[CPEO-BIF] land bank for area-wide BF redevelopment

["Robert Hersh" <b_hersh@verizon.net>]

New office to target city's brownfields

The Hamilton Spectator
By Nicole Macintyre
(Mar 6, 2007)

Hamilton, Canada

The city is throwing green at Hamilton's brownfields.

Councillors voted yesterday to launch a new economic development office
focused on revamping abandoned and underutilized industrial properties.

Staff are also proposing a land bank program in which the city would buy and
clean up pockets of brownfields to make them more attractive to investors
who might otherwise steer toward greenfields.

"This is music to my ears," said Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who argued the city
needs to invest if it wants to encourage development of old sites.

The initiative, spearheaded by councillors Brian McHattie and Chad Collins,
builds on the city's existing brownfield initiatives that have won national
awards for innovation.

Extra resources, worth $80,000, will allow for more proactive promotion of
the city's offerings, explained Neil Everson, director of economic
development.

The city's brownfield incentives program, called ERASE, generated about a
dozen applications in the last 18 months. The grants, which developers pay
back to the city, generated construction worth more than $86 million.

For the entire article, see:
<<http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton
/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1173135012654&call_pageid=1020420665036&
col=1014656511815>>


Bob Hersh
CPEO



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