‘Why not Vermont?’ Software program developer bets hundreds of thousands on southern Vermont | Area Information

GUILFORD — In 1960, Helge Ingstad, an explorer, and his wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, an archaeologist, found the stays of a Viking encampment in Newfoundland dating back again to the 12 months 1000. But for several many years right before the discovery, folks have talked extensive through their dark winter season evenings about whether or not the Vikings at any time set foot in what we now phone New England. And if they did, what could possibly have happened to them.

A local father and son, making on their fascination with the tale of the Vikings in North The us, hope to re-build a Viking village in Guilford, albeit with lots of of the modern-day facilities to which we have developed accustomed.

“The Vikings about 1,000 yrs in the past ended up the very first Europeans to come west,” claimed Alexander Belogour. “We located 6 sets of ruined foundations and this major foundation of the lodge and now with a very little little bit of TLC, we will be completely ready for new Viking occupants.”

At the close of a filth road off of Weatherhead Hollow Highway, Alexander’s father, Paul Belogour, with the aid of nearby contractors and craftspeople, has developed Viking Village out of repurposed barn wood and neighborhood stone and wood. The village involves 6 cabins and a central gathering corridor.

Just about every of the cabins features a wood stove, a kitchenette, a toilet and a sleeping location. The lodge consists of a kitchen area facility, meeting rooms and a collecting hall with a towering stone fire.

“What you see in this article, limited of the plywood, every thing you see is regionally sourced,” reported Paul. “All the stay edge wood you see was harvested right right here.”

Alexander Belogour grew up all around Previous Sturbridge Village, a 19th century dwelling heritage museum in Massachusetts. He and his father want to make the similar form of factor in Guilford, only with Vikings.

“About five several years ago, we went to a Viking festival in northern Vermont,” mentioned Alexander. “There have been re-enactors there from Sweden and Iceland and we thought, why not make a position for them to be below?”

They have also cleared a lot more than 17 miles of trails on the 3,000 acres adjoining their Viking settlement.

They hope to open up the trails to the community for mountain biking, climbing, horseback riding and cross-place snowboarding. There could possibly even be guided ATV tours and probably even pet sledding accessible, mentioned Paul Belogour.

Originally from Belarus, Belogour came to Boston in the early 1990s on a rowing scholarship to Northeastern College and by no means went back again.

Belogour instructed FinanceMagnates.com in 2013 that he went straight out of college or university to the Financial institution of Boston for the reason that he was fascinated with the forex marketplaces. According to his LinkedIn webpage, Belogour labored there for six a long time after graduating from Northeastern in 1995 with a B.S. in economics.

In 2001, in collaboration with Commerce Financial institution and Have confidence in, he established his first overseas exchange agency, CBFX, which was the initial FDIC insured banking entity featuring retail international exchange to prospects worldwide.

A couple of years after its basis, CBFX was procured by IFX Marketplaces and then City Index.

Belogour, working with a crew of software package engineers, developed UniTrader, designed particularly for introducing brokers who enable folks navigate the entire world of international trade.

But in 2008, next the Wall Road crash, Belogour and his wife, Christina, commenced to assume about having out of the Boston metro region. They identified a farm in Bernardston, Mass., which they nevertheless very own, and started scouting farther north for much more prospects.

He observed the land in Guilford and more than the earlier number of several years has purchased a maple bush farm, the previous Black Bear Sugarworks rebranded as Viking Farms, and about 3,000 acres in town.

“Guilford is one particular of the biggest spots on Earth,” he mentioned. “Have faith in me. I’ve been almost everywhere.”

The Belogours also purchased a different 1,400 acres in close by Halifax and have established a internet site, VermontMapleSyrup.com, to market “all points Vermont.” 

In Brattleboro, Belogour obtained 4 industrial properties for a full just shy of $1.5 million.

One particular of these homes is 70 Landmark Push, which was at the time acknowledged as the Smyth Mansion and has housed around the decades a nightclub, a community faculty, a dentist office environment and a health and fitness center. Belogour, working as Vermont Innovation Box, hopes to open up a enterprise incubator there.

“We want to carry talent and brains from all around the world to Vermont, give them a location to commence a small business,” he mentioned.

