IN
THIS ISSUE:
The
Louisiana Brownfields Symposium & Matchmaker's Fair
- Introducing Eligible Developers to Available Brownfields
Properties Developers, realtors, and lenders interested in brownfields
redevelopment recently attended the 2-day Louisiana Brownfields
Symposium & Matchmaker’s Fair at the Sheraton Hotel
in New Orleans. Focusing on the ins-and-outs of brownfields
redevelopment, the symposium provided attendees with an opportunity
to hear locally- and nationally-recognized experts discuss
economic incentives, conventional and creative funding, quantifying
risks, and how to work with adjudicated properties. Local
developers who have completed redevelopment projects in Louisiana
candidly discussed their real-world experiences and the benefits
of returning these valuable properties back into commerce.
Brownfield Coordinators had the spotlight at the matchmaker's
fair showcasing properties in their cities that are available
for redevelopment. Attendees networked with the Brownfields
Coordinators discussing program details, reviewing property
photographs, and collecting fact sheets for redevelopment
opportunities in each city.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and The
Center for Brownfields Initiatives at the University of New
Orleans sponsored the Louisiana Brownfields Symposium & Matchmaker’s
Fair on November 18-19, 2004 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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EPA Solicits Proposals for Brownfields
Job Training Grants
The U.S. EPA Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment
is requesting proposals for brownfields job training grants.
The goals of the Job Training Program are to prepare trainees
for future employment in the environmental field and facilitate
cleanup of brownfield properties contaminated with hazardous
substances, pollutants, or contaminants and petroleum.
Eligible applicants include: state governments, county
governments, city or township governments, nonprofit organizations
having a 501©(3) status with the IRS other than institutions
of higher education, Native American Tribal governments,
public and state controlled institutions of higher educations,
and special district governments.
Proposals are due January 14, 2005 and should be send to:
Attn: Mr. Don West
Environmental Management Support, Inc.
8601 Georgia Avenue,
Suite 500
Silver Springs, MD 20910
For further information on the brownfields job training grant,
please contact Joe Bruss (202) 566-2772, or e-mail questions
to bruss.joseph@epa.com.
Application information is also available at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/applicat.htm#jt
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Winners of the 2004 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement
Announced
EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt recently presented the agency’s
2004 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement to five
communities in three states for innovative approaches to
development that strengthen community identity and protect
the environment. Smart Growth is development that serves
the economy, public health, and the environment. Communities
can use Smart Growth principles to help them grow in ways
that protect and enhance their natural environments and create
prosperity. Smart Growth development practices help protect
the environment by preserving open space and parkland, protecting
critical habitat, improving transportation choices to reduce
emissions from automobiles, cleaning up and reusing brownfields,
and reducing paved surfaces to minimize polluted runoff.
The award categories and winners are as follows:
- Overall Excellence: Town of Davidson, NC, Planning Department
for superior implementation of their planning ordinance
and land plan.
- Built Projects: City of Greensboro, NC Department of
Housing & Community Development for the transformation
of the blighted Southside Neighborhood into a thriving,
attractive district.
- Policies and Regulations: City of Santa Cruz, CA Department
of Housing & Community Development for its Accessory
Dwelling Unit Program.
- Community Outreach and Education: Sacramento Area Council
of Governments for its Sacramento Region Blueprint: Transportation/Land
Use Study.
- Small Communities: The Office of the Governor of the
San Juan Pueblo Tribe, north of Santa Fe, NM for its Master
Land Use Plan, which honors Native American heritage while
encouraging economic growth and providing needed housing.
The 2004 call for entries drew 98 applications from 32
states and the District of Columbia. Now in its third year,
the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement has recognized
an impressive array of projects, policies, and programs that
promote healthy, vibrant communities. Winners were selected
based on how effectively they advanced Smart Growth, how
easily their projects could be replicated, and how well they
engaged citizens and fostered partnerships and special interest
participation or partnership.
For more information about the National Award for Smart
Growth Achievement and this year’s winners, visit http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm.
For information on EPA’s Smart Growth program, visit http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/index.htm.
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Environmental Insurance Helps Ensure Redevelopment Unanticipated cleanup costs and fears of unforeseen liability
often dissuade interested developers from investing in brownfields.
Environmental insurance is one of the few tools capable of
limiting these barriers. Communities like Emeryville, CA
and Somerville, MA are including environmental insurance
in their multifaceted approaches to brownfields reuse.
The protection afforded by environmental insurance is available
in a number of different policy terms and types of coverage.
