Moulton-Steele: Sustaining a Bold Vision

By Margaret Michniewicz

Photos by Jan Doerler

Melinda Moulton (left) and Lisa Steele (right) welcome Burlington to Lake & College.

Armed with high-powered squirt guns in both hands to keep the rats at bay, Melinda Moulton went about her rounds checking the abandoned waterfront properties under her supervision. Inspecting buildings such as the legendary Pease Grain Tower, the 33-year-old Moulton negotiated the excrement of assorted critters in high heels that were de rigeur at the time. She recalls, “I used to shoot rats at the dump with my father when I was a little girl” – (presumably not with squirt guns) – “so I was perfectly suited for the job.”

It was the early 1980’s, and the Burlington waterfront resembled a neighbor’s basement too unsavory to venture into willingly. For recent arrivals, who know the waterfront only as the Boathouse, bike path, skate park, and ECHO Center, it’s inconceivable to picture the jewel in the crown of the Queen City as the toxic, post-industrial wasteland it was for decades. Over the course of the past twenty years, the waterfront has been vastly transformed, most recently by the addition of Main Street Landing Company’s new flagship building, Lake and College. The indomitable force behind it has been Moulton and her longtime business partner Lisa Steele.

Lake and College, designed by architect Colin Lindberg, encompasses approximately 100,000 square feet, nearly half of which is public-accessible, from theater spaces and solarium to coin-operated showers. The mixed-use site devotes 60,000 square feet for office and retail space, while offering 30,000 square feet of public space and promenades, plus an adjoining renovated park with an additional 18,000 square feet of public space. It has been constructed in accordance with the Green Building Council’s LEED certification requirements (see page 28). And, reports Moulton, the $14 million dollar project is tallying up at a stunningly low cost of $125 per square foot. Both 

she and Steele are visibly proud of combining public  space and environmentally-conscious construction, all at a  cost-efficient rate, in a single building. “This is a great reality for the Green development movement,” Moulton says enthusiastically. “I am so eager to begin sharing our story and inspiring others to “Go Green” and create sustainable development projects with a social and environmental mission. It works!”

Moulton and Steele are bold visionaries who describe themselves as “not your typical developer.” The website homepage of Main Street Landing (MSL) proclaims, “We are a company with a vision that includes environmentalism and social conscience.” The essence of the company’s goals, as expressed by its mission statement, is creating something “beautiful and fun,” a place “for everyone” that is “environmentally-friendly” and “financially viable” – and achieved “without falling prey to city politics.”

This has not been a development spree at breakneck pace, partly as the result of Moulton and Steele’s own objectives, ideals, and lessons learned, but also due to exterior pressures. They’ve encountered hurdles ranging from citizens’ groups to individuals, bond votes to lawsuits. In addition, the City has continued to pursue its own revitalization projects while keeping private developers in check. One need only look to the east side of Battery Street to see what a different future the lakefront might have had without the intervention of the public over the private sector.

Past Lessons Learned

In 1983, Lisa Steele purchased the majority of the commercially developable land available in the Burlington waterfront area. Steele recalls it being a “jewel of a piece of property – even though at the time it wasn’t looking very jewel-like!” Over the course of the next three years, the company she was part of, the Alden Waterfront Corporation, formulated plans for developing the property. “The waterfront had been neglected and polluted over many years, and it was a terrific opportunity to clean it up and create a healthy environment where people would want to be,” Steele says.

As evidenced by letters to the editor in local papers this past spring regarding the proposal to house the YMCA in the old Moran Plant, many long-time Burlingtonians still warily recall the “Alden Plan” and cite it as an example of what they do not want to see for their lakefront.

At the time, the purchase of the land incited lots of discussion within the city, particularly as details of the plan’s scale emerged. Like many other U.S. waterfront communities in the 1980’s, the Alden Plan included a “Fanueil Hall-type project” with park and marina, designed by a Boston architect. Citizen’s groups formed comprised of unlikely bedfellows, and encouraged consideration of an alternate path to revitalization.

In 1986 the Alden group abandoned the project after citizens rejected the bond for the infrastructure in a city-wide vote, an event for which Steele remains profoundly grateful to this day.

“I recognized that if development was going to happen on the waterfront, it should happen incrementally in small parcels over time with a lot of public input,” Steele says.

Moulton, who was the Alden company’s director of operations and spokesperson, is equally sanguine about the aborted project. “Alden was the catalyst for purchasing the property and beginning the journey toward its revitalization,” Moulton says. “But in retrospect we are thankful the Alden project failed and that we were able to do our redevelopment projects the way we have - slowly, incrementally and with a social, environmental and very local vision.”

Atypical Developers

Steele was, however, left with a difficult choice. She did not want to sell the property for fear that it would be developed irresponsibly, yet she was not sure she could take on the scope of it all herself. She had already experienced watching pastoral land she used to own spring up with houses, and the possibility of sprawl on the waterfront left her mortified.

