Healthy Living CEO Eli Lesser-Goldsmith Credit: Luke Awtry

The town of Shelburne and Healthy Living Market & Café  could form a public-private partnership to determine if a parcel of land on U.S. 7 is suitable for development.  If given initial approval by Shelburne voters on Town Meeting Day in March, the proposed project would mean the development of a Healthy Living grocery store and a new fire and rescue department on adjacent sites at  U.S. Rte. 7 and Longmeadow Drive.

The first ballot initiative will ask Shelburne voters to approve a $50,000 expenditure — $25,000 from the ambulance fund and $25,000 from taxes — that would be used for “soft development,” including permitting fees and site suitability studies, according to Jerry Storey, chair of the Shelburne Selectboard.

Healthy Living would spend the same amount on so-called soft development, said CEO Eli Lesser-Goldsmith, as a first phase of the development.

“It’s a great location,” Lesser-Goldsmith said. “We want to be part of the community of Shelburne, Charlotte and neighboring Hinesburg and South Burlington. Shelburne Fire and Rescue is a gold-star neighbor, and we’d be super-excited to help them make their new fire-station dreams [become] a reality.”

Healthy Living has purchased an option to buy 6.5 acres for the dual development project, Lesser-Goldsmith said. Should the project move forward, Healthy Living would build an 18,000-square-foot grocery store and café on about half the land, he said.

In an independent transaction, the town would purchase the remainder of the lot and develop a fire and rescue station on it, according to Storey. For this phase of the project, the town will ask voters on Town Meeting Day 2020 to approve $650,000 to buy the land and $50,000 for development, he said.

“It’s a public-private partnership in an interesting way,” Storey said. “And it’s a great vote in our joint confidence in the region.  It might be instructive down the road for how other kinds of development can occur.”

The Shelburne location would be the third store for Healthy Living, a business founded in 1986 by Katy Lesser, Lesser-Goldsmith’s mother. The original location was a small shop in South Burlington’s Blue Mall. Now, Healthy Living is a 30,000-square-foot store, with café and education kitchen, just down Dorset Street, and also has a branch in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Lesser-Goldsmith said he intends to begin construction on the Shelburne store in 2020.

“We’re really hoping that the town of Shelburne buys the rear property and co-develops the entire piece with us,” he said. “People have been asking for our store there for years and we’re going to try to deliver it.”

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Sally Pollak was a staff writer at Seven Days from 2017 until she retired in summer 2023. She started as a Food contributor before transitioning to the Arts & Culture team. Her first newspaper job was compiling horse racing results at the Philadelphia...

10 replies on “Pending Town Meeting Approval, Healthy Living Aims to Build Store in Shelburne”

  1. Having a sussessful biz and connections that parents can give you is a pretty great thing…Hes a lucky guy for sure. Farrell, OBrien, Hinsdale, Bissonette, Handy, Vallee, Davis, Pomerleau, Ireland, Pecor, Wulfson, etc…all families that hit it big in the last 45 years or so in Chittenden Co. and handed off to next generations. These families continue to build Chittenden Co. and the state economically.

  2. Another bond issue for the overtaxed town…lets see- we are paying a huge amount for constant lawsuits against the Railroad, a new firetruck- and yes, and a 6.5 million dollar library- over budget…lets add this to the plate. OUR SELECTBOARD NEED TO STOP SPENDING MONEY. that’s what happens when it’s filled with lawyers and doctors- and not everyday folk.

  3. Clearly it would hurt Shelburne Supermarket, another local business that has been here for Shelburne, Charlotte and S. Burlington for years without asking taxpayers for support. City Market has just built a new store not all that far away. We don’t need another store on Rt 7, and certainly not one asking for support! from the town.

  4. Shelburne Supermarket is no longer locally owned. it is owned by an NH business Associated Grocers of New England. Facts matter

  5. Shelburne is a small town: 7,730 residents in 2017, 19% under 18 (most not contributing to taxes). We have been hemorrhaging money. It needs to stop. Not all residents are affluent. Keep the fire station where it is. Deal with it.

    Move the station and what happens when a fire breaks out on the south side of Shelburne, when traffic is backed up from north of the Rice intersection, all the way down to the traffic light in town…as it can be even now, without any added Healthy Living traffic?

  7. I love how “Wealthy Living” is trying to get the town of Shelburne to help finance their project. Their South Burlington store is only 7 miles from this new location — and Shelburne already has a supermarket … plus Hannafords, Shaws, Price Chopper/Market 32 and City Market’s new south end store are just four miles north! Please don’t be greedy — we don’t need another market … and Shelburne cannot afford to move the fire station after spending a fortune on the railroad lawsuit and the $6.5 million library.

  9. The reaction to this story makes me wonder why anyone would want to invest in Vermont . I don’t have any particular opinion of Healthy Living . I might stop in when shopping at Trader Joe’s . HL has a good selection at high prices . Unlikely to make a big order.
    So why the hate for a Vermont owned and based business ? I don’t get you people . Don’t shop there fine but actively wishing them failure is odd .

  10. Healthy living is getting this land no matter what. The fire and rescue buildings will need to be replaced no matter what. May as well be at a lesser cost to the taxpayers by doing it now.

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