Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin and local officials will join EliGould, President of Ironwood & Precraft, for a ribbon cutting ceremony onMonday December 21, 2015 at 11:30 to celebrate the completion of the firstphase of a prototyping and testing facility for the green building industry.Public and members of the press are invited to attend.The Advanced Practice, Testing, and Integration Shop, or "APTI-Shop" for
short, is the first loan funded from the Windham County Economic DevelopmentProgram, established upon the closure of Entergy VY.The Windham RegionCEDS, completed in 2013, identified green building as a top prospect toreplace Entergy jobs with new manufacturing careers in high performanceprefab and value added timber and engineering.
EliGouldandGovernor Shumlin
"This is exactly the type of private sector project the Windham Countyrevolving loan fund is meant to assist," said Governor Shumlin. "Eli willcreate new jobs in the green building sector and when his loan is paid back,funds will be available for future job creation projects in Windham County."
Leveraging private funds to access a low interest loan from the WindhamCounty Economic Development Program (WCEDP), Gould was able to purchase abuilding located on O'Bryan Drive in Brattleboro. The facility will build ontwenty years of linking native lumber and custom prefab manufacturing,allowing sister companies to add high value jobs.
"This WCEDP loan allowed us to take on and repurpose a vacant industrialbuilding," explained Gould. "That has the potential to bring our projectmanagers and craftspeople under one single roof, design and prefabricate thebuildings and systems for which we are already known, and host training,testing, and other advanced construction industry events. It is going totake a lot of work and imagination but this funding source gave us thestretchcapacity to take it on and we intend to make the best of theopportunity for our hometown region."
The WCEDP promotes economic development in Windham County by providing fundsto stimulate job creation through business start-up, expansion, orrelocation, encourage entrepreneurial activity, and strengthen the economicdevelopment infrastructure to ensure a strong foundation for transformationaleconomic activity. The primary focus of the program is private sector jobcreation and retention, and direct support of entrepreneurial activities,followed by support of systems and activities that encourage anentrepreneurial, innovation and business start-up environment and culture.
"This project is the perfect use of these funds," noted R.T. Brown, WCEDPProject Manager. "Not only are we actively working to attract and retainbusinesses, but diligently working to expand the already successful ones
here."
Adam Grinold, BDCC Executive Director stated, "Today we've celebrated twoindustry expansions in Windham County. The area will feel the impact of theseefforts with the creation of jobs and retention of high quality, highwagepositions in our community for years to come."