Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal • April 11, 2016 www.wbjournal.com FOCUS Green Business After the city of Gardner took over the 35 acre S. Bent property in 2007 through tax title, it used nearly $400,000 from MassDevelopment and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to demolish about 300,000 square feet of old S. Bent mill buildings and to elimi- nate environmental concerns. The site is now pad-ready, meaning it's ready to be sold to a private developer. The former S. Bent development is part of Gardner's Mill Street Corridor urban renewal area, 55 acres of contami- nated industrial land with two city- owned parcels that Gardner hopes will be the future home of new businesses that create sustainable, 21st century jobs. It's one of thousands of polluted sites in Massachusetts, called brownfields, where contamination is caused by a vari- ety of factors, including the presence of high consumers of energy, like manufac- turers. The state has incentives in place for potential developers of these sites, but in order to attract developers, cities need to complete a baseline damage assessment so potential buyers know what they're getting themselves into. "What [developers] fear most is uncertainly. The best thing a local community can do for the redevelopment of parcels is to get a baseline assessment," said Edmund Coletta, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. "Provide baseline information, so developers can make a rational choice, and set cleanup rules at a pace that's linked to development." Brownfields law In 1998, then Gov. Paul Cellucci signed the Brownfields Act into law, which cre- ated new incentives to clean up contami- nated sites, including liability relief for new property owners who were not responsible for site damage and the cre- ation of the MassDevelopment fund. Over the years, MassDEP has received 46,000 notifications of contaminated sites and cleaned up 30,000 of them. Although the term "brownfield" isn't clearly defined by the state, it's essen- tially a site where real or perceived con- tamination is prohibiting development. It's a hard term to define is because it's hard to definitively say whether or not contamination is the true factor hinder- ing redevelopment of a property, said Paul Locke, assistant commissioner for waste site cleanup at MassDEP. "If you look at brownfields as sites where contamination or fear of preven- tion is preventing development, it's hard to tease out whether lack of development is connected to contamination," Locke said. Cleanup partnerships Cleanup is done through partnerships between the state and private contrac- tors, Locke said. It used to be that the state would do it on its own, but that left many smaller sites ignored. Now, the H istorically, the Mill Street Corridor area of Gardner was home to several esteemed man- ufacturers, including S. Bent & Brothers Co. When the furniture maker closed its doors in 2001 after nearly 134 years of business, it left behind a building and site that had been contaminated due to years of production and energy usage. Brownfield complexities cause developer caution BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Cost containment and conflict concerns leave cities, state on hook for initial revitalization New Covenant $441,000 for Partners IV LLC 9 Harback Road, Sutton remediation $9,800 for City of Leominster 139 Seventh St., Leominster site assessment Worcester Business $42,500 for Development Corp. Presmet Corp., Worcester site assessment $201,500 City of Gardner 140 South Main St., Gardner for both Redevelopment funds Here are the total awards MassDevelopment made for Central Massachusetts brownfield cleanups in fiscal 2015. Source: MassDevelopment Awardee Site Award The former site of the S. Bent & Brothers Co. manufacturing facility in Gardner is being redeveloped, using money from the MassDevelopment brownfield fund and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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