Feature Article

EDA Supports Brownfields Development

Submitted by EDA's
Ken Kukovich

EDA is authorized to provide broad-spectrum support for brownfields site assessment, market feasibility studies, incidental remediation, such as lead and asbestos abatement, and site redevelopment and reuse that furthers economic growth. EDA typically focuses on the reuse of brownfields. EDA encourages market-driven brownfields reuse to return non-productive, blighted, and formerly contaminated real estate to local tax rolls and foster capital reinvestment that creates jobs at higher skill and wage levels.

EDA funds brownfields-related projects through its existing assistance programs. Harbor Gardens Park office building and the Drew Mathieson Center greenhouse facility was the result of a 2001 EDA grant of $1,132,800 to the Manchester-Bidwell Corporation and the Business & Industry Development Corp, 1815 Metropolitan Street, Pittsburgh, PA.

This project addressed the lack of a horticultural science education center and greenhouse to provide skills and job training to unemployed from the inner city of Pittsburgh, and to create horticultural jobs in a commercial greenhouse for the unemployed from the inner city of Pittsburgh.

The Harbor Gardens office building and the 40,000 square foot greenhouse of the Drew Mathieson Center for Horticultural and Agricultural Technology initially concentrated on orchid production but over the last decade has evolved to offer programs in fields ranging from horticulture to medical IT records management. Today, the Manchester Bidwell Corporation is a nationally accredited and state licensed adult career training institution.