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