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Brownfield Redevelopment Projects/Green on Brown Projects

National Brownfield Association "enews"
Monday, July 6, 2009


RE: Brownfield News; Brownfield Redevelopment Projects/Green on Brown Projects

National Brownfield Association “e-news July 2009”
Rhonda Felson Communication Manager
www.brownfieldassociation.org
Ph. 773-714-0407 Ext. 122

“From White Cake Arsenic to Dark Brown Chocolate to Green Redevelopment”

The site of a 7.3-acre Brownfield redevelopment in downtown Jersey City has an industrial history that mirrors that of most east coast urban centers. But with views of the Hudson River harbor and Manhattan skyline to the east, the commanding 120 foot high Palisades Cliffs to the west, and a Light Rail Transit stop a short walk away, this site is poised to become a poster child for “Green on Brown Redevelopment”.

In the mid 1800’s, John Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company first improved the property with oil storage tanks, creating a regional supply depot for the Bayonne refinery, his biggest on the East Coast. The storage tanks were so well built that virtually none of the petroleum products contaminated the ground over almost half a century of use. However, late in the 1800’s, the depot was sold to a company that manufactured pesticides which built a factory on the site and opened for business. They built an extension onto the property from the recently laid railroad tracks adjacent to the site. For the next 40 years, they brought in white cake, (arsenic in its purest form), which was off-loaded into their warehouse and then broken down into the different concentration levels suitable for exterminating different kinds of pests. Since nobody knew any better, nothing special was done about the large amount of arsenic that spilled on the ground as it was moved from rail cars into the warehouse. By 1938, the pesticide business was closed and the property was sold to the Van Leer family who had recently come over from Holland with their secret recipes for making fine chocolates.

Many of the B & R’s, (“Born & Raised” - people who grew up in Jersey City, NJ), remember well the aroma of chocolate emanating from the factory as it produced fine chocolates for close to 50 years. In the early 1990’s the Hershey Company bought the Van Leer label in order to capture their market share and eliminate the competing brand name. Shortly thereafter, the family closed the business and razed the site.

They began to look for a purchaser for the site and throughout the late 1990’s into the early 2000’s; a series of developers came and went. Each potential purchaser was intimidated by the environmental condition of the property and the deteriorating industrial properties surrounding it. Just next door were the ruins of the chemical company made infamous as the place where the first World Trade Center bombers had purchased the lethal chemicals they used to make the truck bomb they set off in the parking garage under Tower 1 in 1993. It has since been abandoned by its owners, burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances, and become a Federal Superfund Site

In 2005 The Hoboken Brownstone Company principals George Vallone and Daniel Gans, who had 29 years experience in Brownfield Redevelopment, decided to make a run at the property. Since half the property had recently been included in the “Jersey Avenue Redevelopment Area”, it came with significant entitlements. The other half of the property had also recently changed from industrial to R-1 residential, giving the developers residential and mixed use entitlements. The big challenge was the environmental condition of the soil, particularly on the south site, which had the highest concentration of arsenic contamination ever found in the state of New Jersey.

After extensively testing the soil to delineate the limits of the arsenic contamination, the developers entered into the NJ-DEP Voluntary Cleanup Program and proposed a clean up plan that essentially removed the arsenic contaminated soil as well as other contaminated hot spots on the property down to the water table 7 to 15 feet below the site. In the hottest arsenic contaminated area on the south site, they proposed excavating into the ground water table to eliminate as much of the continuing source of arsenic contamination to the ground water as possible. They also proposed capping the site to protect the public and make the excavation more economical. Due to the proposed limited soil excavation and capping remedy, they applied for and were granted a special soil standard as related to the arsenic that was to be left deep underground and below the cap under the building. Even with the special soil standard agreed to by DEP, the clean up cost for the site will be in excess of $12 million dollars. New Jersey’s Innovative Brownfield Reimbursement Program will reimburse the developers for as much as 50% of the remediation cost. However, that reimbursement comes from various tax payments made by the project to the state only after the project is completed so the clean up will be fully funded initially by the developers.

The developer’s site plan approval calls for mid-rise buildings to cover most of the site with 438 residential units and some retail space being constructed. A one and a half acre public park will be constructed and named Van Leer Park which will be donated to the city after the project is complete. This donation satisfies the open space requirement of the zoning code and provides for public access and use of the park.

The developers were successful in getting a $4.6 million dollar earmark to NJ Transit who will construct a “Rails to Trails” pedestrian path to the nearest Light Rail Station Stop less than half mile away at 2nd Street in Hoboken. Additionally the Board of Public Utilities is soon to vote on a $4.5 million dollar grant to allow the developers to install Geo-thermal and solar hot water systems as an alternative energy technology demonstration project. The developers are also interested in becoming a New Jersey Energy Master Plan demonstration project, which would make them eligible for an additional $11 million dollars of subsidies. These funds will be used to create one of the most energy efficient - low carbon emitting buildings yet constructed in the nation.

They plan on using AAC concrete in a mass wall building enclosure system and installing heat recovery ventilation along with the alternative energy sources. The developers believe they can achieve 70% to 90% energy reduction over a conventionally built building.

Jersey City Mayor Jeremiah Healy is very interested in making the Jersey Avenue Redevelopment Area into a “Green Redevelopment Area”. If successful, it will be one of the first of its kind in the nation. If Van Leer Place becomes the demonstration project its developer’s envision, it would be the centerpiece of this green redevelopment area.