PEABODY — Peabody Access Telecommunications (PAT) is moving on down — as in downtown.
The nonprofit organization recently purchased a 7,200 square-foot building, located at 81 Main St., and is in the process of renovating the space prior to moving in March when the lease at its current Foster Street location expires.
“We’ve seen a sustained pattern of decreased funding recently that we have seen for a while now,” said PAT Executive Director Camille Bartlett. “We weren’t really looking to move as we love our space, but between COVID and the fact that we are all working mostly from home were factors. We have had a fantastic landlord, but the thought of signing a long-term lease, especially with the funding situation, was a little bit scary.
“We had known about 81 Main St. being on the market for a while and COVID has taught us that we don’t actually need all the space we have now so this was an opportunity to save money. The driving force was definitely the financial savings.”
Bartlett said that PAT will occupy about 65-70 percent of the building with two tenants (Citizens Inn and Attorney Charles Martins) occupying the rest. PAT is currently working with Jones Architects of Salem and Peabody contractor MRG Construction of Peabody (Matt Genzale).
Bartlett said the rent alone from those two tenants is tantamount to a savings of about $6,000-$7,000 per month, which will help offset the mortgage used to finance the $799,000 purchase price.
“The entire project won’t be done by the time we move in, but this is actually a good time for that to happen, as we are not in the office,” Bartlett said.
“It’s still business as usual for us and while we won’t be completely done, we aren’t going to be disrupted as we aren’t really in the building due to COVID,” she said, adding PAT expects to complete renovations by early summer.
PAT’s current location has about 4,400 square-feet with garage space for the mobile production truck, an iMac computer lab equipped with SMART boards for training, a 176 square-foot podcast studio, a conference room, open-concept meeting space with a projector and screen, and a kitchenette. PAT has been in the Foster Street location since 2006.
The second floor consists of 3,900 square-feet of staff offices and an equipment room. The state-of-the-art studio is also on the second floor, which is equipped with a green screen, teleprompter, three studio cameras. The studio can accommodate up to five people on the set.
The new facility will continue to provide state-of-the-art podcasting capabilities and a media editing lab, in addition to traditional studio and field production capabilities. Despite continued funding from cable television revenues, Bartlett said community media organizations continue to face challenges from local issues, such as cord cutting, in addition to larger funding issues on the federal level, making the purchase of the building “strategic.”
“With revenues steadily decreasing and our rent poised to increase, we had to decide if entering into another long-term lease was in the best interests of the organization,” Bartlett said. “Our board wanted to look at different alternatives, like purchasing a building and decreasing our footprint. So, we took the plunge and went from being a renter to being a landlord.
“It’s an investment and we now have something to show for our money. Plus, it’s a smart decision to purchase downtown with all that’s going on in the city. It’s exciting to be downtown and our location will make us feel more like part of the community and we’ll also have increased visibility.”
Board Chairman and former Peabody City Clerk Timothy Spanos says that PAT’s downtown presence is a “gamechanger.”
“We are thrilled to be joining the downtown community,” he said. “It is a tremendous opportunity for new initiatives and expanded services to meet the needs of our community.”
The new space also will benefit PAT’s youth programs, which were held outside for the most part since the start of the pandemic
“We should have more options for outdoor spaces and activities than we currently have been able to offer, so that is an added bonus,” Bartlett said. “Foster Street had its limitations, so while that was the only home we have known and have been treated so well by our landlord, this new space puts us in a better position not just for the next year or two, but long-term as well.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
