Brownfields
With support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), REDC provides loans and sub-grants to support clean-up activities and re-development planning for sites contaminated with hazardous substances in New Hampshire.
In 2010 REDC was awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to capitalize a Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF). In 2013, REDC was awarded $325,000 in supplemental funding for the REDC Brownfields fund from the EPA. Brownfield sites are property or land that is corrupted by a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. With these funds, the REDC provides loans and sub-grants to support clean-up activities and re-development planning for sites contaminated with hazardous substances.
In New Hampshire, Brownfields sites are typically contaminated properties located in town and village centers that have suffered due to early industrial history, which included textile, woolen, and wooden product manufacturing mills in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As a result of the contamination left behind by these industries, the brownfield sites are often underutilized or abandoned, taking a significant economic, environmental, and social toll on the local communities. The purpose of the EPA grant program is to restore the sites to productive reuse and to revitalize the communities.
Brownfields REDC Success Stories
The Zachary Tompkins Memorial Field Project
The REDC awarded a $500,000 EPA Revolving Loan Fund Grant to The Zachary Tompkins Memorial Field project in Hudson, New Hampshire. This cleanup project has remediated asbestos contamination on a Town owned parcel of land, which has been developed into a multi-sport memorial field as a tribute to Zachary Tompkins, a Hudson youth, who died unexpectedly of a heart defect in early 2010. REDC worked in partnership with the Town of Hudson, the Tompkins Foundation, NH Department of Environmental Services (DES), and the EPA in Boston to finalize the plans for this project. The property for the Zachary Tompkins Memorial Field is located at 9 and 17 Industrial Drive in the Town of Hudson, NH and consists of 11.5 acres. For more information on the Tompkins Foundation, please visit www.zacharytompkins.org.
Laurel Bistany, President of REDC, in partnership with the EDA, presents the Town of Hudson with $500,000 in support of Zach's Stadium.
Cotton Mill Square Redevelopment Project
REDC awarded a $160,000 loan to Cotton Mill Square, LLC through the EPA Brownfields Program in 2013. The purpose of this loan is for environmental cleanup of PCBs, asbestos, and lead paint on a development site at 30 Front Street, Nashua. The City of Nashua contributed to the project through the EPA Brownfields Program as well. Cotton Mill Square is a rehabilitation of an historic mill building into 109 residential apartments. The community is mixed-income, with 51% of apartments affordable to people of modest means. In addition to adding to Nashua's housing stock, Cotton Mill Square has created a 1,200-foot new segment of the Nashua Riverwalk and improved 71 downtown properties through the lowering of the floodplain of the Nashua River. The redevelopment of this site also created up to three new permanent jobs, as well as support numerous indirect construction jobs during the redevelopment phase of the project.
John Stabile, owner of The Stabile Companies, stated, ''Cotton Mill Square, an historic and low income tax credit project, could only have been possible through the ability to quilt together nine separate funding sources including: 108 funds, CDFA funds, low income tax credits, historic tax credits, to name a few. The cooperation of all these agencies will help in the revitalization of downtown Nashua.''
Railroad Land Redevelopment Project
REDC loaned $317,000 Brownfields to the Railroad Land Redevelopment Project in Keene, New Hampshire, in partnership with the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). This project is a multi-phased redevelopment project based on a series of the city's Master Plans, which expressed the desire to create a new neighborhood on the east side of downtown Keene. The redevelopment of this land will enhance the economic vitality of the downtown, while creating over 150 new jobs and mixed housing opportunities. What qualifies this six-acre site to be eligible for a Brownfields loan is a variety of contaminates mainly from historic railroad operations, including petroleum, trichloroethylene, coal ash, lead, arsenic, MTBE, and TCE on the land, which has now been cleaned up and developed. The estimated total cost of cleanup for the site is $800,000. REDC has partnered with the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation, the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES), and EPA Boston to fund remediation of this site.
