For 20 years, the city of Winooski, Vermont has been implementing its Downtown Redevelopment Project using Tax Increment Financing. City and state officials gathered Wednesday in the downtown to celebrate how the downtown has changed.
In 2000 the city formed a downtown Tax Increment Financing district and received state designation in 2003. Today, the $175 million project has resulted in renovated historic buildings, new mixed use buildings, new infrastructure and traffic patterns and plans for further development.
Standing in Rotary Park, created in the center of a large and busy roundabout, Mayor Kristine Lott said the downtown has been reborn over the past 20 years.
“We stand where once a massive surface parking lot anchored our downtown," Lott said. "From an old mill town that struggled for decades to today where we see the realization of a vibrant walkable downtown this rebirth allowed us to retain historic blocks while adding new businesses, jobs and opportunity to our community. We created a vital downtown and we are proud of our thriving restaurant and night life scene. We’re proud of the increased housing stock across affordability levels and of the public spaces that were created including this park, the beautiful Riverwalk and a public parking garage and transit hub. The new tax revenue generated has increased our municipal budget significantly allowing us to increase community services and infrastructure upgrades.”
Vermont Department of Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein offered data showing how the work to renovate the downtown has improved Winooski’s finances.
“Winooski data shows that the TIF district has resulted in more than 400 units of housing," Goldstein reported. "Businesses have reported creating more than 800 jobs since at least 2013. They’ve added at least 15 new storefronts as well. Winooski has also experienced significant growth in sales, use, meals and alcohol tax collections from about $11-and-a-half million in 2004 to about $40-and-a-half million today. Existing commercial spaces were reimagined like the Champlain Mill along the Winooski River. VSAC (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation) and Community College of Vermont built new buildings here within the TIF. And Winooski isn’t finished. The city has issued a permit for soil remediation for a parcel along Abenaki Way that could see further redevelopment.”
Winooski is scheduled to make its final TIF debt payment in May and officially close the TIF district in June. Vermont State Treasurer Michael Pieciak, a resident of the city, says the district played a pivotal role in fostering economic growth and community development.
“The economic impact has been profound driving job creation, infrastructural improvements, increased property value and I think maybe most importantly more homes for Winooski and for the region," Pieciak said. "Just from my own personal story when I was moving back to Vermont about 10 years ago I looked to Winooski as a place where I wanted to create a home. And I wanted to create a home here because of the vibrancy of the community, that economic development, the excitement, the growth that was happening here made it a very attractive place to settle and make a home. And it also was a more affordable place to live than any of the other areas in the region. And that’s critical for Winooski and for its future and for the future of our state as well.”
Winooski Community Development Corporation former Executive Director Bill Niquette looked back at the city before the project began.
“Imagine standing here in Winooski in the mid-90’s with a lot of vacant storefronts, effectively a six-lane highway that had been built focused on moving people through Winooski rather than having people enjoy it," recalled Niquette. "A downtown waterfront that was entirely privately owned. Most of what is now the Winooski boardwalk was a loading dock for a one-story strip mall. But what’s most interesting to me about this project are two things: an incredible community commitment and the tool of Tax Increment Financing. It’s impossible to take the $40 million of public dollars that were spent here and create the hundreds of millions of investments that have happened since without private investment and they’re always a critical part of making these TIF districts work.”
A new hotel project is underway in Winooski and a Main Street revitalization project will begin this year.
