San Diego, CA – With land in increasingly short supply, developers and redevelopment agencies are rethinking the viability of sites that are anything but clean. They are thus looking at ways to safely turn former toxic sites into golden opportunities. Dan Johnson, SCS Engineers Vice President, developed a recent seminar, co-sponsored by Procopio Cory, Grubb & Ellis, Driver Alliant, and Chicago Title, to address those significant issues involved in the redevelopment of former brownfields into successful real estate projects. This seminar, the first in a series to be held in various strategic locations across the nation, is designed to provide critical “deal flow” and investment structuring information to developers and investors interested in brownfields redevelopment. “I would have no qualms about living at a former brownfields site,” Johnson said.Johnson stated that while developers might not want to go to a contaminated property at first, they shouldn’t be afraid of it either as long as they do their homework. “You do need more expertise if you are going to be exclusively going for these properties, however.”There is capital out there for the redevelopment of brownfields. Johnson said at least $500 million in capital around the country is looking for the right brownfield opportunities.In addition, Johnson said forgivable loans of as much as $125,000 are offered by the state of California. Johnson said some grants may be available at state or the federal level. For example, the state of California has a program that will provide as much as $1.5 million for the remediation of underground storage tanks, and the US EPA has made available several hundred million dollars over the last five years to facilitate the investigation and clean up of brownfields nationally.
