This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
Rick and Mark Bove are planning a full-scale renovation of a beleaguered Winooski apartment complex that has sat vacant for months and drawn public scrutiny and concern over the last four years.
The Boves’ new plan to remodel the two dozen townhomes and charge market-rate rents is a pivot from their prior aim to demolish them and construct a new, nearly 70-unit building at the site where many low-income and refugee families once lived.
The recent decision by the Boves, of the eponymous pasta sauce company, has been disappointing news to tenant advocates and city officials. The brothers’ real estate company quietly urged tenants to move out of the apartment complex two years ago.
“There was so much upset in our community when the Boves decided that they were going to be doing something new with that property, and all of those people had to leave,” said Winooski Mayor Thomas Renner. But there was at least the promise of more sorely needed homes getting built on the same plot, Renner said.
“When I heard that that wasn’t the plan anymore, I was a little disheartened,” he said.
The Bove brothers decided that they could achieve their desired “end result” by gutting the 24 apartments and renovating them — without creating more “disruption” in Winooski, Mark Bove said in an interview. The stretch of road where the apartments are located has seen considerable construction in recent years.
“Everything is going to be brand new in that building, from the wiring, to the sheetrock, to the appliances, to the floor,” Bove said. “Just the frame is going to remain.”
The Boves received local permits for the project within the last week, according to Winooski Director of City Planning Ravi Venkataraman. The renovation will not need to undergo state-level Act 250 review because of current exemptions for housing projects. According to city filings, the Boves estimate the redevelopment will cost about $1.9 million.
The Boves’ latest move comes after years of twists and turns at the apartments at 300 Main Street. In 2021, an investigation by Vermont Public and Seven Days found substandard living conditions and health code violations across the Boves’ growing empire of apartment buildings — and the 300 Main apartments had one of the poorest track records.
Several months later, the Boves sent eviction notices to the tenants there, relaying the landlords’ intention to complete “major renovations” at the property. Many of the tenants received housing subsidies for their apartments, and most were recent immigrants.
Widespread public outcry over the impending displacement ensued, and the Bove brothers quickly relented, shifting their plans to a staggered renovation that would allow tenants to remain on site. But in late 2023, the Boves reversed course again, signaling plans to instead construct one nearly 70-unit building on the site of the old apartments.
At the time, the Boves said three units in the new building would be priced low enough to be eligible for federal rental subsidies and pledged that existing tenants would be given priority for those apartments.
The Boves’ staff then began asking tenants to move out without filing formal eviction paperwork, according to Grace Pfeil, an organizer with Burlington Tenants United who visited the complex regularly in 2024.
Mark Bove declined to answer whether or not the brothers issued eviction notices to the tenants at 300 Main at that time. (A Vermont Public/VTDigger review of court records did not reveal any eviction cases at the property in 2023 or 2024.)
Bove said that the brothers offered language interpretation services and relocation help to all tenants, including covering security deposits for new apartments for tenants who needed the assistance.
Pfeil said the Boves’ aid was piecemeal. Tenants were afraid to speak up because they feared jeopardizing the help, she added.
“They were like, ‘Oh, well, [the Boves are] offering this, and they might take it away, if, you know, if we try to challenge them,’” Pfeil said.
One family Pfeil spoke with relocated to Chicago after leaving the complex, she said. Others found housing elsewhere in Chittenden County. One former tenant reached by VTDigger/Vermont Public said his family moved to a subsidized apartment in Burlington, but he still sends his kids to school in Winooski, so they can go stay with nearby relatives after school while his wife works.
The tenants were under considerable stress for months as they tried to figure out what would happen to them, said Jess Hyman, associate director of statewide housing advocacy programs at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.
“[The Boves’] main reason for encouraging people to leave was because they were going to be tearing it down and completely rebuilding,” Hyman said. “To find out that they may be just renovating the existing units now is a little disheartening.”
Asked what the Boves plan to charge for the renovated two-bedroom apartments, Mark Bove said “somewhere between $1,800 and $2,200 a month,” adding “I think that’s what market-rate is.” The current rent limit for Section 8 vouchers in the region is $2,140, so if the Boves hold to this range, tenants could apply federal rental aid there.
Mark Bove said the brothers do not currently intend to offer the renovated apartments to the prior tenants. “At this time, we haven’t heard of anybody wanting to go back to the building, because everyone has been, you know, relocated,” he said.
The brothers’ decision to renovate instead of constructing a new building means they will not need to comply with Winooski’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, passed last fall, which stipulates that newly-constructed housing developments with more than 20 units must include a share of permanently-affordable homes. Bove said that the new ordinance did not impact the brothers’ decision to shift course.
Bove said the brothers intend to start construction in the coming weeks.
Renner, the mayor, said he’s at least glad that the boarded-up homes will soon be reopened.
“Especially given the housing crisis, to see a property that should be housing sitting around doing nothing has been upsetting to a lot of people in town,” he said.
