BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – About a year ago, the Bellows Falls Development Office was assisting the Windham Development Group (WDG) with a potential redevelopment plan for the now-closed Windham Hotel, located on The Square. Some years before, the group had commissioned a feasibility study by Stevens Associates for renovations and possible usage of the building.
The building is currently owned by the WDG, a group of local business men and women including Pat and Alan Fowler, Jay Eshelman, Tony Elliot, and others. The main goal of the group is to complete a restoration project that includes six 1,100-square-foot apartments and 20 hotel rooms at the hotel.
For the project, development director Gary Fox had previously applied for Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) of some $2 million in order to take care of some code issues that were causing the building renovation costs to be much too high. The senator’s office then called, saying they were intrigued with the project, and possibly interested in moving the project forward to subcommittee for appropriations.
However, the federal funding program that the funds are generated from is a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from Housing and Urban Development (HUD), meaning that the funds come through state grant applications, allowing the town to subgrant private entities. However, because this funding is through direct appropriation and not a competitive application process, there is too much of a possibility for possible corruption in who receives the funding. Therefore, the funds would need to be appropriated to the town or a nonprofit entity.
“The Bellows Falls Area Developmental Corporation tried to determine if there was some way to take ownership of the building, and still allow the project to go forward in the manner that the WDG wanted,” Gary Fox stated in a recent interview. “But the timeframe was such that it turned out to not be possible, therefore, the $2 million CDS request had to be withdrawn.”
A few months later, the town, along with the Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance, attempted to work with WDG to create some kind of model unit for display, as part of the Historic Preservation and Downtown Program statewide conference held in Bellows Falls. That particular exercise worked, but further efforts to collaborate on a developmental project for the hotel did not result.
“However, this does not mean that the Windham Development Group, the owners of the hotel, will not be making an effort to redevelop the hotel,” Fox said. “In fact, I believe they are trying [to do just that].”
Fox was also asked about a reported $2 million earmark for the restoration project, for which he replied, “There are no earmarks [for a project such as this], there are Congressionally Directed Spending requests. There are no grant applications, as members of our federal delegation often put together the opportunity, and give notice to people that they can fill out a form available on their website, along with information about the CDS and what is eligible, and how to make a request.”
Currently there are no planned renovations, according to Fox. “The owners are probably still trying to redevelop the hotel, and may be attempting a CDS request. They may have a plan already, or may be using the same plans we were, from a seven-year-old feasibility study.”
The main hurdle that needs to be cleared is having the owners, Windham Development Group, create a new redevelopment plan, which could include a possibility such as selling the hotel to developers, complete with cost estimates, and to develop the equity and funding mechanism or proper financing to redevelop the building. A timeline of all these activates would need to first be prepared.
In a recent interview with Bellows Falls town manager Scott Pickup, he expressed a willingness to work with the developers of this project. “The Historic Preservation Conference this past spring was a great catalyst for reimagining the nonretail floors for some type of housing,” Pickup said. “Or long-term stay, furnished apartments, or perhaps some other housing/hotel usage.
“The town will work with the WDG to try and secure some kind of funding to offset the cost of building and fire code compliance, and any other programs, to see this historically important, downtown space come back to life.”