| Redevelopment Economics | |
Redevelopment Economics part of Maul-Foster team, chosen by the Washington State Department of Ecology to re-energize and improve Washington's brownfields programs
Redevelopment Economics produces a Cost-Benefit Analysis for TIGER Infrastructure Improvements for Westport Waterfront
Redevelopment Economics retained by the City of Rochester to analyze the feasibility of using tax increment financing as the primary gap-closer for three redevelopment projects |
|
|
|
Tax Bill Includes Remediation Tax Expensing and New Markets Tax Credits
The compromise tax bill passed by Congress on December 17 included two-year extensions of both the Remediation Tax Expensing Program and New Markets tax Credits (NMTC). NMTC was allocated $3.5 billion for each year. The National Brownfields Coalition wrote a letter to House and Senate leaders urging renewal of these two incentives as vital tools for communities faced with abandoned, blighted, and contaminated property.
|
| |
|
Big Box Retailers Seek Urban and Brownfield Sites
NPR recently ran a segment on the trend toward big box retailers looking for opportunities in under-retailed urban locations, often with scaled down and more urban multi-story footprints. Stores Magazine features an article on Target's "wholistic approach to retail," which states that one-third of Target's new sites since 2006 have been brownfields and similar redevelopment sites. The environment section of the Target website states that "our expansion strategy includes redeveloping environmentally impaired properties, referred to as "Brownfield" sites. Properties may range from minor spill sites to former Superfund sites." |
| |
| Houston Brownfields-to-Walmart Project Becomes Barometer for Economic Development Debate |
The "Heights Walmart" is finally under construction on a derelict industrial site, and one observer ranks the redevelopment at the top of his 2010 real estate "list of things to be thankful for." However. other observers were critical of the redevelopment as under-utilizing a site that had potential for greater density. But the biggest controversy revolved around the City's incentives, as the City granted the developer a $6 million tax break to pay for infrastructure. See this article for a discussion of issues. | |
|
Great Lakes Brownfield Opportunities Outlined
A series of articles posted in the Great Lakes Echo portrays the opportunities and challenges for brownfields redevelopment in the Great Lakes region:
|
| |
|
Urban Agriculture Grants from Wallace Urban Food Enterprise Development Center
The Wallace Center makes grants to "increase access of under-served communities to healthy, affordable, and local foods." Letters of interest for grants are due January 15, 2011. The grants can be up to $60,000 and private businesses are eligible. There are three kinds of grants: feasibility studies; small enterprise development; and large enterprise development.
|
| |
EPA Issues Guidance for Institutional Controls
|
| |
Does Smart Growth Improve Worker Productivity?
Significant national research says "yes." For the Westport Waterfront project, Redevelopment Economics' recent cost-benefit analysis included a projection of productivity gains attributable to the smart growth characteristics of the project. Some resources for the analysis are posted on our sustainability-climate-smart growth page and include:
- Doubling urban population density has been documented to produce a 6% increase in productivity (see this article);
- For every doubling of employment density, the number of patents per capita increases, on average, by 20 to 30 percent. See this this article;
- The average American spends the equivalent of 55 workdays annually in unproductive commuting time (see this report).
|
| |
Place-making as the Antidote to State-Local Budget Woes
The New Urban Network newsletter suggests that cities should consider smart growth as part of their strategy to address budget shortfalls - "Visionary cities are looking for ways to decrease infrastructure spending and jumpstart economic development via a myriad of placemaking approaches." States that support smart growth might also be able to reduce their health care spending because walkable communities have been linked to lower rates of obesity and obesity-related diseases.
|
| |
|
Utility Assists NJ Brownfield Project with Energy Efficiency Incentives
A Hoboken brownfields project has been awarded a 2010 Governor's New Jersey Environmental Excellence Award for its efforts to transform a seven-acre brownfield site into a sustainable urban mixed-use community using energy-efficient building science. The 488-unit Van Leer Place TOD project was awarded $3.6 million from PSE&G's Energy Efficiency and Economic Stimulus Program, which is part of PSE&G's commitment to meet the New Jersey renewable energy portfolio standard (REPS). Some of the energy efficiency elements include: geothermal test well; Mass Wall Technology using Aerated Autoclave Concrete, and energy recovery ventilation systems.
|
| |
Cool Things Happen on Brownfield Sites
A regular feature of the newsletter - cataloging the creative and sustainable reuse stories that stimulate an expanded view of the possible: - River Raison National Battlefield Park in Monroe, Michigan wins Brownfields Renewal Award - becomes the first brownfield site to be added to the National Park system.
- Film studio breaks ground, re-using former Pontiac plant in Pontiac, Michigan. Michigan's aggressive 42 percent tax break for film production, as well as an $11.1 million film infrastructure tax credit, sealed the deal for the 3,600 employee studio.
- Design Within Reach headquarters relocates to Stamford waterfront. Connecticut's Urban and Industrial Sites Tax Credit was the key $1.5 million incentive that sealed the deal for Design Within Reach to move their headquarters to the $3.4 billion Harbor Point mixed use redevelopment project in Stamford, Connecticut. The New York Times recently ran this article on the progress being made by the new developer, Land and Building Technology.
- National Grid announced three solar-on-brownfield projects in Massachusetts, totaling 2.38 MW.
- Landfills examined for energy use in Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts.
Send nominations for next month's list to ev@redevelopmenteconomics.com. |
| |
Evans Paull
Executive Director, National Brownfields Coalition, and Principal, Redevelopment Economics
|
|
|
