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GlobalFoundries seeks buyer for Williston campus
MAY 14, 2026
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The 442-acre GlobalFoundries campus in Williston has a solar array, office buildings and access to a bridge over the Winooski River.
Company requests zoning change to facilitate sale BY JASON STARR Observer staff It’s 442 acres and comes with its own bridge over the Winooski River. The Williston side of the GlobalFoundries campus is oneof-a-kind, and the company is planning to put it up for sale. “We’ve come to the decision that we’d like to find another owner for that campus,” GlobalFoundries Director of Facilities Dan Forcier told the
Williston Planning Commission last week. “The property is no longer serving a direct need for us.” Forcier came to the planning commission with a request: expand the allowable uses in the town’s “Industrial Zoning District East” that governs the parcel to include warehousing and distribution. That, the company believes, will increase its value on the market and facilitate a sale. GlobalFoundries acquired the parcel from IBM in 2015, when it took over the entire IBM
Three 1980s-era office buildings totaling about 430,000 square feet are now nearly completely empty — the last remaining tenant plans to vacate in June. microchip manufacturing facility that straddles the Winooski River. The majority of the campus is in Essex Junction. During its heyday in the 1990s, IBM stationed about 3,000 workers
on the Williston side, Forcier said. Three 1980s-era office buildings totaling about 430,000 square feet are now nearly completely empty — the last remaining tenant plans to vacate in June. “COVID really had an impact on the tenants that we did have,” Forcier said. “They are doing more work from home, and other tenants moved to more modern locations. It’s still on the market as available office space, and I don’t think we’ve had an offer on it since COVID.” Forcier has consulted with a commercial real estate broker and learned that, while demand for office space is at a historic low in
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Chittenden County, there is demand for warehouses and distribution centers. “They are fairly confident that some sort of storage is going to be the future for the Williston campus,” he said. Members of the planning commission are less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a warehouse and distribution center. “We know an Amazon warehouse wants to come to this area, and I don’t think Williston wants that,” said planning commission member Jill Pardini. Pardini was referring to an application last year to build an see GLOBALFOUNDRIES page 4
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