Brownfields Showcase Community Fact Sheet

Community Profile

Trenton, New Jersey

Trenton targets more than 30 city brownfields with promising reuse potential. The city has already redeveloped or cleaned up more than 30 brownfields, covering nearly 100 acres. One of these properties has leveraged an estimated $90 million to create a new shopping center, an office complex, and more than 400 jobs.

Background

The Brownfields National Partnership has selected the City of Trenton as a Brownfields Showcase Community. Although it is the state capital, Trenton is a small, poor city with concentrated industrial areas and brownfields interspersed with residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors. Trenton's seven most distressed census tracts contain only one-third of the city's population, but two-thirds of the city's brownfields target sites. More than 18% of the residents live below the federal poverty line, and the unemployment rate in Trenton (11.8%) is almost double the state and national rates. Trenton's brownfields problems include health issues such as infant mortality and childhood lead poisoning, which are compounded by the proximity of contaminated sites to minority and low-income populations. African Americans represent 48% of the city's population, and Latinos 14%.

Trenton began its brownfields redevelopment strategy in 1994 after the New Jersey Legislature enacted the Industrial Sites Recovery Act (ISRA), which offered flexible cleanup options, as well as financial resources for brownfields cleanup. The city has identified more than 65 brownfields sites on approximately 330 acres.

Current Activities and Achievements

During the past four years, the city has been engaged with more than thirty separate brownfields sites containing nearly 100 acres. Private and public investment to date in the industrial redevelopment of brownfields sites exceeds $16 million and has preserved or brought into Trenton more than 1,000 jobs. Highlights of Trenton's brownfields redevelopment program include:

• Cleaning up and redeveloping seven sites for residential, commercial or industrial use. Cleanup has been completed at six other sites that are now in the process of redevelopment, and is underway at eight more sites; and environmental investigations are being undertaken at eight additional sites;

• Completing a 10,000 square-foot factory on 1.5 acres of the Crane Pottery site, with a second plant under construction and a third planned;

• Ensuring employment of Trenton residents through the Canal Banks Construction Training Program and the Trenton Contractors Assistance Program. One part of the project will bring about mixed-use development, including new single family homes, a new shopping center and a health care facility, wrapped around the restoration of an historic park;

• Attracting seven manufacturing or distribution firms to the Trenton Makes Industrial Park, a modern industrial park in the heart of the city, in the once-abandoned 800,000 square-foot former C.V. Hill Refrigeration facility;

• Working with Mercer County and private investors to redevelop the former Roebling Works, including converting more than 220,000 square feet of historic industrial space into a $17 million shopping center, a $13 million office complex, and more than 230 rental units. $50 million has been committed for additional development. More than 400 jobs have been created; and

• Developing the former Cooper Iron Works, located along the waterfront, into a popular night club, representing a $3 million investment. Plans are underway to convert the nearby Champale Brewery into a mixed-use family entertainment destination. Total investment for this project is expected to exceed $100 million and should create more than 300 additional jobs over the next three years.

The partnerships that the city has forged with federal, state and local agencies have been key to the city's ability to move forward with its brownfields revitalization strategy. Partnerships include: federal agencies such as EPA, U.S. Economic Development Agency and National Park Service; state agencies; non governmental organizations, including Isles, Inc. and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice; and educational institutions, including the Northeast Hazardous Substance Research Center and Thomas Edison State College.

Showcase Community Objectives and Planned Activities

Since the inception of Trenton's Brownfields Initiative, assessment, cleanup and redevelopment activities have been focused on the core industrial areas. After the initial inventory was completed in 1994, it became clear that there are many contaminated sites outside industrial areas, including gas stations, former railroad rights of way, a downtown parking lot, and a 19th century mill that still needed attention. Trenton plans to use the Showcase Communities project to continue work already begun in the core industrial areas and to investigate, assess, clean up and redevelop brownfields interspersed in residential areas and commercial corridors.

For more information on the Brownfields Showcase Communities,
visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/showcase.htm