Koffee Kup Bakery to move to site of Mickey’s Bike Shop

Oct. 8, 2020 | Danielle Eaton
daniellee@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD/CHICOPEE – An iconic Springfield bakery is making a big change by moving to  the neighboring city of Chicopee.

Dino Facente said he started the Koffee Kup Bakery on Sept. 27, 1954. The bakery is still located in the Springfield Plaza at 1293 Liberty St., where they moved in the ‘80s. However, Facente said that will soon change.

Facente said the bakery will not just be moving to a new location, but a new city entirely. He said as the cost of rent, over the years, had risen and has become difficult to afford. “Rent just took a toll on us over the years. We’ve been able to swing it, but not with increased costs,” he said.

He added that over the years the owners of the plaza had “promised new renovations” and to bring “new big box stores” to the plaza. “At the end of the day, they didn’t,” he said.

While he was looking for a new bakery, another iconic small business was getting ready to close their doors and sell their building. Facente said initially he began talking with the owner of Mickey’s Bike Shop, on 520 East St. in Chicopee, about renting the building for the bakery. However, soon that discussion turned into Facente buying the building in which the historic bike shop was once located.

Facente said he bought the building in March, but the coronavirus pushed back the date he planned to move the bakery into the building. “We’re holding our own until we get in the new shop. We’re doing a lot of renovations,” he explained.

While the new location in Chicopee had about twice the square footage of their current location, Facente said there was quite a bit of work to be done as far as renovations went. “We’re going from 2,500 [square feet] to just under 4,000 [square feet]. I think we’ll be at like 3,900 [square feet,]” he said. “It was just a square building. We updated the electric to a three phase [system], put gas in there throughout the whole building, updated utilities.”

Facente added that he was going to be “changing the front facade” of the building and adding a “huge skylight.” Additionally, he said all the glass in the front of the store had “come out” and been replaced with glass that would help prevent the glare from the sun.

The front of the store, he explained, would be where customers walked in and were able to purchase baked goods. The back of the store would be where he and other employees would do the baking for the store each day.

The increased space would allow them to continue offering customers the same baked goods they’ve been making for decades, and potentially offer some new services as well. “With that space we’ll be able to work a bit more freely, we should be able to do more as well,” he said.

Facente said the bakery would “be offering pretty much the same stuff,” but he was also hoping to expand their delivery options. “With the bigger location, hopefully we’ll be able to do mail-in stuff, internet stuff,” he said. Facente explained that with an expanded mail delivery and internet options, customers would be able to order baked goods to be delivered to their, or someone else’s home. He said the bakery had already “been doing a little bit of that” but the space would allow them to expand such services.

He said despite the announcement the bakery would be moving, customers had expressed excitement about the decision. “Ninety percent of customers keep asking when we’re moving, [they’re] all excited for us,” he said.

He added that the city of Chicopee had also expressed excitement about the business’ impending move. “They’ve come out with open arms. The mayor, he’s been pretty good to us,” he said. “I think it’s going to be good, Chicopee – they really support their people from what I hear. In this time of COVID, I think people are really excited to see something.”

He said he was hoping to be in the Chicopee building for the bakery’s anniversary, however, it just didn’t happen. Facente said he was planning on “doing everything right,” and “not going to rush anything.” At the time of press, he said he didn’t have a firm opening date for the Chicopee location, but was hoping to be in the building by the new year.

Overall, owning his own building will be an added benefit in cost as well, he said. “Just having a set building, a stand alone building will be nice. We won’t have rent anymore,” he said.

He finished by expressing his excitement for the new location. “Mickey’s was iconic, there for years. I think it’s a home run for everybody,” he said.

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