Bennington officials are set to vote Monday on whether to allocate $2 million in federal coronavirus relief funding into a plan to turn the former Bennington High School building into a mixed-use property with recreation, work and residential spaces.
Five days ahead of the vote, at a public meeting on Wednesday, Bennington community members both praised and criticized the proposed redevelopment. Several hailed the plan to create more housing units at a time when Vermont’s residential market is becoming increasingly tight, while others worried that the project’s multimillion-dollar price tag would be passed on to taxpayers.
Some supporters said new housing would attract more talent to Bennington during a period when potential employees all around the state have turned down jobs because they can’t find homes.
Others brought up the parking problems that the mixed-use property could create in the Main Street area, while a few said they wanted more information on the project.
“I think there’s a plethora of information that we received tonight,” said Bennington resident Donald Washburn, “but I think there’s still a lot that needs to be exposed, if you will.”
The town of Bennington plans to partner with a private developer to renovate the century-old building — which has largely been vacant since 2004 — into “community space” and residences.
The idea is for the two entities to each work on a portion of the 100,000-square-foot building. The town would turn a 30,000-square-foot area into the community space, which would rehouse the Bennington Senior Center and the county’s Meals on Wheels program, as well as host a YMCA gymnasium and some workrooms.
The remaining area would be transformed into at least 40 residences by Hale Resources, a Bennington real estate development and property management company.
As of Thursday, the planned residential units have decreased from 44 to 42, because of preservation guidelines on the historic 1913 building, said Hale Resources co-partner Zak Hale. The total would include 15 “perpetual” affordable housing units and another 14 that would be designated affordable housing for their first five years of operation, Hale told VTDigger.
The town is estimating the creation of the community space to cost up to $9 million. Hale Resources expects to spend around $10 million for the housing portion.
During the public meeting at the Bennington firehouse on Wednesday evening, Assistant Town Manager Dan Monks said the millions in federal dollars that Bennington received under the American Rescue Plan Act got the ball rolling on this huge project.
The town plans to use $2 million of this local coronavirus fiscal recovery funding on the community space. The rest of the expense, officials said, would be covered through a combination of tax credits, grants, loans, rebates, donations and a potential bond vote on tax increment financing.
Hale Resources would be responsible for finding its own funding, and it’s exploring a combination of tax credits, private investors and bank funding.
“This project, really, is a very unique and probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address multiple goals in one project and to bring an iconic building back to life for the community,” Shannon Barsotti, Bennington’s community development director, said to an audience of about 50 people at the meeting. “It has so much potential.”
Multiple citizen surveys show that Bennington residents want more housing for various income levels, additional indoor recreation and the rehabilitation of vacant and blighted buildings, Barsotti said in an interview.
“This is the largest vacant and blighted building downtown,” she said of the old high school.
The building is currently owned by Christopher Gilbert, a resident of Dorset and Red Hook, New York, who bought the property in 2020 for $146,000.
Selectboard Chair Jeannie Jenkins said if the board decides at its meeting on Monday to put $2 million in federal funding into the proposal, none of the money would be spent until the town secures the estimated additional $1.2 million for the first phase of the project.
Designated town employees would then report back to the Selectboard in three to four months on the funding progress, before the board would decide whether to move forward.
Jenkins said Bennington residents won’t have to shoulder any of the cost.
“There’s no cost to the taxpayer,” she said in an interview. “This is all looking at using the (American Rescue Plan Act) funds, really, as a springboard for finding other sources to put this project together.”
