Brownfields

Success Story

EPA Grant Recipient: 

Silver City, New Mexico

EPA Grant Type:

Brownfields Assessment Grant, 

Brownfields Revolving Loan 

Fund Grant

Former Uses: 

Hospital

Current Use:

Affordable Senior Housing

EPA-funded site assessments revealed 

significant and widespread contamination.

The Hillcrest Hospital site languished 

for decades before the town had it 

demolished in 2009.

For nearly 25 years, Hillcrest General Hospital served as a healthcare hub 

for residents of Silver City and others in western New Mexico. In 1983, 

Grant County officials decided to build a new hospital, Gila Regional 

Medical Center, rather than make costly upgrades to Hillcrest. Once 

Gila began operations and Hillcrest closed, the building quickly fell 

into disrepair and earned a reputation among locals as an eyesore and 

a nuisance. 

“The site is located in a very prominent part of town, on the main 

drag right as you enter city limits,” says Alex Brown, Silver City’s town 

manager and finance director. “Silver City generates a lot of revenue 

through recreational tourism, and we were concerned about how the site 

could affect visitors’ perception of us.”

The Opportunity

In 2004, Brown received a directive from his colleagues in the city 

council to acquire the Hillcrest property and demolish the building. After 

approximately one year of negotiation with the site’s owner, he used city 

funds to purchase the property. 

After finalizing the acquisition, Brown knew the building’s age and 

former use meant a full environmental assessment would be necessary 

before redevelopment could proceed. He contacted the town’s 

Brownfields program, which helped secure a $168,393 U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Assessment Grant for Phase I 

and Phase II environmental site assessments. The assessments revealed 

significant contamination—asbestos, lead, incinerator ash, and animal 

droppings containing bacteria that could cause harm if inhaled by people 

visiting the structure. 

The Silver Lining in an 

Abandoned Hospital

Silver City, New Mexico
Apartment construction began in April 2018 

and took approximately 20 months 

to complete.

Working with EPA 

on the Hillcrest 

Hospital project 

is one of the best 

experiences I’ve 

ever had as a 

public servant.

Alex Brown,

Town Manager, Finance Director,

Town of Silver City, New Mexico

“

“

For more information: 

Visit the EPA Brownfields website at 

www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact 

Denise Williams at 214-665-9749 or 

Williams.Denise@epa.gov.

EPA 560-F-18-174

October 2020

The Cleanup

Thanks to a previous relationship with the Brownfields program, Brown 

says the remediation process was relatively seamless. “Based on my 

experience working with the town’s Brownfields office to clean up old 

mill sites in town, I knew that EPA would be helpful in transforming the 

Hillcrest Hospital site.” 

The town received a $342,560 EPA Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund 

Grant to cover the costs of waste removal and building teardown. The 

loan allowed financing with a 20 percent repayment discount at zero 

percent interest, which helped accelerate payback time. Cleanup began 

in 2007, and demolition of the hospital was complete by 2009.

The Redevelopment

Brown’s next task was to find a new tenant. The city council targeted 

hotels and other businesses tied to recreational tourism, but good fits 

and interested buyers were few and far between. The site remained 

vacant and under town control until late 2016, when Bethel Development 

approached Brown. Bethel specializes in affordable housing and had 

experience working in Silver City, having developed the Silver Cliffs 

Apartments on the north side of town.

“Bethel provided us with an independent analysis, which concluded that 

Silver City’s senior population needed affordable housing,” says Brown. 

“Subsequent research on our end indicated the same thing. All we had to 

do was work out the acquisition details.”

Silver City was willing to donate the land to Bethel, and the company 

received a five-point tax credit for building on a brownfields site through 

the state of New Mexico’s Qualified Allocation Plan. The parties finalized 

the details in June 2017, and construction of Mountain View Senior 

Apartments began in April of the following year.

The Benefits

Brown expects Mountain View Senior Apartments to benefit Silver City 

beyond providing elderly residents with affordable homes. “Having this 

resource should spur more economic development. Bethel will invest 

in maintenance and administrative staff, and, as an added bonus, other 

businesses can point to Mountain View as a place where prospective 

employees can bring their parents.”

Apartment construction was completed in fall 2019, and many of the 69 

housing units are currently occupied.

“I’m so happy that Silver City found its ‘prince charming’ buyer in Bethel,” 

says Denise Williams, Brownfields Project Officer for EPA Region 6. 

“What was once just an abandoned building is now a tremendous asset.”