R1 Success Story: St. Johnsbury Glove Factory, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

A former textile factory, known locally as "the glove factory" sits at the southern gateway to St. Johnsbury, creating a first impression when entering the downtown. After being vacant for about 20 years, the property has been redeveloped into an animal hospital, which opened in the Spring of 2021.

Priming the Property for Redevelopment

The factory was built in the 1930s for commercial purposes and was occupied by the St. Johnsbury Glover from the late 1940s to 1984, when it was purchased by Caledonia Sportswear, which operated there until 2001. The site was contaminated with chlorinated solvents from past uses of the building and hazardous building materials, such as asbestos and lead paint, were present within the structure. The St. Johnsbury Development Fund, a non-profit development corporation, bought the factory and two homes on its western boundary that had been on and off the real estate market for many years in 2017. Access to adequate parking was one of the many concerns expressed about redevelopment of this property. The two derelict residential buildings were demolished to provide an additional parking area.

The St. Johnsbury Development Fund invested over $335,000 in the project to buy and bring the building back to life. EPA provided about $20,000 in Brownfields grants to the Lamoille County Planning Commission and the Northeast Vermont Development Association to complete the hazardous building materials assessment needed prior to renovations. In June 2018 the site was enrolled in the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation's voluntary Brownfield liability protection program, the hazardous building materials were abated, and the the cleanup was certified as complete in June 2019. The total cost of the initial phase of building upgrade was $401,000, supported by USDA Rural Development and the Northern Border Regional Commission. The development fund gave an additional $81,001 for this portion of the project to finish work needed to finally redevelop the property.

"This project had tremendous energy and every board member had a hand in the redevelopment. The synergy continued to build with the Town of St. Johnsbury, the Northern Community Investment Corporation and all our funders toward this successful outcome."

Daniel Kimball, President
St. Johnsbury Development Fund

Today

The two-story, 12,000-square-foot building on the 1/3-acre lot is now completely renovated and has a new asphalt parking lot. The animal hospital leased the property for five years in September 2020 and opened for business in April 2021. This new facility brings together three local veterinary practices in St. Johnsbury and a fourth from Lyndonville that have joined forces to create a modern animal hospital in the town center. The hospital's owner, when shopping for a building, was unaware of the property's history as a brownfield and was simply drawn to the facility and its location. With an additional $1.8 million dollars in private investment to make the interior of the facility a state of the art veterinary facility, this brownfield redevelopment is complete.

For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website at www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact Christine Beling at 617 918 1792 or Beling.Christine@epa.gov.

EPA 901 F 21 012
October 2021