Gov. Phil Scott’s administration on Monday signed leases for an additional 22,000 square feet of office space in Waterbury as it nears the controversial Dec. 1 deadline by which the governor has ordered many state employees to return to work in person.
The state inked agreements to rent three office spaces across two buildings in the Pilgrim Park complex, which also houses a large Cabot Hosiery Mills plant and is located off South Main Street. The state will rent the offices from Montpelier-based Malone Superior, LLC.
The deal includes about 4,260 square feet on the first floor of 5 Pilgrim Park Road, 12,000 square feet on the second floor of 5 Pilgrim Park Road and 5,400 square feet on the second floor of 93 Pilgrim Park Road, according to the leases, which were provided to VTDigger.
The state is set to pay about $430,000 for all three spaces over the first year it rents them. It plans to occupy the offices through at least November 2030. According to figures included in the leases, the state has agreed to pay a total of about $2.3 million for all three spaces by the end of that five-year term.
All three offices will be used by the Vermont Agency of Human Services, according to the leases. Ahead of the implementation of Scott’s return to work plans, the agency has said it has been looking to expand its footprint in Waterbury, where many human services employees are or would soon be based.
The leases start Dec. 1, which is the same day the governor has ordered state workers, with some exceptions, to start coming into their offices a minimum of three days a week. Administration officials have said more time working in person will increase collaboration and preserve institutional knowledge. They contend that Vermonters want state workers to be available face-to-face.
At the same time, the hybrid work mandate has faced fierce opposition from the Vermont State Employees’ Association. The union representing state workers has argued Scott’s plan will cause experienced employees to quit, decreasing the quality of state departments’ work.
Steve Howard, the association’s executive director, said the union filed for an injunction in court Monday seeking at least to slow down the implementation of the governor’s order. Howard said he expected a hearing could be held on the legal challenge as soon as next week.
Pilgrim Park is located a short distance from the existing Waterbury State Office Complex, where both the Scott administration and the union agree the state has been short on space. The Vermont Department of Health — which is under the purview of the Agency of Human Services — needs at least 250 more desks in Waterbury to fully meet the needs of its staff, the agency and union have said.
The difference, Howard said, is that the union believes the solution to the space constraints is to allow those who want to work from home to continue doing so, rather than spending state dollars to make more space for more, in-person workers.
He blasted the state’s decision to sign the leases at Pilgrim Park this week and questioned why the state government would do so at a time it has needed to draw on its own pockets to continue funding key social services as federal support has lapsed.
“It’s kind of astonishing that (Scott’s) Republican administration, that says that they are concerned about government waste, is about to waste over $2 million on space that is, really, completely unnecessary,” Howard said Wednesday.
“To our members,” he added, “this is the governor ignoring the people who know the most about how to do their job well, not listening to them, pouring millions of dollars into the hands of a private real estate owner and costing the taxpayers more to do it.”
Malone Superior LLC — the company from which the state will lease the Pilgrim Park offices — shares its Montpelier address with Malone Properties, a company that has donated to several of Scott’s past gubernatorial campaigns, according to business and campaign finance records available on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website. Those campaign contributions totaled about $12,000 between 2016 and 2020, according to online disclosure forms.
One of the owners listed in business filings for Malone Superior LLC is Wayne Lamberton, who is a close friend of Scott’s.
To be sure, Pilgrim Park is also the largest commercial office development in close proximity to the existing state office complex, which sits on the other side of South Main Street. The state already occupies some office space at 150 Pilgrim Park Road, where Cabot Hosiery Mills is also located, according to data from the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services.
Jenney Samuelson, the human services secretary, has said insufficient space at the Waterbury complex would delay some of her agency’s staff from returning to the office as planned on Dec. 1. It was not immediately clear, though, whether the leases signed Monday would impact that timeline.
A spokesperson for the agency did not provide answers to questions about the plans ahead of publication Wednesday.
