Brownfields Success Stories

Glen Cove Showcases Waterfront Redevelopment Success

The City of Glen Cove, New York, was once considered the center of the fabled "Gold Coast" and home to many influential and wealthy New York families. However, the Glen Cove Creek area has been the industrial hub of the city since the mid-1600s. The area is littered with more than 50 acres of federal and state Superfund sites and 146 acres of brownfields. These properties, with their unknown degrees of contamination, have discouraged new businesses and negatively impacted the city's overall economy, property values, and tax base. Glen Cove's revitalization area has been designated an urban blight area, with 13 percent of households within a one-mile radius of the district's center having an annual income less than $15,000.

Recently, with the help of an EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot and a Showcase Community grant, Glen Cove celebrated the cleanup and redevelopment of one of eight brownfields sites that are part of the city's Glen Cove Creek Waterfront Revitalization Project. This former commercial and industrial property is now home to an environmental consulting firm. To date, the Pilot has helped the city leverage approximately $20 million in grants and technical assistance from various governmental entities. In addition, private development has invested in a number of properties along the waterfront. The city's overall Revitalization Project will generate approximately $200 million in annual sales and $10 million in taxes, and will create more than 1,700 new full-time jobs. With this first brownfields redevelopment project complete, Glen Cove residents will soon enjoy new economic stability and new jobs through continued development of the waterfront district. For more information on the Glen Cove Brownfields Pilot, contact EPA Region 2 at (212) 637-4314.