Brownfields Success Stories

In Chicopee, Turning Problem Sites Into Opportunities

The City of Chicopee, Massachusetts typifies countless older manufacturing communities in New England, its former industrial areas now lying unused and, in many cases, contaminated. Containing nine known sites with varying levels of contamination, Chicopee was a natural choice for a Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant from EPA. The initial $59,000 grant was used to assess the old Bay State Wire Company site, where two buildings that had once housed a wire and metal parts manufacturer had sat abandoned since 1988. Cleanup is now complete, and the site has already received interest from two adjacent manufacturers looking to expand onto the property. Additional Pilot assessments on a 3.75-acre former manufacturing site in the low- income neighborhood of Williamansett led to demolition of the site's buildings and cleanup of the property. Within two weeks of advertising this newly cleaned site through a Request-for- Proposals process, the city was approached by Benedict Broadcasting, an affiliate of CNBC. The company eventually purchased the site for $250,000, as the location of a new, $5 million, state- of-the-art digital broadcasting station. The station began operations in December 1999, creating several new full-time jobs in addition to the more than 100 employees who relocated. For more information on the Chicopee Brownfields Pilot, contact Diane Kelley at (617) 918-1424.