at-a-glance
PFISTER & VOGEL TANNERY
          Milwaukee, Wl
Revolving Loan Fund Grant
   Transforming Milwaukee's Largest Brownfield into a Sustainable Benefit for the Community
     ADDRESS:          153 I & 1635 N. Water St. and 404 E. Lyon St., Milwaukee, Wl 53202
     PROPERTY SIZE:     8 acres
     FORMER USES:      Leather tannery, sand company, taxi cab company, wood and coal yard, and
                       iron works
     CURRENT USES:     Residential apartments, retail space, river walk and public open spaces
EPA GRANT RECIPIENT:
The City of Milwaukee used its $ 1 million EPA
Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund awarded in
2006 to loan $1.1 million to USL Land LLC.
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Mandel Group, Inc.; Zenith Industrial Services;
City of Milwaukee; USL Land LLC; Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources
                                                                                    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:
    Occupying eight acres and a quarter of a mile along the Milwaukee River in downtown Milwaukee, the former Pfister & Vogel leather
    tannery operated from the mid-1800s until operations ceased in 2000 and the property was left vacant. The property was home to
    more than 50 buildings with 400,000 square feet of space. The leather processing operations conducted at the site included treating
    raw cow hides with sodium sulfhydrate, lime, and chrome. In addition to the leather operations, past uses of the property included a
    sand company, taxi cab company, wood and coal yard, and iron works. In 2001, the property was acquired by USL Land LLC through
    bankruptcy court. Several environmental site assessments were conducted from 1992 to 2006, which revealed approximately eight
    underground storage tanks ranging from 250 to 50,000 gallons in size, petroleum-related volatile organic compound (VOC) and
    polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) impacted soil, groundwater contaminated with VOCs, and  methane caused by the presence of both
    waste fill material and naturally occurring organic sediments.

    KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
    •   Eliminated the largest industrial brownfield in downtown Milwaukee.
    •   Salvaged, recycled and reused more than 40,000 tons of concrete from the
        demolished buildings for base fill of new structures.
    •   Selected by the U.S. Green Building Council to participate in its Leadership in
        Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development
        (LEED-ND)® Program.

    UUTCOME:                                                                     y-lew fmm a new North End apartment home of a water tower
    /-^                 r\r\r\r\                                                         salvaged from the former tannery and recycled to become the
    Completed in spring 2008, cleanup activities on the property included: asbestos                   centerpiece of the redevelopment.
    abatement of boilers, piping and mechanical systems; demolition of buildings; removal
    of concrete foundations and subsurface  structures; installation of groundwater monitoring wells; and removal and  transport of
    contaminated soils and underground storage tanks to an approved landfill. Cleanup was funded in part through a $ I. I million EPA
    Revolving Loan Fund  loan and a portion  of the $8.5 million in tax increment financing (TIF) provided by the City of Milwaukee. The
    first phase of the $ 175 million North End development, which will include 83 apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space, is
    expected to be completed by spring 2009. Later phases of the development will include 395  apartments and condominiums and
    another 30,000 to 40,000 square feet of retail space. As part of the project, the Mandel Group, a private development company, set
    a voluntary goal of having  10 percent of the work done by emerging minority-owned business enterprises. From the initial demolition
    and environmental remediation through the first phase of construction, Mandel has achieved  nearly 33% minority participation.
    Working with Alderman Joe Davis, the African American Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of
    Wisconsin, the Mandel Group also is using $500,000 of the TIF funds to mentor several small minority-owned contractors to help
    them grow their businesses. Selected by the U.S. Green Building Council  for participation in the LEED-ND® program, the North  End
    will be one of the first pilot projects in the nation to integrate the principles of this council, which include smart growth, new urbanism
    and green building. The entire development is expected to take five to seven years to build out.
      FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 5 at (312) 886-3058

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