Permits in hand, 47 Railroad developers celebrate

Great Barrington — Permits in hand, 47 Railroad developers Ian Rasch and Sam Nickerson have already started work on the former Pearl’s Restaurant location at the top of Railroad Street, and had a party Thursday night (August 20) to celebrate the redevelopment of the property.

From left: 47 Railroad developer Ian Rasch, Hillary Rush, and Timothy Eustis. Photo: Heather Bellow.

Local officials, developers, community organizers and business owners came to the site meet, greet, and talk about the project as well as other projects slated for downtown.

Great Barrington Selectboard member Ed Abrahams, left, and Board Chair Sean Stanton. Photo: Heather Bellow.

Rasch and Nickerson’s development company, Framework, plans to build five commercial storefront spaces, 12 high-design and high-efficiency rental apartments and a roof deck that can also be rented out for parties. They will open up the brick wall in the alley for storefronts and essentially create a new pedestrian corridor between Railroad and Castle streets.

From left: Bruce Moore and Michael Alpert of Red House Design, Allium’s Nancy Thomas, Andrew Personette, and 47 Railroad developer Sam Nickerson. Photo: Heather Bellow.

A fence has already gone up in the alley to keep pedestrians safe during construction.