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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.

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.