By Kolby LaMarche

Developers of Burlington Square, the major mixed-use redevelopment on the site of the former Burlington Town Center mall, have requested an extension to complete 73 affordable housing units planned for the project’s North Tower.

The Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) and project owners asked the Burlington City Council on April 27 to amend the development agreement and push the deadline from June 2026 to December 31, 2027. 

If approved, the owners would pay a monthly penalty fee to the city’s Housing Trust Fund for each month the affordable units remain unavailable after the new deadline. City Council has not yet voted on the request; a decision is expected at its May 11 meeting.

The request highlights ongoing challenges facing the decade-long effort to redevelop the prominent downtown block adjacent to Church Street Marketplace. The property originally operated as the Burlington Square Mall, which opened in 1976 as part of the city’s urban renewal efforts. 

The enclosed mall struggled in later decades and largely closed in 2017. Developer Don Sinex of Devonwood Investors proposed the CityPlace redevelopment in 2014, envisioning a $200 million project with significant retail, office and residential components. Demolition of the old mall began in December 2017, but financing difficulties soon stalled construction, leaving a large excavation in the center of downtown that became known locally as “the pit.” 

An international partnership with Brookfield Properties took over the project in 2020, scaled back plans, and ultimately withdrew, prompting the city to file a lawsuit. Sinex was bought out in 2022 by a group of local developers — Farrington Construction, S.D. Ireland Properties, and Omega Electrical Construction — who rebranded the project as Burlington Square and resumed work.

Since 2022, the developers have completed the South Tower, Vermont’s tallest building at approximately 140 feet. 

That tower opened in September 2025 and includes 53 market-rate apartments, a 161-room AC Hotel by Marriott, ground-floor retail, restaurant and cafe space, and associated parking. As of early March 2026, roughly 40 of the 53 apartments had been leased. No affordable units have been built so far. 

The larger North Tower remains under construction. When finished, the full project is expected to total more than 700,000 square feet, with more than 350 apartments overall, a second hotel (Cambria), more than 40,000 square feet of retail space, and the reconnection of Pine and St. Paul streets, which were severed when the original mall was built in the 1970s. 

Full completion is currently projected for late 2027 or early 2028.

Under the city’s inclusionary housing requirements and the development agreement, the North Tower must contain the project’s 73 affordable apartments. The South Tower contains no affordable units. 

In 2024, the city established a fallback provision that would have required 11 of the South Tower’s market-rate apartments to be offered at affordable rates if the North Tower was not completed by the original June 2026 deadline.

Developers and CEDO officials cited multiple factors for the current delay. 

These include ongoing labor shortages in the construction industry, increased construction costs, and financial pressures, including the effects of federal tariffs and the lack of access to low-interest loans or tax credits. Officials said the revenue from market-rate units is needed to make the affordable component financially viable.

Once completed, the 73 affordable units in the North Tower would represent a meaningful addition to the city’s housing stock in a prime downtown location with walkable access to jobs, services and transit. 

However, the extended timeline means those units will not become available until at least late 2027 — more than a year after the original target — even as demand for affordable housing continues to outpace supply.

Critics of the extension argue that further delays undermine the public benefits promised in exchange for city approvals, tax increment financing support and other public resources committed to the project over the years. 

Supporters note that the overall development still advances the city’s goals of increasing downtown housing density, improving street connectivity and revitalizing a long-vacant site that had become an economic drag on the Church Street district.

Project representatives have maintained that the extension is necessary to ensure the entire development can be completed without further financial disruption. 

The Burlington Square project, regardless of the final timeline for its affordable units, marks one of the largest private redevelopment efforts in Vermont in recent decades. Its outcome will likely influence future large-scale housing and mixed-use projects in Burlington and across the state.

City officials and the development team are expected to provide additional details and answer questions at the May 11 City Council meeting before any vote on the proposed amendment.