Still no plan in place for Burlington’s stalled CityPlace

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Still no new plan in place for the stalled CityPlace project and the massive hole it created in downtown Burlington.

Mayor Miro Weinberger says the city is in talks with Devonwood, which was partially managing the CityPlace project with Brookfield developers.

Details of those conversations were discussed in an executive session between the mayor and the City Council on Monday.

What exactly that entails, we don't yet know.

The original project was slated to be a $200-million, 10-story building with housing, a hotel, office and retail space. Now, it's a stagnant pit in the middle of Burlington.

When Brookfield backed out of the project in July, they indicated that ideally, Don Sinex of Devonwood would take over the management. Sinex did not have a comment to offer on Wednesday, but Mayor Weinberger says they have been in contact with each other.

“So representatives of Devonwood have been in conversation with the city. There have been a number of conversations and part of the reason we had the executive session on Monday was to get on the same page with the City Council and ensure that there was consensus between administration and the City Council about how we would respond to that outreach,” said Weinberger, D-Burlington.

The mayor says those talks are expected to continue at the August 24 City Council meeting.

In the meantime, the threat of a lawsuit against Brookfield remains on the table though the mayor says he’s hoping they can resolve the issue without litigation.

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