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Brownfields and Redevelopment Grant Programs

A. DEED Redevelopment Grant Program

The State of Minnesota, through its Department of Employment and Economic Development [DEED], will soon be conducting another round of its Redevelopment Grant Program. Applications will be due to DEED on or by February 1, 2013. See below for more information about eligible costs, match requirements and related matters. No funding is available in this round for private sector projects that do not require new public infrastructure. To be eligible, a project will have to either (a) be constructed on publicly owned land and have a public purpose or (b) be a private redevelopment project that requires new public infrastructure.

For a property or project located within the City of Minneapolis, the City must (in most cases) be the “official” applicant, and/or the City Council must approve a resolution in support of the application, in order for that application to be considered by DEED. (However, the grant application must actually be prepared by the owner/developer that is seeking the funding). The pre-application process outlined immediately below is designed to generate the City Council resolution required by DEED.

PRE-APPLICATION REQUIREMENT; ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET.  If you wish or intend to apply for funding in the 2/1/13 round of the DEED Redevelopment Grant Program, you will need to prepare and submit a “pre-application” to the City by 12:00 noon on  December 6, 2012.  The pre-application will consist of an initial draft of the actual application form required by DEED. ALSO, please note that pre-applications must be accompanied by a completed “Grant Assessment Worksheet [GAW]." This is a new requirement.  Pre-applications and GAWs should be delivered to Kevin Carroll at 105 Fifth Avenue S., Room 200, Minneapolis, MN 55401. Pre-applications and GAWs received by the City’s deadline and approved by City staff will be considered by the Community Development Committee of the Minneapolis City Council on or about January 15, 2013.

DEED’s Redevelopment Grant Program helps communities with the costs of redeveloping blighted industrial, residential, or commercial sites and putting land back into productive use. Grants pay up to half of redevelopment costs for a qualifying site, with a 50% local match (typically paid by the owner or developer). Grants can pay for land acquisition, demolition, infrastructure improvements, soil stabilization when infill is required, ponding or other environmental infrastructure and adaptive reuse of buildings, including remedial activities at sites where a subsequent redevelopment will occur. Of the total amount of available grant funding (expected to be about $3 million in the 2/1/13 round), approximately half will likely be awarded to Greater Minnesota sites (if enough eligible applications are received); the remainder of the funding will go to sites located in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. For more specific information, see DEED’s on-line "Overview"  or contact DEED staff at (651) 259-7454.

The Minneapolis City Council has adopted a grant application processing fee. An application fee of $750 is due with your DEED pre-application on December 6, 2012. PLEASE NOTE that application fees are non-refundable, and shall be retained regardless of whether an application (a) is ultimately submitted to DEED or (b) results in a grant award.

The Minneapolis City Council has also adopted a grant award administration fee in an amount equal to 3% of the amount of any awarded grant(s). If approved by the City Council, this fee will increase to 7% for most grants awarded in the 2/1/13 round of DEED’s Redevelopment Grant Program. A lower fee (3%) will be applied to housing projects that comply with the City’s Affordable Housing Policy (20% or more of the housing units at or below 60% of the Area Median Income; and commercial/industrial projects located within areas designated as “intervene” (see list and related map) by the City’s Great Streets neighborhood commercial district program. The proposed 7% fee will be collected at the time of execution of the subrecipient agreement between the City and the developer. Grant funds are not available until the project is fully-funded and ready to begin construction. Neither grant funds nor City funds may be used to pay this fee.

B. Brownfield Grant Programs  

Are you the owner or developer of a property (located in the City of Minneapolis) that is known (or suspected) to be contaminated? If so, you are encouraged to investigate the possibility of obtaining grant funds to assist with the cost of investigation and/or cleanup (remediation). 

Grant applications for environmental remediation projects are periodically solicited by Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the Metropolitan Council, and Hennepin County. The City’s Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) works with potential applicants to review proposed projects and submit to the grantors the applications that reflect the best combination of development potential, consistency with City and neighborhood plans, job and/or affordable housing creation, and sustainable construction practices.

  1. SPRING 2012 BROWNFIELD GRANT ROUND: The spring 2012 brownfield grant round (which had a May 1 application deadline) resulted in grant awards by the three local grantors in late June and early July, and the acceptance/approval of those grants by the Minneapolis City Council in late July (see related City staff report).
  2.  FALL 2012 BROWNFIELD GRANT ROUND: The City of Minneapolis submitted a number of applications on November 1, 2012 in connection with the fall 2012 brownfield grant round (see related City staff report ). Decisions by the grantors are expected between mid-December of 2012 and late January of 2013.

