Gov. Peter Shumlin joined his Republican pal and mayor of Barre, Thom Lauzon, to break ground Tuesday on a $15.4 million building known as Barre City Place.
The building is a key component of a revitalization effort in the Granite City and part of a major reorganization of housing for state employees that Vermont has undertaken since the flooding by Tropical Storm Irene.
The state will lease 49,000 square feet of the Main Street structure’s 80,000 total square feet for a sum just north of $1 million annually — an arrangement that would begin in 2014 if the building is completed on schedule. The Agency of Education will occupy 34,000 square feet of the space, and the state plans to fill the rest of the space with Department of Human Services or Agency of Natural Resources personnel.
Both Human Services and ANR employees were displaced when Irene flooded the Waterbury state office complex. For education staffers, who were not affected by flooding, the new building will bring about a consolidation of the workforce.
For decades, the Agency of Education — formerly a department — has separated its staff under two roofs. Right now, the agency is split between a state-owned building at 120 State St. in Montpelier and a rented facility on the Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin. Breaking up the staff is a burden on the agency’s ability to function, said Armando Vilaseca, secretary of Education, at the ground-breaking.
“When we have two separate sites, there’s a lot of wasted time and expenses with bringing people back and forth,” he said. “So, from my perspective and from the agency’s perspective, to be in one place and to be in downtown Barre, it doesn’t get much better.”
This luxury, however, comes with a $120,000 jump in expenses for the state. According to state numbers, the agency pays roughly $575,000 in both rental and internal fees for the spaces its 170 employees use. The new space in Barre will cost the agency about $695,000.
Shumlin said that cost hike is worth it.
“We’re moving from a dump to state-of-the-art office space in a downtown,” he said. “It’s a good deal for taxpayers. It’s also a good deal for downtowns. We’re willing to invest a little money to put our state employees in a state-of-the-art workspace where they can be more efficient and where we’re working to revitalize downtowns.”
DEW Construction Corp. of Williston is the lead developer on the project, and a subsidiary of the company called DEW Barre City Place, LLC will maintain the space. Don Wells, president of DEW, told VTDigger that the rent includes utilities, upkeep and cleaning services.
The state will share the facility with Central Vermont Medical Center, a physical therapy operation and possibly the Granite City Co-op — if the proposed food cooperative comes to fruition.
DEW CFO Mark Francis told the 50-plus people in attendance at the ceremony that the project almost didn’t happen. DEW had to draw from a wide range of sources, including roughly $10 million from the nonprofit Housing Vermont, about $5 million from the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. and $1.1 million from the Vermont Economic Development Authority.
“Those last few months were pretty hairy and a lot of people really went to bat,” he said. “The Vermont Economic Development Authority came through at the last hour to provide that last chunk of financing to make it work.”
Shumlin, who has promoted the revitalization of downtowns throughout his tenure as governor, said this project is a model example.
“What separates us from the rest of the country is this story that’s happening in downtown Barre,” he said. “It’s the cumulative changes and vision that you’re carrying out that are creating jobs and economic opportunities in a prosperous downtown.”
