CEDO, two nonprofit technical assistance providers (the Intervale Center and the Women’s Small Business Program) and ReCycle North expended $389,880 in CDBG funds this year. CDBG-funded economic development activities supported the start-up of 32 new businesses, helped to retain/expand 20 businesses, and led to the creation/retention of 561.5 FTE permanent plus 1,156 construction jobs. The accomplishments of each program are described below and in the Goals, Strategies and Funded Activities section of this Report as they relate to each economic development priority. Overall, economic development programs leveraged $45,732,153 this year in private and other public funds for program operating costs and project costs – a ratio of 118:1 of leveraged to CDBG funds.

Technical Assistance and Entrepreneurial Training

CDBG funding supported the provision of technical assistance to local businesses and entrepreneurs through a variety of programs and in a variety of ways:

The Community & Economic Development Office (CEDO) provides one-on-one assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs. This year, CEDO provided direct information, referrals and/or technical assistance to 371 people, businesses, and nonprofits. These services helped 30 new businesses to start up and 16 businesses to survive and/or expand, with 408.5 new FTE jobs created and 149 FTE jobs retained. In addition:

CEDO distributed 985 paper copies and 720 CD copies of its Guide to Doing Business in Burlington this year. Also available online, it includes comprehensive guidance, a collection of nearly every local, state, and federal form of use to a business, and business planning templates and spreadsheets to forecast and evaluate financial data. The 196-page Resource Guide for Chittenden County Employers and Employees is also available online, as are the Business Refugee Resource Guide and Business Location Information. The City has been awarded a Preserve America grant from the National Parks Service to develop a web-based guide to Burlington’s Cultural and Historic Resources, to promote heritage tourism.

CEDO sponsored and/or supported the Art Hop; the Vermont Software Developers Alliance; a three-day Business Alliance for Local Living Economies seminar; and a Money Smart “train the trainer” seminar provided by Boston FDIC staff. CEDO staff also attended and/or helped to organize meetings and roundtable discussions with food industry and creative-based businesses; the Workforce Development Accelerated Response Team; this year’s annual Federal Reserve Bank of Boston New England Community Development Advisory Committee luncheon; a Women Business Owners Network business fair in Contois; and the Triangle of Excellence. CEDO also supported the formation of the Old North End Arts & Business Network, which now has 23 members.

CEDO maintains and distributes to the public, free of charge, a commercial space database averaging close to one hundred listings throughout the City. The database is offered as hard copy printouts or emailed as an Excel spreadsheet. The listings are sorted by square footage and show acceptable uses, location, floor, broker name and telephone number, rental costs, and a description of each space. The database is updated two times per month and is a convenient one-stop list for business owners. CEDO responded to 104 requests for database information this year.

CEDO manages a Façade Improvement Program funded by Citizen’s Bank. This year, the program made a $2,500 grant to Dion’s Security on North Street, a multigenerational local business.

The Women’s Small Business Program continues to train entrepreneurs through Start Up, a 15-week course that covers business financials, establishing markets, creating business strategies, and personal skills necessary for successful business ownership. CDBG funding supported the tuition for seven low/moderate income Burlington participants in the Start Up training. Of the CDBG-supported participants, five completed bank-ready business plans, four have started up or grown their businesses, one has plans to start in the near future and two plan to start up in the next three to five years. Examples of those businesses include a metal sculptor and signmaker, a children’s photography studio, a farmer’s market vendor and an internet sales business. The Women’s Small Business Program also offers Getting Serious, an introductory course to explore business ownership, with 4 low/moderate income Burlington women participating this year.

In the Intervale, 325 urban agricultural acres produce 6 to 7% of the City’s fresh food. CDBG helps to fund the Farms project, which recruits farmers and provides technical assistance to farm operations. This year, the Intervale added 2 new farms to the program, had one farmer “graduate” to purchase a farm outside the Intervale, and saw all twelve existing farms maintain their employment levels. The Farms project also initiated the Burlington Food Hub project, intended to provide new market outlets for Intervale farmers with large institutions, restarants and a multi-farm CSA program. CDBG also funded the Healthy City program, which recruited and trained 25 youth entrepreneurs in an eight-week farm business program. This program also harvested and distributed produce to low-income residents at twelve sites throughout the City, including the Summer Lunch programs at Roosevelt Park and Franklin Square.

Business Loans

In addition to technical assistance, CEDO provided working capital loans to two businesses this year: PieMatrix and SemiProbe, both located at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies on the former Trinity Campus.

Tax Incentives

Renewal Community tax incentives are available to spur economic development in the downtown and Old North End areas of Burlington. To date, almost $23 million in Commercial Revitalization Deductions (which allow for accelerated depreciation) have been awarded to assist with the construction/rehabilitation of over 198,000 sq. ft. of commercial space. Information on the use of other Renewal Community tax incentives is difficult to gather, since the most accurate data source - the Internal Revenue Service - is not available. Telephone surveying among Renewal Community businesses suggests that the wage credit - up to $1,500 a year for each employee who lives and works in the Renewal Community - is one incentive that businesses are finding to be most useful. CDBG funding pays for outreach and administration of the Renewal Community program.

