Featured Blog
A big lineup of impactful, inspiring and educational real estate events is coming in 2018. Check out the new technologies, techniques and talented professionals sharing their work and making a difference in real estate, redevelopment, environment, planning, remediation and energy.
The BL calendar is a compilation of conferences, events ......
The robust retail supply chain readjustment is cascading through the entire economy and industrial real estate may be the biggest beneficiary.
Recently we’ve focused on the growing pain in the retail sector as a result of record store closures as well as the transformative growing pains being experienced by a retail indu......
Taiwan’s mega-manufacturing powerhouse, Foxconn, will announce location of its $10 billion U.S. investment in July, building on the billions other Asian firms have recently invested.
Updated below.
The world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and a major Apple supplier is planning to invest more than $10 billion in a 5-......
Over the objections of its normally brownfield-supportive Governor in a veto-proof budget compromise, Connecticut has taken a bold, innovative step to invigorate remediation and revitalization.
After some serious delay, Connecticut finally got a budget at the end of October. At nearly 900 pages, the budget bill was a big one with a plethora......
The Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Brownfields team up to develop a health indicator tool for use in redevelopment planning to build healthier communities.
A new tool developed by the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Brownfields hopes to help deliver a healthier future to some of Minnesota’s more than 10,000 f......
Amesbury’s rebooted solar RFP for its Titcomb Pit landfill drew double the interest and will now nearly double solar power production from its landfills.
As BL covered previously, Amesbury, Massachusetts posted a RFP notice on BL in June to re-advertise a project to develop solar energy on one of its landfills. The Titcomb landfill si......
Multiple studies show brownfield redevelopment raises property values, catalyzes investment and returns orders of magnitude on public investment.
Decades of research have consistently demonstrated that close proximity to polluted sites, brownfields and other unwanted land uses decreases property values substantially. But you don’t......
The Suffolk County Landbank Corporation (SCLBC) is a not-for-profit corporation, which was organized in accordance with the New York State Land Bank Act. The overall purpose of the SCLBC is to facilitate the redevelopment of distressed and underutilized properties within Suffolk County. Suffolk County was granted approval to create a land......
Houston, we have a problem: Hurricane Harvey reveals the bluefield infrastructure in our built-environment is badly behind where it must be to battle the big storms of today and win—never mind the bigger storms of tomorrow.
Harvey is the first hurricane to hit Texas in a decade, but the third 500-year flood event in as many years ......
Groundwork USA has developed a helpful guidebook for communities tackling brownfields over a large area to engage in high impact planning processes.
Why is an area-wide planning approach to brownfield reuse beneficial, especially to former manufacturing communities? How have communities successfully nudged their brownfield-affected neighborh......
With 7+ billion people on the planet and the weather changing, the stakes in the battle between civilization and nature are going up—along with the costs and consequences of poor planning.
Last year Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana experienced two 500-year floods in the span of 5 months. Teal Myers Jr. lived in the village of Tangipahoa fo......
Clean Earth Inc.’s soil recycling capabilities allows companies to collectively recycle millions of tons of material each year that would otherwise go into landfills as waste. Now its web-based project tool is saving clients mountains of paperwork too.
Brownfield development is not for the faint of heart. While it’s true that rou......
Amazon’s biggest acquisition—14X the size of its next largest acquisition and the biggest deal in grocery history—nets a premier brand, a supremely well-located site portfolio... and a plan to nearly triple in size.
Another Amazonian earthquake has rocked the foundations of the retail world after last Friday morning&rs......
After decades of getting the best of them and busting them up, Amazon is getting into the brick business big time and the built-environment will never be the same.
It was beginning to be a breakout year for Amazon even before it released its big open RFP for a second, equal-sized headquarters. The clicks are breaking beyond critica......
Getting the most out of the data collection for your EPA brownfield grant application.
Congratulations on meeting the deadline to submit your EPA Brownfields Grant proposal! You worked hard to collect data and create a winning description of your project. Now the waiting begins until EPA announces whether you will receive your grant in ......
