CityPlace Burlington to Be Fully Built by 2023, New Docs Show – Seven Days

Once completed in 2023, CityPlace Burlington will boast 318 apartments, a rooftop restaurant, a 174-room hotel and nearly 700 parking spaces.

Construction on themuch-delayed project will begin in August 2020 and is expected to wrap up 30 months later.

Thats according to new documents that project majority owner Brookfield Asset Management filed with the city late last week. The Burlington City Councils Board of Finance will review them at its meeting Monday night.

The memos provide the first glimpse into the new design since Brookfield unveiled its scaled-down proposal nearly a month ago. The 14-story towers in the original design, which spurred lawsuits and financial challenges, were replaced by 10-story buildings.

The submitted designs don't include plans for the former Macy's building, which was not part of the original project but is now envisioned as the future home of the University of Vermont Medical Center offices.

In July, Brookfield announced that the scope, scale, and the timing of construction would change.

The scaled-down design uses lighter weight steel and is now projected to cost $120 million to build, according to the documents.

The memos reveal that the development agreement between the developers and city will likely need to be amended. And still uncertain is the exact amount of revenue the new proposal will bring in to pay back debt incurred by tax-increment financing.

In 2016, Burlington voters approved a $21.8 million TIF bond toto fix up sidewalks and rebuild streets lost to the former Burlington Town Center mall decades ago. Such debt is meant to be repaid with additional tax revenue, known as increment, generated by the new project.

Jeff Glassberg, a liaison between the city and the developers, wrote in a memo that TIF funds from the project will pay for the reopening of Pine and St. Paul streets and "streetscape upgrades" to parts of Cherry and Bank streets that abut the project. It's unclear if the money will fund everything initially envisioned.

The memos also outline the projects phasing and amenities. New schematics for the hotels southern tower show seven retail spaces on the ground level, topped off with a rooftop restaurant, community space and observation deck.

The residential tower on the north side of the site will feature 121 studios, 142 one-bedrooms and 55 two-bedroom units. The designs dont specify the rental rates, but Brookfield has committed to making 20 percent of them affordable as required by Burlington's inclusionary zoning ordinance.

Brookfield also anticipates having to undergo state permitting under Act 250 because of the hotel concept. The developers say a hotel is responsive to market demand and can contribute to the continued dynamism of downtown Burlington.

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CityPlace Burlington to Be Fully Built by 2023, New Docs Show - Seven Days