Daniels becomes city’s new economic development director

Michael Daniels, Chicopee’s new economic development director.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

CHICOPEE — Michael Daniels will now be tasked with boosting Chicopee’s economic development after recently being named the city’s director of the department.

Daniels, who said he is eager to start, previously served as the economic development coordinator for over 10 years in East Hartford before coming to Chicopee.

He holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Connecticut and earned the East Hartford role shortly after graduating.

The City Council has discussed the creation of the economic development director position for over two years as a way to help boost development in the city.

Daniels said his role and responsibility are to facilitate the economic development going on in Chicopee. “So new businesses that are coming in, construction projects — whether those be for housing or new businesses — and coordinating with the private sector, and incentivizing through the various grants or resources the city has that are necessary to move things along and to coordinate among the different departments,” he said.

The new role is a part of the mayor’s office staff, but Daniels’ office is located within the Planning Department area, which gives him an opportunity to easily collaborate with other departments.

“It’s a great opportunity, and it’s kind of nice to not feel that you have to keep doing things the same way,” Daniels explained. “You can kind of bring new ideas, talk to other people who work here and other people throughout the economic development community in Western Massachusetts to get a sense of some things that haven’t been tried before, or it’s been a long time since there’s been the capacity to try them.”

Daniels said he is excited to work on some of the notable projects in the city, including the historic mill buildings, the Uniroyal factory, and current or potential small business owners.

Daniels said he has already begun to implement some things he learned from his previous role. He said he is trying to make a more formalized process for people who want to submit their initial ideas for development or use of commercial spaces.

An example Daniels gave was if someone wanted to start a restaurant in Chicopee. He said he’d make sure they talk to the Health Department, Building Department, and the Planning Department so they understand the zoning, permitting and paperwork needed to get started.

Daniels also talked about the strengths and opportunities he sees for the city in terms of economic development.

“It seems like such a diverse city economically when you look at the historic center with a walkable downtown, and even Chicopee Falls being another, and Willimansett; all these historic walkable neighborhood centers that can be home to small businesses,” Daniels said.

Daniels also mentioned how Memorial Drive features many national businesses, which indicates there is a good market in Chicopee for similar businesses. For opportunities in redevelopment going forward, Daniels highlighted the Singing Bridge Residencies project underway at the former Facemate property.

“That’s going to bring in some more spending power. There’s definitely an opportunity here for more businesses to come in and to take advantage of that,” Daniels said.

He also mentioned the strong manufacturing industry that Chicopee already has. “There’s certainly a great workforce talent pipeline here, and we’re going to work on trying to do some events and seminars and resources on workforce development, but it’s a really good starting point for manufacturing here.”

Daniels is currently working on a state grant for underutilized properties for the Uniroyal project. The hope is to receive some grant funding from the state to help jumpstart the pre-development work of the architecture and engineering for the vacant site.

He also mentioned that he recently met with Westover Air Base about a potential air show in a year or so to promote the city and allow people to try some of the restaurants or stay in town.

Speaking about his future in the new role, Daniels concluded with a message to the community: “My goal is to be approachable for anyone in the business community or really just anyone in the community who has questions about economic development. I’ll try my best to be open and communicative.”