CityPlace Burlington: Moving Forward!

BTC Mall Associates, LLC

For Immediate Release:

Don Sinex, Managing Member of the CityPlace Burlington Team, is pleased to announce that they have resolved settlement discussions with Mayor Weinberger and the City of Burlington, and that a settlement agreement will be presented to the City Council for discussion at its February 8 meeting and approval at its February 16 meeting. By working cooperatively and in good faith, the parties were able to resolve all outstanding issues regarding the CityPlace Burlington Project.

“We are excited that now we can move the project forward, pending approval by the City Council in February,” stated Don Sinex, the Managing Member of the CityPlace Burlington Development Team, and “once underway, the project will provide a desperately needed economic ‘shot-in-the-arm’ to Downtown Burlington and surrounding Chittenden County, as well as a much needed stimulus following the devastating impact caused to the community by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Dave Farrington, a CityPlace Burlington Development Partner, added “The project will truly transform downtown Burlington.” Farrington also stated that “throughout the mediation sessions, both the Mayor and Don were committed to find a path forward, and each proposed solutions and negotiated these solutions in an open and cooperative manner and were able to to resolve the open issues. They negotiated in a fair and cooperative way, and working together, they structured an agreement that is good for the City and CityPlace Burlington,” Farrington concluded, “Now we can start the hard work to mobilize and start to construct the project, which includes reviewing our previous construction team, including all subs and other participants that we worked with us the previous design.”

Scott Ireland, President of SD Ireland and a development partner, stated that he is “excited the work will soon be underway.” SD Ireland, acting on behalf of the Development Team, has agreed to serve as the contractor to construct the two new streets if the project is not started by an agreed-upon date. Scott added that constructing the streets will only occur if the project is not able to start by the outside date, and if called upon by the parties, SD Ireland will construct the two new streets at the development team’s sole cost and expenses. Scott noted “the two new streets will improve the community,” and added that the project, once started and completed, “will benefit everyone by adding market-rate and affordable housing, jobs and economic revitalization to Burlington.” Al Senecal, the third local partner in the CityPlace Burlington Team, also expressed his total satisfaction that this agreement has been reached and that the project will now move ahead.

CityPlace Burlington has been redesigned and is now moving through the regulatory and approval process, having recently received a favorable vote from both the Design Advisory Board and the Conservation Board. On March 3rd, the revised project plan will be presented to the Development Review Board (DRB) for approval. Once the DRB issues the amended zoning permit, the CityPlace Burlington Team will initiate all the steps necessary to start construction, including arranging the necessary financing, preparing the required construction drawings, and resolving all other pending matters.

As the Mayor reported in the Press Conference held Friday afternoon, The CityPlace Burlington Team will gift the land to the City of Burlington, and SD Ireland, acting on behalf of the Ownership and Development Team, has agreed to construct the two new streets if the project is unable to start construction by an agreed date. The Development Team also agreed to a request from the Mayor to attempt to make the project less fossil fuel dependent, by making a good faith and reasonable effort to redesign its heating system as an all-electric thermal system. This effort, along with the project’s LEED^® Gold designation, is aligned with the Mayor’s commitment to attain carbon neutrality in Burlington — and the CityPlace Burlington Team is proud to work with the Mayor on the critical challenge of climate change. All concessions made to the City were in recognition of the negative impact caused by delays in the construction of the project, and to move forward with a strengthened commitment to green building.

Since the project was re-acquired in September 2020, The CityPlace Burlington Team has been working to advance this very important project, and this agreement with the Mayor and City removes a major obstacle, allowing everything to move ahead, pending the City Council’s consideration and approval of the agreement.

Following the February 16th City Council vote, the final step in the regulatory approval will be the presentation to the Development Review Board on March 3rd. We will publish updates on the progress in periodic press statements to keep everyone informed.

For Further Information Contact:

Brad Pettengill
VP Marketing, CityPlace Burlington
Devonwood Investors / BTC Mall Associates, LLC
progress@cityplaceburlington.com