About

The City of Greenville was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant to focus on assessment activities in the West Greenville Certified Redevelopment Area. The City has worked with community partners to adopt a vision for revitalization of the disadvantaged West Greenville area, which is struggling with the collapse of the local tobacco industry and has poverty rates of up to 40 percent. The West Greenville vision has established a pro-active plan for the redevelopment of businesses and jobs, affordable housing, community facilities, and a system of parks and green spaces.

One of the primary barriers to the fulfillment of the West Greenville revitalization vision is the presence of many brownfields left behind at closed tobacco warehouses, railroad sites, and other industrial facilities. Greenville seeks to expand its brownfields program to target up to 30 properties for inventory, assessment, cleanup planning, and community-based reuse planning.

Grant funds will be used to conduct brownfield inventory/GIS; to engage community and business leaders in formulating a reinvestment vision for brownfields properties in the area; to prioritize brownfields sites for public–private redevelopment; and to perform Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments at sites in the West Greenville Redevelopment Area.

This program and redevelopment effort is fully supported by the local and regional economic development agencies. The City of Greenville also plans to reach out to business and community leaders early in the process to ensure that the West Greenville Brownfields Program is firmly grounded in the dynamics of real estate feasibility and market demand. The two primary goals of the program are to reduce environmental & human risks from potentially contaminated brownfields sites and to facilitate the successful reuse of abandoned and underutilized properties in West Greenville.

To learn more about the EPA's Brownfields program, please visit the EPA's website at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields. Read about EPA Brownfield Success Stories here.

Property owners and/or developers interested in participating in the brownfields program can click here to review the Frequently Asked Questions.