SOUTH BURLINGTON ― The University of Vermont Health Network took a significant step toward addressing its workforce housing shortage on April 28, when Network employees and their families began moving into a new apartment building in South Burlington.

The Health Network helped finance the project, built in partnership with Snyder-Braverman Development Co., and owns a 49% interest in the building. Snyder-Braverman owns the remaining 51% of the project, which will be managed by Redstone, according to a Network spokesperson. The Health Network has a 10-year master lease on the apartments, which allows it to offer them to employees first.

More than half of the apartments are already leased to Network employees, including nurses and licensed nursing assistants, technical employees, respiratory therapists and people working in environmental services, nutrition services and patient support. The majority of the apartments are studios and one-bedrooms.

The Health Network is offering rental subsidies for qualifying employees, according to a spokesperson. The market rate apartments go for rents ranging from $1,852 per month for a standard studio apartment to $2,908 per month for a three-bedroom apartment.

The subsidized rents are determined by the combined household income and household size of the employee, based on Vermont Housing Finance Agency criteria. Under the subsidies, a one-person household with an income of $60,100 yearly or less, for example, would pay $1,502 per month for a studio apartment if their application was accepted, a discount of $350 per month off the standard rent.

Both the hospital and the University of Vermont have struggled for years with the Burlington area's shortage of housing. Chittenden County's rental vacancy rate, which is the percentage of vacant rentals on the market, hovers just under 1%, according to the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. Affordable housing is even scarcer.

Many more apartments to come in South Burlington

The apartment building at 303 Market St. is the first of eight buildings that will open in the area to house both UVM Health Network employees and University of Vermont graduate students and faculty, according to Paul Conner, South Burlington's director of planning and zoning.

Conner said all of the projects are being built in collaboration with Snyder-Braverman, and will create hundreds of apartments. A project under construction directly behind Healthy Living, called Prospect Place, will create 121 apartments for UVM Health Network employees, along with a 5,000-square-foot child care center and likely a coffee shop. It is expected to be finished by late summer 2024, according to Conner.

Projects underway at 224 Market St., 268 Market St. and 339 Garden St. will create 161 apartments for University of Vermont students and faculty, and also are expected to open in late summer 2024. There will be about 23,000 square feet of first-floor commercial space fronting Market Street.

More: A tight job market and tighter housing market has some Vermont employers creating employee housing

The plans for another project, with 213 apartments for UVM faculty and students, plus 27,000 square feet of first-floor commercial space on Market Street, are currently under review, according to Conner.

"There's a lot going on in the City Center," Conner said.

The project

Project cost: Estimated at $8.8 million in 2021 application, including an investment of $2.8 million by the University of Vermont Health Network

Developer: Snyder-Braverman Development Co. (Shelburne)

Architect: Jutras Architecture, PLC (Burlington)

Engineer: Lamoreaux & Dickenson (Essex Junction)

Address: 303 Market St., South Burlington

Progress:

University of Vermont Medical Center employees began moving into apartments on April 28. More than half of the 61 apartments are already leased and the remainder will go to UVMMC employees, under an arrangement worked out between Snyder-Braverman and the hospital.

Features:

• 61 market-rate apartments ranging from studios to three bedrooms for employees of UVM Medical Center in a four-story building with underground parking.

• Gym

• Dog washing room

• Laundry room

• Community garden plots for use by tenants of the building

• Bike parking.

What's in the neighborhood:

• Healthy Living and Trader Joe's grocery markets

• The Blue Mall

• University Mall, including Target

• Many other retail businesses on Dorset Street

• South Burlington City Hall and Library

• Rick Marcotte Central School

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: UVM Health Network employees take up residence in South Burlington