Overview Mayor Bob Kiss has put forth a proposal for the redevelopment of the Moran Plant which would include a world-class indoor ice and rock climbing facility, restaurant and café, children’s museum and expanded community sailing center. Year-round, public access to the building (including observation deck) and all activities within the building are targeted at public enjoyment and enrichment. This would create a variety of recreation and education opportunities and amenities to the people of Burlington in a public facility that ensures access and enjoyment of Lake Champlain. Also proposed are upgrades to the bike path, increased green space and park amenities, children’s splash park, seasonal refrigerated skating rink and a rebuilt skate park.

To view a draft of the Moran Report in a printable PDF format, click here. To open, view and/or print this document, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.  If you do not have a current copy of this free software, you can download it now. If you need this document in an alternative format, please call 865-7144.

This concept and program proposed for the redevelopment of the Moran is based on the specific results of the public process and guiding principles.

The Moran Users Group (MUG) consists of organizations that will occupy the building based on the concept. Membership includes:

If you have questions about the proposal, please e-mail kmerriman @ci.burlington.vt.us or call 865-7284.

To review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), click here.

If you have comments on the proposal, contact your City Councilors. To contact your City Councilors, visit http://www.ci.burlington.vt.us/citycouncil/councilors/.

Community Benefits & Public Access

The Moran redevelopment as proposed could provide the following benefits to the community:

• Expand amenities offered at Waterfront park
• Create new lawn: open green area in summer, skating in the winter
• Improve public access to the building and Lake Champlain shoreline
• Provide the public spectacular year-round views of the lake and mountains
• Greatly expand opportunities for year-round activities on the waterfront
• Create a new unique regional activity center
• Expand the local economy
• Create permanent, year-round jobs
• Create new venues for tourism
• Provide new gross receipt and retail sales tax revenues
• Provide new property tax revenues
• Utilize private resources to help create a revenue-generating public asset
• Create construction jobs during building development
• Maintain/enhance the character of the historic waterfront
• Enable the adaptive reuse of an historic asset
• Avoid cost and waste associated with demolition
• Retain the embedded energy in the building's materials

Any proposal for the Moran on Burlington’s waterfront would need to provide significant community benefits as well as ensure public access.

The proposed mix of uses for Moran provides a broad range of services to meet a variety of community needs and interests. The uses vary greatly, with opportunities for both fee-based and free access. It is necessary to have a viable and robust generation of funds from the fee-based activities to subsidize the free and low-cost activities and maintain the public spaces.

To open, view and print this chart in a PDF format, click here.   (Please note that to open this  printable PDF version, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have a current copy of this free software, you can download it now.)

Guiding Principles

• Ensure permanent public ownership and control
• Create year round use
• Create and extend elements of the Waterfront Park
• Minimize undue traffic and parking issues
• Retain the Lake Champlain Sailing Center
• Provide opportunity for new public and private partnerships
• Utilize the existing building shell where cost-effective
• Retain historical elements of interior of North Tower when possible
• Generate income for operations and maintenance
• Keep development costs reasonable
• Utilize the highest standards in energy conservation and green building construction

Structure for Evaluation of the Moran Proposal

The goal is to move the Moran proposal through Conceptual Development and Feasibility stages by January 2008. The groups listed below, appointed by Mayor Kiss, report to the Parks, Arts and Culture Committee; City Council; and the Mayor.

The Moran Advisory Group (MAG), appointed by the Mayor, provided advice on the feasibility study and public process.

Membership included:

• Members from the Waterfront Action Group/Burlington Business Association
• Citizen members, including one from each Ward, and at-large members appointed by the Mayor
• The Parks, Arts and Culture Committee as ex-officio members

The Moran Users Group (MUG) consists of organizations that could occupy the building based on the concept. They have spent the summer resolving and working through issues and details.

Membership included:

• Burlington Parks and Recreation
• Community Sailing Center
• Lake Champlain Maritime Museum*
• Green Mountain Children’s Museum
• Lake Champlain Transportation**
• Ice Factor International

*The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum determined it is not feasible to take on a possible expansion at the Moran. They are committed to working with the various tenants on exhibits and special programming.

**The Lake Champlain Transportation Company with the MAG has determined that it is not feasible to incorporate them into the space available at the Moran for this proposed redevelopment. The City is committed to working with them to address their needs for operations and maintenance if a hotel is developed on a portion of their current location.

