TicketNetwork's Plans To Renovate Historic Vernon School On Track

VERNON, CT — An official from TicketNetwork on Wednesday said renovations to the old Talcott Brothers School building in Vernon are well on track to bring the building back to its full Victorian Era splendor by mid-to-late-2020.

The $200,000 purchase deal was announced in January and TicketNetwork CEO Don Vaccaro said at the time the company plans to invest $1 million into the building. It will eventually become an IT training center for the company with "full use" targeted for September 2020, Vaccaro said. TicketNetwork Facilities Director William Downs on Wednesday said the month is still circled on the calendar.

The Talcott School is on Main Street in Vernon. The old mill itself has already been turned into apartments.

Abatement work has progressed rapidly, meaning the basement is done and the second phase involving the remainder of the building will begin soon, Downs said. Contracts were to be awarded Wednesday for areas like windows, roof replacement, chimney work, electrical systems and environmental systems, he said.

Downs said after a long search, a company in Vermont will be able to replicate the windows.

The architectural, engineering and other work will be done by local firms, he said.

The building was initially built in 1880 as a schoolhouse for Talcott Brothers mill employees with separate entrances for boys and girls. A wing, to the right when looking at the front of the original schoohouse, was built in the 1950s and a gym was added in the rear during the 1970s. The entire complex measures about 13,000 square feet.

The project has been endorsed by historic, municipal and traffic regulators.

The area is zoned residential, but the project was approved as an "adaptive reuse," town officials said. That classification also qualified the project for a three-year tax break that moderates exorbitant increases based on major investments to historic properties, town officials said.

TicketNetwork was once housed at what is the current Vernon Senior Center on Bolton Road before acquiring the former Gerber corporate campus just over the South Windsor line in 2011. Employees will be transported to the Talcott building from the corporate campus, according to the plans.