Since 1994 the City has successfully initiated the clean-up of hundreds of sites, resulting in private investment in excess of $1 billion. Many of the sites were located in former rail yards; others are former gas stations or converted industrial buildings.
The majority of the remediated sites in the early program years were redeveloped for light industrial use, as it is typically less expensive to clean sites to industrial standards than to residential standards. However, increasing numbers of brownfield sites are being redeveloped for mixed-use or residential development after remediation. Doing so is relatively expensive, which makes the availability of grant funds even more critical to a project’s success.