By Neil Turitz
Photographs by Abigail Fenton

Dave Mixer saw an opportunity. After a successful business career and a life of philanthropy that took him all over the world, the Dalton native returned to the Berkshires nine years ago and took on a mission to make change. Pittsfield was suffering. An exodus of industry and human talent meant the downtown was in decline. That would be enough to scare most people off, but for Mixer, it was a chance to turn things around for a place he still loved.

“I said, ‘All right, I’m going to do something in the Berkshires,’” he said in a recent conversation at Bousquet Sport. “I didn’t know what it was, but I started talking to people, driving from Williamstown down to the Connecticut border. Over time, I realized that Pittsfield is the heart and soul of the county, and the county doesn’t really work unless Pittsfield is working. That was the genesis of it all.”

In 2016, Mixer established Mill Town Capital and hired CEO Tim Burke; the first step was to refurbish Bousquet Mountain, the 200-acre ski area. They updated equipment, built a new lodge, and turned it back into the kind of attraction it hadn’t been for years, if ever. “If you grew up here, everybody went there, worked there, knew somebody there,” said Mixer. “It’s always been on the verge of falling apart, being held together by duct tape and bubble gum for decades. So we bought it and fixed it up and made it something.”

Indeed. Even nonskiers come to the new restaurant, Drifters; the appeal of watching sports on TV or listening to live music is enough to draw an après ski crowd, whether they hit the slopes or not.

“Pittsfield is the heart and soul of the county, and the county doesn’t really work unless Pittsfield is working. That was the genesis of it all.”

In 2020, Mill Town purchased Berkshire West Athletic Club across the street from the ski mountain and turned it into Bousquet Sport. A major phase of work was just completed and the fitness center offers top-of-the-line classes, golf simulators, indoor and outdoor tennis and pickleball courts, and locker rooms verging on luxurious. It has taken on a life of its own. Courts are packed at noon on a weekday. The parking lot is filled. It’s more than just an athletic club, it’s a social entity.

“It’s not going to a gym, it’s going to Bousquet Sport,” said Mill Town Director of Marketing Margie Laurin. “It’s a community. It’s really an asset for companies like General Dynamics when they recruit young people.”

Making the city a recreation destination is just one piece of the Pittsfield puzzle. When it became clear that companies like General Dynamics were having a hard time recruiting people, Mixer knew that if the city improved, then the people would come. A systemic change was clearly needed.

BACK TO THE BERKSHIRES

Mixer grew up in Dalton, graduating from Wahconah Regional High School in 1970— his yearbook photo is at left. After attending Union College and Harvard Business School, he lived in Washington, D.C., and worked at AT&T in the early ’80s during the government breakup of the company. Mixer was in the wireless communications industry before establishing Columbia Capital with future Virginia senator Mark Warner and two other founding partners. In the late ’90s, he went out on his own, focusing on international investments, which led to companies in Russia and China and moving to Miami (all the while giving back to the community where and when he could). He and his wife had a primary home in Rhode Island, where his three grown children were raised, and in the summer of 2016, a problem with the pipes in that home led the couple back to the Berkshires.

“So we said, ‘All right, let’s see if we can focus on creating vibrant neighborhoods,’” Mixer recalled.

They spent a lot of time in the Tyler Street area, renovating some of the apartment buildings and focusing on the area as one of the better opportunities to create a walkable, livable neighborhood. The national housing shortage is evident in Pittsfield, so the idea is to create more units. The problem is that, while the rents in Pittsfield are a third of what they are in Boston or New York, the costs of construction are similar. That means finding alternative strategies to make it work, looking at different financing structures, getting creative. It’s a work in progress.

“If you solve it in one small place, then you can solve it in other places,” Mixer said. “Pittsfield is a great potential test bed for bigger concepts. We hope to partner with the City and State on developing concepts as we continue to test ideas in the Berkshires, as opposed to Pittsfield or Mill Town trying to go alone on everything.”

