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RECIPE INSIDE! JANUARY 13, 2022
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
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Unsworth acquires Edge building BY JASON STARR Observer staff The former Edge Sports and Fitness building in Williston has sold to Unsworth Properties for $5.1 million. The 58,000-square-foot building near the intersection of Marshall Avenue and South Brownell Road is listed with VT Commercial for lease as a flexible warehouse/industrial space. The listing touts the building’s 30-foot-high ceilings and easy access for trucks. “It will not be a health club in the future,” James Unsworth of Unsworth Properties said. The company, based in Burlington, bought the building and 6-acre parcel under the name Nautilus LLC. The LLC was incorporated in September and the sale was finalized in December. The Unsworth family has a history with the Edge. Unsworth said his grandfather, Ray Unsworth, founded the fitness center that eventually evolved into the Edge. Unsworth’s father, Stephen, still owns part of the business. “When they decided to close this location, we were just kind of the obvious buyers,” James said. “We are real estate investors. This was a good opportunity to own some more industrial space in a really great area for those sorts of uses, and we’re excited to get a company in there to occupy the space.” In the fall of 2020, Unsworth bought the industrial properties along Avenue D and Miller Lane in Williston in a $28 million transaction. Since then, Beta Technologies and iSun have moved in. The Edge still operates two locations in South Burlington and one in Essex. CEO Michael Feitelberg told members in September about the decision to close the Williston location, citing a need to consolidate operations due to the pandemic. The Williston Edge had two pools, a fitness center and physical therapy services. South Burlington resident Monica Farrington used to frequent the therapy pool in Williston with a group of regulars. She remains mostly satisfied with her membership, but laments the longer drive and reduced hours of the Essex pool — as well as some quirks about the layout of the facility temperature fluctuations of the water. “I would take Williston back in a heartbeat if I could,” she said.
The Edge Sports and Fitness location in Williston is being remodeled for lease as an industrial/warehouse space. Unsworth Properties bought the building in December. OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
A picture of an Aldi market in Ohio was included with the application for a Williston store in Taft Corners.
Grocery store, apartment project gets preliminary nod
COURTESY OF WILLISTON PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT
BY JASON STARR Observer staff Williston’s Development Review Board approved a preliminary plan Tuesday for an Aldi grocery store and three-story apartment building in Taft Corners. The development is slated for 2 acres of vacant land that was once the site of the Skateland roller rink, which was torn down in 2003. The approval allows the grocery store portion of the project to proceed to final review and the 24-unit apartment building to compete with other residential proposals for allocation under the town’s growth management process. At 20,000-square-feet, Aldi would be a smaller option than the Hannaford grocery store located about a quarter mile away. “It fills a nice niche in the grocery store market,” said applicant Jeff Nick of J.L. Davis Realty. Between the two buildings, a parking lot, green space and artwork are planned. The development will require an extension of Wright Avenue and construction of a portion of Trader Lane. It is at the heart of what is envisioned as a walkable neighborhood under new zoning regulations that town planners are creating for Taft Corners. The board reviewed the application
‘Requiring at least two stories … leads to a more efficient use of land that encourages the creation of housing and prevents further development of the single-story big box form.’ Matt Boulanger Williston Planning and Zoning Director
under the existing regulations. If J.L. Davis submits an application for final review before the new regulations are in place, it would also be reviewed under the existing regulations, according to Planning and Zoning Director Matt Boulanger. The new regulations, a complete rewrite of zoning rules for Taft Corners, are expected to be in place by the end of the fiscal year in June. Boulanger said the proposal as presented Tuesday would not comply with the new regulations. The Planning Commission is in the final stages of drafting the new regulations and plans to hold a public hear-
ing on them at its Feb. 1 meeting. The regulations would then go before the selectboard for a public hearing and potential approval. The new regulations would change Taft Corners to a “form-based” district, where buildings are reviewed based on their look, materials and relationship to their surroundings, rather than their uses. The draft sets a minimum height of two stories for buildings, mandates sloping roofs and outlaws parking lots that front a street. “Requiring at least two stories … leads to a more efficient use of land that encourages the creation of housing and prevents further development of the single-story ‘big box’ form,” Boulanger wrote in a Dec. 28 memo to the selectboard. The new code also prescribes the location of streets and alleys “rather than developers choosing on a project basis.” “(It) sets the stage for a development pattern of human-scale, walkable, interconnected blocks that will be fronted by attractive buildings,” the memo states. The new regulations draft was created after a series of public visioning sessions last year and with the help of a consultant. More information about the project is available at www.mytaftcorners.com.