Brownfields Cleanup Revolving
Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet

Winston-Salem, NC

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT
Winston-Salem, NC	Date of Announcement: May 2000 Amount: $500,000
BCRLF Target Area: Enterprise Community

BACKGROUND

The City of Winston-Salem's economy is tightly tied to tobacco and textiles. In the 1980s, plant closures and company buyouts brought a series of economic setbacks to the City. As a result, inner-city business corridors and adjacent neighborhoods have been left with hundreds of vacant or underutilized properties. The City's economy is beginning to diversify, but is not growing as rapidly as the rest of Forsyth County, in part due to the perception of environmental contamination. One-third of the City's residents live below the poverty level. Winston-Salem's BCRLF will target the Enterprise Community portion of the City. Winston-Salem is a Brownfields Assessment Pilot.

BCRLF OBJECTIVES

Winston-Salem's brownfields redevelopment goal is to revitalize distressed business districts, especially those in the Enterprise Community. Winston-Salem's BCRLF intends to increase community involvement, return underutilized sites to productive use, increase employment and the tax base, reverse disinvestment in the inner-city, reduce the disparity between urban and suburban communities, and slow greenfields development. The City also has made the hiring of minorities and disadvantaged residents a BCRLF goal.

FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS

Winston-Salem's Business Development Office (BDO) will serve as lead agency. To serve the role of fund manager, BDO will be supported by the City's Finance Department. The City is considering several options for site manager. The average loan term will not exceed three years.

LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES

Winston-Salem's BCRLF anticipates leveraging other funding programs. The Business Development Office leads or assists several programs to aid distressed business corridors and neighborhoods. The City aims to coordinate the BCRLF with other programs relevant to revitalization including the State Development Zone program which provides State tax credits and the Economic Development Revolving Loan Program. The City's BDO also supports small business financing enabling it to bring appropriate programs together to make projects financially feasible, including Federal grants and tax incentives, workforce training, Small Business Administration loans and guarantees, and State and local programs. In addition, program administration costs will be absorbed by the City and the BDO will provide assistance with identification of potential borrowers.

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 Winston-Salem Business Development Office
(504) 363-1505

Region 4 BCRLF Coordinator
(404) 562-8682

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/

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-00-162
May 2000

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet