Brewer wins economic development award
The transformation of a defunct paper mill into a modular construction facility has earned the city of Brewer a regional award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The city is expected to receive the EPA's Phoenix Award at a November ceremony in New Orleans. The recognition comes a year after the formal grand opening of Eastern Manufacturing Facility, a joint venture between city-owned South Brewer Redevelopment LLC and Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp., at the site of the Eastern Fine Paper mill, which closed in 2004.
"We're thrilled to get this recognition," D'arcy Main-Boyington, the city's economic development director and the managing director for SBR, told Mainebiz. "It took a whole team to get this project going," including people from Eaton Peabody law firm and environmental consultants Credere Associates.
The city pursued redevelopment of the 41-acre site along the Penobscot River with a 2005 EPA Brownfield grant of $350,000 to assess contamination. That initial investment was followed by more Brownfield grants and a $1 million revolving loan fund, from which Cianbro received a $550,000 loan to remediate the site before building Eastern Manufacturing. The facility supports Cianbro's work on a $7 billion oil refinery project in Texas and employs 500 people, says Main-Boyington.
According to the Phoenix Award website, the honor is bestowed on individuals and groups that "solve critical environmental challenges of transforming blighted and contaminated areas into productive new uses."
Main-Boyington said part of what made the Brewer project so innovative was its simultaneous clean up and development work at the site.
"It meant we didn't have to move earth twice and Cianbro was able to meet a very aggressive timeframe," she says.
The Phoenix Awards, created in 1997, are made annually in each of the EPA's 10 administrative regions.
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