Milling About

Jeffrey Sagalyn says that when he and partner Dan Burack bought the sprawling Cabotville mill complex in Chicopee 20 years ago, there was considerable demand for 5,000- to 20,000-square-foot chunks of manufacturing and R&D space in such buildings.

"But over the years, the market changed," said Sagalyn. "Today, those kinds of businesses don't want to be on the fourth floor of a mill building; they want the ground floor or their own building."

This phenomenon led to a changing tenant base, featuring businesses desiring much smaller spaces. Providing them is a difficult, expensive proposition, he said, adding that this reality was one of the reasons why the partners sold the 600,000square-foot complex to a New York developer this past spring for $4 million.

The new owner, Joshua Guttman, doing business as 200 Tillay, LLC, has a strong track record for converting buildings into loftstyle apartments and condominiums, and has similar plans in the works for portions of Cabotville.