Brownfields Success Stories

On the Road to Success: An Update of Rome, New York's East Rome Business Park

What began as a $200,000 Brownfields Assessment Pilot in Rome, New York, has become a successful redevelopment project that has leveraged more than $4 million in assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment funding and may lead to as many as 300 new jobs. A 17-acre property, formerly home to a metals processing plant and abandoned for decades, is being redeveloped into the East Rome Business Park. The property has been subdivided into six parcels ready for development, and a new access road through the business park was enabled by nearly $1 million from the New York Department of Transportation. The Pilot leveraged additional assistance from the State of New York, which provided funding for $200,000 worth of follow-up assessments and granted $1.8 million for cleanup through Governor Pataki's 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act. In addition to the assessment and cleanup funds leveraged from the state, the property owner invested nearly $1 million of his own money in demolition and cleanup, and the city leveraged $300,000 from the Empire State Development Corporation for modernization of utilities along the new access road. With cleanup and infrastructure improvements completed, the East Rome Business Park is now ready to welcome new business. For more information on the Rome Brownfields Pilot, contact Robert Alvey at (212) 637-3258.