Trader Joe’s takes over large, vacant warehouse
By Christine Legere
MIDDLEBOROUGH - A sprawling warehouse built seven years ago off the traffic rotary here, from which delivery trucks have direct access to Interstate 495 and Routes 44 and 24, is already on its third tenant.
Trader Joe’s is the latest to take over the 123,000-square-foot space, recently abandoning its warehouse operation in East Bridgewater and subletting the Middleborough facility at 30 Commerce Blvd. for the next four years. Already, some are wondering whether the food store chain will enjoy more success there than its two predecessors.
The warehouse was originally built by Cirelli Foods Inc. in 2004 for $13 million to accommodate corporate offices, a cash-and-carry store, and distribution center, which family members had operated successfully in Brockton for six decades. Company officials at the time predicted the modern facility and prime location would allow Cirelli to achieve $100 million in yearly sales by 2010.
Instead, Cirelli Foods foundered financially following its move to Middleborough and was acquired in late 2010 by Perkins Paper Inc., a Taunton-based distributor. As part of the deal, Perkins signed a five-year lease for the warehouse, but Cirelli retained ownership.
George Cirelli, who worked for Cirelli Foods at its Brockton location and retired before it moved to Middleborough, said members of the family “were not happy’’ with the way the relocation turned out.
“I think it should have stayed in Brockton, since it had been there since 1946,’’ Cirelli said. He believes the location change lost the family some business. “I think that, and the economy going south, is what hurt them,’’ he said. “But none of us thought we’d ever see it close.’’
Middleborough Town Manager Charles Cristello said the state pulled back the tax incentives Cirelli received under the Tax Incentive Financing Program even before the sale to Perkins.
“The company didn’t meet the employment requirements they had promised,’’ Cristello said. That led the town also to withdraw its 20-year tax reduction deal with Cirelli.
Perkins Paper’s chief executive, Gary Perkins, said his company had believed Cirelli was bringing stronger sales figures to their deal.
“Normally when you negotiate, the other company will say their promised sales,’’ Perkins said. “We found out afterward they had limited sales by the time the deal closed, and they were on the verge of bankruptcy.’’
Jay Cirelli, an officer at Cirelli Foods, did not return calls seeking comment.
Perkins said his firm had planned to use the warehouse at the Middleborough location to accommodate the additional business picked up from Cirelli. As it turned out, there wasn’t enough business to warrant use of the facility. “We had expected to boost sales by $50- to $80-million,’’ Perkins said. “It turned out to be $15- to $20-million.’’
Perkins Paper decided to shutter the Middleborough warehouse, though it still had to pay the rent to Cirelli, and move its remaining assets to its home base in Taunton. It has kept the 17,000-square-foot cash-and-carry store open in Middleborough as it had promised, but that has been the company’s only involvement with the property. The store has continued to operate under the Cirelli name.
Now that Trader Joe’s is taking over the warehouse, Perkins will shut down the cash-and-carry store.
Cristello said that loss is unfortunate. “That was a nice amenity I’m not sure Trader Joe’s will offer,’’ he said.
The deal with Trader Joe’s doesn’t mean Perkins is in financial trouble, asserted its chief executive.
“We thought the purchase of Cirelli’s was going to be a home run, but it turned out to be a single,’’ Perkins said. The company has acquired 20 other firms over the last 20 years.
The sublease with Trader Joe’s relieves Perkins Paper of its five-year lease responsibility for the facility, although the company will again be asked for payments if Trader Joe’s bails before the lease runs out.
A Trader Joe’s representative said she could not comment on the move, because it’s against company policy.
Middleborough Board of Selectmen chairman Alfred Rullo said local officials viewed Cirelli’s move to Commerce Boulevard as an economic boon for the town, since they hoped other businesses would follow. The expectation has been met, to some extent.
“The industrial park isn’t built out completely, but it’s doing well in this economy,’’ Rullo said. “Compass Medical is the newest business to open, and we have a large electronic firm there. We were sorry to see Cirelli close, but it’s nice to see another company with a good reputation like Trader Joe’s come in and take over the warehouse.’’
Middleborough Assessor Barbara Erickson said the Cirelli property is valued at just under $11 million. “Based on this year’s tax rate, the town should get about $152,000 in property taxes,’’ she said.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Kudos to the Beaulieus!
It was a good idea! Surely one everyone would hope would never need to be used.
In this case...cold night...an elderly person...happy ending!
Thanks to that GPS tracking bracelet.
It could have ended differently.
