Detailed economic analysis for the University of Chicago matches high resolution housing data and remediation benefits to conclude positive economic results.

Kevin Haninger, Lala Ma, and Christopher Timmins

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Program awards grants to redevelop contaminated lands known as brownfields. This paper estimates cleanup benefits by combining administrative records for a nationally representative sample of brownfields with high-resolution, high-frequency housing data. With cleanup, we find that property values increase by an average of 5.0% to 11.5%. For a welfare interpretation that does not rely on the intertemporal stability of the hedonic price function, a double-difference matching estimator finds even larger effects of up to 15.2%. Our various specifications lead to the consistent conclusion that Brownfields Program cleanups yield positive, statistically significant, but highly localized effects on housing prices.

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Posted December 15, 2020

The Trust for Public Land makes the case for re-use as public spaces and surrounding economics will respond.

By Peter Harnik and Ryan Donahue

Back in 1975, the rusted pipes and immense corroded tanks of Seattle’s Gas Works Park seemed bizarre and incongruous against its verdant lawns. If old factory brownfields were repellent, and green parks were alluring, how could the two ever mate? But the imagina- tive flash by landscape architect Richard Haag broke that mold, and the reuse of that polluted property gave rise to an icon.

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Posted November 23, 2020

A critique of the Brownfields concept from the Lincoln Institute.

Nancey Green Leigh

Because many brownfield sites are located in areas with depressed property values, the cost of remediation and redevelopment can be greater than the expected resale value. These sites, referred to here as low-to-no market value brownfields, are rarely addressed under current policies and programs. Rather, the current practice of many brownfield redevelopment projects is to select only the most marketable sites for remediation and redevelopment, essentially perpetuating the age-old "creaming" process. Private and public developers' avoidance of the lowest market value parcels typically excludes disadvantaged neighborhoods from programs aimed at redeveloping brownfields and creates the potential for widening existing inequalities between better-off and worse-off neighborhoods.

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Posted November 16, 2020

Lawrence, MA kicks off redevelopment of 19th century paper mill.

by Allison Corneau

Six years after fire ripped through the Merrimac Paper Company site, plans are underway to redevelop the 19th-century paper mill on the south bank of the Merrimack River.

City officials and local environmental experts held a virtual public meeting over Zoom last week to outline the first of many steps necessary to redevelop the site before overhauling the property that once employed as many as 275 people. The former paper company on South Canal Street sits on three lots totaling 4.75 acres, according to a study prepared by Credere Associates, the firm hired by the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission to analyze Brownfields cleanup alternatives.

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Posted October 26, 2020

Consistent activity and opportunity for brownfields redevelopment in southeastern Pennsylvania.

by Brandon Brown, WFMJ

EPA representatives and city leaders toured various blighted properties to see circumstances on the ground and to provide New Castle with EPA assessment assistance and expertise on redevelopment.

The US Environmental Protection Agency joined federal partners to meet with New Castle and Lawrence County Economic Development leadership and community leaders to discuss how EPA can assist the city in the redevelopment of former Brownfields and sites in Opportunity Zones that had become tarnished from past industrial activity.

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Posted October 26, 2020

Redeveloping former industrial site brownfield in Ansonia CT has support of US Senators and will be a major step in community revitalization.  

Mayor David Cassetti and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal stood on the concrete bridge leading to the former Ansonia Copper and Brass site and looked at the sprawling 60-acre complex of vacant, rusted metal hulks that once churned out products 24/7.

“Once we get these buildings down, we’ll have a blank canvas,” Cassetti told the senator. “A developer can paint whatever picture he wants and submit it to the city for approval.”

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October 19, 2020

Redevelopment brings new manufacturing to Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development today announced that KAD Properties LLC has been approved for $51,718 in funding from the State’s Brownfield Initiative to remediate the former LW Greenwood property in East Randolph. KAD Models and Prototypes, Inc is a growing prototype manufacturing shop located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and more recently East Randolph.

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Posted October 13, 2020

Small scale redevelopment project in Vermont with state funding suppport benefits local community.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) today announced that Twin Pines Housing has received $65,000 in grant funding from the State’s Brownfield Initiative to work with Evernorth (formerly Housing Vermont) to remediate the former Tip Top Tire site in Wilder and construct four units of affordable housing.

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Posted October 13, 2020

Vermont Brownfield funding supports small town economics and creates community space.

Albany Community Trust, Inc. has received $17,850 in grant funding from the State of Vermont’s Brownfield Initiative to remediate the former Albany General Store property.

The presently shuttered building has a 100 plus year history of operating as a general store.  The closure was necessitated by an electrical fire in 2013.  Lamoille County Planning Commission contributed to the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment and initial environmental investigation, including the removal of underground fuel storage tanks. Northeastern Vermont Development Association, and Department of Environmental Conservation – Petroleum Clean-Up Fund (PCF) contributed to site characterization, and the PCF will be used to clean up contamination from the former fueling station.

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Posted October 6, 2020

Current project in Pennsylvania with an industrial end use.

CANPACK Group, a coalition of packaging companies, plans to redevelop a former brownfield site in Lackawanna County for a North American Center of Excellence and an aluminum-can manufacturing facility.

CANPACK Group is a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Giorgi Global Holdings and manufactures aluminum and steel cans and glass bottles for the food and beverage sector.

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Posted October 6, 2020