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Malone Properties In The News

"Field Guide is a quirky gem of a hotel in Vermont ski country"

Eastern skiers think of Stowe Mountain Resort as a grand old lady – a revered 2,160 feet (658 metres) of vertical holding court in Vermont’s Green Mountains, with meandering old-school style trails, oodles of sustained steeps, and the state’s highest ski peak. The Town of Stowe is every bit as grand with its church steeples and Colonial architecture. Yet Stowe is anything but staid. The ski resort’s state-of-the-art gondolas move lickety-split, restaurants are lively yet laid-back, and hotels are hot enough to draw hipsters from Boston, Montreal and Manhattan. Stowe’s latest mod spot: Field Guide by Lark Hotels.   LOCATION, LOCATION Perched on a knoll near the centre of town, Field Guide is like a bird on a wire — its vantage point high up and all-seeing, yet separated from the fray. Here on Mountain Road you’re within view of the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, where rotating exhibits slide you through decades of stretchy ski pants, Norwegian sweaters and skis with bear-trap bindings. Shops and galleries within a brisk three-minute walk of the hotel feature Vermont artists and ateliers. The iconic New England white church steeple is only an Instagram click away. And as its title suggests, Field Guide serves as a basecamp for forays into Stowe’s forests – for birding, hiking, skiing or tasting maple syrup. A short drive any direction from the Field Guide’s front door will lead you to miles of walking, cross-country-skiing and snowmobile-friendly trails. For alpine skiing, Stowe Mountain Resort is a 10-minute drive northward along the Mountain Road, but beware: on-mountain parking is tight on weekends. It’s less stress to ride Stowe’s free ski shuttle from town to slope.   DESIGN Field Guide opened to a swell of praise from the New York and New England press. It represents Lark Hotels’ first foray inland – its other properties are coastal beauties in swank beachy towns such as Kennebunkport, Me., Nantucket, Mass., and Mendocino, Calif. Many are linked by the design quirks of Boston-based interior designer Rachel Reider, who adorns her hotels with eye-popping colour, art, furniture and a sense of humour. Here in Vermont, antlers and animal heads formed from paper maché are mounted over fireplaces. Mini-metal mountain climbers scale neatly stacked piles of wood. Vintage trail maps act as visuals. Silver leaf tree stumps serve as end tables. And wallpaper is covered with birds, birches or some other twist of Vermont’s outdoors.   EAT IN OR EAT OUT? Field Guide staff deliver breakfast picnic baskets to your door that are full of goodies, including oatmeal in jars and fresh-baked muffins. But eating dinner out is your only option, at least until Field Guide finishes constructing its Picnic Social restaurant later this year. Thankfully, top Stowe eateries are nearby. Doc Ponds across the street gets instant praise from Field Guide staff for everything from its milkshakes to craft beer, brisket, smoked bluefish melts and fried shishito peppers. Piecasso, a short drive up the road, is a busy spot serving Sicilian pastas and pizzas. Cork Wine Bar & Market, also seconds up the road, is a popular après-ski stop for wine, cheese and charcuterie. After a day of fresh air, the home cooking in Gracie’s Restaurant fills you up with shepherd’s pie, jambalaya and family-friendly fried chicken. BEST AMENITY Field Guide’s front desk staff is helpful, casual, and friendly, but even their congeniality can’t out-comfort this boutique hotel’s soft linens and sumptuous beds.   ROOM WITH A VIEW The Trail Suite (Room 402) offers the best view: it’s the only suite on the building’s top floor. It has a broad balcony, a Stowe view, and three spacious bedrooms, including a sweetly decorated loft with a spiral staircase and twin designer beds – fun for kids.   IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING Field Guide’s mischievous, woodsy decor is fun to look at, photograph and post, but some parts are impractical for an outdoorsy hotel. Case in point: the lobby’s fluffy white rugs make you want to look but not touch, particularly with muddy feet, no matter how stylish your Hunter boots.   WHOM YOU’LL MEET Not many. With only 30 rooms in total, this quirky hotel is quiet — at least it is on a sparkling winter’s day when guests are either flashing Nikons out-of-doors or spreading organic bath salts in one of the hotel’s deep soaker tubs. The few we encountered in the “designer guest lounge” hailed from Boston and New York, dressed head to foot in cargo pants, Davy Crockett hats, down vests, and L.L.Bean. Field Guide, 433 Mountain Rd., Stowe, Vt, fieldguidestowe.com; 30 rooms from $139 (U.S.). The writer was a guest of the hotel.

