SHELBURNE FALLS — A local landmark is looking for a new owner.
Odd Fellows Hall, the building that houses McCusker’s Market, offices and a coworking space, has been put on the market by owner Michael McCusker, who has owned it for 42 years.
“When it came to retirement, (selling the building) would be a big part of my retirement,” said McCusker, who is 70.
“It’s time to sell it and enjoy,” McCusker continued, adding that he and his wife, Polly Anderson, a retired art teacher, have grandchildren.
The building, located on the Buckland side of Shelburne Falls, has been put on the market by Coldwell Banker and is listed for $975,000. McCusker plans to keep the building on the market until it sells, adding that he’ll keep renewing leases in the meantime.
“It’s a vetting process,” he said. “I’m going to do my best (to sell it) to someone who appreciates what the village and the area are all about, as a community and as a culture.”
With dozens of people who work from the building, McCusker said he’s interested in asking potential buyers about their experience managing a similar building and what future plans they would have.
“It’s a viable working (space) and it should be maintained,” McCusker said.
Realtors are handling the marketing and talking with interested buyers, McCusker said, adding that interest so far has been “minimal.” He added that “it remains to be seen” when he will interface with interested buyers to conduct his vetting process.
McCusker also cautioned, “Now, that being said, once you sell a building, you have no say what (the buyers) do with it.”
Before McCusker, the Odd Fellows Hall was owned by the Halbergs, a husband-and-wife team who ran a small grocery store on the north side of the first floor. On the south side was Franklin Auto, McCusker recalled.
The Halbergs “served their customers well and it was just time to turn it over,” McCusker said, which is why the Halbergs sold to McCusker.
McCusker had few financial resources at the time and bought the building in 1977 with the help of small loans from his father and brother.
In 1979, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and McCusker’s Market opened that same year.
“I wasn’t really a fussy guy, I wasn’t going to have a high and mighty natural food store,” McCusker said of opening a grocery store.
Instead, his business model went a little differently.
“We had a dialogue with our customers; they would tell me what they wanted to have, and that’s what we would carry,” he said.
Some foods, like homemade custard chocolate eclairs, carrot cake and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, would have been scandalous at any other health food store.
“Oh my, a real health food store wouldn’t carry that,” McCusker said, adding that’s why the market is referred to as a natural food store.
The market carried foods like tofu and yogurt that were hard to buy in regular stores decades ago. Early on, the market was one of two places that carried whole bean coffee in the county, McCusker recalled.
The store expanded to take up the entire first floor of the building and was sold to the Franklin Community Co-op in 2007, keeping its name. The store has eight years remaining on its lease.
Over time, the building itself underwent many changes.
When McCusker purchased the building, the second and third floors were uninhabitable, he recalled.
Old cast iron radiators have been replaced with modern heating and cooling, plus lots of insulation. Now, there’s an electronic entry door system.
“I kept reinvesting every nickel we could find,” he said. “It’s fully modernized.”
Seven offices occupy the second floor, each with leases between one and five years, McCusker said. The Bridge of Flowers CoWorking Business Center is located on the third floor and each tenant has a 12-month lease.
“Now, it’s economically viable,” McCusker said. “(Leases) are expiring all the time and we’re constantly renewing leases.”
Throughout the years, one thing is constant: McCusker feels that he is a steward for the building and the vibrancy that comes with it.
“I feel very blessed,” McCusker said. “And now it’s time for someone else to steward this building.”
Reach Maureen O’Reilly at 413-772-0261, ext. 280 or moreilly@recorder.com.