Looking for advice, Steele sought out Moulton, who had moved on to Lake Champlain Chocolates. Moulton immediately suggested rejoining Steele so they could pursue an alternative course, steering it in the direction of sustainable development that was more in accordance with their own personal principles than what had been proposed under the Alden Plan. “I think we can go ahead and develop this property,” Moulton told her. “I not only think we can do it I think we can do it better than anyone else.”

“Melinda was just the spark that I needed!” Steele recalls. The two women regrouped and created the Main Street Landing Company. “We changed the name because it was a totally different organization, totally different people except for Melinda and me,” explains Steele. They made ‘going Green’ one of the new company’s signature traits. “I wanted to have the reputation of leaving the property much better, more beautiful than it was before, without impacting the neighbors in a negative way,” Steele says. They put together a team of architects to craft a twenty-five year plan for developing the property, met with environmental consultants, and over the course of a year solicited input from a variety of community members to determine what the people of Burlington wanted for their waterfront.

The Burlington Planning Commission ultimately accepted MSL’s twenty-five year plan, unanimously. After the meeting, Moulton recalls that board members thanked both women for the apparent care and study put into the plan. Throughout the course of the twentieth century “it was the twenty-second attempt to develop the waterfront,” Moulton says.

Who defines Green?

Beginning in the first phase of their work, with the renovation of Union Station and in the construction of the Cornerstone and Wing buildings, MSL’s construction approach included maximizing the use of recycled material, decorating with toxic-free paints and carpets, and banning all petroleum-based products. Outside, they developed a storm water garden to purify run-off before it entered the sewer system. They also planted with an eye to offsetting the onset of a concrete jungle – ferns, shrubs, flowers and more than eighty trees. Steele recalls in an incredulous voice, “Our mechanical engineers were talking about not having windows that open [because it cost more]. We said, that’s too bad: we’re having windows that open. And sure enough, about a year later, there came out all this stuff about ‘sick buildings’ [due to poor air circulation and inadequate ventilation].”

Everyone had advice for the pair, but they were resolute with their vision. “There is another way to vision a site, develop a project, build a building, rent your space, and make money in real estate without having to build ugly structures with unhealthy spaces,” Moulton maintains.

In commercial real estate and development, MSL’s commitment to sustainable development and environmental sensitivity was ahead of the curve, yet they were quickly sued by environmental advocates over the amount of parking in the first phase of their redevelopment.

“I thought ‘Why are they suing us?’ When as far as I knew every other developer in town had no environmental principles,” Steele says. It was an ironic situation at best, but Steele adds, “Anybody has a right to oppose development and I feel so lucky to be in Vermont especially because we have all these environmental regulations. To me, that’s what really has made this state grow in a good way instead of a bad way.”

The original parking was determined by city ordinance requiring 350 square feet of parking for every 150 square feet of retail or office space. This meant an additional level of parking, increasing the height of the Wing Building because building below the water was prohibitively expensive. Eventually, the city reassessed and reduced the requirement. “So in a way,” Steele philosophizes, “that suit was a gift because we were having problems with it as well and Melinda has been constantly talking to the City about changing the zoning on the waterfront.”

Social Consciousness-Raising

When Steele was just five years old, she ignored her elder sister’s warnings and went to the beach in solidarity with their African-American babysitter. She found herself amidst a demonstration to end segregation on the public seashore – and, on the wrong end of the gun. Hundreds of white people had lined up to block the way, many with raised rifles, aiming straight at the crowd with five-year old Lisa in the front.

Steele has a kind, unassuming demeanor, prefers to be well out of the limelight, and relates this story only as an example of the times in which she grew up. It’s clear from listening, though, that her early indignation toward injustice has endured into her adult years, and it explains her commitments to social causes and facilitating public access throughout her projects. One of the stated objectives of MSL is to ensure the maximum public access even though exclusive uses might have brought her higher profits.

Moulton shares Steele’s politics, cheerfully describing the pair as ‘a couple of old hippies’ imbued with the spirit of the Sixties, and recalls marching against the Vietnam War with Daniel Ellsburg at Harvard. In 1973, while living in a tent with their two-year old son, Moulton and her husband built their own stone house and prepared to create a sustainable life so that, “if ever need be, we could live on the land and be completely self-sufficient,” she says.

Behind Moulton’s ideals was the practical experience of business school and life in a multi-generational construction family, one of the largest firms in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh County. “I have always had a keen organized aptitude for business and construction,” Moulton says.  “I used to go with my father on Saturdays into his office and work for the day with him, reviewing drawings, estimating, managing his books, working the switchboard, and traveling with him around to his jobs. During the summer I worked in his firm. I never missed a ground breaking or a ribbon cutting. This business is in my blood.”

Sharing a Vision

Steele describes her partnership with Moulton as one that allows and enables each woman opportunities that would be otherwise unavailable. “I think we’re a really good combination because Melinda gets things done yesterday, she’s high-energy, she’s very bright, she loves to be out front. She can be tough when she needs to be,” Steele says. “I take a long, long time to make a decision and think things through as thoroughly as I can, look at all the different scenarios before I make a decision – I’m the tortoise, she’s the hare. We don’t always agree but we have the same goals.”

