[B]URLINGTON — The Development Review Board voted to approve Town Center Mall owner Don Sinex’s application to build a massive mixed-use project on half of the current mall property.
The roughly $225 million project is slated to include 130,000 square feet of retail, 230,000 square feet of office space, 272 apartments, a preschool and an above-ground parking garage with 761 spaces in what would become Vermont’s tallest structure.
The building will have three towers in a one-block area from Pine to St. Paul streets and Cherry to Bank streets and would reach 14 stories — a height allowed by new zoning city voters approved in November.
Documents filed with the review board suggested demolition of the current mall could begin as early as May, but Sinex said Monday that mid-summer was a more likely timeline. He still needs to secure permits from the city, finish construction drawings and complete a pre-demolition audit, he said.
A more likely reason for the delay are appeals of the review board’s approval that will be heard in environmental court. Burlington attorney John Franco said he plans to file an appeal on behalf of 56 residents who oppose the project, as well as an abutting property owner, Barbara McGrew.
“We want the environmental court to review it,” Franco said.
Appeals are heard de novo, or from the beginning without consideration of the Development Review Board decision.
Franco said he has 30 days from when the board’s written decision is published to file an appeal and another 15 days after that to ask the environmental court for a stay, which would halt construction until a judge issues a decision.
The residents Franco represents also sent a letter Monday to the District 4 environmental coordinator challenging a previous decision allowing the project to move ahead without an Act 250 environmental review. Franco argues that the previous ruling was incomplete.
That too can be appealed in court, Franco said, adding that it’s possible multiple appeals could be consolidated into one environmental court case.
Sinex said the permit approval would survive potential appeals. “We think we’ve designed the right project for the city,” he said.
Sinex said a pending lawsuit brought by residents who oppose the project wouldn’t delay construction. Franco is representing residents who are seeking to overturn voter approval of a $22 million tax increment finance bond.
Mayor Miro Weinberger said he believes the city will prevail in that lawsuit, but the bond won’t be issued until construction is finished. That shifts the risk to Sinex, because the money would be used to reimburse him for the costs of connecting Pine and St. Paul streets through the property as well as other public improvements.
Asked if he had secured the financing for his project, Sinex said: “We’ll be announcing that shortly.” Reminded that he told reporters the same thing in December, Sinex said he would announce where the money’s coming from in three to four weeks.
“It takes a long time to bring $200 million to Burlington,” he said.
Current mall tenants are aware of his timeline for demolition, Sinex said. Some have secured space in the Church Street half of the mall, which will continue to operate throughout construction.
There is currently empty space there, and some existing storefronts will be further subdivided. Other tenants will have to find new locations, though some may look to lease a space in the completed project, he said.
Wayne Senville, a member of the Development Review Board, said he felt hemmed in during the review process by new form-based code regulations that governed the project.
Form-based code is intended to remove some of the subjectivity from the development review process. City officials are planning to implement form-based code throughout the city.
