UB Group Proposes Regional Nonprofit Organization To Develop Brownfields

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The complicated process of revitalizing Western New York's many brownfields could be enhanced and accelerated significantly through the formation of a new, nonprofit organization designed to facilitate such projects, according to a report by a new University at Buffalo group, the Brownfield Action Project (BAP).

Authors of the BAP report say the nonprofit organization would be the first brownfield-redevelopment organization in the U.S. to be initiated by a university, a fact that will allow for the latest research findings and innovations in the field to be adapted quickly for practical application.

An interdisciplinary group formed by UB professors of law, planning and engineering -- each with expertise in brownfield redevelopment -- BAP is affiliated with UB's Environment and Society Institute (ESI).

Funded by the ESI and the university's Center for Integrated Waste Management, the report was designed from the outset to determine how such organizations had assisted development in other regions throughout the U.S. and how they might work in Western New York and in other upstate regions.

"Brownfield redevelopment is a growth industry," explained Thomas F. Disare, clinical professor of the UB School of Law and a BAP report author, pointing to the fact that the federal government and other sources are making dedicated funds available to communities for development projects.

"The communities that are the first ones that learn how to put deals together for redeveloping brownfields will get a disproportionately high share of the resources that are available," said Disare.

The report looks at 11 nonprofit organizations in seven states that either have added to their services programs to develop brownfields, or were created specifically to do brownfield redevelopment.

"Our interest was in promoting brownfield redevelopment in some way and we wanted to see if this was the way to go," said A. Scott Weber, Ph.D., director of the Center for Integrated Waste Management, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, and an author of the report. "Our conclusion was that a nonprofit organization could play a critical role, particularly in developing small and/or complicated sites, such as those with a significant amount of contamination, that simply would not be tackled by existing public or private entities. Through this process of trying to see what others have done and the roles that they play, we have seen where benefits lie and what the potential is here in Western New York."

In their report, the authors point to the limited success of both the private real-estate market and the public sector in redeveloping many types of brownfields as an important factor that led to the formation of such nonprofit organizations.

"We are hoping to promote a more equitable redevelopment of brownfields by assisting smaller municipalities and nonprofit organizations," said Robert S. Berger, a professor in the UB School of Law and an author of the report.

The group noted that a regional brownfield organization would fill the gap that exists in brownfield redevelopment by recycling sites not normally considered by the private sector.

"Real-estate developers purchase sites and develop them if the market value of the developed property justifies their costs," explained G. William Page, professor and chair of the Department of Planning in the UB School of Architecture and Planning and an author of the report. "What we're looking for are projects where the market return may not be sufficient for a private developer, and where we think our intervention could help remediate and develop a site that wouldn't be developed if it were left to market forces alone. We want to find places where the social value of development is greater than the economic value."

He added that such sites include those that, as brownfields, have become magnets for unwanted social activities and contributors to urban blight.

The kinds of development that would be considered depend largely on the location and the nature of contamination at the site, but Page said they could range from offices, manufacturing or warehouse facilities to community centers, retail stores and even residences.

Benefits of using nonprofit organizations in brownfield redevelopment cited by the report include greater flexibility in the types of projects that can be developed, improved access to a more diverse array of funding sources and services, and the ability to be perceived as neutral and credible by all the diverse parties involved.

While noting that such organizations are new, the report points out that they bring a welcome player to the table, particularly for difficult or complex sites, which, according to Weber, describes many of the sites in Western New York.

"There have been a few, very-well-publicized success stories," Weber said, noting, for example, the tomato greenhouse that was built on an old Republic Steel site and the Wegmans supermarket built in Buffalo. "But many other sites in our communities have development potential but lack sufficient expertise and the capital necessary to allow them to proceed."

According to the report, putting together a successful brownfield-redevelopment plan is an extremely complicated process, requiring the coordination of many different players, including banks; federal, state and local government agencies; private corporations, and developers.

That level of complexity is what often prevents brownfields from ever getting redeveloped.

"Contrary to popular belief, brownfields come in all sizes, shapes and degrees of complexity," said Keith Welks, president of the Phoenix Land Recycling Co., a nonprofit in Harrisburg that redevelops sites throughout Pennsylvania and one of the organizations studied by the BAP. "Nonprofit organizations can be extremely valuable in resolving problems at difficult brownfield sites that the private sector continues to ignore. I welcome the creation of a new brownfield nonprofit."

According to the report, such an organization could remove some of the obstacles to brownfield redevelopment that exist in Western New York, where only a small fraction of the total number of sites are even being considered for redevelopment.

The BAP is working toward creating a regional nonprofit organization, identifying an appropriate funding source for staff and embarking on an outreach effort in the community.

The BAP report cited the following major benefits of involving UB in the redevelopment of the region's brownfields:

• Speedy access to innovations arising from academic research in technology, financing, liability management, risk analysis, economic development and land use

• The university's proven expertise in the field across several disciplines

• UB's public-service mission, which allows it to access grants from government, foundations and other charities that are not available to other types of organizations

• An ability to target assistance to smaller, more-complicated and less-marketable sites that are not the focus of current redevelopment efforts

• An ability to leverage UB's considerable experience working with private-sector interests, municipalities and neighborhoods, such as the work done with Delta Development of Western New York, Inc. and the UB Law School's Affordable Housing Clinic.

Other authors of the report are Ramon C. Garcia, a graduate of the UB School of Planning and Architecture, and Louis P. Zicari, associate director of the Center for Integrated Waste Management.