| In the 1970s, the growing concern with environmental quality in the United States placed undue headaches on redevelopment in urban areas, steering developers toward pristine areas (greenfields), suburban areas and industrial parks. In the 1980s, the attachment of liability for clean-up and unreasonably strict clean-up standards contributed substantially to the already strong distaste of real estate developers for brownfield sites. Moreover, lenders shared the concerns of developers regarding the possibility of being drawn into the liabilities, lawsuits, and responsibilities for clean-up expenses.; The objective of the present thesis is to provide the developer with a systematic process for identifying, assessing, evaluating, mitigating, managing and documenting risks that could jeopardize the success of the redevelopment project. This effort will also result in increased transparency of an often convoluted process. Additionally, it will be shown that brownfields redevelopment is not only beneficial for society, but also profitable for developers if the extent to which the Site is remediated is driven by its end-use.; End-use driven clean-up objectives provide the developer with flexibility in the extent of clean-up to be performed. This restricts the re-use of the site; however, it is sufficient to bring the site back into productive use by achieving a No Further Action Letter from the State regulatory agency. In the present thesis, a former gasoline station with recognized petroleum impacts to soil and groundwater is evaluated for three possible reuse options. |
