Funding for Massachusetts Site

The Plymouth Redevelopment Authority (PRA) will use loan proceeds — $500,000 from the MassDevelopment Brownfields Redevelopment Fund and $630,000 from co-lender Sovereign Bank — to remediate the Revere Copper & Brass site, a long-blighted 72,420 square foot parcel of land. Remediation began this spring. 

In 1850, the land was home to Edes Manufacturing Co., a producer of zinc, copper and magnesium products. In 1968, Revere Copper & Brass — the modern incarnation of Paul Revere’s historic copper business — purchased the land for a manufacturing plant. The plant eventually closed in 1989, and the building was used for storage until early 1999.

In late 1999, the Plymouth Redevelopment Authority (PRA) undertook negotiations to purchase the site and perform environmental remediation work using brownfield funding. The PRA made the project a top priority given its high profile location as the last underdeveloped parcel in the Plymouth Waterfront District.

“The South Shore is one of the fastest growing communities in Massachusetts,” said Pat Sullivan, Massachusetts CEO for Sovereign Bank.

A critical component of the redevelopment agreement and brownfield financing was a covenant not to sue, secured by the PRA from Attorney General Thomas Reilly and the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  The covenant relieves the land’s current and future owners of all liability relating to past environmental contamination and enables the PRA to fast-track its remediation effort.

Soon after finalizing remediation financing, the PRA entered into a purchase and sale agreement with developer Karsten Co. of South Weymouth for $2 million. Karsten is planning a village-style development for the site, including 30 townhouse-style residential condominiums.  BFN