blog.cuyler.com

Cuyler Burk, P.C., a New Jersey Law Firm, congratulates its partners, Rich Crooker and Ed Collins, its client, International Risk Group, LLC, the City of Downey (California), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the General Services Administration (GSA) and the other stakeholders and their advisors on the Downey, California redevelopment project’s receipt of the Phoenix Award for Region 9 of the USEPA at the Brownfields 2008 Conference in Detroit, May 5-7, 2008. The Phoenix Award is recognized as a top environmental award for development of significant brownfields sites using innovative and practical remediation processes to restore contaminated sites to productive use with positive impact for their communities.

This award stems from the successful return of the Former NASA/Downey Industrial Plant in Downey to productive use. The work, which has been progressing since 2003, involves environmental remediation and redevelopment of 160 acres of property located approximately 15 miles east of Los Angeles International Airport. The property was used by the military for airplane assembly during the World War II era and later by NASA in its Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. The property then became excess to NASA’s mission but remained contaminated, principally with solvents in soil and groundwater incidental to the work performed there over the years.

The transaction provides an illustration of Early Transfer of contaminated federal property in accordance with CERCLA. The structure demonstrates how vital site-controls needed for effective privatization of historical environmental clean up cost on a fixed budget must be balanced with the realities of real estate development, requiring that all stakeholders perform with a sound understanding of the degree to which all rights and interests are intertwined.

Mr. Crooker’s client, International Risk Group, worked closely with the GSA, NASA, the City and other stakeholders to build the required relationships and agreements. The Governor of California, advised by state regulators, then signed off on the transaction, setting in motion the process whereby the real property and improvements were transferred from Federal Government ownership to the City prior to completion of environmental cleanup with private ownership and redevelopment commencing simultaneously.

Private redevelopment includes the Downey Studios (a major motion picture and television studio), a retail power center (Downey Landing) and a Kaiser Permanente regional hospital center and related complex. The transaction was facilitated by an environmental risk assumption agreement undertaken by a subsidiary of International Risk Group, by which it agreed to perform the required environmental clean up to no further action and to insulate the exiting federal government and incoming stakeholders, including the City of Downey, from financial risk associated with historical environmental conditions. Manuscripted environmental insurance products were utilized to secure these obligations.

Since the real estate and environmental risk assumption transaction closed in 2003, numerous major films, as well as the television series Smash Lab, have been made at the Studio, the retail center has opened and continues to operate at or near full occupancy, and construction of the hospital complex continues. Kaiser Permanente’s medical facilities are scheduled to commence full operations in 2010. Development has occurred simultaneously with ongoing environmental remediation at the site.

For further information, contact Richard Crooker at 973.734.3200 or rcrooker@cuyler.com.

The following article appeared in NJ CEO magazine and is reproduced here with permission.

MAKING HISTORY

A legal visionary guides a museum into the future

BY SUSAN BRIERLY

When it comes to her career, Jo Ann Burk is all about championing change.

In 1987, as the legal ranks were filling with female associates, women partners were still scarce. So Burk joined four other attorneys to found Cuyler Burk, P.C., in Parsippany.

“I was particularly proud to manage a highly visible commercial law firm with major corporate clients in the late 1980s - a time when women attorneys just weren’t doing that in New Jersey,” says the Chester resident and Seton Hall law school grad.

When she’s not in her office or a courtroom, you’ll likely find Burk at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum in Morristown, where her mission is preserving the past.

“This wonderful 1810 home was the residence of prominent families for five generations,” she says. “It’s seen its share of politicians, military heroes, business entrepreneurs and artists.” Indeed, past visitors include President Ulysses S. Grant and Commodore Matthew Perry. Burk sits on the board of the nonprofit museum, which boasts one of the state’s finest collections of furniture and art from the 18th and early 19th centuries.

“It’s a real pleasure to help launch events and exhibits, like the museum’s private collection of works by 19th-century political cartoonist Thomas Nast,” she says. This year Burk is taking her efforts to a new level, volunteering to launch a corporate membership program, which invites businesses to sponsor museum events.

Burk has taken on new professional roles too.

In 2007, she became CEO and majority shareholder of Cuyler Burk and was ranked by NJBIZ magazine as one of the state’s top 50 female business owners. Her firm also received its Women’s Business Enterprise National Council certification. It’s a fitting designation for a company that’s always been managed by a woman.

On November 2, 1987, Cuyler Burk opened our doors with five lawyers who left their traditional firms to strike out on their own. Stephen Cuyler, Jo Ann Burk, Richard Crooker, Michael Jones and Peter Petrou (along with secretary Marian Kelly) hung their shingle at 44 Whippany Road in Morristown, and a dynasty law firm was born.

Over the next week or two we’ll be sharing some stories from those past twenty years. We hope you visit often, or sign up for our RSS feed (by clicking on that giant orange icon on the right, there) …

HILLSBOROUGH & MANVILLE – Somerset County officials’ vision for a winding, contiguous greenway along the scenic Raritan River corridor has received a significant boost with the acquisition of 197 acres straddling these two municipalities.

The county closed last week on the Maverick Construction Co. tract that includes the former landfill used by Johns-Manville Corp.

The landfill section of the property has been capped, as required by state regulations, and will not be used. But the remainder of the property is envisioned for passive recreation as part of the Raritan River Greenway, Freeholder Director Robert Zaborowski said.

“We already have acquired several hundred acres as part of this greenway,” he said. “The addition of almost 200 more is a tremendous asset to our preservation efforts in this area.” He noted that the Maverick property acquisition brings the total of preserved open space in Somerset County to just over 10,000 acres, or half the county’s ultimate preservation goal.

Purchase price for the land was $700,000. Maverick Construction Co., based in Hillsborough, was owned by Frank A. Marchello, who died in 2002. The landfill portion of the tract is just under half the total acreage.

The county has agreed to allow continued use of a ball field and clubhouse on the property by the Manville Youth Athletic League which will be guaranteed through a long-term lease agreement with the Borough of Manville.

Freeholder Director Zaborowski commended the Somerset County Park Commission, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and consultants Cuyler-Burk of Parsippany and Kleinfelder of Hamilton for bringing the purchase to fruition.

He credited Somerset County Parks Directory Raymond Brown and Planning and Land Acquisition Manager Tom Boccino; attorneys Ed Collins, Andrew Craig and Richard A. Crooker of Cuyler Burk; professional engineer Donald W. Richardson of Kleinfelder; NJDEP Assistant Commissioner of Site Remediation Irene Kropp; and Ken Kloo and Ian Curtis of the NJDEP Office of Brownfields Reuse.

Cuyler Burk, PC. a Morris County law firm has announced its intention to begin blogging.

Our goal is to introduce our clients and the larger community to the people who work here.

We hope you’ll join us. There’s no set format, no set length. People aren’t forced to blog, but we think it’ll be a great way to share our knowledge and observations about legal and non-legal issues with you.