Tacoma — Hosted by the Northwest Environmental Business Council (NEBC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE), the all-day conference held Oct. 14 hit the high notes with over 300 in attendance.

Session topics, led by state experts from both the private and public sectors, included: the financial side of sustainable development, managing a project, identifying redevelopment opportunities, assessing a project’s potential, regulatory issues, green remediation and development, and contamination-based site planning. One session looked at complex projects and how they were completed.

Its focus on the economic realities, creative partnerships between the public and private sectors, bringing together stakeholders, and financing strategies for brownfield redevelopment, particularly in this difficult and declining commercial real estate market, resonated with many attendees.

“The message was clear that the current decline in our State’s commercial real estate market is making it that much more difficult to develop a brownfield site,” remarked Layne Alfonso, Development Market Sector Leader for GeoEngineers, Inc., and a conference presenter.

“The continuing decline in real estate values, lease rates and the increase in commercial vacancy rates make it incredibly challenging — if not impossible — to secure sufficient financing to develop sites,” explained Alfonso, adding that “The only brownfield development that will happen today will require substantial cash equity or require a significant amount of public assistance through grants, low interest loans or Public-Private Partnerships with public investment in infrastructure and/or amenities.”

Panels comprised of multiple stakeholders in one place facilitated conversations between regulatory agencies, owners/developers, consulting engineers, land use and environmental attorneys and local governments discussing new ideas, innovation and improving how we can work together.

“It was obvious that in our current economic climate, brownfield redevelopment will be very complex and fiscally challenging, however, it was encouraging seeing that Ecology and EPA are recognizing these challenges and talking about providing new tools to assist,” said Alfonso.

“We need to continue working together to integrate cleanup with land-use planning,” said John Means, who leads Ecology’s brownfields work.

One consistent message throughout the conference was the need to streamline the decision making process and provide more certainty regarding DOE’s no further action (NFA) letters and long term liabilities. The issue of uncertainty will continue to make brownfield redevelopment risky and challenging, especially in a declining or stagnant economy where falling property values increased the inventory of clean sites.

“It was very interesting to learn of the Evergreen Initiative and partnership presented by DOE, City of Tacoma, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and the University of Washington regarding their new approach to area wide assessment and cleanup,” he added, “This really could be a tipping point for Washington State to become a leader in innovation and brownfield redevelopment.”

A highlight of this year’s conference was keynote speaker Charlie Bartsch, vice president of ICF International in Washington, D.C. Bartsch is a well-known national brownfields expert with extensive experience and knowledge of the program and its current obstacles.

He said that a move by the policymakers to increase brownfield funding assistance is critical as Washington State is lagging behind in innovation and opportunities for brownfield redevelopment though it is one of the only states in the Union with real Tax Increment Financing.

The Pre-Conference Funding Workshop held October 13 entitled “Funding Sustainable Communities: Financial Tools for Brownfield & Infill Development in the Northwest” provided useful information about strategies for brownfield redevelopment, including innovative financing models that may leverage multiple sources of funding.

Although NEBC never received a grant to supplement this conference, over 300 including representatives from local government and federal jurisdictions, private developers, non-profits, attorneys, consultants and others ponied up the registration fees to attend.

If you missed the conference, the session presentations are available for download. Also available are the presentations from the pre-conference workshop, Funding Sustainable Communities: Financial Tools for Brownfield & Infill Development in the Northwest. The link for the presentations is: www.nebc.org/content.aspx?pageid=53.

The NEBC engages in a range of activities and services designed to connect members to customers, regulators and legislators, knowledge, resources, and each other. For more information on future opportunities, call NEBC at: 800-985-6322 or contact Lauren Stolzman, NEBC’s Program Manager, at 206-232-0467 or email program manager Sue Moir at: sue [at] nebc [dot] org.