Dan D'Ambrosio

Free Press Staff Writer

The mall is dead, long live the mall.

The latest refinement of a proposed $200 million makeover of Burlington Town Center includes eliminating the mall altogether, the architects responsible for the design said Wednesday.

"Yes the mall is gone, this is street retail, pedestrian-focused," said Sherida Paulsen of New York-based PKSB Architects. "It's not a mall."

Jim Vitanos, owner of Jim's Sports on the upper level of the mall, said Thursday he had not been told the mall would no longer be a traditional mall.

"I'm not totally surprised by that," Vitanos said. "It's what we all expected. No indoor corridor caught me by surprise, but I can't say it was hidden from me."

Vitanos said he supports redeveloping the mall, even if he's uncertain he'll be part of that redevelopment. He has been in business for 25 years and in the mall for 10 years.

"Overall we need to do something here," he said. "I'd like to see local people involved in the construction and architecture. I'd like to be part of the long-term plan, but even if I'm not I'm still for it, as long as the long-term interests of the community are looked after."

Entrances to the retail, office and residential spaces in the building will be along Church, Bank and Cherry streets, as well as newly restored St. Paul and Pine streets. Retail stores could have multiple floors with street-level entrances, much as Outdoor Gear Exchange or The Gap on Church Street currently have.

Most important, Paulsen said, the new design will make Bank and Cherry streets more attractive, inviting pedestrians to make their way to the waterfront.

"If you're on Church Street looking at Cherry Street you're not looking at a bus stop and blank walls," Paulsen said. "You'll see a tree-lined street with beautiful benches and lights, display windows and entrances. It's a real streetscape."

Paulsen said she and fellow architect William Fellows always wanted to turn the mall inside out, eliminating its bomb-shelter-like corridors, but retained the structure as a mall in previous designs. Under the proposed zoning amendments Burlington residents will vote on Nov. 8, the city's desire to reconnect Cherry and Bank streets with fully functioning Pine and St. Paul streets sealed the fate of the mall, according to Fellows.

"When the city said it wanted streets as a real right-of-way that started the process of just eliminating the interior mall for that reason," Fellows said.

Previously, Paulsen and Fellows had designed Pine Street as a pedestrian-only corridor through the mall, which they described as an arcade. In the new design Pine Street will have a 60-foot right of way like St. Paul, with sidewalks designed to new standards.

"It's for cars and trucks, for bicycles, it has all of the streetscape, it's a street," Paulsen said of Pine Street.

The new design also includes a great deal of "slimming and lightening," Paulsen said, with 16 percent of the total footprint reaching the 160-foot height allowed under the proposed zoning, as compared to 30 to 40 percent in previous designs.

"Most of the block is below 100 feet, it's more open and lighter," Fellows said.

The new design also eliminates a small "boutique" office tower on the Church Street side of the property that many residents objected to in public forums.

"We preserved the Church Street facade and maintained that roof going back," Paulsen said.

The Church Street facade will be upgraded and expanded, Paulsen added, and will incorporate design elements that tie it into the surrounding buildings.

'A full and equal resident'

While the new design for the property includes significantly less retail space — about 160,000 square feet compared to 280,000 square feet previously — it retains the originally planned 274 apartments, 20 percent, or 55 of which, will be for lower income residents.

Paulsen said the low-income housing will be "sprinkled" throughout the building.

"This means that if you live in an inclusionary unit, you enter through the same lobby as market rate apartment owners and have access to all amenities," Paulsen said. "You're a full and equal resident."

The new design retains the option for housing Champlain College students and more than 100,000 square feet of office space for the University of Vermont Medical Center, which has already signed a letter of intent to occupy the space.

In order to maintain the same number of apartments while also slimming down the design's towers, Paulsen said some apartments have been moved to the second and third floors, acting as "liners" around the parking garage.

"The parking garage is behind those units," she said. "You don't see parking exposed on Cherry or Bank streets. It will still be partially exposed on the new St. Paul and Pine streets."

Paulsen is also excited about bringing more brick into the design of the building, linking the upper floors to the base of the building, and introducing an architectural "vocabulary" of post Civil War architecture and later 20th century industrial buildings.

"It all hangs together I think very well," Paulsen said.

Paulsen and Fellows said they have also pushed the tallest components of the design back as far as possible from the streets.

"When you're walking along the building you're not really looking at the building above," Paulsen said.

Plans call for the glass in the storefronts to go all the way down to the sidewalk, with light awnings and canopies and signage that are appropriate to the building, according to Paulsen.

"These elements don't overwhelm you," Paulsen said. "We also observe Burlington's skylighting requirements, using brick to break up massing. We think it's much more compatible and it's modestly scaled, in my opinion, to everything else."

For the exterior portions of the building that aren't brick, Paulsen and Fellows are considering a panelized system that incorporates precast concrete treated to look like limestone, depending on construction costs. That approach will make it easier to meet the LEED Gold Green Building requirement written into the proposed zoning amendments.

"Going with a paneled system makes the wall much more airtight," Paulsen said.

Nearing the finish line

Mall owner Don Sinex said he's hopeful voters will approve the zoning changes, and up to $21.8 million of tax increment financing (TIF) to rebuild the new streets through the mall, as well as pay for new sidewalks, street trees, lighting, curbs and other public improvements.

A brochure mailed to Burlington residents on behalf of Mayor Miro Weinberger explains the TIF funds will not be used to subsidize the private development, and that the new infrastructure will be paid for by the new, incremental future taxes generated by the redeveloped Burlington Town Center — "not by you."

The brochure is paid for by Partnership for Burlington's Future, which describes itself as a campaign committee created by Weinberger to "promote understanding of and advocate for important ballot questions."

When asked what he would do if the ballot measures don't pass, Sinex answered, "Cry."

Sinex pointed out he has spent two and a half years getting to the point of the November vote after paying $25 million for the mall.

Turning more serious, he said, "We are where we are and we want to get this thing across the finish line. If it doesn't make it, as owner of a decaying and declining and bad shopping center, I've got to do something with it. I would prefer to sell it and walk away, but I may not be able to sell it, because you have to ask yourself what fool would buy it. And I don't know if there's a fool out there."

If he can't sell it, Sinex said he would have to "return to the drawing board" and design something that works under the existing zoning.

"I assure you it won't include public benefits, it won't include public streets — maybe no housing — but cannot include the same amount of housing," he said. "You're going to be more dependent on retail. Maybe we can save the office deal, maybe we can't. It will be completely different and probably devoid of public benefits."

This story appeared online on Oct. 21, 2016. Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DanDambrosioVT.

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