Date: April 6, 2006
Source: Business Wire
The U.S. EPA announced that the Kendall Yards environmental project team has been selected to receive the national 2006 Outstanding Brownfields Team Award on April 19 in Washington, D.C. These awards recognize excellence in regional waste management and emergency response programs.
The Kendall Yards property sits just north of downtown Spokane and borders the Spokane River. The 77-acre riverfront property was used as a former Union Pacific railyard site, and was ranked the lowest for contamination by the state Department of Ecology.
The site will be transformed by developer Marshall Chesrown into a $1 billion pedestrian neighborhood containing 2,600 residential units, and 1 million square feet of commercial and office space. Housing units will vary from $150,000 to $2 million. Nearly 500 construction jobs will be created during the redevelopment phase, which has an estimated economic impact in excess of $3 billion.
"The Kendall Yards team is a great example of an effective public-private partnership," said Governor Christine Gregoire. "First the completion of the contamination cleanup and now national recognition -- I have been following the progress of the Kendall Yards project and I am very proud of the work they have done."
"There is one Brownfields team award for the country," explained Anne McCauley, USEPA Region 10 Project Officer for the Brownfields program, which is managed through the state's Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. "This award is designed to honor the Brownfields project team that most effectively works collaboratively to remove barriers to Brownfields property reuse."
The project team included staff from the EPA Region 10; Washington's CTED as project manager; Ecology as environmental site manager; the City of Spokane brownfields assessment program and the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, who was key to local coordination.
Spokane Area Economic Development Council President Jon Eliassen was thrilled. "This project holds such a tremendous opportunity for the City of Spokane -- not just economically, but by putting people back downtown to live and work. It creates a thriving, prosperous spirit for the whole area. We were happy to participate with state and federal agencies."
Named in the award are Tim Brincefield, Deborah Burgess, Cyndy Mackey and Anne McCauley (USEPA); Sharon Kophs, Tom Stilz, Steve Saylor, and Jim Keogh (CTED); Sandra Treccani and Katherine Scott (Ecology); and Robin Toth (Spokane Area EDC). Kophs and Toth were instrumental in initiating the project and moving it through the various phases by working closely with Ecology, the property owner and the construction team.
The project was completed in only 12 months through the tremendous effort of the geotechnical firm of GeoEngineers, Inc of Spokane, and Envirocon, Inc. of Missoula, MT, the construction manager and operator.
For more information please visit www.cted.wa.gov, www.kendallyards.com, or the Spokane Area EDC at www.spokaneedc.org.
For more information: www.kendallyards.com.
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