Brownfields Safe Reuse and Investment Packages: A Roadmap for Communities

Redevelopment of a blighted or contaminated site is not an easy task, however, there are steps you can take to reduce the risks involved in the process and attract the right investment.  Communities and private investors often think about redevelopment from two different perspectives.  Understanding this, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Brownfields and[…]

Economic Gardening®: Nurturing High-Potential Local Companies for Job Growth

When you think of economic development strategies, your mind may first go to a local or state agency offering a bevy of tax incentives and other financial goodies to a large company that is considering moving to the area and providing new job opportunities to local residents. Alternatively, you might think of a program helping[…]

Removing the Barriers: Repositioning Brownfields Sites for Success

  As part of USEPA’s Re-Development Academy, part 1 of the 3-part webinar series discusses how repositioning can make the difference between redevelopments that succeed and those that fail—and it’s more than just marketing. Repositioning is a term used in the real-estate world to describe actions that prepare a site for reuse or redevelopment. This[…]

RE-Development Academy Announces Fall Webinar Series and Brownfields Conference Workshop

The Real Estate Development Academy (RE-Development Academy) is hosting a series of webinars and a Brownfields Conference workshop focused on successful redevelopment practices at some of the toughest sites in the country. The changing economic climate and shifting real estate demand makes clear that former industrial and brownfield sites are critical building blocks for communities.[…]

Webinar Series Coming this Fall: Catalyzing Redevelopment in Economically Distressed Areas

A Three-Part Webinar Series offered by EMS and Vita Nuova, LLC in conjunction with US EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization The Real Estate Development Academy Program (RE-Development Academy) is hosting a series of webinars focused on successful redevelopment practices as a lead in to a Brownfields University Workshop offered at the National Brownfields[…]

Brownfield Redevelopment in Action: Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is an Ohio town known for auto manufacturing, including renowned products such as the U.S. military Jeep. In 2015, Jeep announced that there would no longer be a need for Toledo’s South manufacturing plant, and the area was subsequently deemed a brownfield. With this designation, the site became part of the U.S. EPA’s Brownfields[…]

Is a Zero Carbon Economy Possible?

President Biden’s promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 sounds like a wonderful goal, but is it really feasible? In his Bloomberg article, Dave Merrill makes the point that renewable energy sources take up much more space than the fossil-fuel-burning kind. The most intensive plan to graduate to a completely carbon free[…]

Opinion: Targeted Brownfield Redevelopment–Part of Building Back Better

In his recent op-ed, Roger Martella agrees with the strategy laid out in President Biden’s Build Back Better plan to focus public investments on the most dire brownfield sites in need of redevelopment. Martella notes that there is an established track record of how to successfully redevelop these sites, and still over 450,000 brownfields across[…]