After COVID-related construction delays, Winooski hotel begins to take shape

On a quiet weekday afternoon, the sounds of construction echoed along Abenaki Way in downtown Winooski. Lot 7D, a site of torn-up dirt between the Community College of Vermont and River Run apartment building, bustled with workers and machinery making way for Winooski’s first hotel.

The city’s master plan outlines goals to bring more economic activity downtown. The hotel would serve as a cornerstone of that vision, drawing not only visitors to the guest lodgings but also local residents, with proposed new rental housing and use of commercial space.

It has taken more than four years to get there.

In 2019, Winooski requested proposals to develop the vacant city-owned Lot 7D. Nedde Real Estate, a Burlington-based development company, won the bid with plans for a five-story hotel with 100 rooms, a three-story parking structure with 320 spaces and 36,000 square feet of office space.

The original timeline was to finish the project by late summer 2021. But that had to change.

“COVID-19 brought a big delay to the construction plans,” said Jon Rauscher, Winooski’s public works director. “The commercial market in general shifted to more at-home-work.”

That forced the city to reevaluate the commercial elements of the blueprint. Upon completion, which is now estimated in spring 2025, the building will no longer include the office space. Instead, it will house 80 to 85 units of long-term rental housing, some of which will be designed as affordable housing.

Additionally, the project will feature a rooftop restaurant. The estimated price tag for the city has risen from $9.7 million to an estimated $12 million.

Multiple attempts to interview Nedde officials were unsuccessful.

Nedde agreed to pay the city $700,000 for the lot to develop the hotel. The city committed to a voter-approved bond of $9.7 million to design and construct the parking garage. Rauscher said the city has some other possible sources of funding to cover the additional cost, including reallocation of sales tax revenue.

Local residents have mixed feelings about the ongoing construction. James Piche, 58, lives nearby and mentioned the noise on an afternoon last month.

“Personally, it doesn’t bother me much, but I worry about the students over at the community college and how they can study with all that,” he said.

Piche said he also is concerned that the hotel might detract from the landscape. He would prefer “renewable or affordable apartments” for such a big construction effort, he said.

Heather and Neil, who live next to the hotel site but didn’t want the Winooski News to use their last names, had more complaints about the disruption. “I work night shifts every week, so when I’m trying to sleep during the day, it gets pretty noisy,” said Heather, 29.

The construction also has overtaken several parking spaces next to their building, so Neil has to park farther away, where the city has designated alternative spots for residents, he said. “I parked here and still got a ticket,” the 31-year-old said of the alternative location.

The new hotel plan, though, also has the local couple excited, they said. They look forward to visiting the rooftop restaurant when it opens.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that Nedde Real Estate paid $70,000 for Lot 7D. The correct amount is $700,000. The story has been updated to reflect this.