Resort spa may replace closed state institution

Elizabeth Taras knows how important tourism is to Western Massachusetts, partly because of her background of working for a Springfield business group.

So when she found herself drawn into the debate over what to do with the former Belchertown State School, Taras hit upon an idea: turn the 100-acre campus into a spa with a resort hotel.

She remembered thinking: ''There's all this tourism around, and the only [nearby] spa is a dinky little day spa."

Town leaders in Belchertown, which has about 13,000 residents, including Taras, were convinced.

Now, Taras's big bet on tourism is about to come due: The town, which took title to the property from the state in 2002, is soliciting developers to build what's been dubbed the Cold Spring Resort Hotel and Spa Complex on the site, which has a small lake and overlooks farmland and mountains. Officials say building a resort could cost up to $100 million.

Belchertown State School once housed mentally retarded residents. Now, a master plan for the property calls for not only the spa resort, but for senior housing and more recreation-related facilities, including a wellness facility, an equestrian center, and other amenities with a health-and-wellness theme. Town officials envision building out the campus in phases over a number of years.

The economics for a spa seem attractive: A study by an industry association showed a 16 percent increase in US spa visits from 2003 to 2004.

"Spa development is hot," said Don Hunter, president of Hunter Interests, a consulting firm hired to screen developers. "There's an increasing awareness of the value of fitness. Baby boomers are approaching retirement age. This market is expanding."

And Belchertown officials hope its location makes it a sweet spot to capture visitors. Not far to the southeast is Sturbridge Village. Springfield, to the southwest, has the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Holyoke Range and the Berkshire Hills lie to the west, Quabbin Reservoir to the east. The college towns of Amherst, Northampton, and Mount Holyoke are just a few miles from Belchertown's common.

Taras, 43, a mother of two with a husband in the insurance industry, sees herself as typical of the kind of customer who would visit the spa: middle- to upper-middle-income people who wouldn't consider a higher-priced resort like Canyon Ranch in Lenox, which can cost up to $1,700 a day.

Bill Terry, chairman of the Belchertown Economic and Development Industrial Corporation, which is in charge of the project, said the town's residents will take advantage of some of the development's amenities.

"Not every one of us will use it every day," he said. "If there's a wedding, I might want to rent a dozen rooms for guests, or I may want to give my wife a gift of going to the spa."

Taras has been hired as consultant by Hunter, as has Carol R. Johnson Associates, a planning and landscape architecture firm that drew up a site plan.

So far, four developers or development teams have responded to the town's request for proposals. Developers can take advantage of tax incentives and government programs to defray costs.

One is Chicago developer Paul McDermott, president of Bridgeland Development LLC. He recently toured the site with Taras. Before the tour, Taras told McDermott about the attractions in the area, including Quabbin, the annual Belchertown Fair, and Yankee Candle Co., a popular tourist destination in Deerfield. She also described Belchertown's growth as a bedroom community.

The Belchertown campus, the tour revealed, does not have an institutional feel. Some buildings are small, box-like, and clustered together; others have more of a classic New England style. Rolling hills and wooded sections are crossed by walking trails, and there are extensive plantings such as perennials, rose bushes, rhododendrons, and azaleas.

McDermott seemed impressed.

"Assuming I'm selected -- and I would love to be selected -- our philosophy is that we're stewards of the community," he said.

Originally named Cold Spring, for the spout that travelers used to refresh themselves, the town later changed its name to honor Governor Jonathan Belcher. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Belchertown became an important stop on the Boston and Maine railroad line. Wealthy Bostonians summered in Belchertown's hotels.

Belchertown State School, which opened in 1922, provided steady employment until it closed in 1992. Newspaper articles about abuse and mismanagement at the school, together with court cases and shifts toward deinstitutionalization, spelled the school's end.

"That was a dark time," said Terry, a 63-year-old lifelong resident of the town who grew up playing baseball and basketball with students from the school.

After that, various proposals were floated -- for a jail, a retail district, and a national music center -- but none took.

One popular local story was that music personality Dick Clark chose to locate his short-lived National Music Center in Lenox, rather than in Belchertown, because he hated the town's name.

"Even though this is a beautiful area, the town has a goofy name," Taras said. "But if you give people something of value, they're not going to care about the name. People who go to Mohegan Sun don't care that it's in Uncasville, Conn."

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

This article was written by Joan Axelrod-Contrada and published by The Boston Globe on Saturday, February 11th 2006 and NOT owned by nor affiliated with opacity.us, but are recorded here solely for educational use. The photographs featured in the article are randomly selected from the Belchertown State School galleries on opacity.us unless noted otherwise; they may not directly relate to the article subject matter except for the site location - any other relation is purely coincidental.