[B]RATTLEBORO — Economic development meetings typically don’t include talk of trapeze artists.
But the New England Center for Circus Arts’ high-flying expansion plan was a big part of the buzz here Monday morning at the announcement of 14 high-priority economic projects for Windham County.
The “vital projects” announcement comes with no funding attached; rather, it’s part of an update of the region’s federally approved comprehensive economic development strategy. Nevertheless, officials place a lot of emphasis on this year’s list, in part because it shows the variety of projects happening in a county that is losing one of its biggest employers, Vermont Yankee.
The circus center’s expansion into a new, centralized headquarters is just one example of that growth. And administrators brought good news: A ground-breaking for the $2.5 million project could happen this spring.
“We are creating something that is going to be unique in the United States, and we hope to be the national center for circus arts,” said Elsie Smith, the center’s artistic director and co-founder.
The area’s comprehensive economic development strategy, also known as the CEDS, is a project of Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies, also known as SeVEDS. While it’s easy to get lost in the acronyms, officials say the strategic plan bestows eligibility for some federal funding programs.
It also serves as a roadmap for the future, and that map has become even more important since the December 2014 shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon. “I think it’s really important for our region to have a sense of what folks are working on, what’s important, what are you struggling with, what are your challenges (and) what are your really exciting opportunities,” said Laura Sibilia, economic development director for Brattleboro Development Credit Corp.
To that end, officials update the CEDS every year, looking for information about ongoing projects as well as new projects that fit the study’s goals. Those goals include reversing the region’s population decline; boosting wages and household income; and improving the size and quality of the workforce.
The 14 “vital” projects announced Monday were given that label by a five-member committee that ranked all submitted projects according to criteria including regional and long-term impact as well as jobs created or retained.
The committee was independent of BDCC and SeVEDS. Its members were representatives from Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Southern Vermont Deerfield Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Putney business Five Maples, the Institute for Nuclear Host Communities, and the Resilient Design Institute.
Several SeVEDS/Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. projects are on the list, including analysis of a Windham County green building cluster; creation of a Southern Vermont Sustainable Recruitment Project for employers and tourism entities; expansion of broadband; and extension of water and sewer service to new industrial sites near Interstate 91 Exit 1 in Brattleboro.
Other projects deemed vital include revitalization of the Retreat Farm in Brattleboro; creation of a Brattleboro prototyping facility for the green-building consortium of Ironwood Brand/PreCraft/STIX; and development of a health care workforce training project that includes area colleges and hospitals.
The New England Center for Circus Arts project was ranked No. 5.
The link between economic development and a circus training center might seem tenuous. But the center has deep roots in the local development community.
Smith and her identical twin, Serenity Smith Forchion, started their production company as Nimble Arts in 2002. It became the New England Center for Circus Arts in 2007, and the new nonprofit landed $20,000 in startup funding through Brattleboro Development Credit Corp.’s first business plan competition.
Four years before that, the circus center had moved into the Cotton Mill, a massive former industrial building maintained as an industrial park by BDCC. “We have since proceeded to slowly take over the building,” Elsie Smith joked.
While that’s an exaggeration, it’s clear the circus arts center has been growing rapidly. Smith noted that, just a week ago, the center expanded into the Cotton Mill studio space that hosted Monday’s economic development gathering. All told, the organization occupies eight spaces scattered around Brattleboro.
Administrators searched for years for a larger, centralized space. But it’s not easy to find a home for a school that needs a flying trapeze: After looking at more than 40 buildings in the area, the center’s leaders “could not find anything that we could reuse,” Smith said.
They settled in 2014 on a vacant 3-acre plot off Town Crier Drive in Brattleboro. The plan is to create a high-ceilinged building big enough for aerial instruction and performances. Smith said the design also is to reflect safety considerations “such as taking a trampoline and putting it below ground – therefore, you can’t fall off the trampoline.”
The organization also needs more classroom, office, meeting and restroom space.
All of this comes at a fairly steep price: The center’s fundraising goal is $2.5 million. But Elsie Smith said Monday that $1 million already has been raised, with $500,000 more expected over the next several months and a ground-breaking anticipated in late spring.
She believes the project will allow the organization to further expand its reach, both in the Windham region and far beyond. The center’s alumni and teachers work with prominent outfits such as Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and former students can be found working at European cabarets, on cruise ships and on celebrity tours.
The center is active in the local community, staging performances and operating the Circus in the Neighborhood and Circus for Survivors programs.
“We have been slowly building and growing,” Smith said. “We have over 5,000 students in the entire world. We work all over the world. We have students that move here from Costa Rica, from Guam, from Brazil, from Australia — all sorts of people who come to Brattleboro.”
The new “vital project” list doesn’t lack for variety. Just below the circus arts center were ranked two Windham Regional Commission initiatives: a real estate market analysis and an assessment of water and wastewater needs in the region’s villages.
Windham Regional Commission Executive Director Chris Campany said the latter is an important issue for future development. He believes a lack of adequate water and wastewater infrastructure is inhibiting residential and commercial development in population centers — the places where development is supposed to be concentrated to discourage sprawl.
