In Greenville, SC, Coordinating Resources

from two EPA Programs Maximizes Their

Effectiveness and Results 

Coordinated Cleanup Approach 

The City of Greenville, South Carolina (population 56,002) is located 

in the state’s Piedmont region, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge 

Mountains. The city features a rich diversity of living environments and 

neighborhoods. In a single decade (1992-2002), Greenville was home to 

more than $160 million in new residential construction, and an additional 

$100 million in renovations to older neighborhoods. The city has a thriving 

downtown that has been nationally recognized as a ‘state-of-the-art’ 

community in which to live. In addition to being Greenville’s business 

core, the downtown offers a variety of unique shops, restaurants, art 

galleries, museums, public parks, and entertainment facilities, and has 

seen a boom in new housing development as a result of its appeal. 

The economic growth and prosperity experienced by Greenville’s 

downtown has yet to flow over into the city’s West Greenville corridor. 

Located approximately 1.2 miles from downtown, West Greenville is a 

230-acre neighborhood best conceptualized as five distinct, but related, 

subdistricts. Approximately 40 percent of families in West Greenville live 

at or below the poverty level, and the area’s unemployment rate is 12 

percent. Minorities, primarily African-Americans, make up 66 percent of 

residents. The area has been plagued by rising crime rates, dilapidated 

and limited affordable housing, and antiquated infrastructure. The 

neighborhood has a disproportionate number of brownfields—mostly 

large, abandoned or underutilized industrial facilities. Gas stations, dry 

cleaning facilities, railroad properties, and other commercial and industrial 

sites line the corridor. Perceived or known environmental contamination 

of these properties has impeded the area’s development. 

To address contaminated areas of the West Greenville neighborhood, the 

city combined resources from multiple EPA Programs, using one grant to 

fund administrative costs while another enabled environmental 

assessments. The resulting findings have already allowed two major 

redevelopment projects to proceed—offering critical new housing and 

care for the area’s homeless, providing a new community center with a 

wealth of new activities for West Greenville residents, creating new jobs, 

and revitalizing the local economy. 

In partnership with Greenville County and Clemson University, the City 

of Greenville developed a comprehensive revitalization plan for West 

Greenville, identifying the intersection of Birnie and South Hudson 

continued • 

Reedy Place, a facility for the homeless in

Greenville, SC, opened in October 2006. 

JUST THE FACTS: • Environmental concerns were inhibiting 

critical redevelopment plans for five 

properties located in the West Greenville, 

SC Neighborhood. 

• The City of Greenville, SC coordinated 

resources from multiple EPA cleanup and 

land revitalization intiatives to address the 

environmental concerns plaguing the West 

Greenville Neighborhood properties. 

• No Further Action (NFA) letters were 

issued to West Greenville property owners 

by The South Carolina Department of 

Health & Environmental Countrol. 

• To date, two major redevelopment projects 

have proceeded on former USTField sites: 

• Reedy Place, a $1.3 million dollar 

HOME for the chronically homeless, 

constructed in the West Greenville 

Neighborhood, opened its doors in 

October 2006. 

• A $67 million Ray and Joan Kroc 

Community Center is being constructed 

to serve the residents of the West 

Greenville Neighborhood. 

This coordination of

resources, and the state’s

efficiency in securing and working

with assessment contractors,

ultimately allowed the USTfields grant

to assess twice the number of

properties originally estimated—

including a number of

additional UST sites in

West Greenville.
A vacant service station building in Greenville, SC,

future site of the Salvation Army Ray and

Joan Kroc Community Center. 

Streets as having particular redevelopment potential. Research 

indicated that the plan’s targeted area had been host to gas stations, 

auto service, and other facilities that stored petroleum as early as 

1913, though the area’s last gas station closed in the 1980s. 

To start addressing the environmental and economic concerns 

identified in the West Greenville neighborhood, the city conducted 

multiple environmental assessments on brownfields properties with 

funding from a $200,000 EPA Brownfields Assessment grant 

awarded in 2000. To remedy the environmental concerns caused 

by the area’s underground petroleum storage tanks, EPA awarded 

the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental 

Control $100,000 under the Agency’s USTfields Program in July 

2002. The state used a portion of a $808,999 EPA Brownfields 

Section 128(a) State and Tribal grant awarded to South Carolina in 2003 to handle the associated 

administrative and grant management expenses, allowing 100 percent of USTfields funding to be used 

for assessment costs. This coordinating of resources, and the state’s efficiency in securing and working 

with assessment contractors, ultimately allowed the USTfields grant to assess twice the number of 

properties originally estimated—including a number of additional UST sites in West Greenville. 