When I met Ed Beaulieu and his lovely wife, Sue, today while shopping I could only express my appreciation for a great idea that proved important in quickly locating someone who had lost her way.
If you know of someone who might need a bracelet, might get lost, please share.
Maybe if you're looking for some early Christmas gifts, you might consider a few jigsaw puzzles. It could save someone's life.
It makes you think twice when you hear someone say 'if it only saves one person's life....'
GPS device helps locate Middleboro woman
By Alice Elwell
Enterprise correspondent
MIDDLEBORO —
Project Life Saver’s GPS system was instrumental in locating an elderly woman who wandered from her home early Friday morning.
Police Chief Bruce D. Gates said the woman was reported missing from her Rocky Meadow Street home at 3 a.m.
Sgt. Joseph M. Perkins scrambled the State Police air wing and called in officer Jerry J. Donahue and his dog, Caro, while officers Mark E. Meaney, Richard Harvey and Nathan J. Ferbert began searching.
Gates said Project Lifesaver activated a tracking device the woman was wearing on a bracelet and within 90 minutes she was found a few houses away, sitting in a neighbor’s van in her nightgown and shivering, Gates said.
Gates said an ambulance took her to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth to be checked.
Project Life Saver was donated to the town by the Future of Middleboro Trust.
Gates said several residents wear the bracelets for emergency situations. Gates said Ed Beaulieu, a trustee, raised the money by selling a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Town Hall.
“It worked great and did what it was designed to do,” Gates said of the bracelet.
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x1581988667/GPS-device-helps-locate-Middleboro-woman#ixzz1aCYBAI7h
In this case...cold night...an elderly person...happy ending!
Thanks to that GPS tracking bracelet.
It could have ended differently.
When I met Ed Beaulieu and his lovely wife, Sue, today while shopping I could only express my appreciation for a great idea that proved important in quickly locating someone who had lost her way.
If you know of someone who might need a bracelet, might get lost, please share.
Maybe if you're looking for some early Christmas gifts, you might consider a few jigsaw puzzles. It could save someone's life.
It makes you think twice when you hear someone say 'if it only saves one person's life....'
GPS device helps locate Middleboro woman
By Alice Elwell
Enterprise correspondent
MIDDLEBORO —
Project Life Saver’s GPS system was instrumental in locating an elderly woman who wandered from her home early Friday morning.
Police Chief Bruce D. Gates said the woman was reported missing from her Rocky Meadow Street home at 3 a.m.
Sgt. Joseph M. Perkins scrambled the State Police air wing and called in officer Jerry J. Donahue and his dog, Caro, while officers Mark E. Meaney, Richard Harvey and Nathan J. Ferbert began searching.
Gates said Project Lifesaver activated a tracking device the woman was wearing on a bracelet and within 90 minutes she was found a few houses away, sitting in a neighbor’s van in her nightgown and shivering, Gates said.
Gates said an ambulance took her to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth to be checked.
Project Life Saver was donated to the town by the Future of Middleboro Trust.
Gates said several residents wear the bracelets for emergency situations. Gates said Ed Beaulieu, a trustee, raised the money by selling a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Town Hall.
“It worked great and did what it was designed to do,” Gates said of the bracelet.
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x1581988667/GPS-device-helps-locate-Middleboro-woman#ixzz1aCYBAI7h
Friday, October 7, 2011
Bob Massie: A thank you to supporters
Bob Massie would have made a great Senator from Massachusetts, made a personal commitment to those democratic values that made our nation great.
A thank you to supporters
Friday, October 7, 2011
Today I am withdrawing from the race for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. I am doing so because the momentum of the race has shifted so profoundly that I can no longer see a path for me to win the primary and defeat Scott Brown.
As someone who loves our history and our commonwealth, it has been a privilege to run for this office over the last nine months. One cannot retrace the steps of great senators like John and Edward Kennedy without coming to understand the importance of this role.
I know how hard people are struggling today. In a hundred speeches I have defended the right of every citizen to a good home, a good school, a good doctor, and a good job. I have also said that despite the difficulties we are facing today, we must not forget our opportunities and responsibilities for tomorrow.
For America to prosper in the twenty-first century, we need to tackle deep structural problems affecting our middle class. We need to address long-term challenges like job creation, income inequality, climate change and the persistent scourge of poverty.
In Massachusetts, throughout the United States, and around the world we see more and more people expressing their passionate discontent and demanding change. Thousands have taken to the streets from the Middle East to Europe and now to the United States to air their grievances in public. These demonstrations are just one of the many signs that our economic and political systems are seriously broken and must be redesigned and repaired.
