Brownfields Success Stories

The following success stories illustrate sites at which private and public development projects were cleaned up and (re)developed in partnership with the Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup Program (VIC) and Petroleum Brownfields Program (PBP). The MPCA VIC and PBP staff work with voluntary parties by reviewing and approving cleanup plans to be compatible with planned developments, and provide liability assurances so that impacted properties can be safely developed and returned to beneficial use in Minnesota.

Since its inception in 1988, the VIC Program has provided assistance to more than 2,500 voluntary parties on over 3,000 properties. PBP was established in 1992 and has worked with voluntary parties on more than 2,800 properties.

Success Stories

• U of M Amplatz Children’s Hospital — Fairview Riverside Hospital Expansion (c-brwnfld2-31) — A blighted property was cleaned up and became the site of a colorful children's hospital.
  
• Acme Tag and Label site (c-brwnfld2-30) — The site of a former printing facility in Minneapolis' trendy Uptown neighborhood was cleaned up and then redeveloped into luxury apartments.
• Two Marketpointe Site (c-brwnfld2-28) — The office building at this redeveloped site in Bloomington meets the LEED gold standard levels. The project also created about 50 new jobs.
  
• Uptown Bar and Grill Site (c-brwnfld2-27) — A music hotspot makes way for a business that helps share music in a new way.
• 825 Glenwood Avenue site (c-brwnfld2-26) — This former warehouse site now helps personalize your home.
• Guthrie Theater Auxiliary site (c-brwnfld2-25)  — Located along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, this redeveloped site provides parking for a world-famous theater and a home for the American Academy of Neurology.
• Solhaus site (c-brwnfld2-23) — A tank farm site near TCF Stadium is cleaned up to make way for student housing
• Martin Luther Care Center (c-brwnld2-24) —  Impacted debris removed from Minnesota River bluffs
• Atlas Cement Plant #4 (c-brwnfld2-22)  — Cleaning up 11 acres of a former cement plant site cleared the way for an Ikonics expansion that employs 17 and will pay $119,638 in property taxes in 2012.
• Sanford Center (c-brwnfld2-21)  — Redevelopment of a 90-acre site in Bemidji.
• Renaissance Box (c-brwnfld2-17)  — A vacant shoe factory in Lowertown becomes an energy-efficient, tax-paying property with 70 apartments.
• Merchants Bank (c-brwnfld2-14) — A site that once housed a dry cleaner is cleaned up and becomes the home of a bank.
• Xcel High Bridge (c-brwnfld2-12) — This site had been used for some sort of energy production since 1918.
• Whittier Clinic, Hennepin Healthcare System Addition (c-brwnfld2-13) — On Eat Street a new state of the art clinic provides health care to south Minneapolis residents.
• Minnesota Twins Ballpark (c-brwnfld2-11) — Baseball was meant to be played outdoors and it is at the New Target Field.
• Data Sciences International Inc. and Shavlik Technologies LLC (c-brwnfld2-10)  — A former rendering plant serves a changing technological world.
• Austin Gas Manufacturing Site (c-brwnfld2-09)  — Redevelopment of a former coal gasification plant in Austin, Minn.
• Minnesota BioBusiness Center (c-brwnfld2-08)  — The site of a former laundry and dry-cleaning operation in Rochester, Minn., is redeveloped to become a 124,000-square-foot office space for research and development businesses.
• Lumen Building (c-brwnfld2-07)  — The battery lead is gone but Lumen shines brightly in Uptown
• Urban Ventures Cristo Ray (c-brwnfld2-06)  — We can learn and be successful in the footsteps of the Jesuits and Colin Powell.
• Ripley Gardens (c-brwnfld2-05)  — Dr. Ripley takes on some new boarders in Minneapolis (c-brwnfld2-05)
• Clyde Iron Works cleanup project (c-brwnfld2-04)  — An old manufacturing plant becomes the Duluth Heritage Sports Center.
• Coloplast Corporation (c-brwnfld2-03) — An old sawmill site becomes a headquarters building along the Mississippi River.
• Van Cleve Court site (c-brwnfld2-02)  — An old grain elevator becomes multi-family residential housing.
• Bass Lake Dump (c-brwnfld2-01)  — Redevelopment of an old ash dump.

Minnesota Targeted Brownfields Assessment Program — Success Stories

The MPCA VIC Unit administers the Minnesota Targeted Brownfields Assistance Program (MNTBAP) using section 128(a) (EPA Superfund) funding that is provided to the MPCA by Region V EPA.  Under the MNTBAP, the MPCA can provide assistance to community-based projects that require assessment of brownfield properties.

The MPCA hires contractors to perform assessments including Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments and Response Action Plans at no cost to the participating communities.  The following stories describe how MNTBAP has provided assessment assistance for Brownfield projects in Minnesota.

• Van Hoven/Armour Rendering Site (c-brwnfld2-29) — Contaminated soil and burned debris were removed from this 4.6 acre property in the meat-processing district near the former stokyards in South St. Paul to prepare it for redevelopment.
• Arcola Mills Historic Foundation (c-brwnfld2-20)  — The 54-acre property was first developed in the 1840s as a sawmill village and is now a retreat facility for business and community groups.
• B. F. Nelson (c-brwnfld2-19)  — A former industsrial site now a 12-acre park located along the east bank of the Mississippi.
• Seminary Fen (c-brwnfld2-18)  — The Seminary Fen Scientific and Natrual Area contains one of the rarest types of wetlands in the U.S.
• Barker's Alps Park (c-brwnfld2-16)  — The Alps in your own backyard.
• Tracy Minnesota Lead Site (c-brwnfld2-15)

Search for VIC and PBP sites through the MPCA's What's in My Neighborhood page.