Brownfields
Success Story
Meeting Street
Providence, Rl
Former commercial and industrial properties in South Providence have been
redeveloped into a campus for a nationally recognized non-profit for children with
special needs and developmental delays. Meeting Street, a state-of-the-art
educational center, has transformed an abandoned industrial area into a safer,
greener space with athletic fields, parking, and 100,000-square-feet of buildings. Its
early childhood programs and schools now serve over 7,000 economically
disadvantaged children and their families each year.
Working with EPA and other private and public partners, Meeting Street turned a
brownfields site into the organization's 9-acre campus in 2006. Since then,
enrollment has drastically increased and demand for services is quickly outpacing
the organization's ability to meet it. Meeting Street recently expanded its campus by
three acres and plans to further expand in one of the most economically
disadvantaged communities in Rhode Island.
Priming the Property for Redevelopment
The Lower South Providence neighborhood that is home to Meeting Street includes
a mix of homes, industry, and commercial uses. The neighborhood also once hosted
metals manufacturing businesses and auto repair shops. Changes in urban
manufacturing in the 1970s led to a mass movement of middle-class families out of
the neighborhood. This left behind empty properties, vandalized buildings, and
concerns about contamination from lead, arsenic, volatile organic compounds, and
petroleum products. Today, Lower South Providence is considered an environmental
justice area by EPA due to its proximity to sensitive populations and brownfields
sites.
A $200,000 EPA cleanup grant in 2004 funded the cleanup that led to Meeting
Street opening the new campus in 2006. To continue with ambitious efforts to
expand, Meeting Street applied for and received three additional cleanup grants
totaling $600,000 in 2018. They were also successful in competing for funds at the
state level, winning a total of $1.2 million in funding through Rhode Island's
Brownfield Bond Fund and the Brownfields Remediation and Economic
Development Fund. These funds paid to clean up three blighted industrial lots
associated with a former metal plating business and automotive junkyard and repair
shop. Meeting Street then expanded its parking and athletic facilities onto these
properties, adding a new outdoor track and a multi-sport artificial turf field that
completed the second step in its four-part master expansion plan.
EPA Grant Recipient:
Meeting Street
Grant Types:
Cleanup, Targeted Brownfields
Assessment
Current Use:
Nonprofit Educational Organization
Former Uses:
Residential, Furniture Warehouse,
Automobile Service Facility, Metal Plating
Business
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
"Opportunity Zones: helping to bring
investment to distressed communities"

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"The EPA Region 1 team has been
an invaluable partner in Meeting
Street's 15-year journey to
productively reuse brownfields
across Lower South
Providence. Our work to be a
community resource for families,
supporting the healthy
development and education of
all children, has been made
possible by the EPA Brownfields
program, and their collaboration
with the Rl Department of
Environmental Management."
John Kelly, President/CEO
Meeting Street
The partnership between EPA, the Rl Department of Environmental Management,
the Rl Health and Educational Building Corporation, and other private and public
funders has led to the successful cleanup of these four properties and the creation
of a world-class $55 million campus.
Today
Meeting Street has transformed the community of South Providence, once an
economically distressed area with high rates of poverty, little economic investment,
few quality schools, and a lack of green space. The neighborhood now boasts this
center of academic achievement that serves families and children of all abilities at
its early childhood programs and schools that deliver customized therapy. Meeting
Street has classrooms, a library, a computer literacy center, a science laboratory, a
gymnasium, playgrounds, and occupational and speech-language therapy rooms.
The new parking lots offer a safer traffic flow and more parking for visitors and
student families. The new athletic facilities are home to cross country and spring
track teams. About 68 percent of the student body is minority and over 83 percent
of the students enrolled come from families living at or below the federal poverty
threshold, highlighting the enormous contribution this project brings to minority
and disadvantaged communities. With the influx of students and new programs,
Meeting Street has even bigger plans for future redevelopment.
Meeting Street has plans to expand its 9-acre campus by three more acres and more
than 100,000 square feet of program space as part of its five-to-seven year Campus
Expansion plan. The goals are to create a center for preschool and early childhood
development, fostering higher educational achievement in the community. EPA's
Targeted Brownfields Assessment Program is helping Meeting Street assess another
brownfield for the next expansion. The final project is expected to create 50 new,
permanent full-time and part-time jobs in South Providence.
Meeting Street took what was left behind by New England's industrial past and
revamped it to improve safety and academic achievement, empowering residents
and giving children a better chance to succeed.
Providence Campus Master Plan: Meeting Street's campus expansion plan is
divided into 4 phases. Upon completion of the project, Meeting Street is expected
to have a new auditorium and Early Learning Center to accommodate growth of
Meeting Street's pre-Kprograms. The project is estimated to be completed by
Spring 2022.
For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website at
www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact
Jim Byrne at 617 918 1389 or Byrne.James@epa.gov.
EPA 901-F-20-003
December 2020

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