ŁEPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-00-251
November 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)
Brownfields Success Stories
Glen Cove
Showcases Waterfront
Redevelopment Success
ith the help of an EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot and a
Showcase Community grant, Glen Cove, New York, recently cel-
ebrated the cleanup and redevelopment of one of eight brownfield
sites that are part of the city's Glen Cove Creek Waterfront Revital-
ization Project. This former commercial and industrial property is
now home to an environmental consulting firm. To date, the Pilot has
helped the city leverage approximately $20 million in grants and
technical assistance from various governmental entities. In addition,
private development has invested in a number of properties along the
waterfront. The city's overall Revitalization Project expects to
generate approximately $200 million in annual sales and $10 million in
taxes, as well as create more than 1,700 new full-time jobs. With this
first brownfields redevelopment project complete, Glen Cove resi-
dents will soon enjoy new economic stability and new jobs through the
continued development of the waterfront district.
The City of Glen Cove was once considered the center of the fabled
"Gold Coast" and home to many influential and wealthy New York
families. However, Glen Cove Creek, a 1.1-mile federal navigation
channel close to downtown, has been the industrial hub of the city
since the mid-1600s. As a result of this history, the area is blanketed
with more than 50 acres of federal and state Superfund sites and 146
cont.
JUST THE FACTS:
• Leveraged $20 million in grants and
technical assistance to support the
Waterfront Revitalization Project.
• Assessed a former printing facility and
determined that cleanup was not warranted.
• Celebrated the opening of a former
brownfield redeveloped as an environmental
consulting firm.
"By recycling and
reusing, we take the
pressure off the greenfields."
—Glen Cove Mayor,
Thomas Suozzi
ERA'S Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in
economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A
brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA
is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to
test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for
residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in
the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds
to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities,
and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site
assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.
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acres of brownfields. These properties, with their unknown degrees of contamination, have
discouraged new businesses and negatively impacted the city's overall economy,
property values, and tax base. Glen Cove's revitalization area has been designated
an urban blight area and is located within a Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) low-income census tract. Thirteen percent of
households within a one-mile radius of the district's center have an annual
income of less than $15,000.
CONTACTS:
In response to these problems, the city initiated a Revitalization Project to
promote sustainable development in the waterfront district. Expected to
create as many as 1,700 new full-time jobs, the project will also bring in
new businesses that will generate an estimated $200 million in annual sales
and $10 million in taxes. To support the city's Revitalization Project, EPA
awarded Glen Cove a Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant of $50,000 in
1997. Pilot funding was supplemented by a $200,000 EPA Showcase
Community grant in 1998.
Glen Cove Community
Development Agency
(516)676-1625
U.S. EPA Region 2
(212)637-4314
Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
The one-acre Northern Type site is the first of the targeted brownfields to be redeveloped. Like
most of the local brownfields, the Northern Type property has a long history of commercial and
industrial uses, including a storage area for a lumber yard, a garage and auto repair shop, and most
recently, a printing facility. Although the site was suspected to be contaminated, assessments
completed by the Pilot in June 1998 determined that existing conditions did not warrant environ-
mental cleanup. Based on these findings, an environmental consulting group agreed to purchase
the property. Additionally, the firm funded a $250,000 renovation of the existing warehouse into an
office building. In March of 2000, several employees of the firm relocated from the corporate
office in Manhattan to the new office in Glen Cove. The firm now plans to expand the Glen Cove
office and hire additional employees from the surrounding community.
The Pilot plans to continue its efforts by funding assessments at each of the remaining targeted
brownfields properties. In addition to the funds leveraged from the firm, the Pilot helped the city
leverage more than $20 million in additional funding and technical support to support the Waterfront
Revitalization Project. This leveraged funding includes a $4 million grant from the New York State
Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act for assessment and cleanup; a $9 million grant from the Depart-
ment of Transportation (DOT) for road construction to improve access to the waterfront; a $6
million Section 108 loan and a $500,000 Brownfields Economic Development Grant from HUD to
assist in the acquisition and cleanup of privately held brownfields; a $500,000 grant from New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation for creek improvements; a $580,000 Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act grant to fund the construction of a biofiltration system to
protect the creek from upstream contamination; and a $2 million grant from DOT TEA-21 pro-
gram for a pedestrian walkway along the creek.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new consulting group's building on April 17,2000, Glen
Cove's mayor, Thomas Suozzi, addressed the importance of redeveloping brownfields sites. The
Mayor stated that "[w]e can clean them up, reinstate them as economic generators, and by recy-
cling and reusing, we take the pressure off the greenfields." For more information on the Glen
Cove Brownfields Pilot, contact EPA Region 2 at (212) 637-4314.
Brownfields Success Story
November 2000
Glen Cove, New York
EPA 500-F-00-251
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