Brownfield redevelopment is happening all around.
Check out what’s (re)new(ed) in your neck of the woods.

Forgotten Industrial Sites Go High Tech
An old steel plant becomes a new ally in biotechnology.

In September, a host of scientists, students and officials from all levels of government gathered to celebrate the opening of Gateway Park, a new life sciences and bioengineering center in Worcester, Mass. The center, part of a $75 million project headed by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the Worcester Business Development Corporation (WBDC), is the first step in Worcester’s transformation from a sleepy postindustrial town to one of the new, emerging biotech hotspots.

Lear Headquarters Drives Business Revitalization
How one firm’s growth has changed a community for the better.

The $70 million expansion of automotive supplier Lear Corporation’s corporate headquarters and technical center on Telegraph Road in Southfield, Mich., is a brownfield redevelopment that has sparked the revitalization of a busy indus-trial corridor and greatly enhanced its appearance. And it showcases Michigan as the state that pioneered brownfield incentives early in the 1990s by guaranteeing exemption from legal liability to developers of previously contaminated properties.

Mending Mines for Sustainable Living
How an old mine was transformed into a beautiful park.

Dos Lagos, in Corona, Calif., is a 543-acre, highly integrated, pedestrian-oriented community that blends a variety of land uses in a dynamic and self-sustaining environment. The Dos Lagos master developer, SE Corp., planned the mixed-use community to reclaim the former Owens Illinois silica and sand mining site.

Active mining of the site from 1940 to 1973, and its abandonment one year prior to federal adoption of the Mining and Reclamation Act, resulted in a grossly disturbed site with cuts, alterations and significantly altered original topography throughout. Years of excessive and illegal dumping resulted in further degradation and blight. Public hazards included trespassing, and annual flooding conditions and road closures from sedimentation.