Environmental insurance policy types can be placed in three
categories of coverage: Cleanup Cost Cap, Pollution Liability,
and Secured Creditor. Cleanup Cost Cap provides the developer
with protection against the possibility that actual cleanup
costs exceed original estimates. Through Pollution Liability
Protection, developers and long-term owners of redeveloped
brownfields are provided with coverage, up to specified amounts,
for users of those properties who make claims based on continuing
pollution conditions. Lenders are guaranteed loan repayments
through Secured Creditor policies in the event that a borrower
defaults on loan payments or if collateral value is lost
due to the pollution condition.
Across the country, these types of insurance policies are
protecting stakeholders in brownfields redevelopment. The
Somerville, MA Brownfields Pilot created its own form of
Cleanup Cost Cap coverage to facilitate redevelopment of
an abandoned mattress factory into a full-service assisted
living facility. Realizing the Visiting Nurses Association
(VNA) feared that cleanup costs might exceed estimates, the
City of Somerville used a portion of its Community Development
Block Grant funds to finance $100,000 in Cleanup Cost Cap
coverage, and the VNA proceeded with the redevelopment plans.
No claims were made against the cost overrun protection,
and the VNA’s new 97-unit, assisted living facility
opened in June 2000.
Similarly, Emeryville, CA wanted a mixed-use downtown center
to meet the high demand for housing. The city’s South
Bayfront area, once the location of a paint factory, a pesticide
production facility, and a drum-reconditioning factory in
the 1920s, became the planned site of a 350-unit residential,
250-room hotel, and 400,000 sq. ft. retail development in
1999. With a history of chemical production and a future
of overnight accommodations and long-term residences, the
developers and the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency decided
that a $10 million Pollution Liability policy would provide
the protection needed to proceed with the project. The policy
protected the redevelopment agency during the remediation
from certain additional cleanup costs and bodily harm to
workers. Upon cleanup completion, the developer became the
primary insured providing up to $10 million in liability
protection for a 10-year period.
Brownfields deals have also been sealed with Secured Creditor
Policies. Under these policies, insurers provide reimbursement
if a borrower defaults and compensation to the lender for
collateral value loss caused by a pollution condition. While
many communities are beginning to explore the use of secured
creditor coverage, this coverage is already prevalent in
many redevelopment financing packages.
The spirit of adaptability and innovation are characteristic
of local and state brownfields programs. Phoenix, AZ provides
interested developers and lenders with a Brownfields Information
Resource package that includes information about environmental
insurance. At the state level, Massachusetts provides a subsidy
of 25 percent of the environmental insurance premium cost
to developers who redevelop brownfields.
The environmental insurance field will continue to grow
as brownfields initiatives at the national, state, and local
levels fit environmental insurance into their revitalization
strategies.
To learn more about environmental insurance, visit http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/insurebf.htm
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Former Brockton, MA Shoe Factory Lands on its Feet Following a July 1994 fire that destroyed the King Size
Co. factory on Spark Street in Brockton, MA, the 6-acre site
lay idle for 10 years. Today, after $50,000 in brownfields
grant money from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
the parcel is home to the 60,000 sq. ft. corporate headquarters
of David Gooding, Inc. (DGI).
Conscious of possible environmental problems hindering
redevelopment of the land, the city of Brockton began redevelopment
efforts in 1997 when it was awarded Phase I Targeted Brownfields
Assessment funds from EPA. The Phase I was completed in February
1997 and a subsequent Phase II investigation was completed
in September 1999, defining the nature and extent of hazardous
waste contamination found onsite.
Cleanup of the site was performed by Fleet Environmental
Services, a provider of environmental, abatement, and selective
demolition services, which had also purchased the property
under a tax increment financing (TIF) agreement with the
city. Fleet’s original plans to build its headquarters
and a training center on-site were never fulfilled, and Fleet
sold the property in 2002 to IGD, LLC, real estate holder
for DGI. Fleet’s tax agreement was amended and transferred
to IGD providing DGI with a property tax reduction of $321,422
over 13 years. In addition, DGI will be able to claim a 5%
investment tax credit from the state. City officials have
estimated that the company’s investment will produce
$986,927 in new taxes for the city over 13 years.
The site is located in Brockton’s economic corridor.
Redevelopment of the site means the reclamation of valuable
commercial space near other successful town businesses. DGI,
originally founded in Warwick, RI, is a “manufacturer’s
representative” providing commodities to plumbing,
heating, and PVF wholesalers. Since its establishment in
1980, DGI has grown to approximately 70 employees (52 in
Brockton), and serves a territory ranging from Maine to Virginia
with headquarters in Brockton. DGI has invested $3.2 million
in construction and $500,000 in equipment for its new state-of-the-art
headquarters in Brockton.
To learn more about this project, visit http://www.epa.gov/newengland/brownfields/success/brockton_tba.htm.
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