Century City Business Park lands EPA grant for cleanup work. It will pave the way for development.
Century City Business Park, on Milwaukee's north side, is getting a $2 million federal grant to do an environmental cleanup to help pave the way for future development.
The city Redevelopment Authority, which is developing Century City, received $5.5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
That grant was among more than $315 million in EPA grants announced nationwide that are being funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which Congress and President Joe Biden approved in 2021.
The authority plans to use $2 million to remove contaminants from 13.7 acres of vacant land at 3940 N. 35th St.
The authority also received $500,000 to create five cleanup plans that will likely target the nearby 30th Street Industrial Corridor and $3 million to expand its Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund.
“This new funding will deploy additional testing and clean-up support at brownfields and historically-contaminated properties in our community," said Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
The authority bought the North 35th Street site in 2019 for $250,000 under a proposal approved by the Common Council and then-Mayor Tom Barrett.
The tract, part of the former Tower Automotive Inc./A.O. Smith Corp. manufacturing complex, is south of West Capitol Drive between North 35th Street and the railroad tracks.
Century City Business Park is south of Capitol Drive, between the railroad tracks and West Hopkins Street. It has 45 acres available for development.
Century City has struggled to attract businesses.
The only new building so far developed is a 53,400-square-foot light industrial building, at 3945 N. 31st St., anchored by Good City Brewing LLC's distribution center and office. An investment group led by Brew City founder Dan Katt hopes to develop a similar building next door.
Also, Talgo Inc.'s rail car refurbishing operation leases a former Tower Automotive building.
Barrett and the Common Council in 2009 approved a $35 million redevelopment plan for Century City, including $9 million in state and federal funds.
That money paid for acquiring the property, demolishing several buildings, doing environmental cleanup work, and building new roads, sewers and other public improvements.
Barrett and the council in 2020 approved a $13.4 million public bailout for the business park.
It uses property tax revenue generated by three downtown tax incremental financing districts to help pay down the $24.7 million in debt owed by Century City's tax financing district.
That came after Strauss Brands Inc. in 2019 dropped plans to relocate its slaughterhouse and meat processing operations to Century City from Franklin.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee central city business park lands EPA grant for cleanup work
