Years of efforts to revitalize empty mill buildings and housing in Easthampton haven’t gone unnoticed. The western Massachusetts city is seeing an influx of home seekers and entrepreneurs from surrounding communities and outside of the Bay State who view it as a more affordable real estate investment alternative.

Mill buildings along the city’s Pleasant Street, left vacant as manufacturing plants closed or relocated to other areas, have been transformed into properties that offer a mix of residential and commercial space.

Just last month, the city was recognized by the state for promoting the creation of new housing, including live/work space for artists, and the reuse of historic mill buildings in the city.

According to local real estate brokers, Easthampton is drawing tenants who are priced out of nearby communities, particularly Northampton, a diverse community that has been a Mecca for artists and writers.

“We’ve run out of space options for people here [in Northampton] and that’s helped to increase the cost of what does become available,” said Patrick M. Goggins, broker-owner of Goggins Real Estate in Northampton, noting that the city has very little underutilized mill space.

“Easthampton has filled the void nicely by presenting that alternative and has done it in a more affordable way,” he said.

Planning efforts to turn around Easthampton’s mill district and Pleasant Street neighborhood can be traced back to about a decade ago. In the mid-1980s, manufacturing companies along Pleasant Street began shutting down or moving to other cities. Mill buildings were vacated and thousands of jobs were lost.

By the early to mid-1990s, the city was left with over 1 million square feet of empty mill space, according to city Planner Stuart Beckley.

The city decided to update its zoning in the mid-1990s, and the neighborhood with mills was rezoned to allow for a mix of uses. The changes were designed to enable property owners to use the spaces in a variety of ways instead of relying on industrial use only.

By most accounts, the mill district revitalization was sparked when a 530,000-square-foot building that was formerly the home of Stanley Home Products was purchased in March 1997 by Will and Paula Bundy.

Will Bundy said at one time he was a tenant of a mill building in Northampton that underwent a conversion and became “a vital community for artists and designers.” That experience got Bundy to thinking about undertaking a similar project in the future. Several years later, Bundy began looking at old mill buildings and came across the Easthampton mill at 116 Pleasant St.

Bundy found Easthampton, with its mill ponds, proximity to the Berkshires and tradition of hard work and community involvement, to be an ideal setting. “Easthampton is a great town,” he said.

A good portion of Bundy’s building, now known as Eastworks, has already been renovated into a mix of residential and commercial space. The Bundys were able to get residents and a steady flow of artists, small businesses and some retailers to move in, says Beckley, Easthampton’s planner.

About 40,000 square feet in Eastworks is dedicated residential space with 32 apartments ranging in size from 650 to 2,300 square feet that rent for $650 to $1,300 a month. Fourteen more apartments, totaling 20,000 square feet, will be added in about another year when the renovation of the building is complete.

The majority of rental space in Eastworks is commercial space with approximately 20,000 square feet reserved as retail space, while 13,000 square feet is office space and 20,000 square feet is used for warehousing and storage. Of the developed commercial space, 97 percent is occupied, according to Bundy.

The commercial rates run from $3 to $8 per square foot – low rates that have been particularly attractive for new businesses and businesses that are consolidating or repositioning themselves. Bundy said the space has also been popular with nonprofit organizations.

Bundy says one of Eastworks’ largest tenants, occupying almost 30,000 square feet of space, is a publishing distribution company from New York specializing in antiques and the arts. One of the property’s newest tenants includes Blue Moon, a grocery market and health food store that will be opening in a few weeks.

City Involvement

A few other building owners and local investors have followed the example of Eastworks by incorporating a mixture of uses.

“In the past five years, we’ve seen quite a bit of investment” in the Pleasant Street neighborhood and mill district, Beckley said.

Currently, there is one vacant mill remaining – a 650,000-square-foot warehouse that once served as a paper storage company and needs environmental cleanup, says Beckley. An out-of-town investor has expressed interest in that building, according to David Boyle, a local builder and co-owner of Autumn Properties, a real estate and construction firm in Easthampton.

The city’s role in the neighborhood’s renaissance has mostly centered on pursuing regulatory changes and grants and other resources to improve the neighborhood’s infrastructure. For example, city officials secured low-interest loans from the state for renovations to the Eastworks building and to improve the streetscape. Last year, the city received a $400,000 grant to replace sidewalks and make other improvements along Pleasant Street.

The improvements are helping fuel demand. Home seekers from Northampton, Boston and even New York City are moving to the city, Beckley said. Artists, in particular, have been drawn to the converted space.

The city is in the process of working with artists to determine their needs for housing and work space. Already, the artists have expressed a need for affordable housing and studio space.

“They’re clearly concerned about being priced out of the area,” Beckley said.

High rents have driven some artists out of Northampton into Easthampton, according to David Murphy, owner of The Murphys Realtors in Northampton. In addition to affordable rents, artists also seek live/work space, which is hard to come by in Northampton but which nearby Easthampton is trying to promote.

“The demand for live in studio space is tremendous, and we just don’t have the space to offer,” said Murphy.

Besides the mill buildings, parts of Pleasant Street also include a mix of single-family and multifamily homes. Some of the older housing has been renovated over the years, and a few properties have been converted into condos.

Chuck Conner, owner of The Taylor Agency in Easthampton, said some of the housing in the Pleasant Street neighborhood has not been “terribly well-maintained,” and the area, because it’s congested and near manufacturing, has generally not been in high demand by home seekers.

But that is gradually changing, he said.

Boyle, the Easthampton builder, acquired and demolished a deteriorating home and barn at 16-18 Pleasant St. and replaced them with a 10-unit apartment building. Boyle said he is seeing very strong housing demand from people outside of the city.

The first three tenants to move into Boyle’s Pleasant Street apartment building were people who were transferring from the Virginia area to work at Smith College in Northampton.

There are also plenty of housing opportunities for newcomers outside of the Pleasant Street area of Easthampton. Murphy, the Northampton Realtor who owns The Murphys Realtors, said new-home subdivisions are springing up in different parts of city, which is drawing families.

“We’re not doing that [new housing development] in Northampton,” he said.

The new development and influx of newcomers are driving changes within the city. Years ago, the city’s school system was struggling, but newcomers are demanding more from the city in terms of schools and other services.

Goggins, the Northampton broker, agreed, explaining that the city is leaving people with “the impression that they’re favorable to development.”

By allowing the new development, the city has broadened its tax base and helped improve the delivery of services, particularly its public education system, Goggins said.

There have been many small and large efforts contributing to the revitalization of Easthampton, but challenges remain, according to Boyle, the Easthampton builder.

“Like any community that tries to revitalize and do community development, it’s not a straight-line progression,” said Boyle.

Affordable housing is becoming more of an issue for entry-level workers, he says, and the disinvestment in public higher education is also hurting Easthampton and other towns and cities in Hampshire County, which counts the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as its largest employer.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.