A new cross-jurisdictional collaboration was launched in 2014 by agency Directors from BDCC and the three regional planning agencies for those three areas. For over a year this group has been looking at ways to replace lost jobs and spending across their entire shared ‘job shed’, using this crisis as an opportunity to explore potential gains from working together over the long term to improve the region’s economic health. This process was the beginning of what would become the Ecovation Hub.
The project components are centered on the region impacted by the closure of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VY); southeastern Vermont, southwestern New Hampshire, and the Franklin County area of northwestern Massachusetts. The project deploys the widest possible range of regional assets in order to replace jobs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual economic productivity lost with the closure of VY. The first two project components presented – Southeastern Vermont Green Building Cluster Analysis and Southern Vermont Business Innovation Accelerator – are based in Windham County, Vermont. In Windham, economic development leaders raised concerns about losses from the VY closure years before closure was announced.
EDA Investment: $265,650
State of VT Investment: $170,625
BDCC Investment: $100,650
Total Investment: $536,925