The sound of bass, drums and guitar will ring out in a space where bottles and cans once rattled and crashed when Tank Recording Studio moves into the now-closed Burlington Beverage Center on North Winooski Avenue.
Development company Redstone bought the triangle-shaped lot and ramshackle, one-story building in the Old North End last year. The Burlington Development Review Board on July 5 green-lighted soundproofing, new siding and new storefront doors — among other changes — at the former convenience store and bottle-redemption facility once a popular spot for “canners” who would bring around carts full of returnables.
“Everything is looking good and we’re hopeful that it’s going to be a cool element of creativity in the Old North End where Burlington-based bands and bands from other parts of the country can lay down tracks and make great music,” said Redstone managing partner Erik Hoekstra.
Tank’s owners did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
According to Hoekstra, Tank is leasing the 3,200-square-foot space at 208-212 North Winooski and moving out of its space just down the road at 274 North Winooski.
The flies and sticky floors at the former redemption center will be a thing of the past.
“We are renovating and retrofitting the existing building. We are not tearing that building down, we are not starting all over,” Hoekstra said. “We are working with what’s there and trying to get rid of the sticky fly situation and breathe some new life into the building.”
The Burlington Beverage Center closed last September after 38 years in operation. The closing forced many low-income neighborhood residents who collect returnables for income to find another redemption center — in some cases walking five miles to get there.
The zoning application indicated that up to six employees will work at the new studio, which anticipates maximum hours of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m, seven days a week.
The studio will help enliven an already vibrant corridor of shops, restaurants and residential buildings along the North Winooski corridor, according to the Redstone application to the DRB.
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Here’s a radical idea: How about we get rid of the Bottle Bill altogether, and put the $0.09/can back in the consumers pocket! Then we won’t need any of these redemption centers and everyone can be happy.
With mandatory recycling laws in place and advance zero-sort technology accessible across Vermont there’s no need for these 1970’s-style bottle bills that create MASSIVE inefficiencies in the raw materials supply chain.
Margaret Cheney Welch–Congressman Welch’s wife–pursued recycling reform when she was Rep. from Norwich, but quickly got shut down from special-interest groups.
This redemption center shut down not because Mr Hoekstra is trying to “gentrify” the ONE but because the business model of a redemption center is rather archaic and unfeasible in 2017. The trend of beer consumption to skew towards double IPA tall boys (high alcohol/can ratio) doesn’t help either.
The Vermont House needs to repeal and replace the bottle bill.
Another compassionate, reactionary comment from Paco DeFrancis… the bottle bill provides extra money for a lot of poor folks, New Americans, etc… we collect cans at work and donate the proceeds to Camp Ta Kum Ta… kids collect and redeem bottles for their cub scout troops, school field trips, etc…. sure… get rid of it!!!… DeFrancis is the mayor’s appointee on Burlington’s Community Development Block Grant Advisory Board… good to see that he has such a compassionate outlook for all of Burlington’s citizens… he should resign his position… or the mayor should be made aware that he is pretty heartless…