"Private Projects on Rise"

Government projects have been in the spotlight lately in Waterbury — the new $5 million municipal complex, and the $130 million makeover of the State Office Complex that will again be home to 1,200 state workers.     But private development projects have been moving right along, too. Among them are a headquarters building for SunCommon, a coffee center on Route 100 in Waterbury Center, and housing on Blush Hill and Perry Hill.   Here’s a rundown. SunCommon offices In just under four years, SunCommon — a local solar installation company — has grown from 16 employees to 65. The growth is especially evident at all-company staff meetings on Monday mornings. Initially, all the employees could fit around a single table in the company’s rented space at the Energy Mill in Waterbury Center. Now, SunCommon has to book space at the Best Western Plus in Waterbury for everyone to fit into the room. Local developer Pat Malone is working on a new 14,000-square-foot office building for SunCommon on Route 2, on land that’s been used in the past for a flea market. Malone will lease about 60 percent of the building —8,500 square feet — to SunCommon, and hopes to rent the rest to other businesses. Much like SunCommon’s current space, the new building will be net-zero, meaning it will produce as much energy as it uses, said company co-founder Duane Peterson. The roof will have solar panels, and everything — right down to the heating system — will be sun-powered. “If we wanted to burn fossil fuels, we’d have to pour them on the ground and light them,” Peterson said of the new building. The company will install charging stations for the electric cars in its fleet; the chargers will also be available for public use. The new office will be close to downtown, which will give employees easy access to shops and restaurants, which should, in turn, help out the village economy, Peterson said. Malone said the offices could be completed as soon as next spring, especially given the unseasonably mild weather this year. “I sent a letter to the weather gods, and they’re cooperating,” Malone said.

"Barre-Montpelier Road developer has lots of projects in works!"

BERLIN — For the moment it’s the status quo at one of developer Patrick Malone’s spring acquisitions on the Barre-Montpelier Road, and anything is possible at the other. In recent months Malone’s Montpelier-based real estate investment and Development Company has snapped up two more properties along the busy commercial strip that runs between central Vermont’s two largest cities. Malone said this week he is still toying with the idea of radically altering one of them even as work on the other is just getting under way. Malone is keeping his options open when it comes to the vacant 20,000-square-foot cinder block building that once served as a regional headquarters for New England Telephone Co. and more recently was home to a string of small businesses that specialized in oil changes and automotive repairs. Malone purchased the 2.1-acre property from R&G Properties for $700,000 in late March and followed it up with his mid-May acquisition of the similar-sized Hooker Plaza, which is anchored by Newhouse Furniture. That 2-acre property, which is also home to Barre Electric Supply and an adjacent building that houses the party supply store Rubber Bubbles and a small business that specializes in countertops, was sold by the Newhouse family for $1.6 million – slightly more than its assessed value. Giving the old telephone company building a new look — complete with new landscaping — is the first order of business, according to Malone, whose newly filed “multi-use” application with the town leaves the door open to everything from office to retail as he begins gutting a structure that will remain largely intact, but should soon be sporting new siding, a repaired roof and a renovated interior. If Malone has a tenant or tenants in mind for the building he isn’t ready to talk about them. But given the recent revival of the Barre-Montpelier Road, where Panera Bread recently started selling soup-filled bread bowls and a new CVS Pharmacy is now under construction, he isn’t worried. “I’ve got a couple of very good prospects. Why don’t we just leave it at that?” he said. From where Malone sits you can never have enough strategically located square footage, whether it’s along the Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin, the Shelburne Road in Shelburne, where one of his tenants is Newhouse Furniture, or Dorset Street in South Burlington, where he’s in the process of obtaining permits necessary to pave the way for construction of one of Trader Joe’s specialty foods stores. Neither of the two new Berlin projects is on that scale, and Malone said one of them — what to do with the Hooker Plaza — hasn’t fully come into focus. He said he has flirted with the possibility of razing both structures and starting from scratch, but isn’t sure he wants incur the expense of flood-proofing whatever he builds. That said, according to Malone, there aren’t many inexpensive fixes to a building with ceilings that are a few feet lower than is optimal when it comes to modern retail space. “I can cure a lot of things, but I can’t cure low ceilings,” he said. Malone said one option he has considered is building two new structures on the site, and having soon-to-be-renovated square footage available just up the road could come in handy if he needs to juggle tenants. “We may have to offer part of that (old telephone building) up for replacement space, either short- or long-term,” he said. According to Malone, phasing construction of the two new buildings — if he elects to go that route — could allow one or more of the existing tenants to remain where they are and then move into the new building once it is finished.  “We’ve got some options, but the idea is to accommodate the tenants that are there,” he said. Malone said he hopes to complete both projects this year. It isn’t the first time Malone has gone real estate shopping on the Barre-Montpelier Road. In 1998 his company acquired the rundown truck garage and storage facility that he transformed into the tasteful building that is now home to Harry’s Pharmacy, the Computer Barn and two other commercial spaces. He subsequently acquired the property that is home to Windshield World and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and last year he bought an old muffler repair shop and converted it into a spacious new home for Verizon Wireless.     Though Malone has purchased and redeveloped properties around the state, he said he particularly enjoys working in central Vermont. “It’s close to home,” he said. david.delcore@timesargus.com

