Construction of Hannaford Superstore and Marriott Hotel Progresses Quickly

Author: Elizabeth Braunstein

As the new library and Atwater Commons projects are taking shape on the Middlebury College campus, so too sprout the Courtyard by Marriott hotel and the Hannaford supermarket in downtown Middlebury. The new additions to the Middlebury economy aim to alleviate effects caused by the recession, such as the closing of Ames in August 2002 and the recent vacating of A&P, Brooks Drugs and other stores in The Centre Shopping Plaza
Construction on the Courtyard by Marriott is currently underway on a 3.4 acre site in downtown Middlebury, located across from McDonald's. The project is estimated at $6 million and will result in a 54,500 square-foot, 89-room hotel by Creative Hotel Associates of Rockville, Md., and Butson Investment Partnership of Woodsville, N.H. Opechee Construction Corp. of Belmont, N.H, is building the facility.
Rick Kaden of Creative Hotel Associations commented in The Rutland Herald that there are no brand name hotels between Burlington and Rutland. He added that with the demand produced by parents and visitors to the College, Middlebury is an ideal location.
Owners of the Middlebury Courtyard by Marriott believe that the new hotel will not pull customers away from the current major hotel in town, the Middlebury Inn, but will rather attract a different crowd than those wishing to stay in a bed and breakfast setting.
The trepidation of townspeople who fear the over-commercialization of Middlebury is offset by the design of the Courtyard. The hotel was designed to have the look of a small-town bed and breakfast with white clapboard siding, cupolas, a pitched green and black shingled roof, dormers on one end of the building and a wrap-around porch. The hotel will include two meeting rooms, a breakfast room, library and lounge area with fireplace, spa, exercise room and swimming pool. The Courtyard also hopes to attract larger groups than the local inns can accommodate.
While one can easily view the progression of the Courtyard, other developments are less visible. A Hannaford supermarket is in the works to replace Ames in Middlebury's Centre Shopping Plaza. The Ames Department Store chain filed for bankruptcy in August of 2002, closing 12 stores in Vermont and laying off 744 employees. In Middlebury, the closing of Ames has left a commercial gap, especially for rural residents seeking everyday, non-specialty goods. Larry Duffany, the owner of Ben Franklin, told The Herald that he would be reevaluating his merchandise in order to accommodate customers.
Last May, Hannaford Food and Drug Superstore began planning to build a new supermarket after A&P left The Centre. The market was scheduled to open in 2005 in the Ames' location after Ames' lease ran out, converting the 48,000 square-foot space and employing about 100 people. Although the Ames' space is currently available, it may remain empty until Hannaford begins construction in 2005.
With the passing reluctance to commercialize quaint Vermont towns, Wal-Mart, the ever-expanding commercial giant, is stepping in to fill vacancies throughout the state. Although once thought of as an enemy of the small town, Wal-Mart has been sought out to relieve economic strife in towns that share the problems facing Middlebury.
In 1995, Wal-Mart opened its first store in Vermont in Bennington and has since filled two other vacated stores in Berlin and Rutland and built a new store in Williston.
Middlebury's small town image has been preserved thus far, but the community, like so many others in the state, may be forced to keep opening up larger and more profitable businesses to boost its economy.