Harvest Lane building purchase benefits include expanding volume of material diverted from landfills, strengthened programs and financial security and improved classroom and job training facility. ReSOURCE photo
Vermont Business Magazine ReSOURCE, a Nonprofit Community Enterprise, is pleased to announce the completion of its Realizing ReSOURCE Capital Campaign and the purchase of its central facility in Williston’s Taft Corners. The 52,000 square foot building at 329 Harvest Lane has been residence to the nonprofit’s administration, training, and retail operation since 2017, housing a reuse store, administrative offices, workforce development programs and appliance repair and computer departments in 37,000 square feet. Two businesses lease 15,000 square feet of the building.
“Completing our Campaign to purchase this building is not only a tremendous accomplishment, but speaks volumes about the belief our donors have in our mission of empowering Vermonters through workforce development, poverty relief and environmental stewardship,” said ReSOURCE Executive Director Tom Longstreth. “Support from the United States Department of Agriculture-Rural Development gave us the final push needed, and we are now better positioned to lift a much larger community of at-risk Vermonters out of poverty.”
The Harvest Lane site’s sizeable warehouse storage capacity for donations provides a central location to shift inventory as needed among the four ReSOURCE store locations in Burlington, Barre, Hyde Park and Williston, and is invaluable in preventing more than a thousand tons of reusable goods from ending up in the landfill each year. A recently installed 150 KW solar array on the building’s roof is also an important investment in ReSOURCE’s commitment to environmental stewardship and will produce more than 100% of ReSOURCE’s electrical needs at the site.
“I hadn’t planned to sell the Harvest Lane building, but when I was approached by ReSOURCE, I felt their mission would be better served through ownership than renting,” said Al Senecal, president of Omega Electric Construction Co., Inc. “I was pleased to speak at their Youth Build program graduation ceremony and am committed to supporting ReSOURCE’s transition to conscientious landlord as they take over the maintenance and management of building.”
The building’s efficient multi-use spaces provides more mobility and flexibility to student workstations and increases efficiencies between job skills training programs. Through these increased amenities, ReSOURCE expects its annual training program enrollment to increase from 275 to more than 500 students and trainees within five years.
Over the last 28 years, ReSOURCE has grown from a small reuse shop, selling furniture and appliances, to a multi-faceted organization that creates a marketplace for reuse with proceeds helping to fund workforce development, poverty relief, and environmental stewardship. ReSOURCE currently trains 275 people on average each year by using its stores in Burlington, Barre, Hyde Park, and Williston to provide job and life skills training to displaced individuals and at-risk youth, while preventing more than 1,000 tons of material from ending up in the landfill annually. The nonprofit’s Essential Goods poverty relief program has awarded over $1.7 Million worth of goods to more than 14,000 low-income Vermonters.
Source: January 10, 2020. Williston. ReSOURCE