Moulton adds, “Fortunately in twenty-three years, Lisa and I have very rarely ever taken an opposing view on anything. Our sense of style, design, and purpose is very similar. We must agree to go forward... and ninety-nine percent of the time we agree on most everything,” she says. “Lisa is a joy to be around. She is lighthearted, kind, bright, and has a tremendous sense of humor. And – she is a terrific competitor. She is strong, forceful, decisive, and extremely powerful. She never gives up, and she will fight for what she believes is right.”

Both women attribute part of that synergy to their gender. “Women tend to process things very differently from men…We are not necessarily top-down thinkers, we are collaborators,” Moulton believes. “We support our tenants, and are deeply committed to their comfort and their success. There is a nurturing that we do that I believe is inherently female – although men today are much more aware and tender in business than days of old,” she adds.

In addition to serving as the public face of the company, Moulton also acts as the enforcer. “She’s much tougher than I am,” Steele insists. Moulton reflects, “There was a time in my career when I had to play by the boys’ rules – but at fifty-five years of age with thirty-five years of business experience under my belt, I have earned my spurs in the business and development community. Now I just play by the rules, period! And, since I run the company, many of the rules are mine. But they are fair,” she says.

Part of the rules and wisdom borne of their collective experience in real estate development is knowing how to turn opponents into fans. Moulton cites MSL’s interaction with the Conservation Board as an example. “Many of the people serving on the Board were anti-development and especially anti-waterfront development. At the end of the process, we were able to incorporate their suggestions, and also to convince them that we cared about the same things they did,” she explains. “It created an ability to move forth with the support of the Green community – who at one time were our chief detractors.”

While they may win-over board members, Steele and Moulton aren’t as sure of their reputation with other developers. “They might find us a little irritating,” Steele chuckles. “We have done things a different way because of our sustainable principles. It set the bar a little higher and I think Burlington now expects that; there may be some resentment because there’s an upfront cost doing it that way. But it’s very easy to see very quickly the returns come back in the long run – and even in the short-run,” Steele says.

Relations with the City

Steele describes the waterfront as “political football,” but the teams keep changing. Since she purchased the property, the mayor’s office has hosted a Democrat, a Socialist, a Progressive, a Republican, and the Progressive-cum-Democrat, in that order. “We’ve seen it all and we’ve worked well with every mayor,” Steele says.

The current City Hall occupant seems to agree. “After decades as a fenced-off zone of junkyards, railyards, oil tanks, and a coal-fired generating plant, Burlington’s waterfront has been transformed into a spectacular community resource,” says Mayor Peter Clavelle. “Now, with the completion of Main Street Landing’s Lake and College building, this community takes another big step toward a year-round waterfront. Thanks to the vision of Melinda Moulton and Lisa Steele, Burlington residents and visitors will have new opportunities to enjoy the lake and its environs in all seasons.”

The Lake and College project received a 2003 Commercial Revitalization Deduction (CRD) allocation of $10 million from the federal Housing and Urban Development agency (HUD). Moulton explains that MSL applied for this financing tax credit at the encouragement of Bruce Seifer in the Burlington Community and Economic Development Office. She says that CRD’s create an incentive for developers to invest in districts designated for commercial revitalization, such as where Lake and College is located, and describes it as an intensive application process. Similar HUD grants went to Detroit, Southeast Los Angeles, the south side of Chicago, and other major metropolitan areas.

Receipt of the CRD does not relate to the below-average construction costs of Lake and College. Rather, it could be attributed to collaboration and communication. According to Moulton, “The $125.00 per square foot cost for the project from beginning to end – with full fit-up was the result of extraordinary management of the project. It was the direct result of bringing in the contractors and sub-contractors before the construction drawing phase. They worked closely with us, the architects, and engineers to insure cost containment. Every expense was analyzed and accounted for and approved before it got into the drawings. They knew the project inside and out before they started building.”

Bold Visionaries

As Melinda Moulton and Lisa Steele reflect on MSL’s role in the Burlington waterfront’s transformation, their idealistic spirit and optimism shines forth. “I knew that together – ‘two women with a vision’ – we could earn the trust of the City of Burlington and the State of Vermont, and create projects that not only benefited the community, but that would stand the test of time,” Moulton says.

Steele replies that one of the most “joyous” moments of her career has been watching Colin Lindberg’s design of Lake and College take form. She is confident that the public will also appreciate its beauty. “I think it’s going to be tough for people to criticize the Lake and College project – if anything we might have too much public space, which makes it a little harder for the building to pay for itself,” Steele acknowledges. “But we want people to be able to be in this building and enjoy the waterfront.”

She smiles recalling one of the last times her mother visited Burlington. It was during the renovations of the Union Station, and on the day that daughter and mother toured the construction site, a hydraulic scissors was at work prying apart a huge steel structure, and all of Union Station was shaking. Above the din, her mother shouted “Who’s paying for all this? Are you paying for all this?” And Steele turned to her mother, nodded, and said “That would be me, mom!”