Featured Blog
Another big year of real estate and redevelopment events is on deck for 2019... including EPA's big brownfield show this December: Brownfields 2019 in Los Angeles!
The BL calendar is a compilation of conferences, workshops, seminars, webinars and other events that evolves throughout the year. Please enjoy the complete BrownfieldLis......
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......
Free mapping tool from Smart Growth America lets you explore the new Opportunity Zones, with many helpful data layers including brownfields!
Last December, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created a new community development program aimed at encouraging long-term private capital investment in America’s low-income urban and rural communities. ......
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 ......
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......
EPA, DOE and NREL are working together to support the growth of solar power generation.
Last week, on April 25, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a webinar to learn more about resources focused on municipalities developing solar photovoltaic projects! EPA is working with the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Renewable Ene......
Delta Institute compendium of strategies for coal communities in transition can point the way towards a post-coal economy.
The energy market in the United States is changing with incredible speed thanks to the emergence of several sources of new cheap energy, especially natural gas, solar and wind power. These economic forces, together with ......
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 ......
Incorporating community benefits into the planning process is an increasingly important part of a sustainable solar development.
As the solar age comes out of its startup stages and into maturity, the great work to build a renewable energy future has begun in earnest. No longer limited to a few leading communities here and there, substantial......
August 1 marks “Earth Overshoot Day” when the human machine has used more resources this year than the planet can replace.
Many people mark Tax Freedom Day, on which the average taxpayer has worked in order to pay their share of nation's tax burden. In 2018, this day fell on April 19, after which U.S. laborers were free and c......
Participants in a study of proactive “greening interventions” reported feeling less depressed (−41.5%) and worthless (−50.9%); with even greater effects in impoverished neighborhoods.
An important new study on the link between physical spaces and mental health published in the Journal of the American Medical Associati......
Arts and culture are being tactically deployed on vacant properties to alter community perceptions and renew development interest. Four cities are proving it works.
Vacant properties can feel unsettling and unsafe. They detract from the appearance of the neighborhood. Worse, abandoned and derelict properties can also attract crime and illega......
Change-of-land use approval at 130+ year old glue factory opens new pathway for residential redevelopment projects at Superfund sites under CERCLA.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted the first-ever approval to redevelop the Industri-Plex Superfund site on the National Priorities List (NPL) for residential reuse in Wob......
Economic and housing specialist Robert Shiller is worrying rather loudly that the housing market is making the same mistakes.
Famed economist and housing market watcher, Robert Shiller, is once again sounding a loud, clear alarm about the U.S. housing market. In a new article published by the New York Times, Shiller laments that today’......
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......
After decades of getting the best of the bricks and busting them up, Amazon is getting into the brick business big time. 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 crit......
This guest post was provided by Barry Hersh, Clinical Associate Professor, NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate whose new book is, “Urban Redevelopment: A North American Reader”, published by Routledge and featuring a forward from Charlie Bartsch (reviewed below).
If a brownfield is defined as a place where red......
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......
Roses are red, violets are blue… but if 2 flowers shared 1 name, how could anyone talk about 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 &......
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......
New Delta Institute report guides local communities through a smarter deconstruction processes to divert waste from landfills, reduce consumption of virgin materials and promote a more sustainble, circular economy.
Delta Institute is a capable and creative nonprofit organization and one of EPA's trusted TAB providers. Delta Institute col......
As the economic geography of the U.S. experiences continued evolution, even renaissance in many areas, the geography of American poverty is shifting too.
Large demographic shifts are reshaping America. The country is growing in numbers, it’s becoming more racially and ethnically diverse and the population is aging. But according to a n......
Alan Mallach’s new report examines how vacant properties are measured, why properties become, what is a “healthy” vacancy rate and the impact of vacancy on the communities in which they are situated.
Vacant and abandoned properties are a familiar part of the American landscape, from the boarded row house in North Philadelph......
Some technical difficulties muted our first speaker, but you can pick up with the rest of these great solar speakers and listen again to this illuminating brightfield webinar from May 31st.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this substantive solar webinar on May 31! A shortened version of the webinar is now available for anyone to ......
New and timely online toolkit from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Greater Ohio Policy Center presents strategies for post-industrial success for smaller, industrial legacy cities.
Smaller legacy cities - older industrial communities with about 30,000 to 200,000 residents – are undergoing significant transformations ......
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......
Colliers reports continued robust demand for big-box industrial facilities has pushed cap rates down to match urban office space.
The U.S. industrial renaissance has been one of the most surprising and promising developments to emerge in the post-2008 recovery. Unlike most prior recoveries, the U.S. has managed to increase manufacturing empl......
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-......
BL’s taxonomy of real estate types, land uses, property conditions and site characteristics is a useful shorthand to summarize a site’s vitals and signal the marketplace. The taxonomy of real estate types, land uses, property conditions and site characteristics can quickly communicate a site’s details to the market.
As......
Big omnibus bill includes biartisan BUILD Act, the 1st brownfield reauthorization bill since the brownfields program began.
Overnight, in the early morning hours of March 23rd, 2018, a new brownfield era was born when the Senate passed a large omnibus bill that included the first brownfield reauthorization in with a bevy of other big policy ......
President Trump's infrastructure plan proposes major changes to brownfield & Superfund laws, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and other laws to streamline permitting, expand financing and create new programs. Some of which might have a chance.
Last month the Trump Administration unveiled its infrastructure proposal along with......
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......
Charlie Bartsch, great brownfield explainer and economic redevelopment policy extraordinaire, passed unexpectedly en route to Berlin.
It is with the deepest sadness and regret that we mourn the passing of beloved brownfield superhero Charles William Bartsch on Wednesday, January 17th. Charlie, as he was known by all who knew him, was a true......
Historic mill property in downtown Plainwell on the banks of the Kalamazoo River is poised for redevelopment.
Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a list of 31 Superfund sites with the greatest expected redevelopment and commercial potential. The list easily directs interested developers and potential owners to Superfu......
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......
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......
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......
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 ......