EPA publishes Direct Final Rule recognizing ASTM updates, changing Phase I Environmental Site Assessment requirements to satisfy the All Appropriate Inquires Rule when buying forestland and rural property.
Update: this rule is now in effect..
On June 20, 2017, EPA published a Direct Final Rule in the Federal Register, to provide......
The Climate Smart Brownfield Manual is another top notch resource prepared by the experts at EPA.
While perceptions of brownfields, blighted land and vacant greyfield property as liabilities persist, these oddlots and marginal lands are a resource like any other real property. A brownfield's underutilization is a function of bad eco......
Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute has published an excellent and free compendium on the economic development aspects of placemaking.
The Land Policy Institute (LPI) at Michigan State University (MSU), in collaboration with the MIplace Partnership Initiative, has released a robust and FREE guidebook titled Pl......
What is a brownfield? Is there one definition or many? How will the brownfield question define my legal liability when I purchase real estate?
Brownfield definitions can and do vary by state, but Congress and the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 defined the term "brownfield" as "real p......
Updates to EPA’s popular EJSCREEN online tool will provide public access to important new data, including a revised layer for surface water pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today launched its annual update of EJSCREEN, the Agency’s nationally acclaimed environmental justice screening and mapping tool......
Boring through the Earth is slow, time consuming and expensive. Boring through brownfields can be a danger to human health and the environment.
Brownfields are like a box of chocolates. You really don’t know what’s inside until you bite in. Dirt works the same way. Nobody can be sure what’s underground until you start diggi......
WIFIA program finance assistance will accelerate investment in water infrastructure by providing long-term, low-cost supplemental loans for 12 regionally and nationally significant projects.
The WIFIA program is inviting 12 entities with projects in nine states to apply for more than $2 billion in Water Infrastructure Finance and Innova......
The e-commerce revolution took a long time to build up, but now an online flood led by Amazon is sweeping away weak hands. One-third of malls may close in the next decade, even as retail sales rise to new record highs.
Last week, we discussed Amazon’s blowout $35.7 billion quarter and how U.S. consumer spending and retail sales have re......
Runaway results from Amazon pile onto recent reports of record store closings. A new generation of greyfields is born.
After the bell yesterday, Amazon reported its first-quarter earnings and blew away analyst estimates. The online juggernaut's e-commerce and cloud-computing businesses continued to take market share. Retail sales jumped ......
Record store closings could be met with record store openings in 2017 as a retail renaissance reinvents and reshapes the space forever. Many legacy retailers are losing their relevance even in a swelling growth environment breaking retail sales records.
Retail sales disappointed last Friday (May 12), but only because reported growt......
Michigan State University study shows partnerships with private sector, innovative approach yields big results for Kent County in terms of job creation and economic impact.
Over the last four years, the Kent County Land Bank Authority (KCLBA) generated $42.9 million in estimated economic impact and 266 jobs in Kent County, acc......
Go-to digest from U.S. EPA centralizes requirements for entering a brownfield into each state’s response program to get to “NFA” and get your property back into productive use
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Brownfields Program last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched its Next Generation Brownf......
Manage the risk in your brightfield development from pre-construction to operation to insure the sun steadily shines on your investment
Brightfield development is creating value and providing tangible rewards for stakeholders—many of which have been deadlocked in limbo with little potential for productive use on their property. Closed ......
Has the competitive position of the U.S. economy ever been greater than it is today? This series examines the data and explores the ups and downs we’re experiencing on the way to making this America’s best century.
After decades of waiting, U.S. wages have started rising. In September, the Census Bureau reported that median U.S. ......
Roses are red, violets are blue… but if 2 flowers had 1 name, how could you tell which was which or who was who?
When Congress defined the term “brownfield,” it identified a large segment of real estate with uninvestigated and unknown conditions, or “properties with questions” that “may or......
Community Solar is opening new development opportunities on marginal sites of all shapes and sizes, driving brownfield demand and making solar energy more accessible than ever—even to those without a roof or open field of their own.
Industry has long since left. It’s been decades since the last car fueled up. ......
