Good things happen when communities redevelop brownfields

Did you ever have to solve a story problem in math class? Story problems relate math concepts to real-world examples and help illustrate that numbers represent something tangible.

Story problems are not just for the classroom. Our Brownfields Program has been solving real-life story problems in a research project and the answers we've found are remarkable. Our return-on-investment research describes tangible outcomes in terms of numbers, such as jobs created, acres redeveloped, and leveraged funding. The data will not only help communities make decisions about brownfields but help when having conversations with funders and policymakers.

Brownfields are vacant or underutilized properties that may be contaminated, such as former gas stations or abandoned industrial sites. The Brownfields Program, and our partners at the Washington Department of Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency, provide technical support and public funding so communities can investigate, clean up, and explore reuse potential for properties like these. To quantify the outcomes of that public funding, we started checking in on those projects to see how things are going. We're talking with community leaders and business owners and researching stacks of data to find out: How has the public investment benefited the community?

Our research shows that, yes! Communities in Washington are seeing tangible results when they investigate, clean up, and redevelop brownfields. They're seeing benefits ranging from new jobs, businesses, and increased tax revenue, to affordable housing, and walking trails and parks.

Good things happen when communities put brownfields back into play. The Millworks, an affordable housing development in Bellingham, and the Palouse Brewing Co. and TLC Veterinary Clinic in Palouse, are just a couple of examples. You can learn about other successful projects, and how we gathered data, by exploring our return-on-investment story map.

The Millworks in Bellingham

This development features affordable housing, an early childhood learning center, and a local food campus/business incubator. To make it possible, Ecology and the Port of Bellingham prioritized cleanup of part of the Georgia-Pacific West cleanup site, a former pulp and tissue mill. Taking that step enabled Mercy Housing Northwest to purchase the cleaned-up portion and redevelop it.

The first phase of The Millworks opened for residents in 2024, along with an early learning center run by the YMCA. The next phase is anticipated to be completed in 2027. At the end of that second phase, we project the return on investment will include:

• 83 affordable housing units and 109 workforce housing units
• 6 classrooms serving approximately 100 students
• An estimated 185 ongoing jobs

When both phases of the project are complete, we estimate $175 million in other funding will have been leveraged to build the project. That's roughly $53 for every dollar Ecology invested.

Palouse Brewing Co. and TLC Veterinary Clinic

In the heart of downtown Palouse, an old fueling station vacant since the mid-1980s was transformed and is now home to a brewery and veterinary clinic. The City of Palouse used public brownfields grants to investigate and clean up the site, and engage their community to develop an exciting vision for reuse.

This project was a crucial part of the small town's greater revitalization efforts, adding two new businesses and about 15 new jobs. That may not sound like a lot, but it's a significant economic boost for this community of about 1,100 residents. The project also restored a section of riverbank along the North Fork of the Palouse River with native riparian vegetation.

More community successes are coming your way!

We've always known that providing support and funding to communities to clean up and redevelop brownfields makes economic and environmental sense. Through our return-on-investment project, we now have hard data to show just how much it's benefiting communities across our state. Check out our story map and watch for more sites, we'll keep building it out as our research continues and we learn about more communities' successes.

Want to create your own brownfields success? Contact the Brownfields Program.