Rochester Publishing Co.

Eyes Randolph Site

By M. D. Drysdale

Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. (ITI), Rochester’s extremely successful book publishing company, has asked for site plan approval for a 40,000 square foot building off Route 66 in Randolph.

A hearing on the site plan will be held by the Randolph Development Review Board next Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Gifford Conference Center.

If it is approved—and if the company decides to commit to it—ITI would purchase the 30-acre "Mowatt lot" at the foot of Route 66.

It would use part of the lot for a major building to supplement its current building just off the park in Rochester.

The Randolph location would house the accounting, data processing, and operations part of the business, plus what the publishing business calls "fulfillment"—which involves book storage, the filling of orders, and shipping. It would employ about 15.

Ehud Sperling, ITI’s founder and publisher, stressed that this would not be a move from Rochester, where the company employs 44 people. The $2-million project would replace rented fulfillment facilities elsewhere and would allow for some expansion.

Since Sperling arrived in Rochester from New York City in 1986, he has expanded ITI three times, and now there is simply no expansion option on the site.

Sperling also stressed that this expression of interest is very much a first step.

"We’re at the stage now of considering sites," he said. We haven’t yet committed the resources." He has also not filed an Act 250 application, he said.

An important part of the first stage, he said, is to find out "if you’re welcome."

"There’s no pressure on us," he noted. "We are functioning beautifully just where we are."

Even if all goes well, the project could not be built until 2010, Sperling said.

If it is built, however, "We’ll do a beautiful and a green facility," he pledged. "It is important to the philosophical ideals of Inner Traditions that this structure be a model for ‘green’ construction, as well as architecturally beautiful."

The land in question is behind and across Chandler Brook from the Chamber of Commerce building. It is an expansive open site on two levels that is virtually hidden from the road and from most neighboring properties.

The parcel is zoned Commercial, and ITI would not need a variance, according to Zoning Administrator Mardee Sanchez.

It is important to Sperling that the site is within easy driving distance from Rochester.

Very few publishing companies set up in tiny rural towns, he noted, but ITI is different.

"I love Vermont, and this is about our lifestyle and the way we’re running our company," he said. "We want to share this endeavor between two towns."