MEDIA
Brownfield Grants Offered in Wayne County, No-Cost Assessments Available to Site Owners
Above: The former Black Diamond Site, is one of many active brownfield remediation projects in Wayne County
Wayne County Economic Development Authority (WCEDA) has funding to assist property owners with getting long vacant commercial and industrial properties redeveloped and back into productive use. WCEDA was awarded $200,000 in federal funding through the U.S. EPA in 2019, to assess environmental conditions of vacant industrial and commercial properties over a four-year period. These assessments, known as phase I and phase II site assessments, are conducted by a licensed environmental engineering firm and, through the grant program, are completed at no cost to current property owners. Through this program WCEDA hopes to add to the county’s inventory of developable sites, and present property owners with a pathway to redevelopment for their vacant industrial and commercial sites.
Many vacant sites and buildings in the area are categorized as “brownfield” sites. Brownfields are typically long abandoned or vacant properties that have been used before for industrial or commercial purposes, but the businesses once housed on these sites are no longer in operation. Former manufacturing sites such as steel mills, glass production plants, and other heavy industrial sites, more often than not, contain some measure of recognized environmental conditions which need to be assessed and properly remediated before that property can be put back into use.
There are programs for managing the cleanup of contaminated sites and often time former property owners are compelled to remediate the sites they have operated on. However, there are sites that have been long abandoned that require assessment prior to the point of sale or transfer of that property to a new owner or developer. Many properties have perhaps only been cleaned up to a certain standard, making a former industrial site undevelopable for projects such as housing or commercial use. Some property owners may have avoided remediation liability through bankruptcy. There are many circumstances which lead to long term vacancy of a former commercial or industrial site, but the fact is, these issues will need to be addressed prior to a change in ownership. Without a phase I and potentially a phase II environmental assessment in place, many properties will never be loaned against, which is an absolute deal killer for most potential buyers. Having a completed phase I and phase II, which details the conditions and remediation costs associated with a site, is essential to the sale of any brownfield property.
Assessment costs are often onerous to current property owners. Phase I and Phase II assessments, along with appropriate remedial action planning, can cost upwards of $20,000-$30,000 depending on the size of the industrial site. This is a major development expense that many potential buyers will not take on, speculatively. It is typically on the current property owner to have assessment work completed on a property prior to the point of sale. The appropriate time to have an assessment completed is not when you have a deal pending and a client ready to purchase. Ideally a property owner would know where the potential liabilities for their site exist, and this is where WCEDA brownfield assessment grant program can help.
“Our funding program is designed to provide direct technical assistance to site owners at a critical junction in the development process,” says Adam Phillips, Business Development Specialist for Huntington Area Development Council and Wayne County Economic Development Authority. “The pre-development phase of a project for a brownfield site is filled with so many unknowns. Owners and potential buyers often don’t know if remediating their site is going to cost $5,000 or $500,000 or somewhere in between. The cost-free assessments we can provide are a way of collecting that information so that property owners and any potential buyers can plan appropriately.”
Along with the assessment funds, Wayne County Economic Development Authority and its managing partner, Huntington Area Development Council, have working relationships with West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center housed at Marshall University, as well as other technical resource groups such as the West Virginia Land Stewardship Corporation and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).
“The WV Brownfields Assistance Center works with various agencies to return unused, vacant and / or abandoned properties to productive use,” says George Carrico, Director of the Brownfields Assistance Center at Marshall University. “One of our primary functions is technical assistance and outreach / education on addressing environmental issues on these types of properties. Upon working with our program, individual landowners will have the information they need to make informed decisions on how to remediate the property for future use. And the great thing is, these services are free of charge.”
Once an assessment has been completed, property owners can feel confident that there a resources available to them to have their properties properly remediated. Often time there are responsible parties to go back to fund remediation efforts, and in those circumstance where there are not, the WV DEP’s Voluntary Remediation Program provides resources and liability protection for property owners. U.S. EPA also offers brownfield cleanup grants for community held properties to directly cover the costs of cleanup. However concerning the findings of a phase I and phase II report, there are ample resources to assist property owners with managing the associated cleanup efforts and that process starts with accessing WCEDA’s cost-free assessment funds.
“We strongly encourage owners of brownfield properties anywhere in Wayne County to work with us to have that site assessed. We have resources to assess sites, manage remediation efforts, and help to market those properties for redevelopment,” says Philips. “Cleaning up these sites and getting them back into use is a priority for our communites and we are here to help however we can.”
For more information about WCEDA’s brownfield assessment grant program funding, and other technical assistance programs please contact Adam Phillips at 304.525.1161 or via email at aphillips@hadco.org.