The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, a major redevelopment project expected to create thousands of jobs, has qualified for Brownfield Action Team (BAT) assistance to hasten the continued cleanup and redevelopment of this South Philadelphia property.

“Time is money,” Secretary McGinty said in announcing Pennsylvania’s seventh BAT project. “This is another example where the administration’s enhanced management approach is speeding up the return of unused industrial sites to productive use.”

The Navy decommissioned the Philadelphia Naval Yard in 1996, transferring ownership and redevelopment responsibility for approximately 1,000 acres to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development. Currently, 48 private companies employing nearly 2,500 people operate at the Naval Business Center. More than 18,000 employees are expected to work on site when the cleanup and redevelopment projects are complete.

Heavy industry, in the form of commercial shipbuilding and repair, is part of current use on the property. Top-grade office space also is in use, with more space available. Other planned future uses include a research park containing office, laboratory, research and development production facilities and loft apartments.
BAT is an enhanced management approach that creates a one-stop shop with a single point of contact for all agency communication, streamlining redevelopment efforts and helping restore sites to productive use more quickly. BAT marks a distinct transformation in management style that accelerates brownfield redevelopment, making the process easier and more attractive to businesses looking at places to locate.
Other BAT applications recently approved include:

• The redevelopment of several properties in historic downtown Gettysburg: Plans include restoring historic structures, demolishing dilapidated buildings and using the space for tourism-related commerce, greenway areas for the enjoyment of local citizens and tourists and building a transportation and tourist welcome center, office space and upscale multi-family housing.
• Further environmental assessment on a 25-acre parcel in Sayre that formerly housed a locomotive and railcar shop: The property owner has agreed to donate the site to the Central Bradford Progress Authority, which has applied for a federal brownfield grant from the U.S. EPA to fund additional studies.
• The International Boiler Works rehabilitation project in East Stroudsburg: The Monroe County Industrial Development Authority plans to conduct an environmental assessment, with an eye toward eventual building demolition and site preparation for new businesses.
• The Chester County Public Safety Training Facility project in South Coatesville Borough and East Fallowfield Township: County officials want to construct a training facility to serve police, fire and emergency medical services on a 120-acre site formerly used for storage and disposal of steel industry waste.
  

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