WINOOSKI — The Winooski City Council is moving forward with a proposal from Burlington-based Nedde Real Estate to develop a vacant downtown lot into a parking garage, hotel and office space.
Nedde is proposing to build a hotel with about 100 rooms, a 30,000-square-foot office space and a municipal parking garage with up to 370 parking spaces with a construction cost “not to exceed $9.7 million.” The plans estimate the new spaces will create more than 200 downtown jobs.
The 0.83 acre property, known as Lot 7D, is located at 17 Abenaki Way, sits in the city’s designated downtown development zone. The city-owned property abuts the 104-acre Casavant Natural Area and is directly adjacent to the Community College of Vermont’s Winooski campus.
Currently, the lot is a packed gravel parking area which can hold about 50 vehicles.
The city had been reviewing various options from different developers in executive sessions over the last few months.
City Manager Jessie Baker asked the City Council at its Monday night meeting to authorize her to enter into negotiations with Nedde to develop the lot. The council unanimously approved Baker’s request.
There were no representatives from Nedde at the meeting, but Winooski Community and Economic Development Officer Heather Carrington expressed her support for the plan.
Nedde is proposing a purchase of the lot for $700,000 from the city.
Proposal plans from Nedde have construction beginning in October 2020 with completion expected early September 2021.
An agreement between Nedde and the Vermont Energy Investment Corp. has VEIC occupying the proposed office space.
“We are happy to say we have signed an MOU with Nedde and that we are excited about the design and the optionality it affords us,” VEIC CEO James Madej said in a letter to Baker. “No other proposals met our needs at this time.”
Baker said the proposal from Nedde is the best option to reach the city’s goals of additional parking, a hotel for visitors to local attractions and colleges, and new employment opportunities for Winooski residents.
“We believe this is the highest invest value proposal thus far for Lot 7D,” Baker told the council and Mayor Kristine Lott.
Lott added that the project meets the goals of Winooski voters, who at Town Meeting Day in March, approved a bond to develop the lot into a parking garage with the intent a hotel would also be built.
“The original developer we were talking to has shifted focus so now we’re looking for this new opportunity but still with a parking garage,” Lott said.
Requests for proposals have been out since July, and the city had been weighing options from four developers before deciding on Nedde.
In the RFP packet, since the lot is in the designated downtown, various tax incentives and waiving of Act 250 fees can be utilized.
Conversations among city officials and residents to redevelop the downtown have been part of the master plan since the late 1990s. Over the last 15 years, various projects have revitalized the downtown with new retail stores, restaurants, bars and housing, pumping over $200 million into the area, according to Seven Days.
“Two desired elements of the Master Plan that have not yet been realized are the downtown hotel and additional parking capacity called for in the plan,” the RFP packet reads in part.
After negotiations are complete between Baker and Nedde, the City Council will need to give final approval for construction to begin. The negotiations are expected to be completed by early December and be presented to the council during one of its two regular meetings in December.
