and users of the airport," Gilman said. "Also we wanted it to provide a space for the restaurant that will help bring the community out to the airport."

The city initially put the $4 million project on hold because it could not fund the its 5 percent share. In January, real estate developer and Turboprop East director Harry S. Patten Jr. agreed to fund the city's portion of $200,000.

Gilman along with Chairman Jeff Naughton and Airport Manager Bill Greenwald have been working on the floor plan with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Division.

The building itself will be a "cookie cutter" design because the state uses the same "shell" design for all of its administrative building projects, Gilman said.

The state considers the building "medium sized" and the remaining square footage will be used for administrative space. It will have two patios: one for the public area and one for the restaurant.

Greenwald said the current draft is the fourth iteration of the floor plan. He said he and the commissioners fought for certain design options, such as the elimination of a shower "which has only been used to store a mop and a bucket."

"We have come a very long way and I think every bit of this space is going to get traffic and going to get used," he said. "So it was an interesting battle."

He added that one of the engineers said the floor plan was one of the nicest ones he had seen and anticipates it being copied throughout the state.

Naughton agreed.

"It’s going to be a nice building when this is up, and I think the public is really going to like it," he said. "It is going to be a very attractive building, a very functional building with a restaurant, and it will be a really good addition to the airport and for the city."

After wrapping up the administrative building update, Greenwald told the commission that he recently received a call from Google asking permission to photograph the airport for Google Maps Street View.

Google Street View provides panoramic views from positions along streets throughout world that can be viewed online.

The commission granted Greenwald the ability to give Google permission to take the photos, but asked that plane tail numbers be treated like license plates and blurred out.

He added that Google wanted to take interior shots but he asked them to hold off 18 months until the new administrative building is done.

In other business, Gale Associates representative Nick Ippolito said MassDOT authorized another 2 percent in funding for Phase II of the apron project after Gale drafted a letter explaining the need for the extra funds.

Last year, the commission cut back on design plans because of a $70,000 gap the city had to contribute to state and federal funds to complete the project. The extra 2 percent will provide near $48,000.

Ippolito told the commission that when the city secures its share, the commission must sign construction contracts that will be sent to MassDOT for approval. 

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