&EPA
                                                                                               EPA-560-F-10-214
                                                                                                      June 2010
FOX COURTS
                                                       Oakland, CA
                                                        Cleanup Grant
                An Underused Site Becomes an  Essential Component
                         of an Area-wide Redevelopment Initiative
    ADDRESS:       555-19th Street and 550-18th Street, Oakland, CA 94612
    PROPERTY SIZE:   0.88 acres
    FORMER USES:    Housing, auto garage, retail, sign painting, glass works, machine works
    CURRENT USE:    Affordable housing units
     EPA GRANT RECIPIENT:
     The Redevelopment Agency of the City of Oakland
     (Redevelopment Agency) received a $200,000 EPA
     Brownfields Cleanup grant in 2006.
PROJECT PARTNERS:
City of Oakland, Resources for
Community Development

For additional data and
geographic information
for this and other Brownfields
Grants, please visit EPA's
Cleanups in My Community -
http://iaspub.epa.gov/Cleanups/
    PROJECT BACKGROUND:
    Located adjacent to the historic Fox Theater in downtown Oakland, this property had been used for housing from the
    early 1900s to 1928. From that point it was used for a number of commercial and industrial uses such as an auto garage,
    paint and wallpaper store, furniture store, sign painting operation, glass works, and metal/machine works.
    The City of Oakland took ownership of the property in the 1970s. In the early 2000s, the site was identified as a
    potential, much-needed residential component of a large-scale, downtown redevelopment initiative (known as the
    "Uptown Initiative"). Though the site was transferred to the Redevelopment Agency in 2002, its past industrial and
    commercial uses posed contamination uncertainties that needed to be resolved prior to redevelopment. Assessments of
    the property were funded in part by a $200,000 Brownfields Assessment grant awarded to the Redevelopment Agency of
    the City of Oakland in 2003. Based on assessment results, the Redevelopment Agency used its $200,000 EPA Brownfields
    Cleanup grant and $40,000 in additional funds to clean  up the site in preparation for redevelopment.
    KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

    •   $38,000 in environmental assessments—funded by the Redevelopment
       Agency and the 2003 EPA grant—revealed petroleum hydrocarbons and
       lead in the soil.
    •   Removed more than 9,400 tons of contaminated soil.
    •   The City and Redevelopment Agency have contributed more than
       $5.4 million toward the estimated $34.7 million redevelopment cost,
       including $2 million in tax increment financing.

    OUTCOME:
                               Soil excavation underway at the Fox Courts property.
    Cleanup of the Fox Courts property was completed in August 2007. Total redevelopment costs were estimated at $34.7
    million. Conducted by Resources for Community Development, a Bay area non-profit housing organization, this project
    represents an essential portion of the Uptown Initiative's affordable housing component—creating 80 affordable units
    to complement the more than 660 apartments being created through the Initiative. This redevelopment project was
    completed in June 2009.
   FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 9 at (41 5) 972-3092

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