SRDC to buy Park Street School for business incubator

The Springfield Regional Development Corporation (SRDC) has invoked a purchase option to buy the Park Street school building in Springfield.

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SRDC to buy Park Street School for business incubator By STEPHEN SEITZ Special to the Eagle Times Dec 5, 2018 Updated 7 hrs ago 0 SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — The Springfield Regional Development Corporation (SRDC) has invoked a purchase option to buy the Park Street school building in Springfield. Flint said the decision to purchase the building was announced at the Springfield School District’s regular meeting on Monday night. “It didn’t take long,” Flint said. “We simply announced our decision to purchase the building. We hope to take over on July 1,” which happens to be the first day of the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Springfield School District Superintendent Zach McLaughlin said the public should not expect the school district to make a lot of money on the purchase. “This is effectively a transfer of ownership,” he said. Flint said most of the building will be host to the Black River Innovation Campus (BRIC), a joint project between the SRDC and the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI). The building will be used as an incubator to develop Springfield’s broadband resources into a thriving digital economy. CORI has already raised $1 million to pursue this project. In a written statement released Tuesday, SRDC Executive Director Bob Flint announced $724,000 in federal grant money for the purpose of establishing a digital economic development program at BRIC. The award was first announced by the U.S. Economic Development Admini-stration (EDA) as part of its most recent Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) i6 Challenge competitive grant program. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders, as well as Rep. Peter Welch, issued a joint statement about the grant award. “Innovation and entrepreneurship are hallmarks of successful economies in the 21st century and initiatives like BRIC are essential to making this economy accessible to Vermonters in all areas of the state,” they wrote. “Forming strategic partnerships is at the heart of economic development and the team that has come together in Springfield is formidable. We are proud to have helped ensure a portion of this funding would be invested in rural communities like Springfield and look forward to seeing the funding in action as local residents learn, work, and start new businesses right from their hometown.” Currently, the Park Street school building houses the offices of the Springfield School District. McLaughlin said the new arrangement won’t change that. “We’ll be leasing back our office space,” he said. Both Flint and McLaughlin said no price had yet been established. Now that SRCD has decided to purchase the building, the terms of a purchase have to be worked out. CORI is a Vermont-based nonprofit that works to achieve sustainable economic success in small town rural America. More about this development can be found at their website, ruralinnovation.us. Editor's note: This article was modified on Dec. 5 to clarify the relationship between the purchase option on the Park Street School and the awarding of the federal grant money. It was not a cause and effect relationship. The grant money will be used to develop the digital programming on the campus, not to purchase the building. Top2018News