State officials ask for $3 million more to complete phased repairs of Vermont Building at the Big E

On Thursday, Feb. 6, Agency of Agriculture and Buildings and General Services officials told a capital-budget panel they are seeking $1.5 million in fiscal 2026 and $1.5 million in fiscal 2027 to continue phased repairs of the Vermont Building at the Eastern States Exposition (the Big E) in West Springfield, Massachusetts, after completing an exterior restoration design and securing funding for a first construction phase.

For the record, Abby Willard, director of the Ag Development Division at the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, outlined the building’s role and the market the state reaches at the Big E. “The Vermont Building … is on the Avenue Of The States and was built in 1929,” Willard said. She said the building hosts roughly 27 vendors in a typical year, is open about 17 days during the fair and that sales in 2024 topped just over $2.2 million.

The briefing said the state-owned Vermont Building attracts out‑of‑state customers (a market assessment cited roughly 89 percent of attendees from Massachusetts or Connecticut) and presents a concentrated marketing opportunity for Vermont businesses: with about 1.5 million fair attendees annually and an internal estimate that roughly 94 percent of those who visit the Avenue of the States enter the Vermont Building, officials estimated more than 1.4 million visits to the building across the 17‑day run.

Why it matters: committee members pressed that the building combines high public exposure for Vermont products with long‑deferred capital needs that limit vendor capacity and raise safety or accessibility concerns. Officials described constraints that reduce the number of usable vendor stalls today and limit the types of vendors who can participate because of electrical, plumbing and accessibility shortfalls.

What officials asked for and the phased plan

Jessica Tang, project manager and architect with the Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS), said…