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Brownfields Cleanup
Revolving Loan Fund
Pilot
City of Milwaukee, Wl
BACKGROUND
The City of Milwaukee (population 628,000) has suffered
adecline in shipping, rail, and manufacturing activities that
has severely reduced employment. Unemployment in the
city is 1%, and 22% of residents live in poverty. The
Menomonee River Valley, located in the heart of the city
andadjacentto the city's largest pockets of unemployment,
has been designated a federal Enterprise Community.
Over half of the city's residents are minorities. The
presence of brownfields is hampering the reuse of land in
the city despite the large workforce and easy access to the
state's highway, rail, and water transportation systems.
With a 23% increase in land use over the last decade
compared to a population growth of only two percent,
regional sprawl is reaching crisis levels and is putting
enormous pressure on the city' s infrastructure and budget.
Milwaukee has made substantial progress in brownfields
cleanups in the past decade. Since 1990, city involvement
has contributed to the successful redevelopment of 44
central city brownfields, creation of 1,600 jobs, and
leveraging of more than $ 199 millionin private investments.
For every publicdollar invested in redevelopment activities,
40 dollars of private redevelopment activity has been
generated. The city has created 46 tax increment districts
to help encourage redevelopment activities.
BCRLF OBJECTIVES
The city' s brownfields redevelopment goals are to improve
environmental quality, create living wage jobs close to
where workers live, and create sustainable benefits for the
community. The BCRLF Pilot will offer needed flexibility
in an area where the banking community is conservative
and other financing tools require a significant up-front
cash commitment from businesses seeking to reuse a
brownfield in the city.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Date of Announcement:
May 2002
Amount: $1,000,000
BCRLF Target Area:
Milwaukee industrial corridors
and central city commercial
corridors
City of Milwaukee, Wl
Contacts:
Milwaukee Department of
City Development
(414)286-5808
Region 5 Brownfields
Coordinator
(312)886-0123
Visit the E PA Region 5 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields
Forfurther information, including specific Pilot contacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
www.epa.gov/brownfields
Applications for brownfields loans will be considered city-
wide to maintain flexibility. Specific geographical areas of
focus include Milwaukee' s industrial corridors and central
city commercial corridors. These corridors include
opportunity areas such as the Tower Automotive Site, 30th
Street Industrial Corridor, Menomonee Valley, Sixteenth
Street, Martin Luther King Drive, and Historic North
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Avenue. Together, these areas represent the highest
potential for creating family-supporting jobs.
FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS
The Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority is the
cooperative agreement recipient and will serve as the lead
agency. A site manager will be selected. The Milwaukee
Economic Development Corporation will serve as the
fund manager.
LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES
Currently available sources of funding for brownfields
cleanups include Wisconsin Department of Commerce
Brownfields grants, Milwaukee Economic Development
Corporation grants, Menomonee Valley Remediation and
Economic Development grants, state Enterprise Zone tax
credits, state Community Development tax credits, and
Menomonee Valley Partners, Inc. pre-development
matching grants. The City of Milwaukee also will be
providing in-kind services to supportredevelopmentefforts.
Since 2000, the city has raised and managed more than
$4.4 million in brownfields testing, cleanup, and
redevelopment funding.
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
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA500-F-02-015
May 2002
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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