Peter Paggi
37 | Director of Real Estate Development, Windham and Windsor Housing Trust
Residence: Windham
Career highlight you are most proud of.
Completing construction on the Bellows Falls Garage, a 27-unit new construction residential building in Bellows Falls. This development was one of the more complicated construction projects in our company’s history, with brownfield remediation, tight downtown site constraints and required a dramatic shift in direction due to unforeseen circumstances halfway through our design process. This was also mainly completed under the veil of COVID while we were all adapting to remote work and ballooning construction costs. In the end, 27 new homes were brought into an extremely tight housing market and a blighted downtown site was revitalized.
Community involvement.
Volunteering at Garland School, a nature-based preschool in Brattleboro, as a classroom assistant, as well as my work with Windham and Windsor Housing Trust in community development. Stable housing and early-childhood education are such crucial aspects of our society, and it feels very rewarding to support both.
Motivation for living and working in Vermont.
The culture of the state. Community development is complex no matter where you are, but the network of developers, policymakers, advocates and agencies in Vermont really work together as a team to ensure the best outcomes for all of our towns and villages.
Favorite part of your job.
The bricks-and-mortar aspect of it. It feels great to turn an underutilized property into a permanent community asset, and seeing a concept physically take shape is very rewarding.
Something fun about yourself that few people know.
I have ridden my bicycle through Death Valley.
Favorite Vermont escape.
Glen Ellen Hut.
Favorite Vermont season.
Mud season. My road is quiet!
Favorite downtime activity.
Long-distance running, particularly on trails. I’m a little out of shape due to a certain 1-year-old in my life, but hope to start up again soon.
