HULA Lakeside opens first building in coworking complex

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A project to grow tech jobs in Burlington is closer to completion.

The former Blodgett buildings in the city's South End are getting a makeover.

Tenants started moving into the smaller of the two, building 44, this week.

These are part of HULA Lakeside. It's the brainchild of Russ Scully, who tells us their vision for the office, events and coworking space included a focus on startups that wanted to expand.

The first tenant to move in, Benchmark Space Systems, relocated from South Burlington.

"The mission of this whole project was really to grow jobs. We wanted to create significant job growth in this area. And we felt the best way to do that is with startup companies with a huge growth profile. And so that was what we were really focused on when we were looking for tenants," Scully said.

The other building in the complex, building 50, is still a few months out from opening. That one will have coworking space for smaller startups. It's slated to come online in late September.

All told, about 500-600 people are expected to work in the complex when it’s done.