On West Greenville’s targeted sites, ground-penetrating radar assessments and other environmental 

investigations were completed in 2004 and 2005. Though one property required the removal of more 

than 340 gallons of petroleum waste, the majority of targeted properties required no cleanup—resulting 

in No Further Action Letters issued by the state to the property owners. 

The removal of contamination uncertainties on these properties, and assurances of freedom from 

liability, made all the difference. One of these sites was purchased by the Upstate Homeless Coalition, 

which subsequently constructed “Reedy Place,” a $1.3 million facility for the homeless that leveraged 

approximately 70 jobs through construction and redevelopment. The project involved a collaboration 

among the Upstate Homeless Coalition of SC, the SC Department of Mental 

Health, the Greenville Mental Health Center, the Phoenix Center (a 

locally-based substance abuse clinic), community churches, the 

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, state 

housing programs, and the City of Greenville. Reedy Place 

opened its doors in October 2006, providing the first safe haven 

for the chronically homeless not only in Greenville, but in all of 

South Carolina. 

The vast majority of those who seek refuge at Reedy Place are 

mentally ill. As described by Mike Chesser, Director of the Upstate 

Homeless Coalition, “[Reedy Place] is a housing-first model; once 

people are stabilized in housing they are more open and able to work on 

stabilizing their mental illness and the problems associated with that illness.” The facility is within 

walking distance of Greenville Mental Health Center, allowing residents to take advantage of those 

services as well. “Officials from other South Carolina cities have inquired about our experience, the 

design of the building and our program,” Chesser added, “and are now exploring the possibility of 

replicating the program in their cities.” 

Artist’s rendering of the future site of the Salvation Army Ray

and Joan Kroc Community Center. 

continued • 

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-239 

Greenville, South Carolina and Emergency March 2008 

Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/ 
Another of the USTfields grant-assessed properties was purchased by the Salvation Army of Greenville 

for construction of the new, $67 million Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. Located in multiple cities, 

Kroc Community Centers are known for their community accessibility, outreach to disadvantaged 

residents and their families, and their high-quality facilities and programs including education, fitness, arts 

and worship. Greenville’s 90,000-square-foot Kroc Community Center has helped to leverage more than 

200 jobs and strengthened the economical and social viability of the West Greenville neighborhood and 

surrounding communities. The Center offers traditional Salvation Army resources as well as meeting 

other community needs, including a state-of-the art golf-training academy for use by the local Boys and 

Girls’ Club; a 16-court tennis complex with lighted facilities and a stadium-style center court; and an 

aquatics center that provides water safety, health and fitness, medical rehabilitation, and special-needs 

programs. The Center uses income generated from memberships and court fees to offset program costs 

and promote the Center’s availability to disadvantaged areas of the city. According to G. Frances Hines, 

Director of Development for The Salvation Army in Greenville, “The center’s design and programs were 

determined by the residents for the residents and will serve current and future residents 

for years to come.” 

A new elementary school, A. J. Wittenberg, is being constructed adjacent to 

the Kroc Community Center, as part of a mutually-beneficial arrangement 

between the Center and the school. Center members will have access to CONTACTS:

state-of-the-art computer labs at the school, while students will have full 

access to the Center. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Center was For more information contact 

held in November 2006, and all of the facility’s additional amenities will U.S. EPA REGION 4 

be completed in 2010. (404) 562-9900 

The transformation of contaminated properties in West Greenville, and Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at: 

the economic resurgence of surrounding areas, exemplifies the goals of http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ 

EPA’s Land Revitalization Initiative. The West Greenville properties 

targeted through USTFields and Brownfields 128(a) funding not only have 

had their contamination issues removed, but are being reused at tremendous 

benefit to local residents—providing critical housing and care, and a wealth of 

recreational and educational opportunities. Residents and community leaders can 

attest to the resulting increase in community pride, and a newfound hopefulness that future generations 

will be able to enjoy West Greenville’s burgeoning resources. 

As in Greenville, EPA programs dedicated to land revitalization are also being used to assess and clean up 

contaminated properties across the nation. By removing perceived or real barriers to redevelopment, 

communities just like West Greenville are becoming inviting, supportive and safe places for residents to 

live and raise their children. For more information on EPA’s Brownfields Program visit: 

http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/. For more information on other EPA land revitalization programs visit: 

http://www.epa.gov/landrevitalization/index.htm. 

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA-560-F-239 

Greenville, South Carolina and Emergency March 2008 

Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/