CEDO also assists businesses with tax incentives for commercial renovation available through the City’s Designated Downtown District.

Job Training

Several livable jobs training programs were underway locally this past year. Dealer.com, which purchased and is renovating part of the former Specialty Filaments building on Pine Street, is running free apprenticeship programs in software development and customer service. The Aviation Tech training program continues, with a state commitment in place to subsidize $4,000 per successful student. Among its array of job training programs, ReCycle North continued the YouthBuild program this year. This last program was supported with CDBG funding.

Brownfields

Brownfields are commonly discovered in Burlington during real estate transactions, when an assessment has been performed in advance of property sale and/or redevelopment. Another time when contamination is unearthed is during excavation when a previously unknown condition is found. There are also a large number of abandoned underground storage tanks (possibly several hundred city-wide) that are discovered during site assessments, ground penetrating radar surveys, and/or site excavation.

Whenever a site is found to be contaminated at levels considered hazardous to human health and/or the environment, this information must, under state law, be immediately submitted to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. This information is then placed in a hazardous Sites database, assigned a Site ID number, and a publicly accessible file opened. A short description of activities at each site is published on-line in a searchable database. Sites remain on this database until they are considered not a threat to human health or the environment. The database includes everything from contaminated properties just discovered to relatively “clean” sites that have been undergoing follow-up monitoring for years.

The City uses CDBG funding to help pay for professional staff to run the brownfields program, an expense not fully covered by EPA brownfields funding. Over the first four program years covered by this Consolidated Plan, 23.25 acres of brownfields in the City have been remediated. A number of the development projects listed below are brownfields projects, as are several housing projects and public facility projects.

Major Development Projects

The Community & Economic Development Office is actively working on the development/redevelopment of the following projects:

• Filling the last remaining vacant parcel in the City’s Urban Renewal area are a new 127-room hotel creating 41 full-time and two part-time jobs, a 278-space expansion of the Lakeview parking garage and a 139-space parking garage, with 31 units of housing and 20,000 sq. ft. of commercial space to come. Redevelopment of this site was facilitated with a $1.8 million Section 108 loan, which has been repaid. Total cost for constructing this fiscal year for the hotel and housing was $9,163,000.
• CEDO and the Burlington Community Development Corporation are working with Chris Cornell to develop 22,000 sq. ft of commercial space and 22,000 sq. ft of housing (or 12 units, three of which are inclusionary housing units), on the waterfront at 131 Battery Street. Public infrastructure will be installed including sidewalks, currently non-existent on either side of the property. The project received city zoning approval on December 21, 2004 but was delayed by a lawsuit. Construction is due to begin in the fall of 2007.
• After review of detailed public surveys, written comments, and results from public meetings, a proposal for a multi-use recreational and cultural center at the decommissioned Moran Generating Station was presented by the Mayor for public review and comment. CEDO is conducting feasibility, technical, and environmental studies to support the public process around the potential redevelopment of the site. CEDO is coordinating a Task Force, potential users group, and several consultants to complete a full feasibility report. Voter action is anticipated in March 2008.
• The Vermont Center for Emerging Technology at the University of Vermont’s Trinity Campus had four tenants this year, with three graduations. CEDO supported two tenants with working capital loans.
• Infrastructure renovations on the Church Street Marketplace will continue with $6 million in federal funding.
• CEDO is working with the new managing partner of the Burlington Town Center to increase visibility (a $2 million “facelift” on the Church Street entrance with new signage) and sales as well as on Cherry Street redevelopment options. The Town Center picked up five new permanent retail tenants this year. Burlington Telecom is providing the Mall with fiber optic services
• General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products started construction on the final phases of its $50 million engineering Center of Excellence, their premier technology incubator nationwide including the renovation of 14,500 sq. ft costing $1,900,000 and the creation of five new jobs this year. The City continues to work with General Dynamics and Gilbane Properties on redevelopment opportunities on property across the street.
• Coffee Enterprises has a five-year lease for the Blodgett Office building and completed a $550,000 gut rehab of the 10,000 sq. ft. building, creating two new jobs.
• The City worked with Specialty Filaments to sell their property at 444 Pine Street to Lake Champlain Chocolates and Dealer.com. Champlain Chocolates completed a $3,200,000 renovation on 46,000 sq. ft. of the property (creating five full-time and four part-time jobs) and is the first LEED registered warehouse and distribution project in Vermont. CEDO will be providing a $50,000 grant to Dealer.com to purchase the second half of the building, and they plan on a complete “gut rehab.” Dealer.com established three workforce training programs with VTHITEC, training 29 new employees, and hired six additional new employees this fiscal year.
• The City has received federal transportation monies for pre-development of the South End Transit Center. The land for the project has been acquired and a site assessment performed.
• The Airport has received state and city permits and has begun to expand the Industrial Park by 15 acres.
• The City is working with Redstone Commercial and the Champlain Housing Trust on the mixed-use redevelopment of the downtown BankNorth site and on the redevelopment of the former Shanana (Hunts Armory) site at 101 Main Street. An historic renovation of the 15,000 sq. ft. Main Street property for commercial use and of a 15,000 sq. ft. property on St. Paul Street for housing is underway.

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