We must move towards societies that are far more democratic, prosperous, and just. We must battle constantly against political and economic tyrannies that seek to bend our world exclusively to the desires of the few.
I have spent my entire life working for justice -- tackling homelessness, racial prejudice, environmental destruction, and corporate misbehavior. For nearly twenty years, I have concentrated on the vital concept of sustainability, which stresses the interdependence of human, economic, and environmental goals. I entered politics in part to bring the language and values of sustainability -- a concept sweeping the world -- into the American debate, from which it has largely been absent. By withdrawing from this particular race, I am not withdrawing from this commitment.
I was fortunate to have been the founder and chair of the Global Reporting Initiative, the world's largest and most successful corporate responsibility standard. This tool, now required by many governments, is transforming the world economy in a manner that combines and respects the needs of financial capital, social capital, natural capital, and human capital. I intend to continue this work to move capitalism into the twenty-first century and create the global systems in which both our people and our planet prosper.
We all have a role to play in this. This is an extraordinary state filled with extraordinary people and we are capable of extraordinary achievements. I plan to play my part moving forward.
I want to thank the thousands of people who have believed in me, supported me, endorsed me, and worked for me since last winter. I travelled more than 12,000 miles across the state and I learned just how strong, creative, and passionate our citizens are. It is my sincere wish that our elected representatives, whoever they are, will listen to the people's most profound desires and will take the bold steps towards sustainability that will allow Massachusetts to lead America, and America to lead the world.
A thank you to supporters
Friday, October 7, 2011
Today I am withdrawing from the race for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. I am doing so because the momentum of the race has shifted so profoundly that I can no longer see a path for me to win the primary and defeat Scott Brown.
As someone who loves our history and our commonwealth, it has been a privilege to run for this office over the last nine months. One cannot retrace the steps of great senators like John and Edward Kennedy without coming to understand the importance of this role.
I know how hard people are struggling today. In a hundred speeches I have defended the right of every citizen to a good home, a good school, a good doctor, and a good job. I have also said that despite the difficulties we are facing today, we must not forget our opportunities and responsibilities for tomorrow.
For America to prosper in the twenty-first century, we need to tackle deep structural problems affecting our middle class. We need to address long-term challenges like job creation, income inequality, climate change and the persistent scourge of poverty.
In Massachusetts, throughout the United States, and around the world we see more and more people expressing their passionate discontent and demanding change. Thousands have taken to the streets from the Middle East to Europe and now to the United States to air their grievances in public. These demonstrations are just one of the many signs that our economic and political systems are seriously broken and must be redesigned and repaired.
We must move towards societies that are far more democratic, prosperous, and just. We must battle constantly against political and economic tyrannies that seek to bend our world exclusively to the desires of the few.
I have spent my entire life working for justice -- tackling homelessness, racial prejudice, environmental destruction, and corporate misbehavior. For nearly twenty years, I have concentrated on the vital concept of sustainability, which stresses the interdependence of human, economic, and environmental goals. I entered politics in part to bring the language and values of sustainability -- a concept sweeping the world -- into the American debate, from which it has largely been absent. By withdrawing from this particular race, I am not withdrawing from this commitment.
I was fortunate to have been the founder and chair of the Global Reporting Initiative, the world's largest and most successful corporate responsibility standard. This tool, now required by many governments, is transforming the world economy in a manner that combines and respects the needs of financial capital, social capital, natural capital, and human capital. I intend to continue this work to move capitalism into the twenty-first century and create the global systems in which both our people and our planet prosper.
We all have a role to play in this. This is an extraordinary state filled with extraordinary people and we are capable of extraordinary achievements. I plan to play my part moving forward.
I want to thank the thousands of people who have believed in me, supported me, endorsed me, and worked for me since last winter. I travelled more than 12,000 miles across the state and I learned just how strong, creative, and passionate our citizens are. It is my sincere wish that our elected representatives, whoever they are, will listen to the people's most profound desires and will take the bold steps towards sustainability that will allow Massachusetts to lead America, and America to lead the world.
Art Pope and the Sale of Democracy
An assortment of recent articles has focused on the sale of North Carolina and the sale of democracy in the process. Worth reading.
