The North Adams Planning Board voted unanimously Monday to approve a new 140-seat event building at Tourists Welcome Resort, clearing the way for a permanent gathering space beside the resort's Airport Rooms restaurant on State Road. The approval clears the way for a permanent gathering space at the resort.
According to iBerkshires.com, the board's vote came during a meeting held Monday, and the project will rise on the east end of the Blackinton Operating LLC-run State Road property, adjacent to the Airport Rooms. The 140-seat structure will be built beside the restaurant.
Tents Give Way to a Permanent Structure
The proposed structure would provide a permanent event space at the resort.
TOURISTS opened in 2018 as a 48-room reinvention of a roadside motel in Blackinton, a former mill village on the western edge of North Adams. Its development team included Wilco founding member John Stirratt and Eric Kerns, a co-founder of North Adams brewery Bright Ideas. The hotel’s original concept emphasized the site’s riverfront landscape and outdoor trails, while the new building would add a dedicated indoor gathering space. The resort’s origins as a motel-to-hotel redevelopment and the owners’ stated history of event requests help explain the push for a permanent venue.
The design calls for the building to sit on piers to minimize excavation, with a deck extending behind the Airport Rooms. Overflow parking for events will be handled at the Blackinton Mill, with shuttle service bringing guests to the site.
The Hoosic River
Trails run along the Hoosic River.
Tourists first opened in 2018.
The demand cited by the resort’s representative goes beyond a single busy opening season: he said TOURISTS received 1,200 event requests in its first year and has continued to receive nearly 1,000 annually. The project application also put the property’s annual traffic at about 15,000 overnight guests and 10,000 Airport Rooms patrons. Those figures frame the hall as an addition to an operating hospitality business that already draws both hotel guests and restaurant visitors. The application and the resort’s event-request figures were cited in the board coverage.
No Timeline Attached to the Project
Notably, the application did not include a construction timeline, and planners did not press the resort on when work might begin. That leaves the pace of construction an open question for now, even with approval secured.
The Hoosic River setting also brings a separate layer of environmental regulation into view. Massachusetts’ Rivers Protection Act generally defines a riverfront area extending 200 feet from each side of perennial rivers and streams, and the state’s Wetlands Protection Act gives local conservation commissions authority over covered work in those areas. Whether a particular project falls within that jurisdiction depends on its location and proposed work; the planning approval described here does not by itself establish whether additional environmental review is required. State guidance on riverfront-area protections explains the framework.
A New Event Space
The event building adds a new event space to Tourists' property.
