[D]ozens gathered in downtown Bennington Wednesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the $56 million Putnam Block redevelopment.
The project is coming to fruition after having been in the works since 2015. On Friday, about 20 different financial partners officially closed the deal.
Jim Brown, president of the Bank of Bennington, who has led the push for the Putnam Block’s redevelopment, said the idea for the project came from many conversations over the last several years about how to address the city’s economic problems and decline in population.
“We were watching the Main Street empty,” Brown said. “Vacant storefronts, vacant second floors, vacant third floors.”
But he said despite the project being much-needed, getting it off the ground wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Brown said there was a good reason why no commercial developer was willing to take the project on.
“It just doesn’t make economic sense,” he said.
Nevertheless, the partners managed to scrape up enough money from both public and private sources to get the development going. Between federal, state and local funds administered by the state, $3.1 million of public funds were invested in the project.
Brown said even though the economics wouldn’t make sense for a commercial developer, they did make sense for Bennington, because at the end of the day, the city is just investing in itself.
“We want to change the story of Bennington from one of decline to one of renewal,” Brown said.
The completed project will be mixed use of housing and commercial space, including 75 apartments, along with retail and office space. A grocery store and a restaurant are planned, and, hopefully, a hotel. The Visiting Nurses Association & Hospice of the Southwest Region,
Bennington College, Southwestern Medical Center will have offices there.
Gov. Phil Scott attended the ceremony, noting it was the largest groundbreaking he’d seen in his tenure as governor. In his remarks, he emphasized the importance of economic development in Vermont that extends beyond the state’s population center.
“The fact is we need to give a helping hand to our economic centers outside of Chittenden County,” Scott said.
The governor said he’s excited to return to the site next year for the project’s second phase, which involves new construction in the city’s Tax Increment Finance district. Scott said despite some concerns that have been raised by lawmakers about the implementation of TIFs, he hopes those worries don’t slow down the Putnam project.
“We can’t jeopardize the kind of progress we’re highlighting today,” Scott said. “It’s too important to Bennington and to other communities across the state.”
Both Vermont Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders sent representatives to sing praises for the project. Rep. Peter Welch, meanwhile, came for himself.
“This is the biggest deal that’s going on right now in this state,” Welch said.
After four years of planning the complex project, leaders were relieved to finally have construction underway.
“[We’re] taking an entire block of downtown,” Brown said. “And doing the environmental remediation that was needed to take a site that has been underutilized for more than a generation, rehab the historic buildings and bring in commercial tenants and residential tenants in downtown.”
