Brownfields
Success Story
TW Dick
Gardiner,	ME
A former industrial mill site along a stream that powered numerous
industries in the 1800s in Gardiner, Maine, has been redeveloped into a
new medical facility and housing. This successful redevelopment
highlights the great potential for unused mill sites along Cobbosseecontee
Stream in this city of 6,000 people just ten 10 minutes from the state
capital. The City of Gardiner partnered with EPA, the state of Maine, and
the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments to get the site cleaned up
and ready for this exciting redevelopment while addressing the needs of
the community.
Site History
The TW Dick site is located in the heart of downtown Gardiner, which is
known for its culture and New England architecture. Once a thriving
industrial city powered by the stream, Gardiner has experienced a slow
decline in the past 50 years. The stream corridor in the 1800s supported a
dozen industrial mills, using its 100-foot change in elevation of water to
power industrial equipment. In 1860 alone, it powered thirty-one
businesses where over 400 employees generated over $2 million dollars
of products. TW Dick was one of the mills that lined the lower portion of
the stream, using hydro power for its steel fabrication facility. The 2.9-
acre site included a cold storage warehouse, office building, and steel
fabrication building. From the 1800s through 1960, the site was occupied
by various foundries, blacksmith shops, wood workers, machine shops, a
shoe factory, and lumber sheds. These industrial and commercial uses
ceased by 2012, leaving behind a vacant site contaminated with
petroleum, asbestos, volatile organic compounds, polycylic aromatic
hydrocarbons, and lead.
Priming the Property for Redevelopment
The city took ownership of the TW Dick site through tax foreclosure in
2014, inheriting the responsibility to clean up the contaminants. This
acquisition allowed the city to be eligible for EPA Brownfields funding. The
city used some of the EPA funding from its 2013 community-wide
assessment grant to determine the nature and extent of the
contamination. It also hosted a series of charettes to help the community
visualize what "could be" for the Cobbosseecontee Corridor, including the
TW Dick site. Local business owners, residents, city staff, EPA, and the
Maine Department of Environmental Protection were all involved in the
process. Landscape architecture students from the University of Maine
created renderings and scale models of concepts developed during the
charettes focusing on new urban housing and commercial development.
v>EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Grant Recipient
City of Gardiner
Grant Types:
Cleanup, Assessment, Revolving Loan
Fund
Current Use:
Medical Facility, Residential
Former Uses:
Industrial, Steel Fabrication, Machine
Shops, Blacksmith Shops, Woodworking,
Shoe Factory, Lumber Sheds, Warehouse

FRESENIUS
KIDNEY CARE

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The city applied for and received a $200,000 cleanup grant in 2016 to help
address contamination and clean the site so it could be redeveloped. It
also secured additional EPA cleanup dollars through revolving loan funds
administered by the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments and the
Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. Before
buildings were demolished, asbestos, chemicals, and other wastes
lingering on the site were removed. A combination of building
foundations, paved parking areas, and other protective surfaces were
installed to safely cap lower-level residual contamination beneath the
surface. The cleanup was completed and certified by Maine DEP in 2020.
Summary of EPA Funding:
City of Gardiner Assessment Grant
$70,000
City of Gardiner Cleanup Grant
$200,000
Kennebec Valley Council of Governments RLF
$100,000
Maine Department of Economic and Community
Development RLF
$234,000
Total
$604,000
Today
A Maine based developer was selected through a public process to
redevelop the site at an estimated cost of $1.8 million for the medical
building and $3.3 million for the housing. Construction began in 2017, and
the medical center opened in the fall of 2018. This center includes a modern
kidney dialysis center large enough to accommodate up to 16 dialysis
stations. People who require dialysis are typically scheduled for three
appointments a week, each lasting four hours on average. Two residential
buildings with 15 units of much-needed workforce housing were built next
door, opening in 2020 and fully occupied. The city is planning for more
redevelopment on one remaining portion of the TW Dick site as well as
other nearby sites along the Cobbosseecontee Stream corridor. This project
has proven that Brownfields redevelopment can promote a healthier
community, not only through cleaning up contaminated sites, but also
creating new homes and health care facilities.
"The redevelopment of the former
TW Dick site proved to be a prime
example of a public/private
partnership. Without the Maine
Departments of Environmental
Protection and Economic and
Community Development,
Environmental Protection Agency,
Kennebec Valley Council of
Governments, the private
developer and the city, this project
would never had been the success
story that it is today. Gardiner is
very fortunate and thankful for
Brownfields programs that turn
something blighted into a positive
impact on a whole community."
Tracey Desjardins
Director of Economic Development/Planning
City of Gardiner
For more information:
Visit the EPA Brownfields website at
www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact Chris Lombard
at 617 918 1305 or Lombard.Chris@epa.gov.
EPA 901 F 21 004
February 2021

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