"South Burlington Trader Joe's OK'd Will be first of low-cost chain in region"

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. —The Development Review Board has approved the application to build a Trader Joe's on Dorset Street.   The project calls for two buildings to be built next to another grocery store, Healthy Living Market. Three homes have been purchased and will be demolished.The Trader Joe’s will anchor one of South Burlington's City Center entrances. "The fact that it's the gateway to the new City Center, the city staff wanted to get it right. They wanted to make sure all the Is were dotted and the Ts were crossed, and they did," said developer Patrick Malone, of Malone Properties. "It's a deep relief to know that it's actually permitted," he said. "It's been a long road." Trader Joe's is known for its cheap, organic food. The closest stores are in southern New York and Massachusetts.  The new store could start being built by next month, Malone said.    By David Charns

"Homes demolished to make way for Trader Joe's "

The homes were purchased by Malone Properties for the development. The project site is across from the University Mall and next to Healthy Living Market, another Malone property.   The South Burlington Development Review Board approved the two-building Trader Joe's project last month.   Developer Patrick Malone said he expects the store to open next spring.   Read more: http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/homes-demolished-to-make-way-for-trader-joes/-/8869880/21613510/-/95rg6x/-/index.html#ixzz2coSMvGF3

"Trader Joe's cleared for landing in South Burlington Board approves final plan 4-0"

Get ready for an influx of Hawaiian shirts, South Burlington  A plan for Vermont’s first Trader Joe’s grocery store, known for its island theme and offbeat store culture, received final approval from the city Tuesday. The development will be located on Dorset Street between Healthy Living Market and Café and the Blue Mall. The plan calls for two buildings on the property: A 12,800-square-foot building, reserved for Trader Joe’s, and a second 14,000-square-foot building, for which tenants have not yet been found. That second building will have space for offices and either a retail store or a short-order restaurant. The property owner, Malone Dorset Street Properties, LLC, will raze three single-family homes to build the project. Patrick Malone of Malone Dorset Street Properties also owns the Healthy Living building on the same property. He said that when Trader Joe’s approached him about the project, he was initially concerned that the new store could impact Healthy Living’s ,but after meeting with representatives of the two retailers, he believed that the site could accommodate both of them. “I just think it’ll pull some people to Healthy Living,” Malone said. The driveway to Healthy Living and the new properties is expected to become one of the main entry roads to South Burlington’s planned City Center project. The project needed additional review from the city’s Design Review Committee to ensure the project met the “look and feel” that the city wanted for its downtown area, said Paul Simon, a project manager for real estate investment advisors White + Burke who represented the developer during the city’s approval process. Malone said that he had been pushing the project forward for about two years. “I’ve seen no opposition to it, surprisingly enough,” Malone said, citing responses at public meetings about the project. “Generally the folks that come to the meetings come because they’re definitely in opposition … Every single one of them, to my pleasure and surprise, were 100 percent in favor.” There is a 30-day appeal period for the development board’s decision, and Malone Dorset Street Properties will need to fulfill a list of city-stipulated conditions and apply for a zoning permit before construction. Malone said he hopes to begin construction on the site next month and turn the store over to Trader Joe’s by the end of the year. Then the company would need to make its own preparations before it opens for business. “If I had to guess, probably spring of next year,” Malone said.       aburbank@burlingtonfreepress.com.