The Handy family own so much property in Burlington, and much of it has sat vacant for more than a year. Meanwhile, many of our neighbors are living in Burlington unhoused. The Handys and other powerful landlords want you to believe that these same unhoused people are responsible for the economic problems downtown, when in reality, the Handys and other powerful landlords made bad financial decisions and want to force all of us to subsidize their blight sites, hollowing out our downtown.
Here is a list of all the vacant properties the Handys currently own, how long they have sat vacant, how much they are asking people to pay to lease them or buy them, and descriptions of what they steal from our community every moment of our lives by keeping these properties vacant.
Handys Vacant Properties
281 Pearl St
- Handys Purchased: 2004 (Source)
- Vacant Since: 2017
- Assessed Property Value: $620,700
- Handys Asking Price: $2.5M (Source)
This property on Pearl St has sat vacant for almost a full decade. Since the latest City of Burlington rezoning, it also exists on a transit corridor, which means it could be turned into a high-rise apartment building with no need to build additional parking, potentially housing hundreds of people. Instead, it sits empty and derelict. The Handys are asking for more than 4x its assessed value. No wonder it doesn't have any buyers!
188 Main St
- Handys Purchased: 2019 (Source)
- Vacant Since: 2025
- Assessed Property Value: $1,875,900
- Handys Asking Price: Not For Sale
- Handys Lease Price: $17,000/month + $4000/month in fees (Source)
Letting the construction on Main St take the blame for Nectar's closing was a brilliant bit of politicking. In reality, the Handys bought the property in 2019, a year before the Covid-19 pandemic changed the game for live music. The previous tenants were unable to pay the astrnomical rent the Handys were asking for, on top of all the operating costs and insurance fees. The Handys are now asking for $17k per month from anybody who wants to rent this space, and since they are asking for a lease known as an NNN lease, the tenant will also be responsible for paying basically all property-associated fees. They also refuse to outright sell the building. Gee, I wonder why nobody has leased Necatar's yet! The next time you hear someone talk about how Nectar's closed because of the construction downtown, remind them that it was actually the Handys that closed Necatar's, and it is the Handys that keep it closed.
191 Bank St
- Handys Purchased: 2007 (Source)
- Vacant Since: 2024
- Assessed Property Value: $947,000
- Handys Asking Price: Not For Sale
- Handys Lease Price: $10,000/month for downstairs, $4800/month for upstairs (Source)
This building has not been vacant for long, but it is an egregious example of the rents the Handys are asking for in order to lease their property. There are many upper-level office spaces in this area, and not a one of them are asking for $4800/month. The downstairs of this space was at one time supposedly leased to a high-end cannabis shop, but it is not at all clear if that is still going to happen. And for $10k a month, who can blame the cannabis shop? Who on earth would want to pay that much? The Handys are basically guaranteeing that the only thing that can happen here is gentrification.
162-172 College St
- Handys Purchased: 2013 (Source)
- Vacant Since: 2024
- Assessed Property Value: $2,023,400
- Handys Asking Price: Not For Sale
- Handys Lease Price: $12,000/month for downstairs plus 21.5% of utilties, $1600/month for upstairs office space (Source)
Once again we have a perfect example of an egregious asking price for a retail space that has kept this building vacant for way too long. Not to mention the derelict parking garage attached to this building that the Handys are responsible for but do not clean, do not maintain, and instead rely on the work of volunteer citizens to keep it clean. This used to be the home of Burton Snowboards, but who can afford a $12k/month monthly fee just to do business? The Handys are banking on somebody paying that, but there aren't that many suckers in the world.
127 South Winooski Avenue
- Handys Purchased: 2020 (Source)
- Vacant Since: 2020
- Assessed Property Value: $1,914,600
- Handys Asking Price: Not For Sale
- Handys Lease Price: "To Be Determined" - Not Listed Publicly (Source)
The Handys are cowards and won't actually publicly list how much they are asking to lease this space, but you know it must be an ungodly and unaffordable amount, because this giant building has sat vacant for almost 6 years at this point. This space is extremely valuable downtown property and could very easily be turned into a shelter, housing, a seed library, or a movie theater, and yet, it sits empty and derelict.
110 Riverside Avenue
- Handys Purchased: 2001 (Source)
- Vacant Since: Forever
- Assessed Property Value: Not Assessed
- Handys Asking Price: Not For Sale
- Handys Lease Price: Empty Lot, Not for Lease
This lot on Riverside has been empty for, if you can believe it, more than 25 years under the ownership of the Handys. It's not clear what they want to do with it. It's not clear that they ever intend on doing anything with it at all. You could probably build an apartment building big enough to house every single unhoused person in Burlington on this lot. But under the Handys, it won't happen. Honestly it looks like nothing at all will happen. It hasn't for a quarter century.