By Melanie Radzicki McManus
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000

For the past twenty years, several prime parcels of real estate on John Nolen Drive north of the Sheraton Hotel have sat empty. The centerpiece of the five-acre swath was home to a Texaco gas and propane storage facility for several decades in the mid-twentieth century, during which time petroleum seeped into the soil and groundwater, probably due to accidental spills and leaky tanks. Petroleum contamination also occurred on an adjacent parcel, once home to the Great Plains Gas Company and then to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

In 2001 the Texaco parcel was put up for sale, and Rob Zache snapped it up so he could construct a Class A office building, negotiating the purchases of the adjoining lots as well. Zache knew the subsequent cleanup costs faced by his company, Central Place Real Estate, would likely be hefty, but he was surprised by the eventual $250,000 cleanup tab. Still, he says it was worth every penny. "The site is very desirable to tenants because it's on John Nolen Drive, the gateway into Madison, and it backs up to a park," says Zache.

The site cleanup took about eighteen months, according to Mark Huber, CEO of BT2 Inc. (read BT Squared), the Madison civil and environmental engineering firm hired by Central Place to tackle the remediation. But Zache didn't actually start construction until this past August because of the post-9/11 rental-market slump. But that's O.K., because Chamberlain Research has already called dibs to be the anchor tenant on the first two floors of the three-story, $4.8-million structure, slated for completion next spring, and at least two other companies have expressed interest. Zache is thrilled.

So is Tony Hozeny, spokesman for Wisconsin's Department of Commerce, which offers seven million dollars in cleanup grants each fiscal year to those who develop brownfield sites like the one Zache purchased. While developers often don't care to mess with a contaminated site because of the potential costs involved, Hozeny says brownfield sites actually have a lot going for them. Because they're former commercial or industrial sites, they're typically near major thoroughfares or highways. Utilities such as electricity, water and sanitary sewer lines are usually in place, too -- a huge convenience and money-saver. And, as with Zache's site, there are often neighboring businesses just waiting to welcome a newcomer to town.

And that's an important point to note. While brownfield redevelopment can be beneficial to developers, it's also a boon for the community, because blighted sites are spiffed up and returned to the tax rolls, and green space is preserved. "Developing a brownfield is really a worthwhile thing to do," says Hozeny.

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