White River Junction
Green Mountain Economic Development Corp. let expire an option to purchase a 60-acre parcel of land off Sykes Mountain Avenue for $1.55 million that was intended to provide space for businesses seeking manufacturing, storage and distribution facilities. Green Mountain is a nonprofit designed to spur economic growth on the Vermont side of the Upper Valley.
“We just found out we couldn’t find a buyer for it and without a buyer we couldn’t afford to exercise our option,” said Peter Van Oot, chairman of Green Mountain. “We had a number of positive conversations but were surprised there wasn’t much of a concrete demand for the five or so lots.”
Van Oot said the inability to secure tenants and a developer was “incredibly frustrating” because the parcel fell within Hartford’s “designated growth center” — an area designated by the state to encourage economic growth by streamlining permitting for development. Businesses locating in a designated growth center can avoid some of the burdens imposed by Act 250 land-use regulations and review.
The Sykes Mountain Avenue parcel is owned by Valley Land Corp., a land-leasing company that owns real estate that was assembled by the late Frank M. Gilman during the 1950s. The sale of the parcel to Green Mountain Economic Development Corp. was to mark the last of Valley Land Corp.’s commercially zoned real estate holdings in the area.
Reginald Jones, president of Valley Land Corp., said he is in negotiations to sell the property to another party, which he declined to identify. Valley Land Corp. has been in the process of liquidating its real estate holdings and has sold an adjacent seven-acre parcel and building that formerly housed a bowling alley to Richard MacLeay, owner of the Car Store, a Subaru dealership now located in Norwich.
The anchor tenant in the Green Mountain project was initially expected to be Provisions International Ltd., a White River Junction specialty food distributor to restaurants, food cooperatives, independent grocers and specialty food stores in northern New England. The company was going to utilize one of Green Mountain Economic Development Corp.’s Sykes Mountain Avenue buildings as a distribution center and offices, according to a description of the project outlined by Hartford officials to the Selectboard.
But Provisions International now seeks to build its distribution center at Plaza Heights off Interchange Drive in West Lebanon, adjacent to the FedEx facility, according to plans it has submitted to the city of Lebanon. The company has submitted a site plan for a four-acre site that is on the agenda to be taken up at the city’s regular April 11 Planning Board meeting.
“A growing Hartford business, Provisions International, with 25 employees was interested in this property but it was too much land for it to develop,” Lori Hirshfield, director of Hartford’s Planning and Development Services, wrote in a January 2016 memo to the Hartford Selectboard in support of seeking a $30,000 Vermont Community Development Program planning grant to fund a feasibility analysis and engineering study of the site. “… If (Green Mountain Economic Development Corp.) did not step up, Provisions International would be relocating to N.H.; instead it will be purchasing the first lot.”
Provisions International president Wendy Hallgren declined to comment about the company’s reasons for shifting back to its original plan and relocating to New Hampshire.
Van Oot said that only about 20 acres of the 60-acre parcel can be developed into a business park because the remaining 66 percent of the property is wooded and on a slope. Nonetheless, the 20 acres was room enough to build four to five lots ranging in size from 30,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet each. Because the development would have occurred in a designated growth center, he noted, tenants would have been able to tap low-interest state and federal financing programs in addition to the expedited permitting process.
Moreover, Sykes Mountain Avenue already has the required water and sewer infrastructure, and the road is on the state’s list to be upgraded with roundabouts to facilitate traffic flow.
Van Oot said Green Mountain Economic Development Corp. talked with “at least a dozen” parties “but we were never able to get someone to sign an option agreement.” And without the commitment of tenants, Van Oot acknowledged, a developer is unwilling to take on the project because financiers are unwilling to fund the project without the security of a future income stream.
Hartford’s Designated Growth Center — the largest of the six DGC’s in the state — was created in 2010 and comprises 2,000 acres and encompasses White River Junction, Hartford Village and Wilder. Hirshfield, the Department of Planning and Development Services director, credited GMEDC with being a catalyst for development in the region but for the Sykes Avenue project to succeed “everything needed to line up.” She said her department has subsequently received inquiries about the availability of property from representatives of potential investors, although she noted it is too early to know where those inquiries will lead.
Joan Goldstein, the former executive director of Green Mountain Economic Development Corp. who shepherded the Sykes Mountain Avenue project before she departed to become Vermont’s Commissioner of Economic Development in Montpelier, said “maybe it won’t be (Green Mountain Economic Development Corp.) that’s developing (Sykes Mountain Avenue) but hopefully it will be accommodating growth for businesses in the area” under another sponsor. “I am still a very firm believer that there is that need.”
Although Goldstein has not been involved with the Sykes Mountain Avenue project since she went to work for the state last year, “the nitty gritty is the anchor tenant did go away, so that’s too bad. They definitely needed that in order to make this thing work.”
John Lippman can be reached at 603-727-3219 or jlippman@vnews.com.
