Champlain Housing Trust is redeveloping the site of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) building on South Winooski Avenue in downtown Burlington. The demolition of the current building, scheduled for June, makes way for 38 new permanently affordable apartments, with five set aside for unhoused Veterans.
The redevelopment, done in partnership with Evernorth and with significant support from and coordination with the City of Burlington, will include a new home for the VFW Howard Plant Post 782, and a space to be leased to the City of Burlington’s Community Justice Center (CJC). The new CJC space is larger than their current location and will allow staff to better meet the needs of the community.
The new building, named Post Apartments, is located next to the Community Health Centers’ Safe Harbor Clinic, across the street from Turning Point of Chittenden County, and is a block away from all of the Church Street Marketplace amenities available to visitors and residents alike.
The site is a Brownfield due to the presence of contaminated soils resulting from historical uses of the site including as an apple orchard. The redevelopment project will remediate the site before constructing the building.
Rising five stories, Post Apartments will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, a community room, and a fifth floor roof deck for residents.
The rents will be affordable to a range of incomes, and ten of the apartments will come with rental subsidy from the Burlington Housing Authority which will cap the rent at 30% of the resident’s income. All of the apartments will be permanently affordable.
The partnership between the VFW, CHT and the City of Burlington began in 2021 when the VFW approached CHT to see if we would be interested in helping them bring their vision of building housing above a new Veteran service facility to life. This redevelopment means the VFW Post 782, which was founded in June 1921 and moved to its current site in 1980, will be able to expand its programs to Veterans struggling to reintegrate into the community after wartime missions. The VFW’s space will include offices, a conference room for delivering professional and personal development training, and a multipurpose room that can also be used for therapeutic programs.
Funding sources for the building include the City of Burlington, and state and federal funding from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s Brownfields Revitalization Fund, tax credits allocated by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, and a Congressionally Directed Spending award thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders’ office.
With a vacancy rate hovering around 1% in Chittenden County, these apartments are sure to be rented quickly. The apartments are scheduled to be ready for occupancy in December 2025. Stay tuned for updates in our monthly e-newsletter!
Article posted on May 2, 2024