1

JERREY ROBERTS Demetrios Panteleakis, center, of the OPAL Real Estate Group of Springfield, answers a question during a neighborhood meeting at the home of Robert Jonas, left, during which redevelopment of buildings at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton was discussed.

2

GORDON DANIELS

Gawith Hall is among the buildings to be redeveloped at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton.

3

GORDON DANIELS

Rogers Hall, left, and Hubbard Hall are two of the buildings to be redeveloped at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton.

4

GORDON DANIELS PHOTOS

The Coolidge Building is one of the structures to be redeveloped at the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton.

5

KEVIN GUTTING

The Holyoke Transportation Center, at 206 Maple St., occupies the city’s former central fire station, built in 1911. It was redeveloped by OPAL Real Estate Group of Springfield, the company chosen to create luxury apartments on the grounds of the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton.

NORTHAMPTON - As a company, the OPAL Real Estate Group of Springfield is a mere three years old, but it is run by people with 150 years of experience in commercial and investment real estate.

While the group has yet to develop, own and manage a residential investment property in the area, the leaders of the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech are banking on that experience and on the credentials of OPAL's top managers as the company prepares to buy much of the school's campus off Round Hill Road and redevelop it into high-end, luxury apartments.

"We wanted to make sure OPAL had a strong track record, and people thought highly of them," Clarke President Bill Corwin said of the school's decision to sell the campus to the company next year. "Relevant experience was a factor for us, and we felt comfortable with the people on their team and the work that they have done."

OPAL Real Estate Group was founded by Peter A. Picknelly, owner and president of Peter Pan Bus Lines, and Demetrios N. Panteleakis, a former assistant vice president of agency real estate with MassMutual Financial Group and a former vice president of corporate services and brokerage at Samuel D. Plotkin and Associates in Springfield.

Panteleakis, who has restored several Victorian homes in downtown Springfield, also was chairman of the Springfield Parking Authority from 2006 to 2009.

Others on OPAL's management team include Frank Fitzgerald, who specializes in commercial and investment real estate; Daniel T. Dodge, a director of development; Robert Schwarz, a longtime executive vice president of Peter Pan Bus Lines; and Mark Healy, a former income property specialist who worked for Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate and Intercontinental Developers Inc. in Boston. During the past decade, Healy has worked as a consultant in the Five College area, managing housing and commercial real estate for Amherst, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges.

"Our decision is to be doing projects that really have an impact on the communities that they are in," Healy said in a phone interview last week. "Our kind of focus is doing developments with a purpose."

Investment in city

A third generation president of Peter Pan Bus Lines, Peter A. Picknelly created OPAL to "more clearly focus his real estate interests and expand on real estate development opportunities," according to his biography posted on the company's website. According to a report in Business West magazine last year, OPAL is an acronym that takes the first letters of his children's names in the reverse order of their births.

"Everything he does he wants to do the best," Healy said of Picknelly, adding that OPAL sees the redevelopment of the Clarke campus as a long-term investment in the city.

OPAL is engaged in several high-profile real estate projects that involve historic properties, most notably the planned redevelopment of Court Square in downtown Springfield. OPAL has preferred-developer status for the project, which involves turning the 19th-century building complex into a retail and mixed-use development with the potential for residential use, said Brian Connors, deputy director of the Planning and Economic Development Office in Springfield.

Court Square is owned by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, and Connors said the agency recently gave OPAL, which continues to do architectural and engineering due diligence, another 120-day extension for its plans, including funding.

"The SRA was satisfied they were making good progress on it and granted them the extension," Connors said. "The proponents have a good amount of experience."

OPAL played a leading role in developing the Holyoke intermodal transportation center on Pine Street in Holyoke. The project includes a new bus terminal and the renovation and re-use of a former fire station into a cafe, office space and learning center that is home to programs run by Holyoke Community College.

As OPAL markets commercial properties for sale and lease, including properties along Route 9 in Hadley and Route 202 in Belchertown in Hampshire County, a project in Westfield is perhaps closest to the kind of residential development the company envisions on the Clarke campus in Northampton.

According to Westfield State University, OPAL was expected to close any day on the sale of a former university classroom building at 27 Washington St. that it plans to turn into market-rate rental apartments targeted for students. The 35,000-square-foot building is owned by the Westfield State Foundation and is an historic property on the western edge of downtown Westfield.

"They are working diligently on it and should be closing any day and that's where it stands right now," said Molly Watson, a spokeswoman for Westfield State University. "It's basically an empty shell."

Lure of Clarke

Healy said OPAL was attracted to the beauty of the campus of the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech and is comfortable that there is a strong market for luxury rentals in Northampton.

"I think it's going to be a very strong professional group who are attracted to this type of housing," he said. "We think there's not only a market for this, but it's taking a gem and keeping it the way it is."

Under an agreement, OPAL plans to buy 11.2 acres on both sides of Round Hill Road, property that includes 11 buildings. The company has promised to change little as it develops the property and has already been engaged with dozens of neighbors concerned that any new development would threaten the quality of this picturesque area, including its architecture.

OPAL has promised to keep much of the campus that it acquires intact, with most of the work to be done on building interiors. The company's preliminary plan is to create 80 units of luxury apartments.

"We've been very pleased with what they have said publicly about what they're going to do," said Lewis M. Popper of Hillside Road, one of a core group of neighbors tracking the redevelopment project. "Which leaves only, 'Is there more that we haven't thought to ask or they haven't thought to say?'"

On that note, Healy, along with Panteleakis and Schwarz, met with more than two dozen neighbors last week at the home of Robert A. Jonas and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas to further explain their plans and field questions. Both said the meeting went well.

"I think most neighbors - maybe even all of them - are relieved," Robert Jonas said after the session. "Many neighbors were apprehensive and fearful about any new construction."

Corwin, Clarke's president, has said that Clarke also would like to see the flavor of the campus and surrounding neighborhood retained. He noted that OPAL sees that as a selling point.

With a memorandum of understanding in hand, Corwin said Clarke is now working on negotiating a purchase-and-sale agreement with OPAL and expects to close on the sale of the property next spring or early summer.

Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.