General Dynamics' plans for a technology center in Burlington could seed additional development on the 21-acre site, completing the conversion of the former cotton mill to a high-tech office park.General Dynamics on Saturday announced plans to invest more than $50 million at the Innovation Center of Vermont on Lakeside Avenue in Burlington's South End. Plans include a 10,000- square-foot addition to a building on the site.
After worrying about the possibility that General Dynamics could leave the area, developers are eager to capitalize on the good news.
"They had a lease commitment to us, but at the end of the lease we didn't know absolutely where they were going," said Russell Broderick, senior development manager at Gilbane Properties.
Broderick would not say how long that lease was. General Dynamics looked at several sites in coming to a decision to keep the company's research center in Burlington, adding 260 jobs, said Phil Hynes, vice president of strategic planning and business integration at General Dynamics. General Dynamics also decided to shift its Armament and Technical Products headquarters and 95 jobs from Burlington to Charlotte, N.C.
General Dynamics' decision to keep the research center in Vermont and expand is a boost for a development that changed significantly from what developers first envisioned. When Gilbane bought the property, G.S. Blodgett Corp., then owned by Maytag Corp., planned to build a commercial oven manufacturing plant and offices on what is now a parking lot across Lakeside Avenue from General Dynamics.
Those plans fell through when Blodgett was sold to Middleby Corp. in 2001.
Gilbane renovated the brick mill that housed General Dynamics. General Dynamics leases the majority of the 201,000-square-foot office space. There are three other tenants in the building; two work with General Dynamics and the third is affiliated with the University of Vermont.
General Dynamics' commitment should help build momentum for developing more office space on the campus, Broderick said. Gilbane hopes to build additional office buildings in the parking lot where the Blodgett plant was planned.
General Dynamics' presence should draw interest from other high-tech companies, said Frank Cioffi, president of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corp.
"It kind of creates a technology cluster. The infrastructure they have there on the site is just exceptional," Cioffi said.
The timing might be about right for new office space in the area. After hitting bottom in 2002 the office market is improving, said real estate analyst Mark Brooks, principal at Allen & Brooks.
The vacancy rate for office space in Chittenden County was 6.7 percent in June, compared to 7.7 percent in December, Brooks said.
The future development rate offers another sign that the market is warming up again, Brooks said. Growth for 2003 was only a half percent, the lowest percentage increase since the firm started tracking the number a decade ago, he said.
In 2004 the analysts see a 3.6 percent increase in growth in the office market -- a good sign, he said. Contact Leslie Wright at 660-1841 or lwright@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com