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Brownfields Grant awarded to City of Englewood, CO

Release Date: 4/12/2000
Contact Information:
(303) 312-6803,

Release Date: 4/12/2000
Contact Information:
(303) 312-6626,

Release Date: 4/12/2000
Contact Information:
(303) 312-6602

DENVER -- The City of Englewood today received an additional $150,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to support its “Brownfields” redevelopment work along the Santa Fe/Platte River corridor. The project is one of 56 “pilots” nationally to receive the added funds.

Brownfields are idled, abandoned, or under-used industrial and commercial properties where redevelopment is complicated by possible environmental contamination and uncertainties about liability and cleanup costs.

In its history, Englewood was home to many heavy manufacturing industries. Several older facilities have become obsolete, and residents near these sites suffer the impacts. In many cases, potential environmental liability has kept businesses from buying and redeveloping these properties.

Englewood will focus on redeveloping the Santa Fe/Platte River area, considered a vital component to regional transportation and economic growth.

With its initial $200,000 grant in 1997, the City performed environmental assessments on three sites. One site, the General Iron Works, a 280,000 square-foot former iron foundry, needs further assessment. Much of the new funding will go to land-use planning and community involvement in transportation, economic and environmental work along the corridor.

The Brownfields funds are used to bring together community groups, investors, lenders, developers, and other affected stakeholders to find ways to assess environmental problems at sites and leverage funding mechanisms to clean them up and return them to productive use. EPA has helped over 300 communities nationwide leverage more than $1.9 billion to clean up and redevelop such properties, fostering creation of nearly 6,000 jobs in the process.