PILOT SNAPSHOT
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Date of Announcement:
May 25, 1999
Amount: $500,000
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BCRLF Target Area: 3,000 brownfield sites throughout
the City, focusing on the major distressed business
corridors radiating from the center city and the neighborhoods
they serve.
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BACKGROUND
The City of Charlotte has population of 128,232, a quarter
of which lives below the poverty line (compared with 13 percent
for the entire County). The City has over 3,000 brownfield
sites, representing more than $2 billion in taxable value,
where potential contamination hinders redevelopment efforts.
The focus of Charlotte's BCRLF is the major distressed business
corridors radiating from the center city and the neighborhoods
they serve. These corridors are currently the target of several
revitalization efforts, including Federal Empowerment Communities,
the Brownfields Assessment Pilot, State Development Zones,
Charlotte's City Within a City (CWAC) program, the Business
Corridor Revitalization Program, and Business Investment Zones.
BCRLF OBJECTIVES
Capitalization of the BCRLF program will help advance Charlotte's
goal of revitalizing distressed business districts by providing
low interest loans for environmental cleanups. Charlotte's
BCRLF will add cleanup funds to the City's inventory of tools
to bring businesses and investment partners to brownfields
properties. The BCRLF program also will enable the City to
act as a needed link between developers of brownfield sites
and lenders. The BCRLF's focus is the cleanup and revitalization
of major business corridors in the center city.
FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS
The City's Neighborhoods Development Key Business, part of
the City's Employment and Business Services Division, will
serve as lead agency and, in conjunction with the Finance
Department, also as fund manager. The City is exploring several
options for site manager: the North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources; the US Army Corps of Engineers;
and the Mecklenburg County Environmental Protection Department.
BCRLF projects must have approval for permanent financing
with a bank's loan contingent upon the City's cleanup loan
and loan repayment must occur as part of a bank's permanent
financing, enabling the BCRLF to recycle funds quickly. The
average loan term will not exceed three years; principal and
interest payments will be deferred during cleanup and construction.
LEVERAGING
The BCRLF program has been designed to facilitate private investment.
Using the BCRLF award funds to finance loans for cleanup, lender
risk and uncertainty is reduced, permitting banks to commit permanent
financing to projects contingent on site cleanup. The loans made
through the BCRLF program also may leverage incentives available
through multiple Federal, state, and local programs. In-kind contributions
include those from the Neighborhood Development Key Business Department,
Finance Department, and City engineering staff as well as services
from the City's in-house television station and graphic artists
for marketing and outreach efforts. In addition, in instances
where a project will not initially support repayment of both the
project development debt and the cleanup cost, the City will use
its existing small business revolving loan program to provide
additional equity funds required by a lender to qualify for the
bank's permanent loans.
Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA,
and all CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF
funds.
CONTACTS
City of Charlotte, Employment and Business Services Division,
Neighborhood Development Key Business
(704) 336-4522
Region 4 Brownfields Coordinator
(404) 562-8661
Visit the EPA Region 4 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/
For further information, including specific Pilot contacts, additional
Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications
and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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