BELLOWS FALLS — The Windham Development Group, LLC has two new investors and is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in re-opening the Hotel Windham restaurant this spring, group member Tony Elliot said.
Elliot said that Patricia A. Fowler and Alan Fowler, co-owners of the Village Square Bookstore, are the newest investors in the project, along with Erik Leo, Jay Eshelman, and himself.
“[The Fowlers] offered to get involved when the former restaurant tenants backed out,” Elliot said. “As anchor tenants in the building, it's very suitable that they join us. They've become equity partners and investors with the group.”
Although Harvest Moon is no longer involved, Elliot said that “we've got two wonderfully enthusiastic restaurant plan proposals we are considering now. We're excited about both of them, and we'll choose the one that best fits the vision for we what have of the hotel.”
“We're going to work with our new tenants to decide on what style they want to finish the restaurant interior in. If they want painted wood and I put in natural wood, that wouldn't be good,” he added.
He cannot predict an exact date, but thinks late spring could see the restaurant space opening on The Square.
Elliot said building plans remain the same - a restaurant and a hotel lobby downstairs, with offices and some sort of hotel, B&B or “Gucci” rooming facilities upstairs.
“The hotel lobby is going to have a really nice ambiance, with a fireplace, couches, and chairs,” Elliot said. “The deck out back is going to be 'the spot.'”
Elliot said interior work has been moving along all winter, with the biggest improvement being installation of a new heating and sprinkler system.
As for the exterior, Elliot said that the new facade of the coffee shop/restaurant space replicates the original front. A new transom-leaded glass sash, made with handmade glass, replicates the original pattern glass above the storefronts, and will be installed in the spring, along with a new rear entrance going from the dining room to the deck. Also, granite stone work has been replaced below the windows at street level.
Elliot said “most windows [have been replaced] with insulating glass to save heat.”
Elliot said one of the biggest issues the Windham Group has been waiting to resolve is the unsightly presence of the Green Mountain Power substation in the back of the building just off the deck. “It's very difficult to attract investors when they see that ugly structure,” he said.
The back of the hotel and the deck overlook the substation which is located on the canal off Bridge Street.
He said GMP has been slowly working through the complex process of easement, regulations and permitting processes to move to its new location near the Vilas Bridge.
“The new structure is ready,” Elliot said.
Noting that GMP had told the town this process would be completed in 2007, Elliot quipped that “the process seems almost as arduous as re-licensing a nuclear plant. We're still waiting.”
Elliot said the removal of the substation - a mass of metal, wires and transformers that looms forbiddingly over a downtown business area trying to move toward an ambiance people will want to invest in property and businesses - would open the gates to interested parties.
“I've talked to a lot of potential investors in the downtown and the Island. They can't wait until the substation moves.”
The Hotel Windham renovations will provide a needed focus in the center of town for visitors and locals, Elliot said. His windows and deck overlook the Island where he hopes rezoning will open opportunities for more residential and recreational businesses, finally moving the whole village from its industrial past into a vibrant village on the river that people will want to make a destination.
Elliot said the history of the Island as a tourist resort, with plans for cabins for tourists to stay in, disappeared with the Industrial Age and advent of the railroad.
“But now we have an opportunity to return to that vision,” he said. However, rezoning of the Island needs to be put on the ballot and approved by the voters.
Elliot thinks when the hotel renovations are complete and the GMP substation is gone, people will begin to see the Island's possibilities more clearly and rezoning would get on the ballot more readily.
“Virtually every business and property owner on the Island that I've spoken to is in favor of re-zoning the Island from industrial use,” Elliot said. “There is all kinds of grant money out there once it's rezoned to residential and light commercial. It would become a neat feature of downtown.”
While the economy and caution of potential investors and business owners in the Windham Development Group project has kept things moving at a slower pace, Elliot said that in two to four months, “people will see the restaurant open. It's going to be really beautiful.”