Comments
Ok-Valuable-6430 t1_j5m84wk wrote
Wish it was affordable housing
Practical-Intern-347 t1_j5mh09o wrote
At least an increase in upper end hotel rooms may lower the prices of room-nights in Burlington and make AirBnB less competitive and thus less attractive to homeowners, quickly adding existing housing back into the market as a result?
betcaro OP t1_j5mbms5 wrote
agree!
[deleted] t1_j5mbpbz wrote
[deleted]
[deleted] t1_j5memti wrote
[removed]
dropkickninja t1_j5l7b5x wrote
I haven't been by it in a while. It's looking bad. I hope they turn it into something as beneficial to the community. But I'm betting expensive residential
Twombls t1_j5m2e6d wrote
Its going to be a luxury hotel
Hagardy t1_j5mk3es wrote
It was until the developer went bankrupt
betcaro OP t1_j5m3kju wrote
for reals? sarcasm?
Twombls t1_j5m4l4i wrote
Hagardy t1_j5mpsd9 wrote
this is kind of amazing, this developer made 1.5 million by buying the building and letting it sit vacant for a couple of years (bought for 3 million, didn’t touch it, just sold for 4.5)
Practical-Intern-347 t1_j5o1tfo wrote
They probably spent $2M paying taxes/insurance, hiring architects and engineers to design a hotel, paying a hotel franchise fee, paying staff salaries, etc. I doubt they made money.
[deleted] t1_j5q0m0m wrote
That $2M is all "business losses" for taxation purposes
betcaro OP t1_j5m6njv wrote
thank you!
SemperFuu t1_j5lgi5x wrote
“Once a symbol of a healthy community, the building is now a glaring illustration of what ails Burlington: uncaring property owners, stalled development, rampant homelessness, unchecked vandalism and a growing sense that this beautiful small city has lost a step.”
This is what I don’t get. If Vermonters like this person are majority progressive, then why aren’t y’all happy with progressive policies that got you to this place? “Unchecked vandalism” is unchecked because of DA policy. Just seems like more whining and complaining aka NIMBYism. If you want change then vote accordingly, shops accordingly, or move accordingly to your beliefs, like this 3 wellness membership person can.
Imo Burlington is awesome, has great care for community to include house less and addicts. I’ve lived in a dozen states, countless towns and cities, a few other countries, and this area is doing really really well compared to many others. If I could change anything it’s Act250 and the white landowners who can’t /won’t sell to develop. Change the legislation, you’ll change vermont and keep the youth here. Without it will be more gray crusty VTers talking about “back in my day”
sixteenandseven t1_j5mb2qn wrote
This is what I don’t get. If Vermonters like this person are majority progressive, then why aren’t y’all happy with progressive policies that got you to this place?
That's an easy one, Vermonters are decidedly *not* majority progressive. At all. Geriatric lefty conservatism looks different (and is better than) right-wing conservatism, but it's still conservative as fuck. We're an old state with a ton of boomers who want Vermont to remain exactly the way it was.
SemperFuu t1_j5meuzh wrote
The city of Burlington I should’ve said. As that’s their complaint and the politics of Burlington have been mainly…
But you also made the point for the state as well. Conservative is a synonym of nibyism.
Geriatric is the majority of vt as this stage has aged not well at all. Majority of youth and families have left and continue to leave. Only old boomers show up for decade+ now.
Hagardy t1_j5mkgk2 wrote
I’m not sure there’s political motivation in any party to make it painful for land owners to leave prime real estate abandoned.
WinstonAtlas t1_j5nsdpf wrote
Land value tax would solve this.
SemperFuu t1_j5mlulp wrote
Not sure what ya mean?
Hagardy t1_j5mpelp wrote
We have a ton of prime real estate that is sitting vacant, like the old Boves, the YMCA, the gas station on Pearl, the transmission shop on North Winooski, the Koffee Kup building and more. It’s clearly better for these owners to use it as a tax write off than to sell or redevelop, and there’s zero political motivation to disincentivize this on any side of the spectrum.
SemperFuu t1_j5mqwfz wrote
Yuppers. How easily could they incentivize or make the means to change this
Cobdain t1_j5tnmhb wrote
Ooof, you’re gonna make people mad with this one 😂 One thing I think you got wrong is while Vermont is a liberal stronghold we have many old progressives that in this day and age would pass as woke hating grumpy old timers. Not a bad thing, just if you live long enough things start to surpass you. My father championed civil rights and worked to get Bernie elected as mayor back in the day. Now he loathes this “ woke culture” Vermont liberal is not the same as others, I have my love of Bernie and AOC, but I also love my glock 🤷🏻♂️
SemperFuu t1_j5tpono wrote
You nailed it! That’s what I find so fascinating about this states politics and economy. And from what I can tell by this current legislative session (see newest gun proposals) its stay woke and broke. I could see Vermont state being very broke to the point of needing federal bailouts. Makes me consider not buying here…but we’re going to give it a couple years before pulling the trigger on land.
As a military veteran, the Va is great here and some of the local town tax benefits are ok for land owning vets, but not sure I like the business tax, Act250, and the miss allocation of funds we keep reading about…
Cobdain t1_j5twyp7 wrote
Act 250 was a bomb, it needs to be abolished. It hamstrings low income housing and stems large companies from coming to the state. I get why it was put into legislation. So Vermont didn’t become a big strip mall. We still got Walmarts and targets and all that trash so really it failed in its intent and now is at archaic POS. We also have one of the highest tax rates in the entire country yet our infrastructure is absolute trash. Don’t get me wrong, Vermont is a wonderful state. It surely needs a heavy overhaul on some stuff though. Our super super popular governor seems to do much about nothing though.
SemperFuu t1_j5ua9ej wrote
Preach it! Governor could get momentum going IF he wanted to…
Twombls t1_j5m2vxa wrote
I mean as a resident I feel like wayy too many buildings are sitting abandoned in our downtown core for how insane the real estate market is.
I dont really think kids spraypainting a building has anything to do with the deterioration of the city though