[CPEO-BIF] Column: Buffalo, New York needs Brownfields tax credits

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Region needs brownfield program

Opinion by David Robinson
Buffalo News (NY)
June 5, 2014
Developer Peter Krog is gearing up to spend $50 million to transform the historic Trico Products Corp. plant on Washington Street into a pair of hotels, office space and stores.

It’s an ambitious project for an iconic industrial building that has stymied developers for years. But Krog said his plans could be derailed, too, if the state doesn’t extend its program that offers lucrative tax credits to projects on environmentally contaminated sites.

“We have to know what kind of shape the program’s going to be,” said Krog, who warned that two other Buffalo projects he’s involved with – he won’t say which ones – could be jeopardized if the Brownfield Cleanup Program goes away or is watered down too much.

If there’s one thing the Buffalo Niagara region has in abundance, it’s brownfields – an unfortunate and costly legacy of our great industrial heritage. Those properties are harder to redevelop because the environmental cleanup required makes the overall costs higher – often too high to make the project financially viable.


…

For the entire column, see
http://www.buffalonews.com/business/region-needs-brownfield-program-20140605

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
LSiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org




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