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Many Diversified Interests Superfund Site Redevelopment At 3617 Baer St.


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Top dollar for tainted land?
By Nancy Sarnoff
Houston Chronicle, 2005

An abandoned toxic waste site that sits in the heart of a forgotten neighborhood two miles east of downtown could soon become the target of a bidding war by developers.

The sales price could top $8 million for a 36-acre Superfund site, reflecting how this Fifth Ward neighborhood is changing.

Despite the site's tainted past, its close-in location and size have already attracted multiple prospective buyers.

The site, at 3617 Baer, has been abandoned since the early 1990s.

And whoever leaves the auction with the deed to the contaminated property will also inherit a liability: the cleanup. The projected cost for remediation is about $6.6 million, which will be included in the sales price.

Officials said the sale will likely mark the first time a Superfund site in this region of the Environmental Protection Agency

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  • 2 years later...

I heard about this large plot being sold about 8 months ago, but haven't heard or seen anything since. I confirmed with the EPA that the deal closed, so I wonder why clean-up hasn't started?

Here is the last Chroincle article I could find:

"Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Wed 06/21/2006

Section: B

Page: 8

Edition: 3 STAR

Superfund solution / Private cleanup of a contaminated site in Fifth Ward could provide a national model.

Staff

SINCE being abandoned as a metal casting foundry in 1992, the 36-acre Many Diversified Interests Inc. site off I-10 East has been a visual eyesore and toxic waste threat to surrounding neighborhoods and a nearby school. Over the years, lead, arsenic and other contaminants in the property's topsoil have washed onto adjacent playgrounds and yards, undermining economic revitalization of the area.

That may be changing thanks to a first-ever proposed agreement between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a purchaser. Under the agreement, the nonliable private party pays to clean up a Superfund site. The prospective buyer, Clinton Gregg Investments, L.P., entered a winning auction bid of $7.8 million, including an estimated $6.6 million tab for the removal of contaminants. The site, near downtown, will likely be used for housing and thus require the highest level of pollution remediation.

While the use of private dollars to clean up a toxic waste dump is welcome, it limits avenues for community input, and residents in the area bounded by the freeway and Bringhurst and Waco streets are rightly eager to influence the site's future. Gentrification is already changing formerly low-income zones around downtown, where rising property values are creating a tax crunch for longtime homeowners.

"The issues are layered," said Reginald Adams, a Sierra Club organizer who resides near the MDI site. "You have gentrification, increased property values, a geriatric community and a housing project that has received an unsolicited bid for redevelopment." His environmental group is partnering with the Fifth Ward Superneighborhood Council No. 55 to educate residents about the MDI sale. The council held a neighborhood meeting to gather recommendations for the redevelopment.

Since the massive project will require some improvements to city infrastructure, Adams hopes residents can wield some political clout and the developers will have an incentive to cooperate in planning adequate green space and a mix of commercial and residential amenities in the project. The unique solution proposed for the MDI site won't work everywhere, because not every toxic Superfund site sits upon land valuable enough to pay for its own cleanup. The prospective Houston buyers will perform a valuable civic service and provide a role model for the nation if they can convert a poisoned property into a tax-generating development, while working with longtime residents to create a mutually compatible community."

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  • 1 month later...

I drove by the MDI Superfund site and noticed there are several trucks and tractors in there and they have begun the clean up! The 36 acre site is in between Clinton Dr and I-10, bounded by Bringhurst and (near) Waco Street. (Sorry, no pictures to post).

Not sure what all contaminated the soil, but I know lead was one thing.

Frank Liu bought the site and plans to develop it. I am not sure how long the clean up will take or what the plans are to build - anyone know? (i saw this article, but it gave no details: http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4926543.html). Hopefully this will be good news for the whole community! Cleaning up hazardous waste is always a good thing... It makes me so happy to see that site cleaned and the new Bruce elementary school being built on Jensen (it used to be right next to the contaminated site - very sad to think about).

Here are some articles about the history of the site (some of them are pretty old):

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/ne...p/cleanup28.pdf (on page 3)

http://www.mothersforcleanair.org/about/ch-fifth_ward.html

http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page?_pageid=5..._schema=PORTALP

http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6xa/pdf/mdi_agreed_order.pdf

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I drove by the MDI Superfund site and noticed there are several trucks and tractors in there and they have begun the clean up! The 36 acre site is in between Clinton Dr and I-10, bounded by Bringhurst and (near) Waco Street. (Sorry, no pictures to post).

Not sure what all contaminated the soil, but I know lead was one thing.

