[B]URLINGTON — A $1.4 million federal grant may breathe new life into a proposed redevelopment of the former Moran coal-fired power plant on the northern waterfront in Burlington.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced the award last week from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to the city for waterproofing and flood resiliency at the site.
The grant proposal was written by the Burlington Community Economic Development Office and the nonprofit New Moran Inc., which is hoping to build stores, event space and possibly offices in the historic brick structure.
“It’s a great asset assuming we move forward,” said Tad Cooke, a principal with New Moran.
“(The grant money) is a little less than 10 percent of the lowest possible project budget, so it won’t drive the city’s decision about whether to advance the project, but it is an arrow in our quiver,” he added.
Cooke said waterproofing the structure is necessary to any redevelopment because of the building’s proximity to Lake Champlain, noting that it flooded last year.
The grant requires that the city match the federal award, but that money would come from $6.3 million in tax increment financing that voters approved for the project in 2014.
The New Moran redevelopment was on the ropes after the mayor asked the Redstone Group, a local development firm that was advising New Moran, to step aside after it emerged that Redstone was courting the same entertainment company as New Moran for a different project.
Shortly after, the mayor announced in a news conference that he was dissolving the city’s memorandum of understanding that had given New Moran exclusive rights to renovate the former power plant.
At that time, Mayor Miro Weinberger said the city would solicit bids from other developers to see if anyone else could come up with a viable project that met the criteria voters approved with the TIF money, which called for “mixed-use redevelopment of the building with a focus on arts and event space, local foods, and green energy innovation.”
Weinberger said the New Moran team would be welcome to refine its proposal during that time, but he said that if no viable proposal was in hand by Nov. 11, then the TIF money would be used to demolish the Moran plant.
The city has since put out a request for new proposals with a deadline of Dec. 22.
“It made sense to have another month of response time from what I originally projected at that press conference,” Weinberger said in an interview Friday.
Weinberger said his personal preference is still to find a viable way to redevelop Moran, whether it’s with New Moran or another company. He said he has had preliminary discussions with other interested parties and it’s possible other developers would want to collaborate with New Moran.
Ultimately, though, he said city residents deserve resolution to a question mark that has resided on the waterfront for the last 30 years since the plant ceased operations in the 1980s.
Once bids are in, the Community Economic Development Office will make its recommendation to the City Council sometime in the first quarter of next year, Weinberger said.
If at that point his administration and the council determine there’s still not a workable project on the table, then the tired brick structure is likely to face the wrecking ball, the mayor said.
