AMHERST — A Springfield company that announced plans last spring to bring an advanced manufacturing and research and development facility to North Amherst is no longer considering the site.
Rudy Vogel, managing principal of nuForj LLC, announced Tuesday the withdrawal of the Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation that it filed over the summer for a 25.4-acre parcel at 246 Montague Road, where The Eruptor Lab was to be constructed.
“Based on the required environmental review by SWCA Environmental Consultants, we have determined that there is not sufficient developable acreage on the contracted site to build the Eruptor as envisioned,” Vogel said in a statement. “To scale it down to what may be possible would result in a project that is not economically viable and inconsistent with our vision for this innovative and revolutionary project.”
The Eruptor is a concept that would offer incubation space for companies to build, develop, test and improve their projects using technology such as three-dimensional printing and other sophisticated manufacturing equipment. It had also been seen as helping to diversify the Amherst economy, improve the town’s tax base and bring 75 high-paying jobs to the region.
Plans were to work with national and multinational companies, along with start-ups and University of Massachusetts researchers from the Amherst campus, at what was described as a “first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art, world-class research facility.”
Former state Senate President Stanley Rosenberg is a principal with nuForj.
But the site where the 80,000-square-foot building and associated parking was to be built is agricultural land situated between Sunderland and Montague roads, and north of Cowls Road. The original plans submitted by SWCA, the Amherst-based environmental consultant, and a peer review done by Emily Stockman of Stockman Associates in Adams both showed extensive wetlands, shrinking the amount of usable land.
In July, the Town Council voted unanimously to not exercise its right of first refusal, under the state’s Chapter 61A program, to buy the land, owned by the Thomas F. Mitchell Family Trust and Mitchell Family Farm Trust. That action cleared the way for the land, zoned as a professional research park, to be sold to Amherst developer Barry Roberts for $1.6 million.
Roberts said Wednesday that without a transaction, the land will remain in agricultural use.
Vogel is turning to examining locations for the Eruptor in other parts of the country.
“Our senior leadership team and development partner Scannell Properties have been approached by business and government leaders in a number of regional centers around our country and beyond regarding the Eruptor,” Vogel said. “In the short term, we will concentrate on some of those locations.”
Meg Gage, a member of the District One Neighborhood Association in North Amherst, said the Eruptor Neighborhood Committee was paying close attention to how the project might impact the neighborhood and environment. While it didn’t take formal positions for or against the project, the association wanted to make sure that if development occurred, it would be good for the residents who live nearby.
“We had thought the very significant wetlands were going to be a problem,” Gage said. “We appreciate the integrity of the Conservation Commission to really be diligent in assessing those wetlands.”
Gage said the complex financing for the Eruptor, and tax credits that may be expiring at the end of this year, may have made moving forward with the project challenging. She now wonders if there can be a smaller project on the site that is aligned with the interests of the neighborhood.
In fact, nuForj is not giving up on Amherst or the Pioneer Valley region and would like to find a way to be near UMass, according to Vogel.
“Being in proximity to and partnering with research university campuses is part of our business model, and it is still our desire to have an Eruptor located near and partnering with our Massachusetts public flagship campus,” Vogel said.
