International recognition honors BDCC’s redevelopment of a contaminated former machine shop in Wilmington.
Brattleboro, VT – Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) has received a Gold Award in the Real Estate Development and Reuse category of the International Economic Development Council’s (IEDC) 2026 Excellence in Economic Development Awards. IEDC, the leading professional association for economic developers worldwide, recently announced the 2026 winners, recognizing BDCC for excellence among organizations serving communities with populations under 25,000.
The award recognizes BDCC’s redevelopment of 211 Route 9 West in Wilmington, a 3.41-acre former machine shop that sat contaminated and vacant before BDCC assessed the site, managed its environmental liability, and helped bring it back into productive industrial use.
“Rural communities have very few industrial sites ready for a business to move into, and when one sits contaminated and vacant, it can stay that way for years because no single private buyer can absorb the environmental risk and the financing gap,” said Adam Grinold, BDCC’s Executive Director. “This project shows what a regional development organization can do when it brings together environmental assessment, liability protection, state financing, and municipal support to put a site back to work. Keeping industrial space available and usable is one of the most practical things we can do for employers in Southern Vermont.”
BDCC’s role expanded as the project progressed. BDCC first became involved as a lender, supporting renovation and fit-up work at the site under its previous owner. When the owner offered to sell the property, BDCC restructured its role, facilitating a planned transition to a new project company ownership.
The Windham Regional Commission’s brownfields program funded and managed the Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments and helped enroll the property in Vermont’s Brownfields Reuse and
Environmental Liability Limitation Act (BRELLA) program, which BDCC used to manage environmental liability while completing the assessment and program requirements. On the capital side, BDCC secured a Subchapter 3 real estate loan from the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) and a Rural Industrial Development Program (RIDP) patient capital award from the Vermont Department of Economic Development. The Town of Wilmington supported the project with a tax stabilization award.
About Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation
Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) is a private, nonprofit economic development organization with the mission of investing in the drivers of the regional economy so that people, businesses, and communities in Southern Vermont can thrive. In addition to its private nonprofit leadership role in regional business acceleration and expansion programs and projects, economic, workforce, and community development programming, BDCC is also contracted to carry out the work of one of the twelve the State of Vermont’s certified Regional Development Corporations (RDC) for the greater Windham County area (including Windham County and the towns of Readsboro, Searsburg, Winhall, and Weston). BDCC’s activity is made possible in part by a grant from the State of Vermont through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. For more information, visit: https://brattleborodevelopment.com/
About the IEDC Excellence in Economic Development Awards
D.C., IEDC is the world’s largest association for economic developers. Originating a century ago, IEDC is a non-profit, non-partisan membership organization that represents the entire economic development profession. Members include practitioners in economic development through local, state, provincial, and federal governments, non-profits, public-private partnerships, entrepreneurial support organizations, chambers of commerce, utilities, universities, and a variety of other organizations.
IEDC is the leading voice in driving the future of the field. IEDC provides professional development through courses and certifications, networking, conferences, research, policy advocacy, partnerships, and other valuable offerings to economic development professionals across the globe. For more information, please visit www.IEDC.org.
