MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: $249,000 EGLE grant brings fresh food market to Saginaw neighborhood

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued the following announcement on July 18.

A contaminated property in Saginaw will be redeveloped as a Fleck’s Fresh Mart with help from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). The Saginaw Downtown Development Authority was awarded a $249,000 Brownfield Redevelopment Grant to revitalize and safely reuse a vacant parcel at 2040 North Michigan Avenue.

The site has been vacant for 10 years. Old industrial and auto-related businesses with leaking underground storage tanks contaminated the property. The brownfield grant will be used to evaluate and manage contaminated soils, install barriers to control gasoline vapors that could remain in the soil or groundwater, and demolish old building foundations to ensure the safe redevelopment of the property.

Wirt-Rivette Group and RPF Oil will redevelop the currently vacant parcel into a Fleck’s Fresh Mart and gasoline station. The $2,225,000 redevelopment will create eight full-time and part-time jobs. Fresh Mart will provide residents and commuters a healthier alternative to traditional convenience store foods.

EGLE partners with communities to protect public health and the environment and revitalize contaminated property. EGLE grants and loans pay for environmental investigation and cleanup on brownfields, which are vacant or abandoned properties with known or suspected environmental contamination.

More than half of EGLE’s budget each year flows into Michigan communities in grants, loans and other spending; this supports local projects, protects public health and the environment, and creates economic growth and jobs for Michigan workers. Partnerships between EGLE and communities have created more than $4.7 billion in private investment and 24,000 new jobs over the life of the Brownfield Redevelopment Program. Each brownfield grant and loan dollar invested by EGLE in 2018 to protect residents and the environment is expected to return an average of $42 to the state’s economy. When brownfields are redeveloped, property values increase both on the revitalized site and on other nearby properties. Learn more at Michigan.gov/EGLEBrownfields.

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Original source can be found here.