CENTRAL CITY CORRIDOR
Moorhead, MN
Assessment Grant
A New Gateway to Moorhead
ADDRESS: 4th Street at the entrance to the Main Avenue Bridge,
Moorhead, MN 56560
PROPERTY SIZE: 5.84 acres
FORMER USE: Petroleum filling station, dry cleaner, automotive repair shop,
electric motor manufacturing facility, foundry, paint shop
CURRENT USES: Mixed-use development including housing, commercial space,
and underground parking; an outdoor bridgehead plaza with
access to walking and biking trails
EPA GRANT RECIPIENT:
The City of Moorhead
received a $400,000
Brownfields Assessment
Grant in 2004.
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Sterling Development Group Four, LLC; MBA Architects;
Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic
Development; Minnesota Dry Cleaners Fund;
Minnesota Petrofund
MINNESOTA
i
Moorhead
For additional data and geographic information for this and
other Brownfields Grants, please visit EPA's:
Envirofacts - www.epa.gov/enviro/html/bms/bms query.html
Enviromapper - www.epa.gov/enviro/bf
PROJECT BACKGROUND:
Completed in 2004, the Main Avenue Bridge, spanning the Red River of the North, connects Fargo, North Dakota to the
Central City Corridor of Moorhead, Minnesota. At that time, many structures in the Central City Corridor were more than
100 years old and abandoned or underutilized. Several commercial tenants occupied buildings with crumbling foundations,
while other buildings had been left idle. Two buildings had also been damaged by fire, one severely enough to be designated
unsafe by the fire department. The city acquired this property and several others in 2004, as part of a planned Corridor-wide
revitalization project. As part of the project, the city also wanted to repair and preserve two historic buildings in the Corridor
that contained usable commercial and residential space. Area residents suspected that a former petroleum filling station
and former foundry that once operated in the Corridor had released contaminants that remained in the soil. Using an EPA
Brownfields grant, an area-wide assessment of the Corridor was conducted in 2004, revealing petroleum and volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) in soil and ground water and lead-based paint and asbestos in several of the aging buildings.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
• Removed more than 12,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil
• Cleanup and redevelopment helped to retain nine full-time and
29 part-time jobs
• Constructed 69 new apartments
• To date, leveraged a total of $21 million for revitalization
OUTCOME:
During the spring and summer of 2004, asbestos, lead-based paint, and other
hazardous materials were addressed in several buildings in the Central City
Corridor, which were then demolished to make way for a new, modern
downtown. The city applied for and received grants from the Minnesota
Department of Employment & Economic Development, the Minnesota Dry Cleaners Fund, and the Minnesota Petrofund to
help pay for the cleanup. A developer invested $ 18 million to redevelop the area in five phases. The first phase, completed in
the Spring of 2005, includes a mixed-use structure with three commercial spaces and 17 apartments, all of which are occupied.
Phase II added a second mixed-use structure and included renovations of the Corridor's two historic structures, preserving
them for reuse. In the Fall of 2006, a beautiful outdoor bridgehead plaza was completed at the base of the new Main Avenue
Bridge, allowing pedestrians access to the river and to walking and bike trails. The most recent completion is Phase III, which
includes a parking ramp for 135 cars and a 30-unit apartment building with underground parking. Redevelopment of the Central
City Corridor has been very successful, and the developer will continue phasing in new structures. This new gateway to
Moorhead welcomes travelers with a beautifully renovated, pedestrian-friendly downtown.
The new Bridgehead Plaza.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 5 at (312) 353-2000
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