Kendall Yards team receives national honors
Only a month after cleanup was completed at a 78-acre former railway maintenance complex in downtown Spokane, the Kendall Yards team is to be awarded an EPA 2006 Brownfields Team of the Year Notable Achievement Award.*
The Spokane project, which took only 12 months to complete, is a model for brownfield projects throughout the nation, says Robin Toth, director of funding and community property for the Spokane Area Economic Development Council. “It takes a barren piece of land that sat there for 60 years and really puts a crown on it,” she says.
On March 28, state and local representatives and project officials will gather at the site to celebrate its success. The Department of Ecology, which oversees cleanup operations, has issued a letter stating no further action is needed on the property.
“We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is a shining example of what can happen when public agencies and the private sector work cooperatively,” says Flora Goldstein of the Department of Ecology’s toxics cleanup program. “Now a once-polluted piece of ground is ready to be redeveloped, adding new jobs and a larger tax base to the economy.”
The former rail yard, known previously as the Summit Property, was operated by Union Pacific Railroad from 1914 to 1955. Cleanup removed more than 200,000 tons of soil polluted with petroleum and metals. Although the petroleum contamination, at a depth of 30 feet, could have been left in place with fencing and deed restrictions, the developer removed as much of it as possible to allow for unrestricted use of the land.
The project was paid for in part by a $2.4 million brownfields loan from the Washington State Department of Community Trade and Economic Development’s (CTED) brownfields revolving loan fund. It is the largest such loan issued in the nation.
Stretching along the north bank of the Spokane River and connecting with downtown at the Monroe Street Bridge, the property now rests on prime real estate. Its developer, Marshall Chesrown of Black Rock Development in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, hasn’t released final plans for the project. However, preliminary plans include up to 2,600 residential units and 1 million square feet of commercial space. Planned is a mixed-use development with condos and townhouses, as well as retail, plaza and community space. (Read more about the project at www.kendallyards.com.)
Kendall Yards is expected to have a major impact on Spokane’s downtown area and throughout the city. An estimated 500 jobs will be created during the construction phase alone. Up to 2,500 permanent jobs could be created when the commercial space is finished, according to statistics from CTED. CTED estimates the redevelopment will return more than $32 million to the state and local government during construction.
The project is in one of the lowest income areas not only in Spokane but in Spokane County, Toth says. Its economic impact will manifest in many ways. This project will increase property values, provide valuable jobs and–with the city’s popular Centennial Trail running through it–serve as a gateway into the surrounding community, she says.
“The Kendall Yards redevelopment will create significant economic return in our community,” agrees Jon Eliassen, president and CEO of the economic development council. “The projected long-term economic return is astounding: more than $2 billion.”
A team of state and local agencies and the developer were able to move through the project’s planning and cleanup in one year. From the start, Chesrown believed he had an obligation to the community and wanted to move quickly, according to Toth. That land sat mostly idle for 20 years under the previous owner; Chesrown wasn’t going to let this happen again, she says.
The project is an example for property owners everywhere who may be faced with possible contamination on their land, Toth says. “It convinces other property owners the brownfields program is a viable, successful program to be involved in.”
*Although this is an “internal” EPA award for employees, the team in this case was far more than EPA. So EPA extended the award to all of the federal, state, local economic development and city staff, along with the private contractors GeoEngineers, Inc and Envirocon, Inc. This team shepherded the project through the permitting, environmental planning and cleanup process in 12 months, much less than time than a project this size would normally require.
