On May 25 Tony Riccio Jr., Senior Vice President of the Galesi Group, will be presented with the 2011 Big Apple Brownfields Award in Economic Development. The award will be in honor of his work with Harlem River Yards Ventures and their efforts over the past two decades to clean up and develop the formerly hazardous unused land in the Port Morris section of the Bronx.

 Prior to transforming into the Harlem River Yard Transportation & Distribution Center, the 96 acre site was the abandoned Penn Central Railyard. Harlem River Yards Ventures carried out all remediation procedures and faced the challenge of cleaning up contaminants that included abandoned underground tanks, lead and other metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons related to coal and ash, and asbestos.  The entire site was covered with fill or topsoil, and the new Harlem River Yard Intermodal Transportation and Distribution Center was built on top.

 The development at this former Brownfield has resulted in creating an additional 700 jobs and a key railroad infrastructure that serves the NY Post, FedEx, and the City by providing a truck-to-rail waste transfer facility.

 To date the economic impact of the development has been substantial, including:

•  The development by the NY Post of a $300,000,000 color printing facility on 16 acres creating 400 jobs which utilizes rail for delivery of newsprint.

• The development by Waste Management of 13 acre $75,000,000 solid waste transfer facility creating 50 jobs which utilizes rail for shipment of solid waste to out of state landfill facilities.

•  The recent opened $50,000,000 10 acre Federal Express distribution facility which has created 274 new jobs and utilizes rail for movement of packages to the facility for distribution center.

• The reserve of 28 acres of land for future development of a full Trailer To Flatcar Facility (TOFC) intended to ship produce from Washington State and California to the Hunts Point Produce Terminal.

• Approximately 12.6 acres remain for future development.
  

The NYC Brownfield Partnership will host its third annual Big Apple Brownfield Awards Ceremony at the NYU School of Law.  The partnership will recognize five of New York City’s most outstanding brownfield redevelopment projects. To see all of the 2011 NYC Brownfield Aware Recipients click here: www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/oer/html/community/2011_awards_recip.shtml

We are excited to announce that we are making progress at the redevelopment project at the former American Locomotive Co. (ALCO) site.

In mid-November, the Galesi Group commenced demolition of the deteriorating industrial buildings and warehouses and have since removed two additional buildings from the site. We anticipate that the demolition will be compete by mid Spring, however this is just our first hurdle in this complex project. Our next step is Phase II, which will require an extensive environmental clean up and removal of contaminated soil and groundwater.

Fortunately the Galesi Group has had years of experience in redeveloping brownfield sites.

Since 1985, the Galesi Group has been actively developing brownfield projects including former military facilities as well as inner city sites. Most recently, we were acknowledged for the environmental clean up of nine acres of land at the former Big N site. Over 10,000 tons of dirt and more than 400,000 gallons of contaminated water were processed in order to begin redeveloping at this brownfield site. The once contaminated manufacturing site resulted in the construction of the $30 million Golub Headquarters and the largest private-sector structure in the Capital Region to receive gold verification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System.

Similar to the polluted industrial site at the former Big N, the ALCO site was an abandoned industrial property with environmental contamination that has remained onsite since World War II, when thousands of steam and diesel locomotives were being manufactured.

The overall goal of the ALCO redevelopment project is to turn the site’s contaminated land into a regional economic development project that will complement the City of Schenectady recent developments.

During this initial development design, we are reaching out to the area business leaders to seek their input on the types of amenities will help attract and retain their business and their employees in the City of Schenectady. This information will be vital in determining the direction of this project along the one-mile stretch of riverfront.