Frank Liu bought the site and plans to develop it. I am not sure how long the clean up will take or what the plans are to build - anyone know? (i saw this article, but it gave no details: http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4926543.html). Hopefully this will be good news for the whole community! Cleaning up hazardous waste is always a good thing... It makes me so happy to see that site cleaned and the new Bruce elementary school being built on Jensen (it used to be right next to the contaminated site - very sad to think about).

From this thread:

I went to the Duany design charrette presentation last night at MFAH. Duany made an ass of himself. He showed up very late, made every effort at every possible opportunity to compliment the developer, Frank Liu, in the most fake and obnoxious way, as though Frank was the only developer in town that did anything right or had any insight at all. Stroking a client's ego in a public setting is pretty typical of a consultant, but most people have the good taste to keep it subtle so that it appears genuine. Duany did not.

Duany started out by explaining New Urbanism. He claims that Houston isn't market-driven because there aren't at least two square miles of a truely urban environment. He pointed to Portland and Toronto as market-driven places--at which point he lost credibility in my eyes for obvious reasons.

The conceptual plans that he presented ranged from uninteresting to unrealistic. What he had proposed for Liu's Fannin South sites had less to do with the sites that he'd been given than with a complete rebuilding of the METRO P&R station and an idea for the City to carve streets throughout the surrounding area and to create a traffic circle out of the Almeda/Bellfort/Holmes flyovers, which also have a four-way freight rail intersection running through it. Duany compared the potential of that public project to DuPont Circle. More lost credibility. Very disappointing.

Duany complained extensively about the various utility easements that crossed the MDI site. Although he expressed the greatest enthusiasm for this site, the designs presented were by far the most conservative and, frankly, uninteresting.

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  • 1 month later...

I am attaching some photos I took today of the site. They are certainly working hard... My question is, who is providing the oversight to make sure they are doing a good job of cleaning up the hazardous waste?

The first photo is looking northeast from the southeast corner of the site (near Clinton and Bringhurst). The other photo is looking south near the north entrance (near I-10).

549x0d2.jpg

66b4u36.jpg

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My question is, who is providing the oversight to make sure they are doing a good job of cleaning up the hazardous waste?

The project's RI/FS, RAP RD/RA (all reports that tell you what they found on the site and what they plan to do to clean it up) and all subsequent monitoring reports are public domain. You can access any of them with a FOIA request.

Edited by Reefmonkey
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

The project is being developed by InTown/Lovett Homes. The architect is Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ).

http://www.dpz.com/project.aspx?Project_Nu...;type=undefined

Seventh at 5th, formerly the MDI site, is a 38-acre former superfund cleanup industrial tract located 2 miles to the east of downtown Houston. The extensive environmental remediation was paid entirely by the developer. The site is bound by an operating vinegar factory, a public housing development, a number of deteriorating shotgun houses, several new town home developments, a new school, . Constraining the site are various easements, which influenced the design of two plan options.

The first option extends the existing grid and subsumes the easements into the block structure, allowing the neighborhood to be bisected with an east to west linear green/pedestrian mall. The second option features a more organic block structure using the various easements and thin angles to create distinct sub-neighborhoods each with their own central green. Both plans include a proposed neighborhood commercial center to the south of the site, residences at 22 units per acre with a wide range of housing types and explicitly sustainable urban design. When built, Seventh at 5th promises to bring urbanity and stability to a neighborhood that is already showing signs of regeneration.

0708-MDI-MP2_z.jpg

0708-MDI-MP1_z.jpg

0708-Block-Full-Perimeter-CRitter_z.jpg

0708-Watercolor-StElevation-01_z.jpg

I heard about this large plot being sold about 8 months ago, but haven't heard or seen anything since. I confirmed with the EPA that the deal closed, so I wonder why clean-up hasn't started?

Here is the last Chroincle article I could find:

"Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Wed 06/21/2006

Section: B

Page: 8

Edition: 3 STAR

Superfund solution / Private cleanup of a contaminated site in Fifth Ward could provide a national model.

Staff

SINCE being abandoned as a metal casting foundry in 1992, the 36-acre Many Diversified Interests Inc. site off I-10 East has been a visual eyesore and toxic waste threat to surrounding neighborhoods and a nearby school. Over the years, lead, arsenic and other contaminants in the property's topsoil have washed onto adjacent playgrounds and yards, undermining economic revitalization of the area.

