WCAX: Businesses Hear Burlington Waterfront Plan

Burlington, Vermont – January 10, 2008

A proposal to renovate the old Moran power plant on the Burlington waterfront was up for a public meeting Thursday night. Earlier, the idea was floated past Burlington business leaders. Whether to use the old building, or just tear it down, has been controversial ever since voters three years ago rejected a plan to move the YMCA to the waterfront.

The Burlington Business Association (BBA) heard more about a proposal to develop the property. “I think we’re put a really good package together,” Mayor Bob Kiss, P-Burlington, told the group. “We’re working hard to get that information out to the people of Burlington.”

The plan to make the plant into an ice climbing and family recreation center would be paid for from four sources: The Ice Factor, a Scotland-based recreation company that specializes in ice climbing, with seven-to-eight million dollars of private investment. The Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center, a non-profit that would pump in $3.5 million. The Green Mountain Children’s Museum, another non-profit for $2.1 million. And the city, with $7.5 million, possibly including federal funds obtained by Vermont’s congressional delegation — for a total of $21 million.

Kiss said preliminary planning looks favorable. “We’ve had real cost estimates to build this budget,” he told WCAX News, “and the tenants, the Ice Factor, the Sailing Center and Museum, all are ready and prepared to move forward.”

The Ice Factor has renovated similar old industrial buildings, including one in Scotland. Ice Factor founder Jamie Smith said, “If you see the before-and-after, people who look at the Moran now just see brown bricks, ruined state of disrepair. And really, imagine the north end of the Moran plant glazed off, a wonderful terraced bar up there, looking onto the lake and the Adirondacks.”

Supporters of the Moran Center, as the project would be known, acknowledge that they have their work cut out to convince voters that this is a viable project, unlike the YMCA proposal that took a drubbing at the polls in 2005. The city council’s tri-partisan Parks, Arts and Recreation committee unanimously voted to recommend a ballot question, and the full City Council votes January 21st whether to put the proposal on the March 4th city ballot, as an advisory question.

Andy Potter – WCAX News
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7606619&nav=4QcS