By Riker Danzig, Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP

New Jersey is rolling out a new tax incentive program for the redevelopment of underused, contaminated properties, known as “brownfield sites.” In fact, on January 7, 2021, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020, P.L.2020, c.156 (the “Economic Recovery Act”), a broad piece of legislation that provides support for a variety of programs and policies related to jobs, small businesses, sustainable energy, and many other areas. Sections 9 through 19 of the Economic Recovery Act establish the Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program Act (the “Program”), which supplements the existing Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act. Put simply, the Program allows the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (“EDA”) to award up to $50 million in tax credits annually for six years to redevelopment projects in need of financial assistance to address environmental contaminants or hazardous building material, such as asbestos.

This article provides an overview of the Program and certain issues that developers may face based on our experience with similar incentive programs, including the predecessor to the Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=40ac0f24-ec20-4c8f-8b1a-e332693b74e1

Posted February 11, 2021

City of Carteret is converting underutilized properties to econominc contributors.

The borough planning board last week approved 1 million square feet of warehouse space at 300 Salt Meadow Road.

Property owner CHI Acquisitions LP will build three warehouses on the site, located in an industrial district behind New Jersey Turnpike Exit 12 in the northeast section of the borough.

Read more...

Posted February 8, 2021

Another large project in Tonawanda is progressing.The state Department of Environmental Conservation released a brownfield investigation plan last week for a riverfront site in North Tonawanda, which could host an expansion of an apartment complex next door.

The site at 624 River Road belongs to DLV Properties, a subsidiary of Visone Co. of Clarence, and includes a one-story, nearly 18,000-square-foot medical office, built in 1997.

Read more... 

Posted February 1, 2021

Much like with the Great Recession of 2008, the Covid crisis has caused many brownfield projects to stall. As a result, BCP projects that received their Certificate of Completion (COCs) in 2010-11 are at risk of losing the right to claim the tangible property tax credit since the ten year period to put the property into service has or is fast expiring.

In response, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed executive budget for Fiscal Year 2022 would provide an extra two years for owners of certain brownfield projects that received COCs between March 20, 2010 through January 1, 2012 to claim the qualified tangible property tax credit. In other words, projects whose ten-year would expire between  March 20, 2020 and December 31, 202 will now have an additional two years to complete their project and claim their tax credits.

The text appears in Part AA of Section VII (Transportation, Economic Development and Environmental Conservation).

Discussions continue about extending the 12/31/2022 and 03/26/2026 tax credit sunsets.

The post In response to Covid Crisis, Governor Proposes to Extend Brownfield Tax Credits for Some Sites appeared first on Schnapf LLC.

Posted January 28, 2021

Linda Laban, Boston Real Estate (MA)

Community-focused, environmentally friendly living.

That’s how Hall and Moskow Property Management and Development describes its ambitious net-positive Hillside Center for Sustainable Living in Newburyport, which recently completed phase one.

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Given that the development is located on a former brownfield site, once a dump for coal ash and trucks and cars, a massive cleanup operation preceded the construction of the development, let alone any edible plantings.

“We pulled 110 semis worth of soil out of here. What’s left is clean,” Hall confirmed.

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For the entire article, see

http://realestate.boston.com/new-developments/2021/01/19/hillside-newburyport-rentals/

Posted January 22, 2021

By Tim Faulkner, ecoRI News (RI)

The Lonsdale Company left behind a legacy of pollution. It’s just now being completely remediated. (DEM Bureau of Environmental Protection photos.

A nearly 200-year-old hangover from the Industrial Revolution is finally getting cured, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleans a stubborn oil leak along the Blackstone River in Rhode Island.

The 30-acre Lonsdale mill complex and village in Lincoln and Cumberland dates back to 1831 with the construction of mills, homes, and amenities for workers. Most of it was built in a floodplain. The precursor to today’s live-work community was started by Nicholas Brown Jr., the namesake of Brown University, and his future brother-in-law Thomas Ives to became one of the largest mill complexes in the country.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.ecori.org/pollution-contamination/2020/11/15/more-cleanup-of-chronic-pollution-at-historic-mill-site

A long-awaited dredging of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, a Superfund site, has begun in earnest. It may not be finished for at least a decade.

By Mihir Zaveri, New York Times

In the middle of the Gowanus Canal, across from a luxury apartment complex and waterfront promenade, a yellow excavator was perched atop a floating barge. Again and again this week, it plunged its claw into the murky water, emerging each time with a scoop of fetid black muck. After more than 150 years, the famously filthy canal in Brooklyn is finally being cleaned out.

Since the mid-1800s, industrial pollutants, raw sewage and storm runoff have accumulated in the waterway, making it one of the most contaminated in the country. As the surrounding industrial wasteland gave way in recent decades to gleaming apartments, and as restaurants and bars popped up on streets dominated by warehouses and parking lots, the noxious sediment — known as “black mayonnaise” because of its color and consistency — lurked below the water’s surface.

Now the canal is undergoing its own transformation. The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a $1.5 billion project to remove the sludge and clean the Gowanus.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/nyregion/gowanus-canal-dredging-redevelopment.html

By Cody Shepard, Brockton Enterprise (MA)

The city has received a $250,000 state grant to remove toxic materials from the vacant downtown Corcoran Supply Company property, which officials say is the first step toward redeveloping the property into downtown housing.

The Corcoran Supply Company is a three-story, 65,000-square-foot building located on 1.2 acres of downtown property at 308 Montello St.

The property is considered a brownfield and the grand funds will be used to assess and remediate issues related to fuel storage tanks, contaminated soil, asbestos and lead paint, which have all made the site unfit for use.

"Removing these pollutants will clear the way for the property to be developed into 62 new units of workforce and affordable housing for the city," Mayor Robert Sullivan's office said in a statement.

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For the entire article, see

https://www.enterprisenews.com/story/news/environment/2021/01/05/brockton-corcoran-supply-company-building-downtown-property-brownfield-cleanup-grant-housing/4125843001/

Posted January 19, 2021

By Jonathan D. Epstein, Buffalo News (NY)

McGuire Development Co. wants to turn a longtime tool factory in North Buffalo into apartments, adding to the growing residential options in a new neighborhood that's being dubbed "Chandlerville."

The Buffalo-based development firm plans to renovate the 33,000-square-foot Buerk Tool complex at 293-315 Grote St. into 33 market-rate apartments.

The two-story brick building will include one- and two-bedroom units, with the exact sizes and rents still to be determined, said McGuire President Danielle Shainbrown.

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For the entire article, see

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/mcguire-plans-rehab-of-north-buffalo-tool-factory-into-apartments-near-chandlerville/article_3b02904e-503d-11eb-8720-6b96dd7c68d8.html

Posted January 19, 2021

By Thomas J. Prohaska, Buffalo News (NY) 

For years, contaminated sites in Niagara County have been, in effect, exempt from property taxes, because the county wouldn't foreclose on them if the taxes went unpaid.

The reason was that taking title to a brownfield or other polluted site – or even one thought to be contaminated – would make the county liable for the costs of cleaning up the site.

Now the county says it has struck an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Conservation under which the county can foreclose on as many as 86 contaminated or possibly contaminated sites without being stuck with the remediation cost.

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For the entire article, see

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/dec-may-allow-niagara-county-to-foreclose-on-contaminated-sites-without-paying-to-clean-them/article_27896b2a-438e-11eb-81bb-43de6d24ce37.html

Posted January 19, 2021