A vacant, contaminated factory site in Rochester will be returned to productive use with help from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). The redevelopment will address the city's largest vacant property by creating a walkable east-west corridor, connecting an underutilized area with both Main Street and Paint Creek.
A brownfield grant of $1,000,000 and a loan $1,000,000 was awarded to the city of Rochester to address environmental contamination at the former ITT Automotive, located on Third Street. The funds will help efforts to mitigate soil and groundwater contamination.
Following the cleanup, Frank Rewold and Son will develop a multi-story commercial/office building, parking, and community park on the property. The office building will serve as Frank Rewold and Son's new headquarters. The family-owned construction services company expects to create 150 to 300 new jobs in downtown Rochester.
The MDEQ's Brownfield Redevelopment Program provides grants and loans to local governments for environmental activities on brownfield properties where redevelopment is proposed. Brownfields are vacant or abandoned properties with known or suspected environmental contamination.
The MDEQ's grants and loans have resulted in over $4 billion in private investment and nearly 29,000 new jobs over the life of the Brownfield Redevelopment Program. For each dollar invested in environmental cleanup by the MDEQ, an average of $23 is invested in the state's economy. When brownfields are redeveloped, property values increase both on the cleaned-up site and on other nearby properties, creating new tax revenues for communities.
Published: Thu, Aug 10, 2017
