Projects on the Waterfront and Downtown

Main Street Landing Company
Lake and College Street Redevelopment Project

Once the region’s lively, bustling center of transportation and manufacturing activity, Burlington’s Waterfront played a major role in the early history of the City. During the last century, however, as commerce and transportation turned away from Lake Champlain to locations more convenient to roads and highways, more than 100 acres of urban waterfront land were left blighted, neglected, underutilized, and /or inappropriately utilized. Remnants of past industrial uses, such as junkyards, auto body shops, coal plants and oil storage terminals were abundant.

The project site, at the corner of Lake and College Streets, once housed a large lumber mill which burned in the 1920’s, leaving the location neglected and disused. Currently black top parking and an embankment retaining wall, the project will create public access, mixed-use environs, cultural amenities, and an architectural backdrop to Lake Champlain. The 113,000 sq. ft. project includes a 56-car underground parking garage, a movie house, a black box theater, a restaurant, office and retail space, sculpture gardens, and public promenades and terraces.

A series of pedestrian friendly businesses and shops staggered along Lake Street’s edge will provide a mix of small retail spaces housing locally owned businesses, shops, and artist studios. The office space on the second floor will also house local businesses.

The architectural style will use brick, stone, slate, and traditional local materials, accented with New England forms and geometry. A mix of exterior designs will give the look of several individual buildings like those seen on lower Battery Street. A greenhouse/solarium will create a view corridor at the corner of College and Lake.

The project abuts the Battery Park Extension to the west. A pedestrian linkage from the Extension to the Waterfront has been developed with a central overlook, stair, and elevator system whereby the public can walk from the park through the project to the Waterfront. The steeply sloped embankment will be improved into a terraced usable public environment, creating approximately 18,000 square feet of new City park space.

The overall cost of the project is estimated at $12 million. The project received a 2003 CRD allocation of $10 million, which was critical to it moving forward. An estimated 500 people will be employed during project construction, and approximately 250 permanent jobs will be created – all with the opportunity for use of Renewal Community wage credits. Groundbreaking for the project took place on July 1, 2003.

“Without the CRD tax allocation, the public amenities of this project would have dragged down the project financially. With the CRD, we are able to provide a wonderful community resource with enormous cultural amenities, public promenades, 18,000 square feet of additional park space, and public linkages from downtown to the City's Waterfront, and create a financially viable commercial project. It was the CRD that made this very public-private project work financially, and Main Street Landing and the citizens of Burlington are extremely grateful.
Check out our web site at Mainstreetlanding.com to learn more.”

Melinda Moulton
Main Street Landing Company
Union Station - One Main Street
Burlington, Vermont 05401