One of the workers, who declined to give his name, said the crane was needed at a different site.
But John Franco, an attorney representing opponents of the redevelopment, called the explanation “bullshit.” In reality, he said, the crews were disassembling a “Potemkin village” — a term for a deceptive façade — meant to convince locals that work was underway on the controversial project.
On Monday, the Burlington City Council heard an update on the redevelopment behind closed doors. Before that executive session, an architect working on the design of the 14-story building told two city officials within earshot of reporters that the project would be redesigned.
The crane removal was certainly something different. Little has happened at the site of the old Burlington Town Center mall, much of which was demolished more than a year ago. Steel beams were dropped off last November, but nothing has been done with them. The SD Ireland employee at the site on Wednesday said the crane would have been used to move beams into place as part of constructing the foundation.
SD Ireland did not immediately return a message left at its Williston headquarters.
It’s unclear when work might commence. Any changes to the project would likely need additional review by city planners, a process that could set builders back even further and perhaps imperil access to millions in tax-increment financing funds for streetscape improvements.
“What a catastrophe,” said Franco, whose clients have a lawsuit pending against the project developers.
He said Monday’s meeting and officials’ failure to disclose any updates on the project “couldn’t have been worse public relations for the city.”
Franco was intrigued by the possibility that the redevelopment plans could change. “My clients’ main beef with this project is the size of it,” he said. “If they want to downsize, we’re fine with that.”
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Relax folks. Weinberger will come out of the shadows with an explanation. He is on the phone right now with Sinex (?) Devonwood (?) the guy from bar rescue who saves doomed projects (?) getting critical updates. It might be time to take Weinberger out the the parade mural everyone loves as an act of solidarity with the vanquished Sinex billboards. I knew taking those down would cause Sinex to take his crane and go home as a retaliatory act rivaled only by canceling Christmas.
It’s time to ask what is going on that huge holes are eliminating valuable tax revenue in prime city real estate of Vermont’s scarce urban areas. Is this a nefarious plot by those who seek to destroy our way of life? Sure it was easy to laugh and scoff at Newport’s giant hole. Until Burlington’s world-famous Church Street marketplace fell victim to the giant hole cabal. What city will be next…Montpelier? Rutland? STOWE??
How transparent this scheme of a villainous entity seeking to reduce tax revenue and tourist dollars by decreasing the average height of Vermont’s elevation via deep unfillable pits. No city is safe! It’s time to stop complaining, stop blaming, and start investigating. A good place to begin would be with those defrauded, disgruntled EB-5 investors. They have plenty of motive! And I heard Skip Vallee may have just invested in a backhoe company. Tick, tock people. TICK TOCK.
I didn’t think this really needed mentioning, but that space is cursed. Look into how that land was conquered for capitalism and you understand how it has all gone since then.
Seriously? The lawyer who*s filed 1,000 lawsuits to stop this project is accusing the developer of making excuses for not moving forward?
I’ve had enough of the lies and deceit that are Miro’s self-serving agenda (development) shoved down my throat. Equal disgust goes out to his city council rubber-stampers who prove a “good investment” is an oxymoron in BTV. Government instrusion and arrogance reigns, right down to shoving bicycling down our throats by removing parking spaces and traffic lanes, building consistently disproportionately large-sized edifices that block the mountains and the sun, felling hundreds if not thousands of trees that would have stemmed the flow of literally the conveniently permitted thousands of gallons of untreated sewage running amok and spilling the muck, into the lake, and the latest big-ass project, the implementation of the “reimagining” of historic City Hall Park into an amusement center that will even include water jets from the ground up. I am on my way back to my little home town in another state. This city is a MESS.
Seriously? The mayor who supported this so feverishly as to use a super pac (among other tactics) to get it passed can’t come forward and provide information?
Ireland obviously wants to use the crane to make some money as opposed to have it just sit there.
Maybe we can turn this bleak hole into a memorial garden. Erect a stone that reads : “Here lies the remains of Neo-liberal economics in Vermont ( at least temporarily ). Here lies Miro’s ambition for higher office.”
And now a moment of silence for the departed.
About time! That crane was an eyesore.
Top ideas for repurposed construction site :
#3 Art installation : “Everybody Loves a Hole”
#2 Community Ant Farm.
#1 Holding area for immigrant children.
The whole thing is an eyesore. Maybe Miro can use the hole to make his worthless speeches!!
Miro: Not the crane, man. It really tied the hole together.