Redevelopment Economics

Leadership Counts:

Evans Paull is a recognized national leader on brownfields issues. He has served as the Executive Director of the Smart Growth America National Brownfields Coalition and managed the brownfields program for the Northeast-Midwest Institute, the leading national think tank for brownfields issues. His work focuses on transforming neglected industrial spaces into thriving, sustainable developments. This idea of reimagining and repurposing spaces finds a parallel in digital ecosystems like city center online casino, where design, structure, and user engagement turn virtual environments into dynamic, high-stakes destinations. Through strategic planning and policy advocacy, Evans continues to influence how communities reclaim and redefine their landscapes.

Skills and areas of expertise include:

• Policy issues - regulatory reform, and voluntary cleanup
• Financial incentives and tax increment financing
• Connections to private equity financing, liability transfer, fixed price cleanups, and environmental insurance 
• Site reconnaissance
• Governmental program analysis - best practices, economic and environmental impacts
• Case studies of successful redevelopment of difficult sites

Projects Assisted:

Harbor Point, Baltimore - enhanced public information regarding project impacts.  See this article in Planning Magazine.

• Carlisle, PA - feasibility analysis for using TIF to finance the brownfields redevelopment plan
• City of Wilmington - Harper-Thiel site RFP and EPA Grant Application
• Musicians live-work lofts, Philadelphia - financing assistance and market analysis.
• City of Rochester - analysis of tax increment financing for brownfield redevelopment projects.
• Brownfields Equity Company - brownfields incentives and site reconnaissance
• Market Street Properties, LLC - brownfields incentives
• Gateway South, Baltimore - TIF linked to HUD 108
• Montgomery Park, Baltimore - HUD 108 financing
• National Aquarium in Baltimore - brownfields financing
• Whitman Requardt & Associates, Baltimore - regulatory/voluntary cleanup assistance

Brownfields Strategic Planning and Policy Issues:

• Centralina COG (Wilmington, NC) - Completed the Brownfields-Greyfields Financing Toolkit with Cardno-TBE
• Carlisle, PA - assisted Stromberg Garrison in developing the Carlisle Brownfields Area  Redevelopment Plan
• Portland Metro - "Brownfields Scoping Project" completed. Summarized here. Appendices here
  
• City of Portland - RE worked with Maul-Foster team to carry out brownfields opportunity assessment, "The Brownfields Assessmment Project. Appendices here
• State of Iowa - policy analysis: "Proposals to Make Strategic Investments in Brownfields Redevelopment"
• Washington State Department of Ecology - Washington State Brownfields Strategy and Policy Recommendations with Maul-Foster
• State brownfields legislation – Mr. Paull authored five proposals that were part of the Maryland Brownfields Redevelopment Reform Act of 2004
• Authored legislative proposals to Reauthorize the EPA Brownfields Program for Northeast-Midwest Institute

We stay current on state brownfields incentive issues.  One example - we maintain a chart of the states that have brownfields income tax credit programs.

Areawide Brownfields Planning

RE has been part of two brownfields areawide planning projects:

• The Carlisle Urban Renewal Plan;
• the Ranson, WV areawide brownfields plan.

National Reputation:

Brownfields-related articles:

• "Inventing the Brownfields Land Bank," in Brownfield Renewal
  
• "State Liability Reforms for Third Party/Toxic Tort Liability Protection – the Next Wave of Brownfields Reforms?" published in Brownfields News
• "Using Tax Increment Financing for Brownfields Redevelopment" for Northeast-Midwest Institute 
• "Mothballed Sites through Local Government Acquisition" for Northeast-Midwest Institute

Conference Presentations:

• "State Brownfields Financing - Creative Policy Solutions" National Brownfields Conference, 9/2015
• Creative Financing for Brownfields-Grayfields Redevelopment (2012 New Partners for Smart Growth);
• "Brownfields and Sustainability" presented at Oklahoma Brownfields Conference
• "Economic and Environmental Impact of Brownfields Redevelopment" (Business of Brownfields)
• "Tax Increment Financing and Brownfields Redevelopment (Business of Brownfields)