Technical Assistance Success Stories | EPA #560F23300 February 2023 Planning for Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment ECONOMIC RECOVERY - SUPPORT FOR REDEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT SITE STATISTICS • Community: Dellwood, Missouri • Local project lead: St. Louis Economic Development Partnership; Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (ULMSL) • Former use: Commercial • Future use: Urban League Plaza (business incubator, bank, restaurants, local business hub) • Brownfields technical assistance: Funding/financing analysis leading to development of the Urban League Plaza PROJECT BACKGROUND West Florissant Avenue became known worldwide as "Ground Zero" for the Ferguson movement after the police-shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. in August 2014, The site includes two of eight buildings that were burned down during the period of civil unrest in Dellwood and Ferguson iater that year. Community visioning was conducted as a part of an EPA-led brownfields redevelopment technical assistance (TA) project in 2017. Based on this process, along with an EPA-funded market assessment, recommendations were made to redevelop the site to support local retail businesses. In 2021, ULMSL began evaluating the property for the development of a small business incubator known Figure 1: Signage marketing future Urban League Plaza. as the Urban League Plaza. PROJECT CHALLENGE ULMSL's feasibility study identified a funding gap for the development of the Urban League Plaza. TA was needed to help target creative strategies for securing replacement funds, which included brownfields messaging to attract additional funders and partners. Once the ULMSL secured additional funds from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the organization used their own unrestricted funds to close the gap. HOW EPA HELPED In 2022, the U.S. EPAs Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization (OBLR) provided additional TA to support redevelopment for the West Florissant Avenue sites. Completed tasks include: • Targeted Messaging: Reviewing existing materials supporting the development of the Urban League Plaza and preparing targeted messaging to align with various funder mission areas. This included social reform, brownfields redevelopment, environmental justice, job training, and other focus areas. • Funding: Researching opportunities to seek additional funding partners for the project and providing a list of key groups to target. These groups included venture capital firms, philanthropic foundations, Philanthropy-Serving Organizations (PSOs), commercial real estate developers, corporate sponsors, and regional organizations. • Business Incubator Evaluation: Leveraging direct experience running business incubators to provide lessons learned and areas of focus to help in the development of an operations and maintenance plan for the planned business incubator. These tips will help ULMSL address key challenges often faced by new incubator projects. COMMUNITY'S NEXT STEPS • Identify key stakeholders and use targeted messaging to reach out to unique and non-traditional funding sources. • Develop relationships with identified groups and contacts. • Promote the successes and commitments that led to the development of the Urban League Plaza to encourage additional support and partnerships. Questions? Please contact EPA Region 7: David Doyle ------- |