WATERBURY, Vt. -
One of the abandoned buildings in the Waterbury state office complex will soon be turned into housing for low-income Vermonters.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vermont, were at Ladd Hall Friday to announce $950,000 in federal funding to support a $6 million renovation of the building. Ladd Hall is one of the buildings left empty when hundreds of state employees were moved out of the Waterbury complex following flooding from Tropical Storm Irene.
The rehab project will create 27 new units of affordable housing.
"It's great to be here to announce the first big rebuilding project in Waterbury and to have it be one that demonstrates really well how we can meet our historic preservation objectives, and get adaptive re-use for critical infrastructure needs going forward," Vt. Commerce Secretary Lawrence Miller said.
The money comes from the Community Development Block Grant program. Leahy and Shumlin also announced over $1 million in nondisaster CDBG funding. Those projects include a community building in Rutland, dental center in Bristol, renovated and new affordable homes in Hardwick and Charlotte, and an agri-business planning grant for a greenhouse in Coventry.
