BRATTLEBORO — The DeWitt Block, a long-empty piece of history downtown, is about to be given a new life - 19 mixed-income housing units and a ground floor co-working space that will look out onto Flat Street and across the Whetstone Brook.
Standing next to the Brattleboro Transportation Center, the former Sanel Auto Parts store was constructed more than 100 years ago as a wholesale grocery warehouse.
“This building has been vacant for a long time,” Skye Morse, a partner and investment director at M&S Development, said in a news release.
“A lot of people have wanted to do something with it, but it's needed a commercially viable vision for what it will become and the funding to make it a reality,” Morse said.
M&S Development, organized in 2015, has been involved in a number of large downtown revitalization projects in southern Vermont in the past few years, including the Brooks House in Brattleboro and the recently completed Putnam Block in Bennington.
“My partners and I specialize in cobbling funding together from a lot of different sources in order to bring these projects to fruition,” said Morse, “and with our design partner, Stevens & Associates, we are able to create great modern spaces within the bones of these old buildings.”
Lead architect Jeremy Toll said he has fallen in love with the building through the design process.
“Getting to transform a core piece of the downtown into something new and exciting is a really special opportunity,” said Toll “and going from warehouse to housing is also a unique challenge.”
Designating the units as affordable housing was vital to securing some of the funding needed for the project to move forward. Affordable housing, in this case, is defined as housing for people making 40 to 80 percent of median family income - or about $26,000 to $41,000 per year - in Brattleboro.
This designation provided M&S access to federal funding through Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) and the Vermont Community Foundation.
This project has been in the works for more than three years - from initial talks with the owners, to environmental and structural testing, to architectural design work, to state and local permitting - with a financing package that will exceed $8 million.
M&S says it reached out to Brattleboro Savings & Loan (BS&L) for the money they would need to move the project forward. The bank's charter allows for them to make investments in affordable housing.
“This is what community banking looks like,” said Dan Yates, BS&L president and CFO. “We want to restore the vibrancy of this building specifically and this street in general.”
Environmental issues have presented a major challenge for potential building owners or developers. Before any construction could begin, remediation of soil contamination under and around the building must take place.
“The Windham Regional Commission stepped up with some much needed funding to help us deal with the environmental issues of the building and the Vermont Community Development Program provided a significant Block Grant to us through the town of Brattleboro as well,” said Morse.
When completed, Morse said the building will be the product of “a truly collaborative effort.”
“We've brought together funding and expertise from across the state to help us make this project a success,” said Morse, “Through federal and state historic tax credits as well as grants and loans, it's been a collection of agencies and organizations that have all played a part in creating much needed housing and turning an eyesore into the landmark it once was and will be again.”