Community Connect: Crawford Square Building in Downtown Pittsfield Sold for $1.2 Million

The century-old Crawford Square Building on North Street in Pittsfield has been sold to a New York City developer for 1.2 million, downtown real estate entrepreneur George Whaling has announced.

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PITTSFIELD >> A century-old commercial building on the corner of North and Depot streets has been sold to a New York City developer for $1.2 million.

Downtown real estate entrepreneur George Whaling, of Whaling Properties, has sold the Crawford Square Building at 123-139 North St. to Tower 21C LLC, run by Steve Oakes, of Brooklyn, N.Y., according to documents on file at the Central Berkshire Registry of Deeds in Pittsfield.

The building's current tenants include a variety of retail establishments, a catering business, and several offices."Mr. Oakes has retained my company to continue to manage the building," Whaling said. "So from the tenants' standpoint, [the transition] is seamless. Oakes also intends to make additional investments in Crawford Square, Whaling said.

Allegrone Construction's decision to turn the Howard and Onota buildings into market-rate apartments, coupled with the $14 million investment in Hotel on North, have caused New York City-area developers to begin investing in downtown Pittsfield, Whaling said.

"These guys from New York can come up and get what they consider good value and better returns than they can get in Brooklyn or Harlem," he said.

Whaling Properties also recently purchased buildings in Ballston Spa, N.Y., and Troy, N.Y. But Whaling said his firm intends to retain its investments in Pittsfield.

"We're content and we're comfortable with our existing holdings," Whaling said. "We're leaning more toward habitational apartment buildings. We still have a strong presence in Pittsfield.

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