Transforming Pittsfield is the plan, and for lasting and continued change, Mixer points to the Newman’s Own brand as a perfect example. It has handed out many millions of dollars over the decades, but only because it has built a business that brings in enough revenue to keep it running. Mill Town is no different. Everything the company does is with an eye toward the philanthropic, so even though the company has assets that can make money, in the end, all those assets are directed back into the community in some form.

“Dave really set the tone from the start, coming from that entrepreneurial mindset that keeps you open for anything,” Burke said. “We’re not overly fixated on, ‘We have to do it this way, there’s no other way to do it.’ If someone brings a program to us, a collaboration, a business idea, or a company or philanthropic idea, we always talk about it to see if there’s a way we can participate, invest, contribute. There’s nothing that’s off the table.”

It’s a great way to operate, Burke said, “because it encourages collaboration with other people, other businesses, and other nonprofits, too.”

Mixer knows that, in the face of challenges, attitude is a big part of the battle. In case you doubt it, Laurin points out that “live, work, play” is the company’s mission statement.

Indoor tennis and pickleball, golf simulators, and cycling and other fitness classes are among the year-round offerings. Bousquet Mountain has skiing in winter, naturally, and events in the summer.

Mixer and his team are playing the long game, and they know it. “We’re in the second inning, but we’re in the game.”

“I’m optimistic,” Mixer said. “People in Pittsfield have been burned. But the more you can make this a desirable place to live, work, play, the more likely it is you’re going to get economic growth, and companies will decide to be based here. If it happens more than once, then you know it’s working, and the more base work that you’re doing, the higher the likelihood that you’re going to be able to attract great talent.”

Mixer points to his own company as an example. Mill Town has more than a dozen employees with hundreds more working for the various entities under its umbrella.

Mixer and his team are playing the long game, and they know it. “We’re in the second inning,” he explained. “But we’re in the game. We want to make sure we’re sustaining what we have, and that we can keep doing good things, taking risks, and making investments that other people wouldn’t. Ideally, if you have these sustainable entities, you have money to keep doing impact investing, stuff that’s good for the community. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Pickleball has a passionate following at Bousquet. Photo Right by Ben Garver.

Firm Foundations

Mill Town’s charitable arms help enrich life in the Berkshires in so many ways.

“Ultimately, everything we do supports the Berkshires,” said Dave Mixer, who has put more than $3.5 million of his own money into the Mill Town Foundation, the organization’s charitable arm. It was established in 2019 and supports the community with grants and partnerships for non-profit organizations such as Roots Rising, Morningside Community School, Barrington Stage Company, and Hancock Shaker Village. The Foundation also leads cultural programs such as Common Ground Festival and Wandering Dance Festival.

“We have seen ages eight to 80 participate in our festivals,” said Andy Wrba, the Foundation’s program director. “People come from different walks of life and different communities come together.”

With their programming expanding, Liliana Atanacio joined the team as a grant and program administrator last fall. She is known to many as the co-founder of Latinas413, which is dedicated to increasing representation of Latinas across Berkshire County. “Her impact in the Berkshires has been nothing short of heroic,” said Wrba.

“I feel inspired to be here,” Atanacio said of her new role. “There is no limit to the solutions we can bring to the table, how we’re envisioning change in the Berkshires and in Pittsfield. It’s very empowering.”

Most recently, Mixer launched the Mill Town Charitable Foundation, a new nonprofit that encourages the community to give directly, as well. “My resources will continue to be deployed locally and, although meaningful, my funds are limited compared to the needs for philanthropy and impactful investments in the Berkshires,” said Mixer. “It is our goal and hope that others will embrace the Mill Town mission and use the Foundation as a meaningful place for their philanthropic giving and initiatives. Our dream is that our work and funding is a catalyst that will be matched many times over by people who love the Berkshires.”

milltownfoundation.org