Close by, performing as Vermont RE Progress, he also obtained 8 acres of Connecticut River frontage.

Just down the river, in Hinsdale, N.H., Belogour acquired Norm’s Marina for $640,000 almost 4 a long time in the past. He owns that home less than Guilford Holdings. He reported it is really practically unachievable to get a marina license on the Connecticut River without having obtaining an already existing marina. He stated his principal purpose for obtaining Norm’s Marina is simply because “I appreciate rivers. It goes again to my rowing times.”

In July 2019, Belogour, all over again working as Vermont RE Enhancement, acquired a 20,000-square-foot industrial warehouse on 4.4 acres on Aged Ferry Highway. This obtain is related to a smaller a few-acre plot he purchased on the corner of Sweet Pond Street Guilford, wherever he hopes to develop a glass property.

“I invested a great deal of time in Dubai,” claimed Paul Belogour. Performing on some concepts he received though there, he hopes to bring “Something that is out of this entire world in phrases of architecture,” he mentioned. He hopes to use the previous warehouse as a production facility to make the glass panels for his prototype residence.

In January, Belogour acquired the Brattleboro Outlet Heart on Canal Road. Belogour’s prepare for what is now identified as the Exit 1 Mall is a facelift, an addition to glimpse like a barn, and possibly even a food stuff court. Belogour reported he needs to make the shopping mall the “unofficial initial tourist prevent” in Vermont.

Just very last month, Belogour procured the former Region Kitchen/Mattress Heart on Western Avenue. This developing will serve as a tasting area and output facility for maple merchandise and for beer developed by a brewery in Springfield, the Trout River Brewing Firm, which he bought in February and rebranded as Vermont Beer Makers.

“We were searching for a bottling plant and we came across a brewery that was going out of business,” he said. “They essential a capital injection and we needed the output plant. It was helpful for all people.”

And previously this thirty day period, Belogour, acting as Vermont RE Improvement, recently bid $3.25 million for the campus of Southern Vermont Faculty in Bennington, but was outbid by Southwestern Vermont Wellness Treatment, which submitted a $4.65 million bid.

Belogour mentioned he is investing in southern Vermont due to the fact he enjoys the space and because he thinks it has a lot of possible.

“Correct now, individuals are leaving the cities,” he said. “Appropriate now, your place of work can be wherever. Why not Vermont?”

Belogour also explained he has not discovered Vermont to be a hard place to do company.

“I just never see it,” he claimed. “I do not see any variance in between starting off a enterprise in California or Boston. As a make a difference of reality, it can be greater listed here, the life-style is better. If I was to do it more than yet again, I might somewhat be here than in Boston.”

Belogour explained he also needs to give his son, Alexander, a place exactly where he can create his own legacy.

“I like it up in this article,” claimed Alexander, who is thinking about likely to faculty to be a law firm. “I adore the wilderness.”

Belogour also operates Belogour Properties in the United Arab Emirates, which is described on its web page as “a genuine estate hub for Dubai based residence seekers.”

Also in UAE, Belogour operates Emirates Wealth, which is described as a “gateway to retail and capable traders in the UAE, [Gulf Cooperation Council], [Middle East Africa and South Asia] locations and to the global markets.”

In 2019, Emirates Wealth bought OFC Pirin Blagoevgrad, a soccer staff in Bulgaria.

“It really is a person of those people things,” he explained. “You do specified issues and then you talk to you why you are carrying out it. But now they are doing well. They are second in the league.”

Belogour started Boston Merchant Administration Companies, later recognized as Boston Merchant Monetary Solutions, in 1988.

In accordance to BMFN’s LinkedIn site, it is an on the internet trading broker that delivers a variety of money products and solutions, like Forex trading, CFDs, on the web investing, money management, commodities, indices, foreign exchange solutions with workplaces in London, Sofia, Moscow, Shanghai and Sydney.

He also founded Boston UniSoft Systems, where by he is described as an “IT entrepreneur.”

In accordance to Boston UniSoft’s LinkedIn website page, it specializes in style and design, net advancement, cell software growth, industrial computer software development and IT help.