[For the full newsletter, including news from GBIC, the Vermont Employer’s Roundup, and upcoming events, please click here.]
Dear partners,
There’s been some good news landing in my inbox recently. Long-awaited efforts are coming to bear and new projects are underway in Chittenden County that will have a big impact on our local economy. Among them:
- After a decade, CityPlace development is set to open the South Tower this summer. The new Burlington Square will have 315 housing units, a hotel, and new retail space in the heart of downtown.
- Contemporary manufacturers like GlobalFoundries are expanding, creating attractive jobs for young people and an opportunity for Vermont to respond with strong career and technical education programs.
- Predevelopment is underway in Burlington’s South End for more than 1,000 housing units, unlocked in part by the legislature’s passage of CHIP last spring.
- Winooski broke ground on the Sugar House Hotel this summer, the last major lot in the city’s 20-year development plan. Adjacent to the hotel will be 83 new workforce housing units and a parking garage.
- Building Burlington’s Future, a new nonprofit led by employers, former city officials, and advocates, launched a grassroots approach to community safety, affordable housing, and the local economy.
- An estimated 4,000 showed up to watch the Vermont Green Football Club win the national championships earlier this month. Amazing!
Taken together, there is a feeling of forward momentum which is expanded upon in this excellent article by Vermont Business Magazine: Chittenden Economic Report: The power of a diversified economy scaled up.
This momentum is important even if you’re reading this in Brattleboro, Rutland or the Northeast Kingdom. Chittenden County is the economic engine of the state with an outsized impact on our economy, and the only county in Vermont experiencing growth. I encourage you to read Art Woolf’s report, The Role of Northwest Vermont in the State Economy.
Big thanks to all of the many individuals and organizations behind these efforts!
– Frank
P.S. Check out the sunset over OnLogic’s headquarters off I-89 in South Burlington!
