E D I T O R I A L

Finally the dream is starting to become real.
It’s been more than four years since community leaders began formulating a plan to redevelop nearly a full square block in the center of downtown Bennington. Its backers say the Putnam Block project, formally unveiled in 2017, will restore three historic multi-story buildings along Main and South streets and create several new buildings to the west and south, attracting new residents and jobs to the town’s urban core.

As might be expected with a project of this magnitude, the actual start of construction has been delayed repeatedly over the past year and a half. The legal and logistical hurdles, some of which are detailed in our cover story this month, have left some skeptics questioning whether the project would ever really come to fruition.

And with the ground-floor retail spaces of the Putnam Block increasingly empty over the past decade, and new businesses kept away by the impending construction project, it has been a depressing couple of years for a downtown that already was struggling.

So it was cause for celebration last month when the Bennington Redevelopment Group, the unusual coalition of nonprofit organizations and private investors backing the project, formally took title to the property. By late June, the first sign of real construction arrived as workers installed temporary chain-link fence around the buildings that are part of the first phase of work.
Now that the project is really beginning, it’s worth taking a moment to recall the many things Bennington’s civic leaders have gotten right in crafting their vision for the Putnam Block.

First, the project will preserve and restore three great buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the old Putnam Hotel, which by size and placement is perhaps the most important building downtown; the former county courthouse just to its south; and the Winslow building just to the west. As other communities around the region have learned painfully in the past 50 years, historic buildings like these are easily destroyed and all but impossible to replace.

Another key feature is that the upper floors of these buildings, which mostly have been vacant for decades, will be restored to use for apartments and offices. The new apartments are especially important, because having more people living in the center of downtown will help to attract and sustain high-quality retail businesses at the street level.

The project’s second phase, although still a few years off, would add at least two new multi-story buildings farther west along Main Street and Washington Avenue, filling in what is now mainly a dead zone occupied by the defunct Greenberg’s lumberyard and a gas station. The new buildings would provide more housing, retail and office space and would front on the sidewalk, expanding the pedestrian-oriented development pattern of downtown.

Finally, it’s important to note that the project is being funded primarily with private funds. There is at least $3 million of public money involved, through both grants and loans, but the bulk of the nearly $54 million project is being supported by members of the Bennington Redevelopment Group. The group includes a variety of local businesses and individuals as well as Bennington College and Southwestern Vermont Health Care, both of which have witnessed the need for new rental housing for their staff members and have pledged to lease some of the office space for their own operations.

These investors don’t expect to reap a windfall anytime soon. In fact, the existing Putnam Block buildings are expected to cost more to renovate than they’ll be worth immediately afterward. But the project’s backers recognize that a revitalized urban core will help to attract new residents, businesses and investments that will benefit the entire community.

In this way, the Putnam Block project represents an impressive statement of confidence that downtown Bennington has a thriving future ahead.