Moran Proposal Details

• Exterior Grounds: Remove fencing, landscape, improve public access, improve pedestrian amenities, upgrade shoreline to enhance natural features, landscape for storm water filtration and/or retention
• North Lawn: Winter: install large refrigerated portable skating rink. Summer: remove rink, open grassy park & children’s splash water area
• Ground Floor: Create single large floor at 103’ elevation: Maintain/improve Community Sailing Center facilities, Green Mountain Children’s Museum facilities, public restrooms and shared entrances
• Second Floor: Create single large floor at 116’ elevation: Renovate for Ice Factor
• Third Floor: Restaurant and café with spectacular views at 130’ elevation
• Fourth Floor: Create public terrace with green roof at 146’ elevation
• Tower: Interior climbing wall and/or ice climbing wall, stairwell and elevator, top level floor leave semi-open for mechanical/utilities, possible observation point, and future energy retrofits. Observation balconies at the 166’ elevation.

Highlights of Infrastructure and Site Improvements

• Significant upgrades to the bike path
• Improved road surfaces and safety
• Penny Lane reconfigured, with a new pedestrian-only walkway created
• New vehicle access created between the Moran and Water Department buildings
• Improved safety at intersections
• New pedestrian paths throughout the site greatly enhance pedestrian access
• Skate park upgrades and expansion
• Parking to facilitate public access to the Moran and north waterfront
• Seasonal, refrigerated portable ice rink on the north lawn
• Children’s splash water area
• Landscaping that minimizes the visual impact of parking and assists in treating storm water runoff
• Extend the amenities and landscape features of Waterfront Park

This draft conceptual site plan is very basic and shows how activities could be arranged on the site.

Development Budget

The Development Budget includes construction costs plus the cost of all other aspects of the project. A detailed development budget is included in the Appendix.

The allocation of the costs for the development of the Moran Center is as follows:

The allocation is based upon fit up estimates of the users as well as a substantial portion of the redevelopment of the Moran building itself. A detailed description of the allocation can be found in the Appendix.

The sources for these costs are still fluid. Several principles are recommended:

• Users of the building will be responsible for capital fundraising and financing for their space and for a portion of the overall buildings redevelopment. The users will have and are developing the capacity to raise funds and finance their improvements
• The City will seek federal sources for its share. The identification of these sources are preliminary, but are based upon a recent history of opportunities in federal funding for the past several years.

The chart below represents the recommended approach to the funding and financing of Moran.

Cost Estimate to Tear Down Building and Build a Public Park

The demolition estimate for Moran was prepared by MERKUR Construction, a Vermont company with many years of construction experience and reviewed by City staff.

The Park construction estimates were provided by SE Group, a Vermont landscape Architecture firm with many years of experience, and the Parks and Recreation Department. These estimates were reviewed by City staff.

This estimate does not include a new facility for the Community Sailing Center.

This scenario is unlikely to qualify for significant federal funding, and the costs would be borne by the citizens of Burlington. It creates ongoing operations and maintenance costs for the Parks and Recreation Department without a source of revenue. This scenario would not generate new tax revenue for the City.

Timeline and Next Steps

The following are some key activities undertaken over the past several months.

May 2007

• Finance Board and City Council actions directing CEDO to conduct feasibility study
• Presentations to Neighborhood Planning Assemblies
• Update to Parks Commission
• Moran Users Group (MUG) developing needs of tenancy

May - June 2007

• Conceptual development
• Refinement
• Moran Advisory Group (MAG) meetings
• MAG and MUG continue work

July – September 2007

• Feasibility
• MAG and MUG meeting to evaluate and refine information
• Presentations to City Council Parks, Arts and Culture Committee; Parks Commission; Finance Board; and full Council as needed

The following activities will be undertaken over the next several months.

October 2007-January 2008

Presentations and community feedback on the MAG and MUG work on the draft feasibility report to Neighborhood Planning Assemblies & other community groups.

• Burlington Business Association & Waterfront Action Group - October 11
• Open House at Moran - October 13
• Waterfront Housing residents - October 15
• Ward 5 NPA - October 23
• Ward 6 NPA - November 1
• Conservation Board - November 5
• Ward 2/3 NPA - November 8
• City Council - November 13
• Ward 1 NPA - November 14
• Ward 4/7 NPA - November 15
• Planning Commission - November 27
• Burlington Rotary - December 3
• Public Information meeting - December 13
• Public Information meeting - January 3
• Public Information meeting - January 10

January 2008

• City Council will decide whether to place the Moran on a March advisory ballot

March 2008

• Advisory Ballot vote on Town Meeting Day
• Continued Public Process, including Open Studio for design of park land and skate park

November 2008

• If needed: financing vote to the voters

The typical sequence for the stages of development are concept, feasibility, pre-development, construction, and facility management. The Mayor has presented a concept that is now entering the feasibility stage. If the concept is supported by the voters in March 2008, then pre-development would begin.