Berlin Gets Second Brownfield Grant

has won a second Brownfields grant to help clean up an industrial site on Farmington Avenue, Mayor Adam Salina has announced.

The town was notified Wednesday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of the $382,500 Municipal Brownfield program grant for the 889 Farmington Avenue project.

“The Municipal Brownfield grant is the second grant awarded to the Town for this project in the last 6 months. The first grant of $500,000 from the Regional Brownfield program was announced in November.

The $882,500 will fully fund the projected cost of building hazardous material abatement, building demolition and site remediation projected by the Town’s consultants,” Salina said in a press release. “The plan is that once remediation is underway, the Town will issue a request for developer proposals for private redevelopment of the site as a TOD (Transit Oriented Development Project).

The former industrial site is comprised of 1.65 acres with two buildings, one a 19,686-square-foot building constructed in 1922, and a 5,376-square-foot building constructed in 1940. The site is owned by the town and has been vacant since Berlin took title of it by foreclosure in September of 2009. The town foreclosed because the prior owner did not pay its taxes for many years and it operated the property in an environmentally irresponsible manner, including non-compliance with state clean up orders, Salina said.

Berlin officials had been concerned about the condition of the property and the non-payment of taxes for many years and in 2005 it approached the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development and the Department of Environmental Protection for assistance in undertaking an environmental site assessment for the property.

Since acquiring the site, the town has undertaken environmental assessments and hired an engineering firm, which prepared a Remedial Action Plan for the site in 2011.

“The site,” Salina said, “is in a prominent location on the Town’s main local commercial corridor and only 50 feet from the site of the Berlin Train Station. The redevelopment of this site is part of the Town’s four-part plan for revitalization of the Train Station Core area.

"The other projects in the four part plan are; the renovation of the train station and existing parking lot (90% design plans are complete for this project), the expansion of the Train Station parking lot that is planned as part of the New Haven to Springfield commuter and intercity rail project, and the redevelopment of 903 and 913 Farmington Avenue as a new Police Station.”