The Burlington Town Center redevelopment cleared another hurdle Monday night when the city council voted to approve a zoning amendment that will allow developer Don Sinex to build up to 14 stories high.

In a 7-4 vote, the council decided to increase the maximum building height permitted on the site of Burlington Town Center from 105 feet to 160 feet. The height limit applies to a new zoning “overlay” district that also includes several surrounding properties such as the College Street and Lakeview parking garages.

The height change has been a major source of contention, with opponents arguing that it’s too tall and that the city shouldn’t change its zoning to cater to one developer’s project. 

The antipasto salad is just a memory, and now the shuttered Bove's Café building could soon disappear too. 

Rick Bove, grandson of the Italian eatery's founders, is proposing to demolish the restaurant building at 64 Pearl Street in Burlington to make way for a $14 million apartment complex. It would include two buildings, one with 39 units and another with 17 units, as well as a 60-car underground garage.

The development would add 50 net units of housing on the edge of downtown, after subtracting what would be lost in demolition. The proposal also calls for demolishing two 19th-century apartment houses around the corner, at 13 and 19 George Street. 

The red brick General Stannard House on the corner of George and Pearl streets would be renovated, according to the application Bove filed with the city. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The restaurant, with its iconic 1940s art deco facade and pistachio interior, closed last December after serving up meatballs and red sauce for more than 70 years. It survived a 1960s urban renewal spree that razed much of Burlington's Little Italy. Over the decades, it served legions of hungry college kids, families and politicians. 

Gov. Peter Shumlin and Caledonia County officials on Thursday celebrated the opening of the Burke Mountain Hotel & Conference Center, one of many Northeast Kingdom projects whose completion was thrown into doubt by the EB-5 foreign-investor scandal.

Speakers said the $66 million hotel was desperately needed to keep the ski resort and surrounding communities economically viable, but they acknowledged the controversy surrounding it.

The hotel was one of many projects of former Jay Peak Resort president Bill Stenger and his business partner, Ariel Quiros, that were funded by foreigners who each invested at least $500,000 in exchange for citizenship consideration. In April, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil case against the men that accused them of running a "Ponzi-like" scheme and defrauding investors out of $200 million.

The SEC recently entered a settlement agreement with Stenger, and it continues to pursue the case against Quiros. The U.S. Attorney's Office has not ruled out pursuing criminal charges against both men.

Shumlin, in both prepared remarks to the crowd and later with reporters, offered a full-throated defense of his administration's work both in detecting alleged wrongdoing and then allowing construction and investing in the Burke hotel to continue after the SEC filed suit.

Former Jay Peak Resort president Bill Stenger has reached a settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in its civil case alleging fraud in the Northeast Kingdom EB-5 investor program.

Stenger, who along with former business partner Ariel Quiros was accused of running a “Ponzi-like scheme” in their development projects, agreed to cooperate with investigators and forfeit any right to an appeal in paperwork filed in U.S. District Court in Florida on Thursday.

The agreement said Stenger could incur a financial penalty, but did not specify an amount. The SEC’s case against Quiros is still pending.

In a complaint filed in April, the SEC alleged that the men defrauded international investors of $200 million and “omitted key information” while raising money for the Northeast Kingdom Economic Development Initiative — a series of projects planned for Jay, Newport and Burke. The developers allegedly swindled several hundred immigrant investors, who each invested at least $500,000 in exchange for eligibility for U.S. citizenship. 

VTDigger.org reported that Stenger released a statement after reaching the agreement saying that he was “fully cooperating” with the court-appointed administrator who has taken over business operations in the NEK and that the agreement “sets up a framework to fully resolve the case the SEC filed against me.”
“Based upon the terms of the settlement, this is all I can say and will be saying,” Stenger said, according to VTDigger. “I ask that you please respect that I will not be making any more public statements about the settlement nor about the case. I want to focus my efforts fully to assist the receiver and to help the investors.”

The agreement does not cover any potential criminal investigation. It bars Stenger from participating in any EB-5 programs, except for work to help a court-appointed receiver in the Northeast Kingdom. Stenger also agreed to “appear and be interviewed” by SEC staff upon request.

U.S. Attorney Eric Miller, who has previously said he could launch a criminal investigation into Stenger and Quiros’ activities, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The agreement is here:

Bill Stenger