This coming September on the 11th and 12th, the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation (BERC) will be helping to host a conference at the Adam’s Mark hotel. The National Brownfields Association (NBA) has chosen Buffalo for their 2008 Fall Regional Conference. The reason Buffalo was chosen is it has become a leader in brownfield remediation.
According to Brian Reilly, Chief Economic Development Officer for the City of Buffalo, a brownfield is any property that has contamination or suspected contamination from past uses, mostly coming from industrial waste before there were regulations. The City of Buffalo is working with BERC, the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation and the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to remediate these properties and to host the NBA.
Reilly says, “Sometimes people are afraid to test because they are afraid of all the possible contamination.” This is when the city comes in to do the testing and clean up the contamination of these brownfield properties so they can be redeveloped.
“A conference like this brings together all the local agencies that handle this stuff, including state and government. We have one of the most aggressive brownfield remediation processes in the Great Lakes cities. We are definitely one of the largest. For a conference to choose Buffalo will give us a chance to have other municipalities see what we’ve done,” says Reilly.
Recently, the City of Buffalo increased their inventory of remediated brownfields by purchasing a property in South Buffalo called “Steelfields.” Steelfields brings their property total to 410 shovel ready acres of former brownfields. Steelfields cost $4,638,250 and was purchased through the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation. The property is 185 acres of prime industrial/commercial land.
Reilly says the best part about these properties is “You’re reusing that infrastructure. All of these things would be very expensive to recreate.” Steelfields is adjacent to Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, which has itself 225 acres of developable land. Reilly says, “If you want to be a forward looking company…these properties are attractive. We’re trying to do better than development is used to.”
The Steelfields site is home to HydroAir Components Inc. The company opened in January 2007 and has invested $8.5 million in their new 160,000 square foot manufacturing facility on a 31-acre parcel. They already employ 114 people and are expected to create an additional 200 jobs.
Thanks to the newly acquired property of Steelfields, Buffalo will have even more to show off when the NBA comes to town this September. It now possesses more former brownfields than Milwaukee, Toledo, Erie, or Cleveland.