MassDevelopment has issued a $2.6 million tax-exempt bond on behalf of Ashfield Stone LLC to help construct an 8,250-square-foot facility in Shelburne and purchase sawing, polishing and finishing equipment.
Robert Pratt and Johanna Andersen-Pratt founded the company in 1987 after they purchased a tract of land in Ashfield to build a home and barn and found a ledge of flat stone determined to be mica schist, a type of metamorphic rock. The Pratts obtained a permit to open the quarry in 1988 and initially split out the stone by hand. The company has a policy of donating stone to Ashfield and the surrounding communities, including making polished memorial benches in the Ashfield Plain Cemetery and war memorials in Charlemont and Buckland. Company officials expect to create at least nine new jobs as a result of the Shelburne project.
The Shelburne site lies about seven miles from the Pratts’ original quarry, and will have the electrical capacity, equipment and space needed to meet the demand for products such as counter tops, floor tiles, stair treads, walls panels and vanities. Greenfield Cooperative Bank purchased the bond.
"The Pratts’ story is amazing – they discovered a unique natural resource in their backyard and turned it into a business highlighting the beauty of the foothills of the Berkshires," said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. "MassDevelopment takes pride in supporting the commonwealth’s manufacturers and businesses in Western Massachusetts, and this project presents an exceptional combination of those two priorities."
"We have come a long way in the past 25 years and with the help of MassDevelopment and the Greenfield Cooperative Bank, we are excited about our future," Pratt and Andersen-Pratt said in a statement. "The new shop, with its state-of-the-art equipment, will enable us to offer this unique local resource to a much broader market. We are also looking forward to creating new job opportunities for the area. Our long range goals include a visitor’s center and a public sculpture garden."