That may be changing thanks to a first-ever proposed agreement between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a purchaser. Under the agreement, the nonliable private party pays to clean up a Superfund site. The prospective buyer, Clinton Gregg Investments, L.P., entered a winning auction bid of $7.8 million, including an estimated $6.6 million tab for the removal of contaminants. The site, near downtown, will likely be used for housing and thus require the highest level of pollution remediation.

While the use of private dollars to clean up a toxic waste dump is welcome, it limits avenues for community input, and residents in the area bounded by the freeway and Bringhurst and Waco streets are rightly eager to influence the site's future. Gentrification is already changing formerly low-income zones around downtown, where rising property values are creating a tax crunch for longtime homeowners.

"The issues are layered," said Reginald Adams, a Sierra Club organizer who resides near the MDI site. "You have gentrification, increased property values, a geriatric community and a housing project that has received an unsolicited bid for redevelopment." His environmental group is partnering with the Fifth Ward Superneighborhood Council No. 55 to educate residents about the MDI sale. The council held a neighborhood meeting to gather recommendations for the redevelopment.

Since the massive project will require some improvements to city infrastructure, Adams hopes residents can wield some political clout and the developers will have an incentive to cooperate in planning adequate green space and a mix of commercial and residential amenities in the project. The unique solution proposed for the MDI site won't work everywhere, because not every toxic Superfund site sits upon land valuable enough to pay for its own cleanup. The prospective Houston buyers will perform a valuable civic service and provide a role model for the nation if they can convert a poisoned property into a tax-generating development, while working with longtime residents to create a mutually compatible community."

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I personally love the design especially the huge arch in the center.

Just a tad of FYI, this spot of proposed construction is or has never been considered "East End". Its a world away from us. The spot is more commonly and historically known as Near North East Houston. Its north of Navigation so that truly puts it away from us. I encourage others to take a short drive there and comment on what they experience. I will leave it at that. :)

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searc...=tx&zipcode=

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Am I the only one concerned that the private entity is "nonliable" in the cleanup effort?

The idea is that if Lovett cleans it up to the standards set forth in law, and those standards turn out to have been inadequate, it isn't Lovett's fault that the law was inadequate. If a developer like Lovett was forced to take on liability for dangers that haven't even been identified as dangers yet, there's no way in hell that any developer would ever build anything on a superfund site, ever. It wouldn't be worth the risk.

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  • 6 months later...

Update: From the EPA - June 2008

The EPA will hold an Open House to discuss the current and planned activities for OUs 1 and 3. The EPA will provide a brief background of the entire Site. The purchases will discuss the cleanup and planned activities for OU 1, including conceptual development plans for the future. The Open House will be held:

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

7 p.m.

Blanhe Kelso Bruce Elementary School

(New School)

510Jensen Drive

Houston, Texas 77020

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  • 2 weeks later...

Supposedly, Frank Liu seems to be having a bit of a problem on how he is going to pack townhomes on this plot. According to Frank, the city doesn't plan on helping combat costs for utility hookups. Instead the city wants Clinton Gregg Investments to create a MUD for the property. Frank said he has tried to get Jarvis Johnson's assistance but his hands are "tied".

If this project is supposed to be LEED certified then why wont the city assist instead of hindering the project. I'd like to hear more on the city's take as I really find it hard to believe the city would hinder progress on a LEED project.

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Supposedly, Frank Liu seems to be having a bit of a problem on how he is going to pack townhomes on this plot. According to Frank, the city doesn't plan on helping combat costs for utility hookups. Instead the city wants Clinton Gregg Investments to create a MUD for the property. Frank said he has tried to get Jarvis Johnson's assistance but his hands are "tied".

If this project is supposed to be LEED certified then why wont the city assist instead of hindering the project. I'd like to hear more on the city's take as I really find it hard to believe the city would hinder progress on a LEED project.

Frank is a tough negotiator and he's probably playing an angle. For the sake of his project, I'd suggest that you not stir the pot by revealing insider info on this particular matter.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Just curious if anyone knew anything going on with this development? I'm sure like many things it is stalled b/c of the economy... But just curious if some of you well-connected types konws anything specific.

Maybe Obama will see it as a shovel-ready project... :P Nothing like building a bunch of yuppie townhomes to get the economy going...

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  • 6 years later...

The MDI site is another large area of vacant land near Downtown that's slated for redevelopment. It's also just north of the KBR site. Infrastructure work should commence soon; the project will include affordable housing units.

 

http://www.skeo.com/images/uploads/mdi_casestudy.pdf

 

FONSI Public Notice Bringhurst Infrastructure 3-26-15.pdf

 

15housing-henson.pdf

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