The mere sight of them brings on cringes. They can be eyesores of five, six stories, gigantic masses of hollowed-out windows, muddied lots and unkempt overgrowth. And they have long since ceased being useful and in fact now do the opposite.
Underneath the"thousands of acres" of brownfields—the state term that comes from the rust-hued color that defines these unused sites—often lie oils, gas and PCBs that've sat dormant before the former iron foundry or industrial dry cleaning site was abandoned. According to the most recent Ohio Brownfield Inventory Report, there are at least 25 of these sites scattered throughout Cleveland.
Brownfields, according to state estimates, cost on average of $15,000 to $35,000 per acre to clean up. Moreover, like Great Lakes did in Scranton Peninsula or MRN did with the Voss Building, pricey phase-one studies analyzing groundwater or soil purity are necessary beforehand, and often take years. As Mayor Bibb suggested in his State of the City speech last month, given days after the Site Readiness was announced, a pool of $100 million could, one day, reverse the downward trend of jobs leaving Cleveland over the past two decades.
Epstein couldn't say exactly how many of those ugly brownfields, and other vacant lots, could see brand new business parks popping up on them, or apartment complexes. Not all brownfields are owned by the city, which could limit the span of the ARPA dollar reach.