Williston VT Big Box Reuse...I wish

country. Plattsburgh NY for example has entire shopping centers that are boarded up and plastered with Commercial Space For Lease signs. That is something you just don’t see in Vermont, at least not in Chittenden county which is our area of expertise. Part of the reason Vermont has done so well is because of its ardent support of local business. More locally owned and locally supported businesses means less impact from national chains with unrealistic growth projections and failed business models.  Williston is one of the few places in the state where there is such a large concentration of big box stores so the affects are magnified here.

Here is an idea to fill some of the space. Fill it with small farmers market type users looking for a year round marketplace to sell their goods. Better yet lease small spaces out to start-up retailers looking for a cheap alternative to a traditional storefront.

I’ve recently heard of a place that is doing something similar in Mesa Arizona.  I’m not sure how the business is set up but some real estate developer is converting a vacant Mervyns (like Kohls) store into a year round Marketplace. They are modeling the concept on the Pike Place Market in Seattle; a year round market featuring, art, food, flowers, produce, meat and fish. A huge part of the allure to Pike place Market is the proximity to the water, downtown Seattle and the whole ambiance of the place.   I’m not sure how this concept will work in a strip mall setting with a sea of parking in the front but I give them an A for creativity.

This brings up a lot of zoning issues (especially here in Williston VT) but that is another post altogether.

Here a link to the article in the Arizona Republic. Thanks Tony!

• Sears Hometown Stores (like the regular Sears but without the clothing and jewelry) leased about 9,000 SF at 94 Harvest Lane for their new retail store in Williston. They are open for business, go check them out!
• Franklin August (a cardboard box company) expanded their operations at 430 Commerce St. in Williston and took over 6,160 SF of additional space.
• The Williston Community Food Shelf moved their storefront to a 600 SF space at the Taft Farm Plaza in Williston.
• Vermont Furniture Galleries expanded there warehouse space and absorbed an additional 6500 SF of space at 350 Pioneer Drive in Williston.
• The Alzheimer’s Association leased an 800 SF office at Tat Farm in Williston
• TSL Snowshoes, Inc. has leased 11,772 SF of warehouse at 330 Pioneer Drive in Williston.
• We assisted Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in leasing new office space at 92 Zephyr Road in Williston
• We recently broke ground on our newest housing projects, Millview Court in Burlington and Pinecrest Senior Housing in Essex.

As you can see, things have been pretty busy around here…hence the huge gap in the blog. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Well, we are wrapping up a crazy week for us here at Omega Real Estate Associates.  We have been pulling our hair out for a while but things are falling into place just in time for the weekend.  We are putting the finishing touches on 2 new listings that we got this week and a lease for 12,000 SF of warehouse space is going to be signed today.  Not a bad way to start the weekend eh? (No, I’m not Canadian but I like to say “eh.” Click to watch video on how to use “eh” yourself, eh?)

Things are heating up here in Vermont both figuratively and literally. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees this weekend but I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t believe anything Chief Meteorologist Tom Messner says anymore, but that’s another post altogether.

So as I said, we listed two new exciting properties this week. One is a camp on Mills Point in Colchester for an unbelievable $105,000;  Just in time for summer eh?  It’s not right on Lake Champlain, but as you can see from the picture, if you trip coming out the front door you risk falling into the lake…if your are wearing Roller Blades.  You can see that listing HERE.  Another exciting listing is a beautiful downtown Burlington, 4-unit apartment building. This one you have to see in person. It has a lot of really cool character that just doesn’t come through in the photos.  There is an original fireplace in one of the units, and stained glass windows in another. Each one has it’s own special little characteristic that makes it unique from the rest.  I’m really excited about this listing!

After much negotiation and floor plan revising, I think Vermont Pure is going to sign a lease taday for 12,000+ square feet of Warehouse and office space at our beautiful new building on Commerce St. in Williston, VT.  This is especially exciting because if they sign, that leaves less than half of that building vacant.

That’s about it for now but stay tuned for a post where I try my hand at video property tours eh?

I don’t know if it’s just our listings or what, but it seems like certain Williston Commercial properties are getting a lot of attention lately.  It’s almost as if everyone becomes aware of and has to see the same property all at once. Does anyone else notice this?  We have the hot property of the week phenomenon going on here in Williston.  At first I thought it was just a coincidence but I think there might be something more to it. It could be something as simple as brokers talking to brokers but I like to think it’s weirder than that. One week a few months ago it was our listing at 151 Blair Park. Everyone wanted to see this space! Oddly enough a few of the potential tenants were day care operators (which is not a permitted use in this zone, but that’s a whole other post…stay tuned). What are the odds of several competing companies looking at the same property, the same week?

It happened again recently to another property in Williston, this time it was, 430 Commerce St., our new building at the end of the street. This time, something actually panned out and some of the 30,800 SF of warehouse space was rented.  It was crazy I tell you!  It usually only lasts for about a week and then it’s off too another hot property.

Why does this happen? Who knows, but I like it. I know at the beginning of the week that I might as well print off extra listing sheets and floor plans for the Hot Property of the Week.  If only there were a way to steer people’s attention to the property that I want to move, to create the hot property of the week.  It doesn’t work like that. We have a featured listing section of our website and it doesn’t get any hits. Why am I blogging about this?  Because it happens too often to not write about. Is this happening to anyone else?