As seen in Burlington Free Press - Vermont

Burlington Approves Plan to Remodel the Moran Plant

By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer

March 4, 2008
Burlington voters gave Mayor Bob Kiss a resounding endorsement Tuesday, approving three administration ballot items by large margins.

At the top of the list was the mayors plan to remodel the waterfront Moran plant the hulking generating plant which was decommissioned more than 20 years ago.

The Kiss plan was approved by 65 percent of the voters. The city total was 7,585 in favor of redevelopment and 4,016 opposed.

In 2005, voters in every ward rejected a plan by former Mayor Peter Clavelle to sell the plant to the Greater Burlington YMCA. Tuesday, the outcome was the reverse, and the Kiss plan won by large margins in all seven wards.

Kiss publicized his plan last spring and promoted it relentlessly. His approach worked. Thirteen of 14 city councilors supported his development plan, and last week the Burlington Business Association, the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce and the businesses of the Church Street Marketplace urged voter approval.

The $21 million development plan calls for the building to be developed by a private company, Ice Factor, which plans a world-class ice-climbing and rock-climbing wall inside the plant. Ice Factor will also open an upper-floor restaurant overlooking Lake Champlain, a cafe, and will operate an outdoor ice-skating rink in season.

Two non-profits will join the Ice Factor in pulling together the development dollars for the project: the Green Mountain Childrens Museum and the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center (which has operated out of the old plant).

The land around the plant will become part of Waterfront Park. The Parks Department will manage the building, and the tenants will cover operating costs. The city plans to apply for state and federal grant to cover its $7.4 million share of the development cost.

Tuesday night, Ice Factor spokesman Phil McCully, speaking from Montreal, was excited. Marvelous, just marvelous, he repeated several times. Im just thrilled. That building has been sitting there for what? Twenty-three years? Its marvelous that we can turn something like that into something useful. This will be our jewel.

The Ice Factor turned an abandoned aluminum factory in Scotland into an ice-climbing facility, and it has built similar walls in Dubai, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

This wasn't a squeaker, McCully said of the vote. This is a bit of a mandate.

I'm encouraged, Kiss said of the Moran results, which he attributed to the hard work of a lot of people. Im happy, he said. It was a very positive vote, an optimistic vote, on all the ballot items.

Kiss said the next step, to begin at once, will be to create a development agreement for Ice Factor, the two non-profits and the city.

And in the meantime, he said, the city and its partners will begin raising the necessary money and will firm up plans for required engineering and architectural work at the plant.

Kiss said that he has no timeline for creating an agreement but hopes to have one ready for public scrutiny by June.

The second ballot question called for demolition of the plant, with the land to be made into an extension of Waterfront Park. It was opposed by 54 percent of city voters, 6,188 to 5,314.

Voters also approved two questions allowing the sale of $39 million in bonds for Burlington Electric Department capital improvements and emissions cleanup at the McNeil Generating Plant.

Finally, they gave their approval to an increase in the property tax deduction for disabled veterans from $20,000 to $40,000.

Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com .