PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The Seaview Industrial Park once housed various manufacturing companies as well as residences. Since the early 1990s,

Bridgeport lost a major section of its manufacturing industry to overseas competition, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in

manufacturing jobs and an increase in abandoned properties and blighted neighborhoods. The EPA Brownfields funding was

used to address the 4.04-acre Bunnell Block of the Seaview Industrial Park, which consists of two properties: an abandoned

industrial building and the Enterprise Plastics manufacturing company. A Phase II environmental site assessment of the two

properties in 2002 found petroleum, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contamination in the soil.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

• Removed 120 tons of contaminated soil

• Leveraged $7.8 million for cleanup and redevelopment activities;

$6 million in redevelopment funding leveraged through the sale of

Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRBs)

• Leveraged 230 jobs for cleanup and redevelopment activities

OUTCOME:

The two blighted buildings were demolished and 120 tons of hazardous materials and 1,145 tons of non-hazardous

materials were removed from the two properties. Cleanup of the properties was completed in February 2005. The

Seaview Industrial Park is projected to be completed in 2008 and will consist of eight build-to-suit light industrial buildings.

It will leverage an additional 100 new jobs and $2 million in annual payroll. Only two of the eight properties located in the

Seaview Industrial Park were addressed by the EPA Brownfields funding. Currently, one of the properties is being built and

the other is still finalizing reconstruction plans. The redevelopment of the Seaview Industrial Park positively affects the

community by removing blight, improving roads, and upgrading the sewer and water systems, ultimately creating an

aesthetically pleasing industrial neighborhood admired by the community.

Blighted Neighborhood Makeover:

Revamping Industry in the City of Bridgeport

brownfields at-a-glance

SEAVIEW INDUSTRIAL PARK - BUNNELL BLOCK

Bridgeport, CT

Revolving Loan Fund Grant

EPA-560-F-06-230

August 2006

For additional data and geographic information for this

and other Brownfields Grants, please visit EPA’s:

Envirofacts - www.epa.gov/enviro/html/bms/bms_query.html

Enviromapper - www.epa.gov/enviro/bf

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ or call EPA Region 1 at (617) 918-1111

ADDRESS: 440 & 480 Bunnell Street, Bridgeport, CT 06607

PROPERTY SIZE: 4.04 acres

FORMER USES: Plastic manufacturer and industrial

CURRENT USES: Industrial park

EPA GRANT RECIPIENT: PROJECT PARTNERS:

The City of Bridgeport provided a

$350,000 Brownfields Cleanup

Revolving Loan Fund loan to the

Bridgeport Economic Development

Corporation (BEDCO) for cleanup

activities at two properties in the

Seaview Industrial Park.

City of Bridgeport; Grow Bridgeport

Fund, LLC; State of Connecticut

Department of Economic and Community

Development (DECD); Economic

Development Administration (EDA); and

Bridgeport Economic Development

Corporation (BEDCO)

The Seaview Industrial Park during construction.