The 24 million dollar renovation of Brattleboro’s Brooks House will be celebrated on October 3 at 5pm in the Brooks House Atrium in downtown Brattleboro. Speakers will include Governor Peter Shumlin along with Brooks House Development Bob Stevens and Larry Cassidy. Additional speakers include Joyce Judy, president of CCV and Dan Smith, president of VTC. A ribbon cutting will follow the speakers and CCV and VTC will be giving tours.
A fire gutted the historic building, formerly a hotel, in April 2011. A few months later Tropical Storm Irene slammed the downtown area, causing significant flooding. Since that summer, the block-long Brooks House in the middle of Main Street has been boarded up and surrounded by tarps and scaffolding.
Bob Stevens of Stevens & Associates, Craig Miskovich of Downs Rachlin Martin, and Ben Taggard, Pete Richards and Drew Richards of The Richards Group joined together to buy, restore and renovate this downtown treasure.
While, as the group admits, it did not make economic sense, the five decided that saving Brooks House was critical to the future of Brattleboro. (The value of the building after the renovation will be $8 million. The cost of the renovation is approximately $24 million).
The investors saw a way forward by making use of Federal and State tax credits and a host of other financing sources. They turned to the community members to become shareholders. The State of Vermont supported the fit up of State College space. Vermont Rural Ventures and The Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp helped the Brooks House Development Team access New Market Tax Credits — federal tax credits available for projects in certain eligible population centers across the United States.
Bob Stevens, Ben Taggard, Craig Miskovich, Pete Richards, Drew Richards. Courtesy photo.
In 2013, New Hampshire’s Mascoma Bank agreed to become a lender to the project, along with Brattleboro Savings & Loan. The group closed on the deal in July 2013.
The 80,000-square-foot building includes an 18,000-square-foot academic center for the Community College of Vermont and Vermont Technical College and classes have already begun. Oak Meadow home schooling will occupy the old ballroom space in the Brooks House.
The building also features 23 upscale apartments, 4,000 square feet of office space and 32,000 square feet of a mix of retail, restaurants, cafes and shops, including Duo, the esteemed Denver restaurant and Wow Frozen Yogurt, Brilliance rugs and jewelry shop, and Turquoise Grille. The building will be mostly completed and occupied by the grand opening. The newly restored formal lobby leads to a dramatic two-story atrium that connects to shops and a renovated plaza.
Commercial space is still available – two retail spaces on Main and one on High Street and below in the old historic Oak Room that later became the Moles Eye.
Fire photo courtesy of Brattelboro Fire Department, Jason Henske; gutted Brooks House by Vermont Business Magazine; renovated photos courtesy of Lynn Barrett.