Beta Technologies, a South Burlington-based electric aviation company, is eyeing the former Energizer plant in St. Albans Town as a location for a battery testing facility.
The aircraft maker’s operations center around Burlington International Airport, where it’s planning a rapid expansion including a 270,000 square-foot manufacturing facility and a “cultural and training center,” where future pilots could learn how to fly.
At a recent Senate Transportation Committee hearing, Blain Newton, Beta’s chief operating officer, said the company also wants to grow its operations in other Vermont communities — including, potentially, St. Albans Town.
Beta also is considering Plattsburgh International Airport in New York as a location for the battery testing facility, Newton said, adding the facility would likely require “a couple hundred” employees. The company currently leases a hangar at the airport.
“If we can leverage that existing Energizer facility for what it was intended to be built for in the first place, that’s awesome,” Newton said.
The former Energizer plant, which manufactured batteries and flashlights before closing in 2013, is located on Swanton Road. An apparel and advertising company called Main Street Graphics, as well as Peerless Clothing, currently use parts of the facility.
Brendan Deso, chair of the St. Albans Town Selectboard, said the city and town of St. Albans’ transportation history, including steamships and railroads, makes it a fitting candidate for an aviation business.
“It’d be something we would be very excited to see,” Deso said.
Jake Goldman, a spokesperson for Beta, declined to provide additional information about plans for the battery testing facility when reached on the phone.
