BENNINGTON — When passing residents peer into the store-level windows of the historic Putnam Block buildings, the unfinished look they sometimes see might be misleading.
The $31 million first phase of the Putnam Block project — to renovate the former Hotel Putnam, the old Courthouse building and the Winslow Building for new retail and residential space — is essentially complete, according to Bill Colvin, point-person for the development group overseeing the three-phase project.
“The Phase 1 contract with [project construction manager] BreadLoaf is complete with only a few punch list items remaining,” Colvin said in an email. “That contract included the exterior upgrades to all three buildings, the site work, completion of the residential units, and the readying of the commercial spaces for fit-up by the tenants.”
He said the amount of “fit-up,” or installation of display counters or other business fixtures, painting and similar work, depends on the lease agreement worked out with the new commercial tenant. In some cases, the general contractor is doing most or all of that work.
Meanwhile, the renovated residential units in the buildings are finished and all are expected to be leased soon. Some of the tenants have already moved in.
During a tour of the three historic structures last week, Andy Paluch, of TPW Real Estate, the lead leasing agent for the project, described the status of the commercial spaces in the three buildings.
Those include planned office space for VNA & Hospice, on the first floor on the parking lot side of the Winslow Building, and space Southwestern Vermont Health Care is preparing in the Winslow for services and for some residential use.
SVHC Public Information Officer Ray Smith said in an email, “Our state-funded early childhood intervention program is relocating to the Winslow Building of the Putnam Block Project. They have outgrown their current space on our campus because they have experienced volume growth. The office space is 2,000 square-feet and includes a conference room/children’s assessment space.”
Additionally, he said, “we will have at least two apartments that we will be using for physician recruitment quarters.”
Bennington College has some office space and some residential units on the upper floors in the Winslow Building, and discussions are under way with prospective owners of a proposed bakery and a grocery store for the lower level, facing Main Street.
The Hotel Putnam building has residences in the upper floors, while retail space is being readied on the lower level, as was the format when the hotel operated. A restaurant also is expected on the first floor.
In the Courthouse building, Global-Z International has space being readied for the upper floor, while on the lower level, a café and a retail business are being considered. The lower level also will have another entrance from the parking lot side, where the former Pennysaver Press rear doors and loading dock were located.
PHASES 2 AND 3
Planning for Phase 2 of the Putnam Block project, encompassing four acres extending out the Washington Avenue to the west, “was paused at the beginning of the pandemic,” Colvin said. “We are just now beginning to start looking at Phase 2 again, but no concrete plans are in place yet.”
The plan prior to the pandemic was for a medical building on Main Street for SVHC and a commercial building next to it.
Phase 3 was proposed as a mix of market rate and affordable housing units along Washington Avenue, west of the Putnam-Courthouse-Winslow parking areas.
The multi-year, $55 million project is being undertaken by the Bennington Redevelopment Group, LLC, a consortium of local organizations, businesses and individual investors, such as SVHC, Bank of Bennington, Global-Z and Bennington College.
Funding has come from a range of historic preservation and job-creation tax credits — grants — sometimes applied for through the town, and private investment.
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March 04, 2021 at 05:40AM
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Putnam Block business tenants into 'fit-up' phase - Bennington Banner
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