BRATTLEBORO, VT – Governor Peter Shumlin and local officials will join Eli Gould, President of Ironwood & Precraft, for a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday December 21, 2015 at 11:30 to celebrate the completion of the first phase of a prototyping and testing facility for the green building industry. Public and members of the press are invited to attend.
The Advanced Practice, Testing, and Integration Shop, or “APTI-Shop” for short, is the first loan funded from the Windham County Economic Development Program, established upon the closure of Entergy VY. The Windham Region CEDS, completed in 2013, identified green building as a top prospect to replace Entergy jobs with new manufacturing careers in high performance prefab and value added timber and engineering.
“This is exactly the type of private sector project the Windham County revolving loan fund is meant to assist,” said Governor Shumlin. “Eli will create new jobs in the green building sector and when his loan is paid back, funds will be available for future job creation projects in Windham County.”
Leveraging private funds to access a low interest loan from the Windham County Economic Development Program (WCEDP), Gould was able to purchase a building located on O’Bryan Drive in Brattleboro. The facility will build on twenty years of linking native lumber and custom prefab manufacturing, allowing sister companies to add high value jobs.
“This WCEDP loan allowed us to take on and repurpose a vacant industrial building,” explained Gould. “That has the potential to bring our project managers and craftspeople under one single roof, design and prefabricate the buildings and systems for which we are already known, and host training, testing, and other advanced construction industry events. It is going to take a lot of work and imagination but this funding source gave us the stretch capacity to take it on and we intend to make the best of the opportunity for our hometown region.”
The WCEDP promotes economic development in Windham County by providing funds to stimulate job creation through business start-up, expansion, or relocation, encourage entrepreneurial activity, and strengthen the economic development infrastructure to ensure a strong foundation for transformational economic activity. The primary focus of the program is private sector job creation and retention, and direct support of entrepreneurial activities, followed by support of systems and activities that encourage an entrepreneurial, innovation and business start-up environment and culture. “This project is the perfect use of these funds,” noted R.T. Brown, WCEDP Project Manager. “Not only are we actively working to attract and retain businesses, but diligently working to expand the already successful ones here.”
Adam Grinold, BDCC Executive Director stated, “Today we’ve celebrated two industry expansions in Windham County. The area will feel the impact of these efforts with the creation of jobs and retention of high quality, high wage positions in our community for years to come.”
For additional info about Ironwood/Precraft contact: Eli Gould at ironwoodbrand@gmail.com
Website: http://www.precraft.com/
Program website: https://brattleborodevelopment.com/economic-development/windham-co-economic-development-program
BDCC Website: www.brattleborodevelopment.com
SeVEDS CEDS URL: http://seveds.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/FINALCEDSReport.2013.pdf
