About Craig Della Penna
I have a background in transportation. For 20 years, I worked in the railroad industry marketing rail freight and I set up and operated two of New England's largest and most successful, railroad owned, transloading facilities. Through the course of that career, I took over 250,000 trucks off the roads coming into New England.
For eight years, I worked for Rails-to-Trails Conservancy as their New England Field Representative and covered the various New England states as a legislative agent on the issues of smart growth, sustainable economic development and alternative transportation.
I have authored four books and regularly author op-ed and guest editorials in the region's newspapers and national magazines on various themes around smart growth, alternative transportation and a myriad of quality of life issues. I am an energizing and sought after, motivational speaker having given over 750 lectures in 16 states and Canadian provinces in the past dozen years.
In the past year, I have been invited to speak at several major conferences in New York and California about residential real estate and rail trails or greenways. In 2007, I was the plenary speaker at the largest trails and greenways conference in the northeast.
In 2007, I was the 2nd top salesperson at The Murphys Realtors, Inc. - one of the largest independent firms west of the Connecticut River in Hampshire County. Several years earlier, in my first full year as a Realtor®, I sold $9.9 million in residential properties--2/3s of that was in my niche, houses next to or near to rail trails or other greenways. This niche is so in-tune with "Smart Growth" that the National Association of Realtors® , featured my ground-breaking and innovative practice in their monthly trade magazine that goes out to over 1.3 million real estate professionals around the U.S. More recently my practice was mentioned in a Sunday Boston Globe editorial. In the spring of 2008, my real estate practice was featured in United Airlines in-flight magazine--HEMISPHERES and in the summer of 2008 it was in the Wall Street Journal and the National Association of Realtors smart growth magazine--On Common Ground.
In addition to my real estate practice, I have a small consulting firm, Northeast Greenway Solutions set up to help teach communities how to move their rails-to-trails and other greenways projects ahead. If this is a subject of interest, let me know and I'll sign you up to get my monthly HTML newsletter for trail and greenway development in the region. This now goes out to over 11,000 people on a monthly basis. Click HERE to go the archives of the newsletter. To sign up for it, click HERE.
My wife Kathleen and I operate an award-winning bed & breakfast in Northampton, MA called Sugar Maple Trailside Inn. This is the third house that we’ve restored and in addition to winning the City of Northampton’s Historic Preservation Award for 2003, this effort was featured on HGTV’s RESTORE AMERICA. I obviously know old houses. But, if you are coming to the area and are looking for short-term accommodations, this is the closest B&B to downtown Northampton and Smith College. Because we are so lucky to live in such a beautiful and desirable place, many of my real estate clients start off as B&B guests.
In late 2005, some friends and I set up a land acquisition company Central Highlands Conservancy, LLC to buy former railroad corridor that is in danger of being sold off to adjacent land owners--or inappropriate commercial developers. Our first project was in two central Massachusetts communities where we bought 3.5 miles of the future Mass Central Rail Trail that was in danger of being sold to adjacents. We took control and held onto it until the local land trust--in this case East Quabbin Land Trust raised enough funds to buy it from us. They did so in late June, 2007 and we transferred ownership to them. [our costs plus expenses--no mark up.]
We will use CHC to purchase more miles in Massachusetts in the coming months. I estimate that we will be acquiring around 17-20 miles by the end of 2010. Sadly, and unbeknownst to most people, there are about 7-10 sales a year of former railroad corridor in Massachusetts. With CHC, we can prevent many of these sales. Protecting these corridors now, will allow for their future conversion into a walking or biking pathway that will connect where people, live work and play.
Professional Affiliations and Associations
Governor’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Board
Co-chair of MassHighway’s Trails & Greenways Taskforce
Former Board member of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce
Board Member for Mass DCR’s Massachusetts Recreational Trail Advisory Board
Board Member for Friends of Schell Bridge, Inc.
Member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals
Member of the Congress of New Urbanism
Member of the City of Northampton’s Historical Commission
Member of the City of Northampton's Community Preservation Committee
Past Board Member at the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition
Chair of the East Coast Greenway’s Massachusetts Committee
Professional Association of Innkeepers International
Professional Realtor® through the National Association of Realtors®
Member of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors®