BRATTLEBORO — After a year of turmoil and trouble, the Brattleboro Food Co-op threw itself a party on Saturday, Nov. 12.
Even though its new store has been open since June, and the tenants have been moving into the 24 new apartments above the store since September, the co-op held off on its grand opening celebration until the last crucial piece of the $9 million dollar project was completed - the parking lot.
There is a bit more to be done on the parking lot, but for the first time in more than two years, co-op shoppers can now easily find a place to park.
That alone would be cause for celebration, but the real point of Saturday's event was to take a step back and admire what the co-op, together with the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT), accomplished.
The co-op built a new state-of-the-art 14,000-square-foot store that's nearly twice the size of the old one, and the WWHT built 24 new apartments atop the store in the first, and biggest, mixed-use commercial and residential development in downtown Brattleboro in decades.
“It was a hard go,” said co-op General Manager Alex Gyori, “but this was an amazing community effort. We drew energy from the entire community.”
WWHT Executive Director Connie Snow said it took “about two seconds” for her to say yes to being a partner with the co-op on this project.
“It spoke to all of our priorities,” she said. “It took a leap of faith to do it, but [the project] addresses multiple missions.”
The first is bringing more affordable housing to downtown. Between the Brooks House fire and Tropical Storm Irene, Brattleboro saw the loss of 280 rental units in 2011.
Snow said the co-op's apartments were fully leased within eight weeks of opening. There are 18 one-bedroom, two 2-bedroom, and four efficiency apartments on the upper two floors of the co-op building.
The tenants, she said, are young and old. Some are disabled. Some are writers and artists. And at least three are workers at the co-op.
Nancy Owens of Housing Vermont, one of the nonprofit funding partners for the project, said the apartments were an important step toward achieving the goal of revitalized downtowns in Vermont, but they are only one element.
“People need homes, but they also need jobs and opportunities too,” she said.
That sentiment was echoed by Ted Brady, an aide for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who helped back the co-op project with $200,000 of federal community development money that he obtained through a congressional earmark.
“The first thing you have to do to build a strong community is to build housing for everybody,” Brady said. “Our [Congressional] delegation is committed to this kind of project, and making sure it doesn't get lost in the budget battles in Washington.”
Gus Selig, executive director of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, said that when he tells the story about what happened in Brattleboro to other towns around the state, the first thing people ask is, “How can we do this?”
“What you have done here,” said Selig, “is to make sure there are homes and hope.”
Still ahead for the co-op is the union vote scheduled to take place on Nov. 14.
The United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), which is seeking to represent the co-op's employees, subtly made its presence known at the grand opening by setting up a table not far from the tent when the speeches were given. The union was collecting food for the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center and giving out tote bags and buttons to supporters.