Burton – a worldwide pioneer in snowboarding – is joining forces with other well-known Vermont businesses, in hopes of bringing something new to its own neighborhood in Burlington’s South End. If the city approves, the Burton campus will be the new home of Higher Ground and other attractions.
Burton owns two side-by-side buildings on Industrial Parkway, both former General Dynamics facilities.
One building is filled with offices and a retail outlet; the other houses a mish-mash of entities, including the company's research and development space, archive storage, and offices for the nonprofit Chill Foundation. But there’s also more than 30,000 square feet of vacant industrial space.
Burton moved to Burlington from southern Vermont in 1992, just as snowboarding and the Burton brand were taking off. Now Burton is partnering with other area businesses to create what they hope will be a destination for locals and visitors alike.
There are about a half-dozen potential partners on the project, including Burton and Higher Ground, but also local restaurants, Talent Skatepark and the Chill Foundation.
Justin Worthley, senior vice president of human resources at Burton, said that when Burton outgrew its headquarters it bought the building next door.
"At that time, in 2007, our plan was basically to fill up both buildings and actually build a connector building in between, because the company had just been on this crazy growth trajectory," Worthley explained.
But the recession hit in 2008, along with some bad winters for snow sports. Burton pivoted its business model, and much of that second building became storage space.
Then, a little over a year ago, Worthley ran into Higher Ground partner Alan Newman at the airport. According to Newman, Higher Ground is in the market for a new space.
"We need a new, more modern venue," Newman said Wednesday. "We've been looking for a while. We love our current location. We've looked at renovating it a couple times to bring to it what we feel we need to do to really serve the growing music community here, and we haven't been able to figure out how to get it done in the current location."
Worthley invited Newman and his partner Alex Crothers to check out Burton's space. But Newman said he was already familiar, from one of his previous business ventures: Magic Hat Brewing Company.
"When we originally moved Magic Hat from Flynn Avenue to South Burlington, the space that we’re talking about for Higher Ground was the space that I wanted for the brewery — but General Dynamics was here and they were not ready to move out," Newman said. "So, in some ways, it almost feels like coming home to me if we can pull it off."
Pulling it off means the city approves a zoning change and the project gets its permits. If that happens, Crothers said it will allow Higher Ground — currently based in South Burlington — to bring musicians to town who draw a large crowd. But they'll also be able to scale the space down for a variety of events.
"So we wouldn’t just be open for big events," Crothers said. "We'd be able to be open for kids events, community events, civic events, private events, corporate events. So there'd be a wide range of uses for the space, not just concert events."
The plans also include a food hall, with three or four local restaurants and shared indoor and outdoor seating. Wes Hamilton of Mad Taco is already on board, as is Misery Loves Company owner Aaron Josinsky.
Josinsky said he likes the idea of having something for everyone in one space, including food options, but also different things to do.
"Just engaging in entertainment and commerce and fun in a quality space where, you know, your father-in-law may not like one thing and your mother-in-law may not like another thing, but you can all get together and enjoy yourselves," Josinsky said.
While the planned food hall and music venue are waiting for city approval, other aspects of the project are moving forward.
Nearly a year ago, Talent Skatepark, in South Burlington, went out of business. Now Talent has been reborn as a nonprofit and will be building a new indoor skatepark at the Burton facility. Executive director Hannah Deene Wood said she hopes to be open before the end of the year.
"Sept. 1 is when we can start construction," she said, "as long as everything falls into place by that time, and we'll start building the ramps. I’d like to be open for early December."
Worthley said Burton will still occupy more than half the building, including moving its retail store over from next door. He said the goal is to make Burton a destination, much as other Vermont brands have done – from Ben & Jerry’s to Lake Champlain Chocolates to Vermont Teddy Bear.
"We want people to come see what we’re doing," Worthley said. "We want them to see our products in our store. We want them to come do our tour. We have daily tours of our R&D [research and development] facility that I think is one of the best factory tours in the state and beyond, and it's sort of this best-kept secret."
The Burlington City Council is tasked with ratifying the zoning change, which was approved by the planning commission in January. The council is expected to take the issue up Monday, June 17.
If approved, Worthley said Burton and its partners will spend the next several months designing the venue and beginning the permitting process. He said, best-case scenario, the venue could open sometime next year.