Company News: September 2016
The Norwich Bookstore has won the 2016 Independent Spirit Award from the Book Publishers Representatives of New England. The award is given annually at the New England Independent Booksellers Association’s fall trade show. Members nominate bookstores for the award and then vote on one store as the New England independent bookstore of the year. “Liza Bernard and staff are passionate guardians of our books and authors,” Scholastic’s Nikki Mutch, the Book Publishers Representatives of New England member who nominated the Norwich Bookstore, said in a news release. “They work with reps to curate a selection of books that appeal to their surrounding communities, and are always willing to try something new to broaden horizons.” The Norwich Bookstore has shown “what shopping local truly means. It means community and home, and Norwich Bookstore displays that in spades,” Mutch said. “It is heartwarming to be recognized for years of effort, and we truly could not do it without our incredible team of publisher’s reps,” the bookstore said in the release. The winner receives two nights lodging for the association’s trade show and a free ticket to all association meals.
The Hanover Inn Dartmouth has won its second consecutive Pinnacle Award from Successful Meetings magazine. Named one of five “Best Boutique Properties in the Northeast,” the award is the second since the 108-room hotel completed its $43 million renovation in 2012. The voting took place online among the magazine’s 50,000 subscribers, who were described by the publisher as “decision-makers for planning meetings, events, conferences and incentive programs in the US and worldwide.”
The River Valley Club’s new FitKids Childcare Center has opened in a 9,400-square-foot facility with a football field-sized playground built with predominately natural materials that includes musical instruments and water features. “We have built a playground that is the kind of space that all of us had hoped to have when we were kids,” RVC owner Joe Asch said in an email. The new center has a capacity of 188 children, up from the 83 children who attended the center in the RVC’s main building. The RVC, located on Morgan Drive in Centerra Park, currently employs 34 people in the child care center, up from 23 earlier this summer, and Asch said he hopes to have an additional 18-20 on board by early next year. The company has a total of 200 employees — 86 full time and 114 part time.
The Cumberland Farms convenience store on Route 5 in White River Junction has been demolished to make way for construction of a new, 4,738-square-foot “concept store” on the 1.77-acre lot. Framingham, Mass.-based Cumberland Farms has embarked on a multi-year rebuilding program to upgrade its convenience markets and gas stations across seven states. The White River Junction rebuild, estimated to cost $1 million, follows similar upgrades at Cumberland Farms locations in Windsor, Woodstock and Claremont. It is scheduled to open in October. Cumberland Farms operates 559 stores in New England, the mid-Atlantic states and Florida.
TwinState MakerSpaces has completed its purchase of the former Sawtooth building on Claremont’s Main Street. The building was sold for the previously agreed-upon nominal price of $18.42. Work remains to be done on the building, including the installation of a concrete floor and sub-slab venting system, and the former mill building also has some contamination, which MakerSpaces will be responsible for addressing. TwinState MakerSpaces received a $250,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission in October to help with the plans to renovate property. The nonprofit’s co-founder, Jeremy Katz, said the plan is to renovate the interior for studios, classroom space and co-working space.
Copeland Furniture has installed a 500-kilowatt solar array on a 3-acre parcel adjacent to its Bradford, Vt., factory. The array is expected to produce more than 800,000 kW-hours of power annually, or roughly two-thirds of the company’s annual electricity needs, the company said in a news release. Based on figures provided by the EPA, the array will offset nearly 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually. “This initiative is the next step in what is a long and continuing journey toward sustainability,” said Tim Copeland, founder and CEO of Copeland Furniture.
Items of interest to the local business community are published in the Business & Money section of the Sunday Valley News and also are collected in Enterprise. Submissions may be sent by email to biznotes@vnews.com.
