News What Can You Build on a Brownfield Site?

Because Brownfields pose real or perceived environmental risks from contamination, it is reasonable to assume these risks would limit how the property can be redeveloped. Fortunately, the Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program, the Brownfields Redevelopment Section, and similar programs provide an avenue to safely recycle these properties back into productive use. The specific use will depend on site location, community need, level of risk managed, and cleanup achieved. Through these programs, property owners can assess, remediate, and reuse these properties for almost any type of development.

Industrial Development

Many Brownfields in North Carolina and the United States at large are former industrial sites: farms, factories, mines, mills, and power plants that are underused, vacant, or abandoned. Once contamination has been addressed to sufficiently reduce risk for the intended reuse, a remediated Brownfield site is a logical choice for an industrial project, because the site’s infrastructure and zoning already suit industrial needs.

Turkey Creek Ready Mix Concrete Plant is an example of how to successfully convert a property from one industrial use to another. Because the site had previously operated as a chicken processing plant, the new owner was concerned that the site may be contaminated with any of the many cleaners and sanitizers involved in handling raw poultry.

A Brownfields investigation revealed that there was no soil contamination, which allowed the developer to use cut-and-fill to re-grade the site; cut-and-fill is much more cost effective than trucking in clean soil.

One building needed to be demolished, but another building could be repurposed. Wherever possible, WithersRavenel designed the new concrete plant to reuse the existing water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure. Additional stormwater capacity was required, so a supplementary dry detention pond was constructed. On-site parking was reconfigured to add capacity and meet the client’s goal of not having unused space on the site.

Commercial Development

Some Brownfields result from former commercial uses rather than industrial operations. Gas stations, dry cleaners, and automotive repair shops are common examples because the storage and handling of fuels, solvents, and other hazardous materials can leave environmental contamination behind.

Developing a former commercial property for a new commercial use provides the same benefits as developing a former industrial property for a new industrial use: the desired infrastructure is largely in place already. But it’s not necessary to stick to a single use for a site, and it’s also possible to convert industrial sites into commercial ones.

Take the Riverbulk Terminal in Edenton, NC, for example. The location had once been home to a plant that dyed and finished textiles. Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments revealed contamination caused by heating oils and wastewater. Stevens Towing Company (now Riverbulk Transportation, LLC), however, saw potential in the Albemarle Sound location.

WithersRavenel successfully navigated the North Carolina Brownfields program Redevelopment Now process, which enabled Riverbulk Transportation to convert the property to a barge terminal with wet and dry dock storage and maintenance along with warehouse and manufacturing facilities. The barge terminal and haul out has a specially designed industrial wastewater storage and disposal area to capture paints and metals generated from maintaining and power washing the company’s barge fleet.

Riverbulk Transportation has created about 40 jobs in Chowan County with the potential for 75–100 new jobs as manufacturers in the boat building industry expand their operations. Riverbulk Transportation serves regional, national, and international clients, including a leading raw materials recycler.

Mixed-Use Development

Converting a Brownfields site to something other than a strictly industrial or heavy commercial use may raise a few eyebrows from those who aren’t familiar with the process. Questions about health and safety understandably arise. People may assume some level of environmental risk is unavoidable in agriculture or manufacturing, but they would not be eager to shop, learn, or live in a place where the air, water, or soil may be contaminated.

The good news is that federal and state Brownfields efforts are specifically designed to clean up sites through remediation and/or engineering controls, so the site is suitable for the intended redevelopment uses. Environmental remediation is not a one-size-fits-all process: different intended uses require different cleanup activities.

The Vega in downtown Durham, NC, showcases how a site with a checkered history can become a safe and attractive mixed-use development. Between 1937 and 2020, the property was occupied by auto repair shops, mill shops, roofing companies, beverage distributors, car rental businesses, taxi companies, used car dealers, and metal fabricators. This dizzying array of uses had left behind an equally varied list of environmental concerns.

The developer could have simply continued this tradition of commercial uses. But proximity to Durham Central Park, the Durham Farmer’s Market, Downtown Durham YMCA, and a food court meant the property would achieve a higher and better use as a mixed-use development that incorporates ground-floor retail and mid-rise apartments.

With the help of WithersRavenel and the Brownfields program, the developer was able to address the contamination by removing and properly disposing of affected soil and installing a Vapor Intrusion Mitigation System (VIMS). A VIMS creates a buffer area between contaminated soil and building foundations. This buffer area blocks contaminated soil vapor from entering the building interior and redirects any vapors out and away from the building using specialized piping and fans.

Learn More about Vapor Intrusion & Mitigation

Air quality testing at The Vega has shown that the VIMS is working as designed to reduce volatile organic compounds and other contaminants to safe concentrations. Residents and visitors have peace of mind knowing they are not facing risks from short- or long-term contaminant exposure.

Residential Development

As with industrial and commercial projects, reusing a residential Brownfield as a new residential site offers efficiencies in zoning and infrastructure. But because the Brownfields program has comprehensive guidelines for ensuring every site can be made safe for its intended use, it is also possible—and sometimes even desirable—to convert an industrial or commercial site to a residential one.

Trilogy Cameron Village and The Grove at Fallon Park are two examples of residential projects that took advantage of prime urban real estate and elevated it through Brownfields redevelopment. In the case of Trilogy, the nearby Village District shopping and dining plaza made the former commercial site the perfect location for a three-story luxury apartment building. For The Grove at Fallon Park, which sits inside one of Raleigh’s historic districts, it made more sense to convert the former bus fueling and maintenance station into a townhome neighborhood than into another civic property.

The Grove at Fallon Park exceeded the requirements of its Brownfields Agreement by including an innovative CUPOLEX® system for soil vapor mitigation.

The bottom line

Brownfields pose challenges that do not exist at Greenfields; however, these challenges are surmountable. By working with the Brownfields Redevelopment Section and similar programs, property owners can redevelop blighted properties into industrial, commercial, mixed-use, and residential developments.