A group of local investors has completed the purchase of Brattleboro’s Brooks House.
The historic building, a key component of Brattleboro’s downtown, was gutted by fire in April, 2011.
A local development partnership, Mesabi L-L-C, worked for more than a year to put together financing for the $24-million-dollar purchase and restoration.
The project is funded through tax credits, bank loans, a Community Development Block Grant and a loan from the town of Brattleboro. The state also contributed funds to establish campuses for Community College of Vermont and Vermont Technical College in the building.
Bob Stevens of Stevens & Associates, a partner and the project’s lead engineer, says the purchase was complicated
“I think we have 16 to 18 individual local investors that came in and contributed money to help make the gap of the funding that we needed to put this together. The people that do this, that we worked with, said it was the most complicated financing project that they’ve seen ,” says Stevens.
Stevens says the project was a hard sell from an economic standpoint, but it makes sense for Brattleboro.
"It’s an iconic downtown historic building, you can’t tear it down, there would be a hole in the fabric of our community. There was no question that somehow it had to get done," he says.
Stevens says 70 percent of the building has been pre-leased. That includes retail space, a restaurant, and apartments. The colleges will occupy parts of two floors.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for next week.
