GREENFIELD — Having wrapped up a public engagement period that saw more than 350 residents share their thoughts on the possible development of the parking lot at 53 Hope St., Community and Economic Development Director Amy Cahillane said she plans to begin drafting the request for proposals (RFP) in the next few weeks.
Cahillane said she hopes to have the RFP ready to share with developers by the end of June. She told the Economic Development Committee this week that while she wants to issue the RFP soon, she wants to ensure it fully reflects the wants and needs of the community.
“I am anxious to get it out, but this parcel’s really important and this project is really important,” Cahillane said. “I want to make sure that this is the document where we’re telling developers, ‘This is what we want,’ and I don’t want to rush it.”
On July 16, 2025, City Council voted 10-1 to declare the Hope Street parking lot as surplus property and draft an RFP seeking a developer who would construct housing or a mixed-use building at the roughly 1-acre lot. The council’s decision sparked pushback from some residents who believed the area was not a good fit for housing.
Franklin County Register of Probate John Merrigan challenged the council’s vote in August, when he petitioned to place a question to reverse the decision on the ballot; however, the measure was defeated 2,254 to 1,711 in the biennial election last November, allowing City Council’s vote to stand and the plans to move forward.
Over the past two months, Cahillane has conducted public outreach through information sessions, tabling at the library, office hours and an online survey. She told members of the Economic Development Committee on Tuesday that residents want to see a mixed-use facility featuring both housing and commercial spaces.
In terms of housing, Cahillane shared that residents indicated that affordable units (162 votes), accessible units (116 votes) and family-size units with more than one bedroom (114 votes) were the top priorities for development.
“People had other thoughts about senior housing, student housing and homeownership, but the three (affordable, accessible and family-sized) were the top choices,” Cahillane said. “Translating this into RFP speak for affordability, that will mean that I would propose we have no cap or no limit on what types of units developers could propose. The mayor has indicated that she wants to prioritize market-rate housing, so market rate would get a bonus point in the grading criteria, but developers could propose any type of unit to be market rate or affordable.”
When building the grading rubric for the RFP, she said she will give more points to proposals that involve accessible units. While the RFP likely won’t dictate the size of the units, it will ask developers to share what they envision their range of unit sizes to be.
For commercial spaces, the survey found that small retail businesses (167 votes) and a cafe or restaurant (155 votes) were the top choices among respondents.
Cahillane added that community members also indicated they want to see sidewalk improvements, parking considerations, greenery and sustainability considered in the development. The RFP will ask developers to share their ideas for addressing parking concerns, but will not tell developers specifically what to do.
“Some developers may find a way to make it work to include parking on the site. Some developers may feel they don’t want to have any parking on the site. Some might have a creative way of buying permits for their tenants,” Cahillane said. “I don’t want to prescribe what they must do. I’d rather see their good ideas, but I want to know what their ideas are.”
Cahillane said the survey is still open and accepting responses at bit.ly/hopestsurvey for the next two weeks. After that, she will begin drafting the RFP. She plans to present it to the Planning Board, Economic Development Committee and various department heads. She is also considering hosting one more public meeting to share the draft RFP with community members before it is published, ideally by the end of June.
“I don’t want it to be drafted by a committee or the public. I can’t do seven iterations of the draft,” she said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a very good sense, and I’m able to draw out a lot of threads from all the various forms of public engagement. So I feel good about that and I can translate that into the document, but I would like to go back and share that with folks.”
Once development proposals are received, Cahillane said they will be reviewed by a committee consisting of herself, other city staff members — including potentially the planning director — and two community members appointed by the mayor. One of the two community members must have expressed that they are in favor of development of the lot and the other will have expressed that they are against development.
Economic Development Committee members asked whether Cahillane thinks that new construction may potentially attract new businesses to Greenfield, and if she thinks the public debate over the parking lot could scare away developers.
“I feel like a thing that happens often is a desire for commercial space. People have this sense of like, ‘If we build it, they will come,’ and our downtown demonstrates that’s not always true, because we have a lot of space that’s commercial that’s not filled,” member Rachel Gordon said. “I imagine it might be true that new construction, commercial space, is gonna be more attractive to potential tenants than some of the much older space we have downtown.”
Cahillane said she has heard from three developers who are interested in the property. She added, “If it’s a developer that’s shying away from public engagement, maybe that’s not a developer we want for this lot.”
For tenants, she continued, interest will likely depend on what the rent is set at, but with its location and proximity to a residential neighborhood, Cahillane feels the lot has a good deal to offer for businesses.
“There’s the courthouse right there, there’s a Y right there, ServiceNet is right there and a residential neighborhood,” Cahillane said. “So I do think it has unique possibilities.”
