People’s United Bank has announced that it’s selling its downtown Burlington location at 2 Burlington Square — though the company isn’t leaving the property.
The bank is selling the site to Nedde Real Estate, a Burlington-based commercial developer that plans to redevelop the space, keeping half the building as office space for People’s United, while adding 45 units of affordable and market-rate apartments on the other side of the property.
Built in 1970, the 95,000-square-foot property is valued at $5.9 million. Michael Seaver, the Vermont president of the bank, said that as one of the largest private employers in Burlington, staying put was very important for the company.
He explained that the bank is selling the property simply because of how much renovation it needs.
“As we looked long-term, the amount of space we need here is less than the entire building,” Seaver said. “We’re bankers, not real estate people, and we don’t want to be landlords, so we’re just going to occupy what we need and let somebody else be the property manager.”
He said the downsizing won’t involve any layoffs — just getting rid of wasted space. He talked about the office’s executive suite, which has a lobby outside of a lobby, as an example of the kind of excess space to be eliminated.
Seaverv also said that both financially and environmentally, the heating system is less than desirable,
“Space in general is just much more expensive than it used to be to occupy,” he said.
The redevelopment is expected to break ground in the spring of 2020, pending final designs and permitting. Seaver said that during construction, the bank’s operations will stay on site — simply moving to the south side of the building while the offices on the north side are redone, and then back to the north side while the south side is turned into apartments.
“We want to use what we’ve learned over the last 50 years to improve our work space, and Nedde is the right company to do that,” he said.
Nedde has worked on a number of redevelopment projects across the state, including Bolton Valley Resort, the University of Vermont’s Redstone Lofts and City Center Montpelier.
Doug Nedde, the company’s owner, said his vision for the project is to retain the major employer in downtown Burlington, create “much needed” housing and repurpose a prominent building for decades to come.
“I feel honored to have this opportunity to redevelop this property with the team at People’s United Bank, and to have them occupy part of the building for at least the next 15 years,“ Nedde said in a statement.
