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Brownfields Cleanup
Revolving Loan Fund
Pilot
City of Worcester, MA
BACKGROUND
The City of Worcester (population 173,000) is located in
central Massachusetts. Like many other cities in the
Northeast, Worcester lost much of its industrial base over
several decades. Urban blight, disinvestment, and an
overall pattern of decline have created pockets of severe
distress within certain neighborhoods, particularly the
city's older inner-city neighborhoods. The per capita
income of city residents is only 78% of the state-wide
average. The city-wide poverty rate is 15%, but poverty
rates are as high as 42% in some neighborhoods. The city
has been designated an Economic Target Area by the
state, which enables access to the state's Economic
Development Incentive Program.
Former industrial sites have been idle for decades because
of potential liability issues. Over 200 sites are classifiedby
the state as contaminated. While the city is 37 square miles
in area, only 100 acres of privately owned land currently
is on the market and available for development. To
improve the city' s ability to compete for new development
projects, the city has developed an overall economic
development strategy that focuses on the reuse of older,
underused or abandoned industrial sites with environmental
issues. A major impediment to reuse of brownfields has
been the reluctance of traditional lenders to provide
funding for the reuse of contaminated sites, even those
located in prime redevelopment areas. The city believes
that the BCRLF Pilot can leverage funding to move high-
priority projects forward.
BCRLF OBJECTIVES
Worcester's goals for the BCRLF Pilot are to provide an
additional source of funds that will be leveraged with both
private financing and public funds and incentives to address
redevelopment issues associated with significant
brownfields in the city.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Date of Announcement:
May 2002
Amount: $1,000,000
BCRLF Target Area:
South Worcester Industrial Park
City of Worcester, MA
Contacts:
Worcester Office of
Economic Development
(508)799-1523
Region 1 Brownfields
Coordinator
(617)918-1394
Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/brownfields/
Forfurtherinformation,includingspecific Pilot contacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
www.epa.gov/brownfields
This Pilot focuses on a 25-acre, inner-city, former
industrial site known as the South Worcester Industrial
Park (SWIP). Buildings on the property are either
vacant or underused. An assessment of city-owned
portions of the property has been conducted through the
Brownfields Assessment Pilot. A series of public
meetings have been held with residents, businesses, and
other stakeholders to create a redevelopment plan for
the SWIP property. The redevelopment plan involves a
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potential build-out of 1.7 million square feet of industrial,
manufacturing, and warehouse space.
FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS
The City of Worcester is the cooperative agreement
recipient and will serve as the lead agency. The Worcester
Executive Office of Economic Development will serve as
fund manager. A site manager will be provided by the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES
The BCRLFPilot funds will be incorporated into other city
lending and incentive programs to leverage the maximum
amount of funding to complete brownfields cleanups. The
city will leverage both public and private sources of
funding, including HUD Section 108 Loan Guarantee and
Community Development Block Grant funds. Additional
HUD funding may be available through the Brownfields
Economic Development Initiative program. The BCRLF
and HUD funds will be used in tandem with additional low-
interest funds, tax increment financing, and other public
incentive programs to provide the financing and incentive
package needed to leverage private developer investments.
Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA, and all
CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF funds.
Solid Waste EPA 500-F-02-012
and Emergency May 2002
Response (5101) www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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