Brownfields Redevelopment

/Overview

Our team helps clients navigate the complex and multi-stakeholder brownfields process practically and efficiently to achieve their redevelopment objectives.

We have attained remarkable success in brownfield redevelopment projects on land previously considered too polluted for profitable use—helping to secure some of the first brownfield tax credits ever awarded, underscoring our work in brownfields redevelopment. With experience in both the real estate and environmental industries, we are fully equipped to help private developers and public entity clients achieve their development goals and avoid any potential pitfalls.

With respect to site remediation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), we’ve proudly served as the lead project firm for hundreds of client-owned, multi-party regional, state, and federal hazardous waste, brownfields, voluntary cleanup, or Superfund sites throughout the country. Our representation involves all aspects of the transaction—from pre-acquisition due diligence and land use planning to environmental quality review, remediation, and wetland disturbance.

We can help you achieve your goals and capitalize on the full potential of your projects.

/Representative experience

• Medical school redevelopment. Represent a health sciences educational organization and assist in the redevelopment of a donated former ~150-acre lumber yard into a medical school campus, including interfacing with environmental consultants on comprehensive investigations and remedial activities from historic operations and negotiations with Oregon state regulators in obtaining client liability protections for beneficial redevelopment.
• Environmental liability transfer. Represented a spin-off entity in its successful remediation and regulatory closure of a PCB-release across multiple residential and commercial properties.
• Environmental compliance during construction. Represented the financial party and supported the developer in engaging a consultant, securing regulatory oversight, and managing the investigation, remediation, and closure of a previously unknown leaking underground storage tank discovered during construction of a hospital in California. 
• Brownfield redevelopment for housing. Supported developers in engaging consultants and, where needed, regulatory oversight for investigation, remediation, and redevelopment of former commercial and industrial sites into multi-family and affordable housing across the San Francisco Bay Area. Negotiated consent orders, California Land Reuse and Revitalization Act Agreements, and voluntary cleanup agreements, while securing liability protections through direct coordination with state and local agencies.
• Special needs housing development. Facilitated regulatory compliance, remedial activities, and Regional Water Board approvals for the conversion of a former industrial site into housing for adults with special needs.
• Mixed-use redevelopment and litigation. Represented a commercial developer in the transformation of a former dry-cleaning site into a mixed-use residential and commercial property, handling both regulatory compliance and remediation, and serving as plaintiff’s counsel in litigation against the former operator, resulting in a seven-figure settlement.
• Brownfields Redevelopment. Represent project developer in connection with hazardous waste remediation pursuant to New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program for 23-acre redevelopment of former industrial property into multi-use facility, including professional league soccer stadium, affordable housing development, public school, and public park.

/Recognition

• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 National firm for Environmental Law in the 2024 edition of Best Law Firms®.