St. Johnsbury Armory Redevelopment Project

The Town’s current police station, fire station and dispatch center located at 1187 Main Street is too small to meet the operational needs of all three departments and requires significant investment to address building code upgrades and deferred maintenance issues.  The Town considered possibly renovating the building to house only a fire station or police/dispatch station but determined the building was not ideal for either operation.  The cost of addressing structural and deferred maintenance issues and making the second floor ADA accessible would be extensive.  Town officials ultimately concluded it would be most prudent to relocate the police department/dispatch center and fire station to new facilities and sell the 1187 Main Street property to a private developer.

Regardless of how the Armory Building is ultimately utilized, or demolished, the Armory will still require $1.3 million of remediation before any further steps can be taken.  By putting the Armory back into use as a viable long-term facility the $1.3M will not be spent in vain, but will be another step forward in the revitalization of downtown St Johnsbury.

Relocating the police/dispatch and fire departments to new facilities will allow the Town to sell the existing building at 1187 Main Street to a developer (private or non-profit) whose vision best serves the community. If the property is sold to a private developer or business, additional tax revenue will be generated for the Town.  Several developers have expressed interest in purchasing and redeveloping the 1187 Main Street property.

Based on recent cost estimates prepared by the Town, renovating the Armory building is expected to be about $1.5 million more than the cost to purchase land and construct a new facility outside of downtown.  This additional $1.5 million is primarily due to the cost of remediating the environmental contamination in the building.  The Town intends to obtain grant funding to pay for most of this $1.5 million in additional cost, thereby keeping the taxpayer cost of the redevelopment project about equal to the cost of constructing a new building outside of downtown.  The Town has already secured a $500,000 environmental clean-up grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and is pursuing other grant opportunities to pay for all of the environmental clean-up and a portion of the building construction and equipment cost.  

Additional benefits of renovating the Armory include:

• converting an existing vacant, dilapidated
 building to productive use

• preservation of a significant historic structure

• keeping the police station downtown

• contributing to the economic revitalization of
 St. Johnsbury’s downtown historic district

Yes, you can go to the Town Clerk’s Office between 8 am and 4 pm Monday – Friday and request an absentee ballot, or you can call (802) 748-3926 to have a ballot mailed to you.  Please note that mail requests are only available through September 9, 2021, and walk-in requests only through September 13, 2021.