    The City pre-application deadline for the fall 2012 round was  4:00 p.m. on September 6, 2012. City pre-application deadlines are designed to provide time for staff review and formal City Council action prior to the grantors' final application deadline(s). More information about the fall 2012 grant round, including details regarding the City’s pre-application process and the applicable City fees, can be found in the following documents:

    Brownfield Informational Memo (Fall 2012)
    Brownfield Schedule (Fall 2012)

    New Requirement: Pre-applications submitted for the fall 2012 brownfield grant round had to be accompanied by a Grant Assessment Worksheet, portions of which had to be completed by the property owner or developer. This new document can be found here: Grant Assessment Worksheet (Fall 2012)
  3. SPRING 2013 BROWNFIELD GRANT ROUND: The grantors’ final application deadline for the spring 2013 brownfield grant round will be May 1, 2013. However, for any application involving a property or project located in the City of Minneapolis, a “pre-application” must be prepared and submitted to City staff. The City pre-application deadline for the spring 2013 round will probably be in early March; check this site in early February of 2013 for a more specific schedule. City pre-application deadlines are designed to provide time for staff review and formal City Council action prior to the grantors' final application deadline(s). 

See below for other information, links and forms needed for the spring (May 1, 2013) brownfield grant round (some of these links and/or forms may change between now and May 1, 2013, so check back periodically):

Funding Sources (General Information)

Contamination Investigation and Cleanup Program
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)

Tax Base Revitalization Account (TBRA)
Metropolitan Council

Environmental Response Fund (ERF)
Hennepin County

Application Forms required for the City’s “Pre-Application” Process

DEED Brownfield Grant Application Form

TBRA Contamination Cleanup Grant Application Guide (MS Word)

TBRA Contamination Cleanup Site Investigation Grant Application Guide (MS Word)

Hennepin County Brownfield [ERF] Application Form

Technical Assistance and Other Information

Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup (VIC) Program - The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s VIC program provides technical assistance and administrative or legal assurances for individuals or businesses seeking to investigate or cleanup contaminated property.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]
The EPA provides programs and funding to assist with the investigation and/or removal of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants.

General Background Information

The Environmental Protection Agency defines brownfields as “abandoned, idled or underused industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.” The additional costs, time and uncertainty associated with redevelopment often make businesses and developers hesitant to consider these sites without public involvement. Minneapolis is a recognized leader in working with county, regional and state funding and regulatory agencies to address these concerns and successfully return brownfields to productive uses.

Examples of brownfields the city has prepared for productive use include properties in North Washington Jobs Park, former railroad yards in the Seward South Industrial Park, a site in northeast Minneapolis that is now the Quarry Shopping Center, and former rail yards in the Mill Quarter and the Minneapolis Riverfront District that are being redeveloped for riverfront housing and other uses. City staff members have also assisted with the cleanup of scattered sites throughout the City.

Program Goals

Completed Projects

Since 1994 the City has successfully initiated the clean-up of hundreds of sites, resulting in private investment in excess of $1 billion. Many of the sites were located in former rail yards. Others are former gas stations or converted industrial buildings.

As the City’s brownfield efforts move forward, scattered sites will continue to be included in the program. However, major focus will be placed on the remediation, redevelopment and reuse of the sites with significant employment potential in the following major target areas: Franklin-Seward Area, Humboldt Industrial Park, North Washington Industrial Park, Shoreham Yards, University Research Park-Southeast Minneapolis Industrial (URP-SEMI), and Bassett Creek Valley/Van White Memorial Boulevard.

How the program works

Over the decade the program has been working, there has been a change from City-led redevelopment of a few large sites to City-facilitated redevelopment of a greater number of smaller sites. In 2012 the City assisted 21 projects that sought City support in connection with the pursuit of investigation and/or remediation grants for the planned development or redevelopment of contaminated sites.

The majority of the remediated sites in the early program years were redeveloped for light industrial use, as it is typically less expensive to clean sites to industrial standards. However, increasing numbers of brownfield sites are being redeveloped for mixed-use or residential development after remediation. Doing so is relatively expensive, which makes the availability of grant funds even more critical to a project’s success.

Reclaiming Land—Reusing Buildings: The Ultimate Recycling!

One of the most outstanding examples of successful land recycling in the City can be found in the Minneapolis Riverfront Story, as initially presented to the Metropolitan Council.

View a slide show about the Minneapolis Riverfront District

 

Last updated Nov. 26, 2012