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Brownfields Success Stories
Somerville's Abandoned Mattress Site Springs Back
In Somerville, Massachusetts a 1,500-square-foot industrial building at 259 Lowell Street, occupied by the Hostess Bakery Company until the 1970s, and more recently by a series of mattress manufacturers, had sat abandoned and unused since 1995. The empty building fell into disrepair and became a safety concern and an eyesore for residents of the surrounding area. Fears of site contamination limited the site's appeal to developers. This changed in 1996, when Somerville was selected as an EPA Brownfields Pilot and received a $100,000 grant to jump- start the city's idle properties. The Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) approached the city with an interest in purchasing and redeveloping the Lowell Street site, depending on the Pilot's assessment results. Soil and groundwater assessments revealed lead, petroleum, and barium contamination, with an estimated cleanup cost of $225,000. To encourage the VNA to move forward with plans to redevelop the property into a 100-unit, assisted living facility and neighborhood health center, Somerville provided $100,000 in cleanup cost-overrun coverage. The coverage, which was developed as a component of the Pilot, will protect the VNA should actual site cleanup costs exceed the Pilot's estimate. Community Development Block Grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is being used to finance the program. Other resources for the project include a $1.25 million loan and a $250,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank; $5.9 million in low-income housing tax credits from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD); $750,000 in low-interest loans from DHCD and the City of Somerville; a $150,000 loan from the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust fund; and a $5.4 million Affordable Housing loan from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership. The VNA's new, 97-unit, assisted-living facility opened in June 2000, and every unit was occupied by the end of the summer. This $14 million redevelopment project brought more than 45 new jobs to the city. For more information on Somerville's Brownfields Pilot, contact Lynne Jennings at (617) 918-1210.