Friday, October 19, 2018
Michael Marshall, 61, pleaded no contest to possession of stolen property worth more than $900, a felony. Two other charges, identity theft and false impersonation, were dismissed.
Marshall's attorney, Margaret Jansch, argued that Marshall had unwittingly been swept up in a more complicated scam targeting the Burlington developer.
Tags: Burlington Town Center , Don Sinex , CityPlace Burlington , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Owners vacated the homes when the airport bought them in 2016 and 2017 after federal noise standards deemed them uninhabitable. The seven Lily Lane condos in South Burlington are now owned by the City of Burlington, which had intended to demolish the homes or move them from the zone.
Instead, people who work at the airport now live in them rent-free, as Burlington officials work to convince the Federal Aviation Administration, which funded the purchases, to allow the condos to remain standing. Gene Richards, BTV’s director of aviation, said Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger encouraged him to “exhaust every opportunity there is to have the homes stay where they are.”
Why the change in plans?
A Federal Aviation Administration grant program required the airport to give 39 homeowners near BTV the opportunity to sell their homes in 2016. All of the Lily Lane owners took advantage of the offer; the last one sold in June 2017.
As part of the FAA program, about 145 houses near the airport have been removed since 1997. But most were “older and in disrepair” compared to the Lily Lane condos, which are well-constructed, energy-efficient units that were built in 2010, Richards said.
“We’re really hoping we don’t have to remove them,” he said. “It’s a unique and special situation.”
The airport workers who live in them now serve as “security caretakers,” according to Richards. Their presence prevents the kind of looting and vandalism that plagued other homes emptied as part of the program, he said.
Tags: South Burlington , BTV , Burlington International Airport , Gene Richards , Kevin Dorn , Meaghan Emery , Miro Weinberger , mayor , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
The downtown site was ready for the work, Sinex told Seven Days in an email. Not moving forward would delay the project up to three months and would mean higher costs for construction, he told reporters before the council's vote.
The council gave Sinex permission to lay the foundation of the proposed 14-story building before all the project's funding and contracts were in place. Sinex said at the time that he planned to start the foundation work within two weeks.
Nearly six weeks later, he has not filed the paperwork to get a city permit for the foundation, according to Burlington's Department of Public Works.
Tags: Don Sinex , Miro Weinberger , CityPlace Burlington , Kurt Wright , Jane Knodell , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
The Burlington City Council voted 8-2 Monday to alter that agreement in order to get things moving again. Mayor Miro Weinberger had requested in a letter late Friday that the council allow Sinex to build the foundation before he has a contract for the rest of the project.
City councilors raised questions in interviews Monday about what the changes would mean for the project, and whether approving the changes would put the city at greater risk if the project were to fail.
Tags: Don Sinex , CityPlace Burlington , Miro Weinberger , Jane Knodell , Kurt Wright , Adam Roof , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Burlingtonians who responded to a survey this summer want the 91-year-old building dedicated once again to its historic uses as an entertainment venue, civic gathering space and farmers market. Eighty-five percent of respondents also said they would "definitely support" or "probably support" the renovation of the building.
Jerry Lindsley, president of the consulting firm hired by the city to conduct the survey, presented the findings Thursday to about two dozen people at Burlington City Hall.
"There's an affinity for this building," said Lindsley, of the Center for Research & Public Policy, in summarizing the survey results. "It appears [a bond vote] would be successful."
Tags: Memorial Auditorium , Dave Hartnett , CEDO , renovations , Miro Weinberger , mayor , City Council , Burlington , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Scott, Donovan and numerous other officials announced the settlements at a press conference on Newport's City Dock, on the shore of Lake Memphremagog. "This is a major step forward as we continue to recover from the effects of the EB-5 developments," said Scott. "The dark cloud that's been hanging over us is beginning to lift."
The settlements will clear the way for an independent investigation of the role played by officials in the administration of Peter Shumlin, who was governor when Stenger and Quiros' abuses of the EB-5 program took place. Auditor Doug Hoffer will lead the probe; he gave no timeline for its completion, noting that his staff will be sorting through more than a million pages of documents.
The closing of the civil cases should also allow Newport to explore opportunities to develop "The Hole," an entire downtown block that was razed to make room for one of the Quiros/Stenger projects, and which has remained a blight on the city's streetscape. "We are now moving forward with the development of Main Street," said Newport Mayor Paul Monette. "We can start over and create our own destiny."
Tags: T.J. Donovan , Phil Scott , Paul Monette , Doug Hoffer , Ariel Quiros , Bill Stenger , Peter Shumlin , Russell Barr , EB-5 , Image , Web Only
Friday, June 29, 2018
Gov. Phil Scott helped reopen the causeway at a press conference on Friday where he praised the "can-do attitude" of the workers who helped get the trail back up and running.
The bike ferry, which is operated by cycling organization Local Motion, will also start running, transporting bikers across the 200-foot cut to South Hero.
Tags: Local Motion , Phil Scott , governor , bike ferry , Colchester causeway , Island Line Trail , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 25, 2018
CEDO has hired a consulting firm to send out a postcard to every Burlington resident this month, urging them to take an online survey to weigh in on the purpose and design of the building at the corner of South Union and Main streets.
"We want to see what the public thinks is the highest and best use for the building," Lunderville said Monday during an interview with Seven Days.
Tags: Memorial Auditorium , Dave Hartnett , Neale Lunderville , CEDO , Miro Weinberger , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Some say they'll have nowhere to go, given the shortage of affordable housing in Chittenden County.
"They are going to make us homeless," predicted Jamie Thompson.
Thompson works as an aide for a special-needs child and has lived in a one-bedroom efficiency at the motel for three years, she said. She pays $500 a month, and so does her roommate, who Thompson said works at a gas station and a Dunkin' Donuts.
It will be very difficult to find an equivalent $1,000-a-month rental anywhere nearby, Thompson said.
"I don't know what's going to happen," she said. "I really don't. It's a scary thing."
Tags: South Burlington , housing , gas , Skip Vallee , Maple Leaf Motel , Ernest Hoechner , Image , Web Only
Friday, June 15, 2018
Local investors will help pay for and design one of 12 buildings that will make up the development. The "innovation hub" will allow entrepreneurs to work and learn together, get access to startup funds for business, and live in a place that facilitates "the intense collision of ideas and mentoring," according to a description of the project provided by its creators.
The project, called the Vermont Innovation Commons, will "bring talent and capital and business growth and, ultimately, jobs to a place that really needs it," said Mark Naud, who's heading up the effort. "There's ... nothing like that in the state of Vermont or in Burlington, certainly."
Tags: Eric Farrell , Vermont Works , Mark Naud , Robert Zulkowski , Vermont Innovation Commons , Image , Web Only