[M]ontpelier residents on Barre Street can expect a new neighbor next year when Caledonia Spirits opens a new 26,000-square-foot distillery and visitors center.
Caledonia Spirits, the distillers of Barr Hill gin and vodka, officially broke ground on the site for its new distillery on Thursday in front of a crowd of about 50.
Gov. Phil Scott, Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson, and representatives from the offices of the congressional delegation joined company representatives at the event.
“This is nothing short of a miracle that we are standing in this field today,” Ryan Christiansen, Caledonia Spirits president, told onlookers. He said at times he never thought the project would become a reality.
Last year the Montpelier City Council unanimously approved spending $466,700 for several infrastructure improvements to the proposed building site for Caledonia Spirits’ new distillery.
The company, currently located in Hardwick with a workforce of 40, will move all manufacturing operations to Montpelier. In Hardwick, the company will still have a retail store and storage.
The approval was followed by the signing of a Development Agreement by Christiansen and Montpelier City Manager William Fraser at the end of May last year.
The agreement included plans for the city to build a railroad crossing, relocating a city water line, as well as adding a sewer connection and a public access road to the property. And now over a year later with those improvements finished the official beginning to laying the foundation has begun.
This is new for the eastern part of Barre Street which is mostly undeveloped with little housing or business.
Mayor Watson said she hopes that Caledonia Spirits is the first wave in a larger movement of fulfilling Barre Street’s potential and expanding Montpelier’s business core.
“They’re bringing 40 jobs and beyond that they are a value-added agricultural business which I think can really thrive in Vermont and we anticipate they are going to be the first of many secondary agricultural businesses that may want to come to Montpelier,” Watson said.
Caledonia Spirits’ plans for the new distillery also include space for the community where classes on beekeeping, distillation history, and mixing drinks will be held. The total project is estimated to cost more than $9 million, and is scheduled to be completed in May 2019, two years after the agreement was reached with the city.
Barre Street plans also includes the possibility of developing part of Sabin’s Pasture, 100 acres of undeveloped land that has been the subject of debate over its future use. The pasture sits across from the distillery site.
Watson says that in recent years the attitude in Montpelier has changed towards Sabin’s Pasture and that the piece of land closest to Barre Street has the potential for housing and business.
“We just redid our zoning to accommodate some development particularly down near Barre Street and I think the conversation in Montpelier has really switched in the last couple of years from being more reticent about housing to recognizing that there’s some real housing shortages in Vermont and Montpelier in particular,” Watson said.
“This is going to be an important location for us to to figure out how to develop it over the coming years. I know the property owner is very motivated. I think we’re going to be able to find something that works,” she said.
But this is not going to happen overnight, first there is the construction of Caledonia Spirits distillery. According to the city manager’ office, next summer will also see the extension of the city bike path along Barre Street, so that cyclists will be able to ride from one end of the city to the other, and the road will also be repaved.
But both Christiansen and Watson said they see the distillery as the first step of a real moment for Barre Street and Montpelier.
“I fell in love with Barre Street, so our goal is not to change it, but this particular end of Barre Street, something cool could happen,” Christiansen said.
Christiansen said his hope is to show that this area can be a place where “quasi-industrial, farm to plate” businesses could thrive and add to the culture of the street.
“I see Barre Street as a really good place for that, especially down on this end with 4 acres of undeveloped land that overlooks the river and has access to all this traffic,” he said.
