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Green for Brownfields
RGP awards funds for Hamden, West Haven, New Haven cleanups
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Business New Haven
1/21/2002
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - The Regional Growth Partnership (RGP) has awarded grants and loans to assist in the clean-up of five properties in Hamden, New Haven and West Haven, RGP President Robert W. Santy announced January 15.
As part of the RGP's Site Remediation Program, brownfields remediation grants and loans are awarded monthly by the RGP's Site Assessment/Remediation Committee. The committee awards funds from a $750,000 grant provided by the state's Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) as well as a $70,000 matching grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.
Projects receiving grants and loans in the most recent funding round include:
• 291 Campbell Avenue in West Haven's central business district. The committee approved funding for a Phase II environmental site assessment on the 3.5-acre property, which contains two structures: a restaurant and a vacant 23,000-square-foot industrial building. A re-use for the property has not to date been identified.
• 333 Welton Street, Hamden, located in a Neighborhood Revitalization Zone and Municipal Development Plan area. Approved was a Phase I and II environmental site assessment for the property. The 80,000-square-foot building on the property has been used for some ten years as a storage and rigging location. A potential new owner of the property plans to make improvements to the building.
• 975/991 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden, in the Highwood Business District and Highwood Neighborhood Revitalization Zone. RGP approved a Phase I and II environmental site assessment for the site. Hamden town officials are working with adjoining site owners in hopes of combining the sites to create a larger development parcel and, in the process, a major economic-development initiative.
• 838, 904-912 Whalley Avenue and 55 Fountain Street, New Haven. RGP approved lead and asbestos surveys and Phase I environmental site assessments for the Whalley Avenue properties and 55 Fountain Street. 838 Whalley has been approved for an updated Phase III report. Developer plans to acquire the properties to provide space for artist studios and residences, existing and new galleries, and other, locally-owned, complementary existing and new businesses.
• 258 Grand Avenue, New Haven. RGP approved lead and asbestos surveys and Phase I environmental site assessment. Property will be renovated as office space for Fair Haven Development Corp. and Fleichas, a non-profit organization which promotes Puerto Rican culture and would own the property. As part of the project, two rental housing units would be developed in the building.
• 27 Fulton Street, New Haven. RGP approved Phase I and II environmental site assessments. Specialty House Inc., a Branford upholstered furniture manufacturer, proposes to acquire the property and relocate to Fulton Street, hiring five additional employees to supplement its current ten-worker staff within the first year of relocation.
“In each case, the awarded grants and loans will play a significant role in reclaiming these properties and improving the neighborhoods,” explains RGP Site Assessment/Remediation Committee Chairman Matthew C. Susman. “We are pleased to be able to work with these communities to bring about positive change in these areas.”
The Site Remediation Program plays a role in transforming brownfields - vacant and in many cases contaminated industrial and commercial properties - into developable sites that create jobs for the community and contribute to the host municipality's tax base. The program provides grants and loans to eligible municipalities, non-profits and individuals to remove environmental barriers to development.
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