Lar>4 & Community Revitslijgtfon
BROWNFIELDS SUCCESS IN NEW ENGLAND
THE STEEL YARD
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
Address:	27 Sims Avenue, Providence, RI
Size:	3.5 acres
Former Use:	Steel fabrication facility
Contaminants:	Lead
Current Use:	Artist studios, education and job-training
facilities focused on industrial arts
Owner:	Woonasquatucket Valley Community Build
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
(RIDEM), Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation
(RIEDC), Rhode Island Council on the Arts, Coastal
Resources Management Council, Woonasquatucket River
Watershed Council, Narragansett Bay Commission, City of
Providence, Olneyville Collaborative

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EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grant:	$400,000
EPA Section 128(a) funding (from RIDEM):	$ 199,000
Urban Revitalization Fund of Rhode Island
loan (from RIEDC):	$100,000
Fundraising:	$137,000
Donated materials and labor:	$ 118,000
Converted steel factory into artist workspaces and
educational facilities that help catalyze community and
economic development in distressed neighborhood.
Innovative site design embraces urban industrial character
while providing flexible open spaces and onsite storm water
management.
Motivation for Redevelopment: The Steel Yard is located in the
Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. Olneyville
borders the Woonasquatucket River and is part of Providence' s
Industrial Valley district, once a flourishing industrial center home
to textile, jewelry, and metal manufacturers. For the past 20 years,
however, the area has been in economic and physical decline as
factories have closed or moved away, taking jobs with them.
Olneyville is now one of the most distressed areas of Providence
with extremely high rates of poverty and unemployment. Physically,,
the neighborhood is characterized by abandoned and contaminated
industrial lots, lack of green space, and dilapidated housing stock.
Remediating and redeveloping brownfields in Providence's
Industrial Valley is an essential strategy outlined in the City's
Master Plan to revitalize these depressed communities. Projects such
as the Steel Yard redevelopment are rebuilding community pride,
enhancing access to open space and the river, and providing
economic and educational opportunities.
Property History: In 1902 the Providence Steel and Iron Company
built a structural steel shop on the 27 Sims Avenue site. The
complex expanded over the next 40 years, eventually featuring two
brick buildings and a network of overhead gantry cranes. Providence
Steel applied lead-based paint to steel beams as part of their
operations. Overspray from this activity resulted in elevated levels of
lead in the property's soils.
After being in business for over 100 years, the steel fabrication
facility closed in the early 21"' century. The complex was purchased
by a developer who conducted environmental site assessments. In
2002, two local artists and entrepreneurs purchased the property.
The owners formed the nonprofit Woonasquatucket Valley
Community Build (WVCB, which operates as the Steel Yard) and
began to actively rehabilitate the facility. From the beginning, the
owners' vision was for the complex to remain a working industrial
site, offering space for and education in industrial arts. While the
Steel Yard was able to quickly develop and expand its programming
to feature youth programs and classes in ceramics, glass, jewelry,
blacksmithing, and welding, its progress was hindered by the
environmental contamination that remained on the property and
would be costly to clean up.
Project Results: Initial site cleanup efforts conducted by the Steel
Yard involved removing soils with the highest concentrations of lead
while excavating and stabilizing soils with lower levels of
contamination. In 2007, WVCB received a $400,000 EPA
Brownfields Cleanup Grant to finish cleanup work at the two parcels
that comprise the Steel Yard complex. The grant was used to cap the
onsite contaminated soils with a combination of clean soil and
permeable pavement, initiating the site's physical rehabilitation.
The old Providence Steel buildings have been converted into over
9,000 square feet of workspaces for artists, classrooms for education
and job training in the industrial arts, and office space. The site
design embraces the property's urban industrial history while
incorporating innovative approaches to sustainability such as the use
of uncommon recycled materials and an onsite storm water
management system that features permeable pavement and
bioswales. The property also includes nearly 12,000 square feet of
flexible open space used for events, classes, and artist workspace.
The Steel Yard redevelopment project has had rich rewards for the
local community and the city as a whole. The redevelopment has
eliminated blight, reduced an immediate health threat, and helped to
establish a sense of place in the community. Through its training
programs, career development opportunities, small business
incubation, and frequent public events, the complex, which employs
over 170 people, serves as a catalyst for community and economic
development. The Steel Yard's success has reinforced Providence's
commitment to the creative arts as economic drivers while paving
the way for nonconventional, noncommercial reuse of industrial
properties.
Timeline
1902
Steel fabrication facility built
Early 2000s
Facility closes
Early 2001
Phase I Assessment
Nov.2001
Phase II Assessment
2002
Site purchased by founders of WVCB
2003 - 2010
Design, cleanup, and construction
Sept. 2010
Ribbon cutting
August 2011
Local Contact: Drake Patten, Executive Director, The Steel Yard • (401)273-7101 • drake@thesteelyard.org

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