Builders and Developers Interested In Houston-The City Wants To Give You $$$

The City of Houston is growing to unbelievable proportions right now. Our job market is one of the best around, in fact, 1/6 of all the jobs created in the Whole Nation during 2007 was right here in the Bayou City, and our population has more than doubled since the year 2000 according to City of Houston statistics.

As you can imagine this has created quite a bit of construction in town for both Commercial and Residential buildings. One of the topics that is coming in to play with Inner Loop development is that of Brownfields, not often...but there.. This would be those properties that either knows for a fact or suspects contamination of some sort on the property. This could be, for example, a previous Dry Cleaning Facility, Gas Station, Steel Shop, etc.

Many versed in Brownfields knows that there are EPA Standards that must be met to clean it all up which can seem unappealing.

However, in an effort to make this City Green, The City of Houston actually has money available to give out for Brownfields Development. They will cough up the dough for Phase 1 and 2 testing as well as contribute up to $100,000 for the Clean up Process.

Developers, this is a phenomenal opportunity.

So that we have a better idea of what a Brownfields site looks like revamped, (and we know that it can really happen) let's take a look at one of our City's Popular Landmarks.

Minute Maid Park, Home of our Houston Astros.

Minute Maid Park used to be a Rail Station and now sits on appx 38.5 acres. During the testing of the land they found Asbestos and later found 13 Underground Storage Tanks that held various substances. For the clean up process- 440,000 Yards of Soil had to be excavated and replaced as part of it. This is quite extensive, probably the most extensive here. But when you look at the end result, it's amazing! A Gorgeous Public Facility that won an EPA award in the year 2000.

There is incredible opportunity with Brownfields in Redevelopment and Urban Infill property, not to mention up to 3 LEED points if your development is leaning towards going all out Green. After all, it is the Eco Friendly thing to do.

Stay tuned as I will be interviewing a City Employee in regards to what they are offering, as well as highlighting local Brownfields accomplishments. This is just Part I.