State for Sale
A conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012’s top battlegrounds.
by Jane Mayer
CATO Institute defends Art Pope; fails to mention Pope's foundation has given them $800,500
Art Pope Owns North Carolina
Art Pope's National Political Influence
Art Pope bankrolls candidates dismantling desegregation policy in NC school system
State for Sale
A conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012’s top battlegrounds.
by Jane Mayer
CATO Institute defends Art Pope; fails to mention Pope's foundation has given them $800,500
Art Pope Owns North Carolina
Art Pope's National Political Influence
Art Pope bankrolls candidates dismantling desegregation policy in NC school system
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Rick Perry's "truthiness"
Jim Hightower was an early Karl Rove/Dirty Tricks casualty and offers some interesting insight into politics:
Rick Perry's "truthiness"
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert points out that political statements and even political facts these days don't have to be true – all they need, Colbert insists, is some element of "truthiness.".
This seems to be the strategy of Texas yee-hawer Rick Perry. In presidential debates, he's shown that he's simply no good at getting his mind around true facts, so he makes up his own. For example, he was stung recently when other candidates charged that a lobbyist for Merck got him to mandate in 2007 that all Texas pre-teen girls be vaccinated with an anti-cancer drug – a drug that Merck just happens to sell. Uh-uh, the governor retorted, it was not the drug lobbyist that prompted his action, but the heart-rending pleas of a cancer patient who'd come into his office. "I got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady," Perry slapped back at his critics.
How truthy. The lady was real and she did visit with him in his office. But not before he issued his gubernatorial order on behalf of Merck. It was not until three weeks later that Perry first met her! So the assertion that he was motivated by humanitarian compassion is untrue, false, a fib... a lie.
Perry's story is further stained by the actual fact that as he was preparing to do this sweeping favor for Merck, the drug maker deposited a $5,000 campaign donation in his pocket. When this was brought up in another debate, Perry tightened into a purity pose and snapped that he was "offended" by the suggestion that he could be bought for $5,000. Perry thought this retort put the Merck issue to rest, but instead it sounded as though he was setting a price floor for other corporate funders, signaling that maybe $6,000 would not offend him.
Perry needs to heed the advice of baseball great Ted Williams: "If you don't think too good, don't think too much."
"Debate trouble shows Perry has tough road," Austin American Statesman, September 24, 2011.
"Patient's role in vaccine push stretched," Austin American Statesman, September 24, 2011.
"HPV vaccine, Merck and Rick Perry's money," www.cnn.com, September 20, 2011.
"Perry's Merck link in spotlight following vaccine order," www.msnbc.com, Septemer 8, 2011.
"Political Intrigue in Merck's HPV Vaccine Push," www.abcnews.com,
Other thought-provoking post:
Big Oil: 135 million. School children: 0
Playing politics with humanitarian aid
Rick Perry's "truthiness"
Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert points out that political statements and even political facts these days don't have to be true – all they need, Colbert insists, is some element of "truthiness.".
This seems to be the strategy of Texas yee-hawer Rick Perry. In presidential debates, he's shown that he's simply no good at getting his mind around true facts, so he makes up his own. For example, he was stung recently when other candidates charged that a lobbyist for Merck got him to mandate in 2007 that all Texas pre-teen girls be vaccinated with an anti-cancer drug – a drug that Merck just happens to sell. Uh-uh, the governor retorted, it was not the drug lobbyist that prompted his action, but the heart-rending pleas of a cancer patient who'd come into his office. "I got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady," Perry slapped back at his critics.
How truthy. The lady was real and she did visit with him in his office. But not before he issued his gubernatorial order on behalf of Merck. It was not until three weeks later that Perry first met her! So the assertion that he was motivated by humanitarian compassion is untrue, false, a fib... a lie.
Perry's story is further stained by the actual fact that as he was preparing to do this sweeping favor for Merck, the drug maker deposited a $5,000 campaign donation in his pocket. When this was brought up in another debate, Perry tightened into a purity pose and snapped that he was "offended" by the suggestion that he could be bought for $5,000. Perry thought this retort put the Merck issue to rest, but instead it sounded as though he was setting a price floor for other corporate funders, signaling that maybe $6,000 would not offend him.
Perry needs to heed the advice of baseball great Ted Williams: "If you don't think too good, don't think too much."
"Debate trouble shows Perry has tough road," Austin American Statesman, September 24, 2011.
"Patient's role in vaccine push stretched," Austin American Statesman, September 24, 2011.
"HPV vaccine, Merck and Rick Perry's money," www.cnn.com, September 20, 2011.
"Perry's Merck link in spotlight following vaccine order," www.msnbc.com, Septemer 8, 2011.
"Political Intrigue in Merck's HPV Vaccine Push," www.abcnews.com,
Other thought-provoking post:
Big Oil: 135 million. School children: 0
Playing politics with humanitarian aid
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