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Deed Reveals New Owner of Paramount Theater/Massasoit House Hotel in Springfield
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Deed Reveals New Owner of Paramount Theater/Massasoit House Hotel in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD – The winning bidders who bought the imposing but decaying Supreme Theater/Massasoit House hotel block is a family-owned Connecticut development company that restored a small movie theater and developed housing and retail in nearby Windsor.

Sachdev Real Estate Development of Suffield paid $750,000 for the Paramount and Massasoit property, a block-sized building at 1676-1708 Main St. and 33 Gridiron St., according to paperwork filed Wednesday with the Hampden County Register of Deeds . Sachdev, under President Manmohan Sachdev, was the anonymous bidder in an online auction in late September.

“Our intention is to revitalize the Paramount and renovate the former Massasoit Hotel to support local small businesses, nonprofits and Springfield residents,” Sachdev Development said in a written statement. “Led by Dr. Mohan Sachdev with the support of his development team and family, Sachdev Real Estate Development, Inc. understands the impact art can have on economic development. We recognize and appreciate the tremendous investment and work that developers, nonprofits, and private families have put into Springfield, and we are happy to join this network, committed to making the City of Firsts a shining star in New England one more time”.

Mohan Sachdev, a veterinarian, was not available and his son, Neill Sachdev, declined to comment further.

The seller was the New England Farm Workers Council.

On Wednesday, Daniel M. Knapik, president and CEO of Partners for Community, parent organization of the Farmworker Council, said he believes any redevelopment will be a mix of apartments and businesses.

Indian restaurant punjabi tadka Now operating in Paramount, the former Luva restaurant doesn’t need much work, Knapik said.

The rest of Paramount and Massasoit House needs a lot of work due to falling plaster and persistent water leaks. The theater hasn’t hosted an event in about a decade.

Paramount Theater and Massasoit Complex in Springfield

The Paramount Theater complex and Massasoit Building in Springfield on Friday, August 23, 2024. Here is the interior of the Paramount Theatre. (Photo by Dave Roback)David Roback

In June, Sachdev began construction of residences in Bowfield Green in Windsor. It is a $20 million residential and commercial development on two vacant lots and a former Ford dealership, according to the Hartford Business Journal.

Starting in 2012, the Sachdev family renovated the Plaza Theater and its attached storefronts on Broad Street, also in Windsor.

The theater was built in 1929.

The Paramount Theatre, with a capacity for 1,750 seats, opened its doors that same year of the stock market crisis, also as a movie theater just when talkies appeared on the scene. The Paramount always presented live shows, with Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges and Jerry Seinfeld. It was a rock venue for a while with acts like Chuck Berry and eventually rapper 50 Cent.

The Massasoit House Hotel even dates back to 1843. Built to serve the railroad station across Main Street, the Massasoit House Hotel hosted dignitaries, including four United States presidents: Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as Jefferson. Davis of the Confederacy, when he was United States Secretary of War.

The council bought the building in 2011 for $1.73 million and made it a centerpiece of economic development plans, at one point as part of the Penn National casino proposal that lost to MGM and later as a boutique hotel developed by the owners of the Red Lion Inn. None of the proposals took off.

As of last year, the New England Farm Workers Council he was forced to sell his real estate portfolio, including Paramount, to pay his debts. Those debts included more than $1.8 million owed to the state after home heating subsidies They were wasted on other purposes.

7/1/2019 -Springfield- The New England Farmworkers Council held a groundbreaking ceremony to announce the start of the Massasoit/Paramount Theater revitalization project. From left to right are State Senator Eric Lesser, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, State Representative Angelo Puppolo, State Senator Jim Welch, Warren Kirshenbaum, President of the Cherrytree Group, State Representative Bud Williams, Heriberto Flores of the Council of Farm Workers, Governor Charlie Baker, Congressman Richard Neal and State Representative Carlos González. (Don Treeger / The Republican)

The financing was provided by the council’s veteran leader, Heriberto Flores. Flores, politically connected in the Latino community, has refused to discuss the situation.

The council received a $2.5 million state grant for Paramount in 2018. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave the city a $3.6 million loan guarantee to support the project. Both funding announcements brought state and local officials to Paramount.

Under the Red Lion plan, the money went toward replacing roofs, doing interior work at the old hotel and upgrading electrical service.

Today, visitors to the hotel rooms and dining rooms on the upper floors can see where walls were removed in preparation for that construction. It appears as if engineers were exposing structural elements to inform plans for an eventual renovation.

But those hotel plans failed with the pandemic.

The council pledged its real estate, including the Paramount, to the state this year, guaranteeing what was a $1.8 million debt.

The Farmworker Council misspent $1,849,775 in Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program funds when it administered the program here. I needed to return the money.

Under Knapik, the former mayor of Westfield, the council has reduced debt, Knapik said, providing a recent financial record showing the council owes the state $575,000 as of Sept. 18.

The sale of Paramount did not directly help LIHEAP’s debt, Knapik said. But it did withdraw a $952,000 loan and eliminate $400,000 a year in maintenance, a $125,000 tax bill and other expenses from the council’s budget.

In December, Farm Works plans to auction off 217-225 High St. in Holyoke, commercial buildings across from City Hall. The council still has a stake in the Borinquen Apartments between Sheldon and Huntington streets and an office building at 32 Hampden St. All are for sale.

The council still has four employees and administers a federal program that helps migrant farmworkers, a nod to the organization’s roots. The council also has the master lease at 1628-1640 Main St., a building it once owned but sold and still manages.

At 1628-1640 Main St., the council just leased its second street-level store, one next to Urban Gear. The third and fourth floors have tenants. The second floor is available.