Two apartment buildings are planned for a Burlington brownfield property near the Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund site, promising new housing where countless other commercial development proposals have failed.
The property owner, Stowe philanthropist Rick Davis, and developer Doug Nedde are convinced that this project is positioned for success. It could bring 112 units of new housing across two four-story buildings, along with commercial space on the ground floor. About 20 percent of those units will be affordable housing, as required by Burlington’s inclusionary zoning regulations, Nedde said.
It’s the latest in a long line of proposed developments, none of which have come to fruition, at 453 Pine Street. It’s adjacent to the Barge Canal Superfund site, where a variety of chemicals and coal tar were dumped by the defunct Burlington Gas Works throughout the first half of the 20th century.
A brownfield can’t be developed without serious remediation, and its proximity to one of the most toxic properties in Vermont has led to further restrictions on how the land can be used.
Zoning changes to the formerly industrial South End in 2023 opened the door to developing residential housing on the property. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is nearing an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would allow, once remediation is complete, for housing to be built on the land.
“When we’re done, the site will be one of the cleanest in the city,” Nedde said.
That’s a big promise, considering the property’s history.
Davis put the property on the market in 2019 for $2 million, and herbal entrepreneur Jovial King announced plans to build an expansive Nordic spa on the site in 2023. By fall 2024, she’d pulled the plug after estimated remediation costs soared, exceeding the $6 million the state had allocated for the work.
Remediation would be relatively simple, according to Grahame Bradley, the Department of Environmental Conservation hazardous site manager overseeing the project. Several feet of potentially contaminated topsoil will be removed, carted off to a landfill in the Northeast Kingdom and replaced with clean dirt. A bio-retention basin will lock in stormwater runoff, mitigating any further potential contamination of Lake Champlain.
The city may consider the property fit for residential housing, but the federal government is less certain. An EPA easement currently forbids residential housing there. But, according to Bradley, that may soon change. The state is currently awaiting final approval from the feds on new language for the easement that would allow housing once the property is remediated, Bradley said.
Nedde is limiting the footprint of his two buildings to just 2.5 acres of the property, and the city’s zoning changes allow him to build right to the edge of Pine Street. This limits the amount of land that must be remediated for the project to go forward and made it feasible in ways King’s spa project was not.
The state is currently in the process of designing a “corrective action plan” that would ensure the development won’t disturb the Superfund site or push contamination any closer to Lake Champlain. This includes a monthlong period for public comment, slated to be held this fall, according to Bradley. If all goes according to plan, Nedde hopes to break ground next spring.
Davis plans to donate the undeveloped portion of the brownfield, along with an additional eight acres of land within the Superfund site, to the city. Interest has grown within the past few years in conserving the area around the Barge Canal as a green space within a rapidly developing portion of the city, an effort led by the advocacy group Friends of the Barge Canal.
“At some point down the road, the city, either through philanthropy or possibly a federal grant, or a combination of the two, could do a spectacular park on a former Superfund site,” Davis said. “It’s very feasible. We’ve talked to the EPA about it. You have to jump through certain hoops, obviously, but it would be a spectacular park.”
When early plans for the Nedde development were submitted to the Burlington Development Review Board in spring 2025, Friends of the Barge Canal initially turned out to oppose it. They had supported King’s plans, which included a public green space, and recognize the dire need for new housing in Burlington, including on another South End property, on Lakeside Avenue, that is slated for redevelopment. But the group had come to oppose further development of the area around the Barge Canal.
“The Pine Street Barge Canal has already been exploited,” Ruby Perry said at the meeting. “It is time that we humans recognize our close relationship with the land and our responsibility to care for it.”
Andy Simon, another friend of the Barge Canal, said the group’s plans have moved beyond what may or may not happen with Davis’ brownfield. As part of Burlington’s most recent round of city planning, which began last month, the group is now pursuing a vision for the “Barge Canal as a green space at the heart of a rapidly developing neighborhood.”
Correction, May 28, 2026: A previous version of this story misstated the status of the project, which still needs final approval from the Development Review Board.
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