Revitalizing Brownfields: New Benefits from Old Sites (cont.)

BRAC - The Denver Experience

Rural Sourcing, Inc.: Bringing High
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Revitalizing Brownfields: New Benefits from Old Sites

Kalamazoo's Economic Revitalization

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Georgia Communities Bounce Back

National Leadership Through Regional Cooperation: Tennessee Valley Comes Together to Create Jobs of the Future

Using Department of Energy Assets for Community Benefit

Enterprise Facilitation: Growing Entrepreneurs One Contact at a Time

About Economic Development America

Revitalizing Brownfields: New Benefits from Old Sites (cont.)

Brownfield reuse success stories: What’s worked?

Brownfield reuse initiatives have tallied some impressive results, as tracked through states’ VCPs:

• 365 projects in California are credited with creating more than 21,000 jobs, stimulating $475 million in annual tax revenues, and adding 5,200 housing units and 13 million square feet of industrial, office, and commercial space.
• Cleanups have occurred in 60 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, creating 15,000 jobs.
• Michigan communities have reported $458.7 million in private investment and 5,432 jobs stemming from brownfield cleanups.
• Rhode Island saw more than $80 million in new property value generated from 97 businesses that have located on brownfield sites;
• Wisconsin attributed more than 4,000 new jobs to 88 brownfield projects;
• Minnesota, which has one the nation’s oldest programs, estimates that its VCP has leveraged almost $1 billion in private investment, including construction of nearly 5,700 housing units; and
• Florida claims cumulative creation of 3,274 direct jobs and 2,600 indirect jobs, as well as $172 million in new investment in its designated brownfield areas.

The city of Detroit has worked to increase the presence of Acetex, a key central city manufacturer that supplies uniforms for the Big Three automakers. Acetex sought to acquire an adjacent property for an expansion, but the owner, a largely defunct small auto parts manufacturer, had mothballed the site because of environmental concerns.

The city served a critical facilitating role to expedite transfer of the property, and after extensive negotiations, Acetex took title. The facility was located in Detroit’s Empowerment Zone, and received $3 million of Detroit’s federal zone allocation. Comerica Bank provided the remaining financing by issuing $2 million in special taxexempt bonds for the project. Acetex currently employs over 450 people, and has annual revenues of $52 million. When its new distribution facility opens on the remediated brownfield site, another 100 jobs will be created.

The Wilensky Salvage Yard in Minneapolis had been used for auto parts salvage and disposal for 50 years. Although aware of significant contamination, the city included it in a larger tract being assembled for new light industry. Nearly $900,000 for remediation was raised through Minnesota’s hazardous waste subdistrict TIF mechanism, from property taxes collected from businesses in the eight-block area surrounding the salvage yard. Thus, the city’s completed redevelopment projects, as well as other businesses, contributed to cleanup efforts within the district.

The cleaned-up Wilensky site has already attracted new users. Microtron, a minority-owned electronics company seeking to expand its operations, has gone into the site, constructing a 65,000-square-foot facility that will employ about 160 people. A key factor in Microtron’s decision was the letter of “no association” that it received from the Minnesota VCP. This cleared the company of all liability for past contamination on the site.

The Circle F project in Trenton, New Jersey, was developed on a manufacturing site that dated to 1886. The city subdivided the site and targeted the older front half of the parcel for senior citizen housing, while the back half remained industrial.

Trenton officials selected a long-time local nonprofit developer, Lutheran Social Ministries (LSM), to undertake the housing project. LSM fronted the $500,000 for site cleanup and preparation, and applied for and received an allocation of $8 million in federal low-income housing tax credits. These credits attracted a private lender, Nat West Bank, to the project. The bank helped finance the project, and assumed the role of a limited partner in the project in order to get the benefit of the tax credits. Nat West provided $4 million in construction loans and an additional $1 million for other costs. The tax credits will translate into a 12 percent return on investment for Nat West, and the Circle F project has brought 75 new units of housing to an old central city neighborhood.

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