When a new building is constructed, it always seems to be a long wait after the exterior appears complete before the whole job is finished, and for two projects near the airport on South Street (Route 75) that has been the case. Now one of the buildings is actually in use, and construction on the other has resumed after a long period of inactivity.
Jeff Wasilewski’s new warehouse just north of Executive Parking was given its Certificate of Occupancy in January and is now in business, sorting and packing items for mailing to Amazon customers of the proprietor’s own business, Artisan Owl, marketed on line. A room in the front corner of the building is still being furnished for on-site Artisan Owl sales, along with a small café called Broadleaf. There is also some office space over the front offices and sales room that can be rented out. (Perhaps another potential spot for the Suffield Public Works Department? With coffee downstairs!)
Just up the street in Mach One Industrial Park is the forthcoming Broad Brook Brewery, formerly located in Warehouse Point, whose product has been brewed to order by the Stony Creek micro-brewery since Broad Brook vacated its previous facility, expecting to open quickly here. But construction work on the new building came to a halt last April after a Stop Work order was posted by the Suffield building inspector. It took several months to plan and get approval for the necessary construction changes outside and inside, some of which were reported in the Observer last November, on Page 31, which also reported the excavation along the front foundation wall in early October that was ordered to relieve earth pressure on the wall.
Limited new work resumed in late January this year, when a small work crew began installing drain pipes under what will be the ground floor of the brewing room. Proprietor Eric Manse said that work that can be done in the winter will continue, but the job of refilling the remedial deep excavation outside, including the giant expanded polystyrene blocks that will reduce pressure on the wall, must await better weather, along with other exterior work. Beer aficionados can look forward to a special brew and a snack, probably in the late spring.