12/9/2025 - Wilmington, Vt. –  VEDA and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation support a Wilmington startup that designs and builds manufactured homes for people with mobility challenges.

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Wilmington, Vt. – Startups need a lot of support to be successful. A great idea alone is not enough to bring a product to the marketplace. Luckily for WheelPad in Wilmington, they’ve received tons of support over the years from VEDA, the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, the State of Vermont, and Norwich University.

WheelPad’s idea was simple: build small, manufactured homes for people with mobility challenges accessible via ramp or through a door connecting to a loved one’s home. Whether learning to live in a wheelchair from a spinal cord injury, receiving a life-changing and challenging diagnosis, coming home after a stay in a nursing home, or seeking a temporary living situation, these modular home additions would allow people to live comfortably while providing privacy, dignity, and space.

Norwich University in Northfield wanted to help WheelPad achieve its dream. With veterans in mind, engineering and architecture students at Norwich, the oldest private military college in the United States, helped create the company’s first modular home prototype. They built it with the help of various grants and donations.

Once WheelPad knew they had a viable design for Personal Accessible Dwellings (PAD), they needed financing to build three PADs. In 2017, they first approached VEDA.

“VEDA is well-known in business circles for offering various loan programs for manufacturers, working either in partnership with commercial banks or directly, if conventional financing is not available,” explains WheelPad co-founder Julie Lineberger. “VEDA was one of our first contacts.”

“VEDA’s ability to invest in a company during a pivotal growth cycle, where they could not get traditional market-available loans, allowed them to grow,” Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation Executive Director Adam Grinold said.

In the years since, WheelPad has added to its portfolio. Currently they are prototyping a larger StudioPad that has a kitchenette. Next will be a BathPAD for those who only need an accessible bathroom addition.

“Because WheelPad’s business model is for people who find themselves suddenly needing an ADA-accessible living unit attached to their home, having the ability to ramp up their production and have units on-site ready to go is really enabling themselves for growth, now and in the future,” he said.

That led to plans for an expansion in Wilmington, which Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation helped engineer.

“We started about two years ago on what’s called the Sub Three Project, which was an acquisition of the facility in Wilmington,” Grinold said.

WheelPad negotiated the purchase and sale price of the property they were renting in Wilmington. Then Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation bought it with financing from VEDA and help from the state of Vermont’s Rural Industrial Development Program. Now Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation leases the building to WheelPad, allowing the business to pursue their goal of producing 30 PADs on site per year. Eventually, WheelPad will buy back the building.

“Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation has been wonderful to work with!” and so has VEDA says Lineberger. “VEDA is a knowledgeable and flexible resource for financing and business connections. Moreover (Senior Commercial Loan Officer) Eun-Young Denny gently and strongly guided us through financial issues as we learned to utilize the services and structures available to grow WheelPad.”

“It was complex, not as straightforward as just a one-to-one loan, but VEDA understands how to work with multiple parties and get the best outcome possible for everybody,” Grinold said.

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