We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2010 Brownfield Renewal Person of the Year Award!

Monte Hilleman

Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations and voted in our Person of the Year program.

Monte Hilleman, Vice President of BRedevelopment- Saint Paul Port Authority. For the past two and half years Mr. Hilleman has successfully managed the brownfield redevelopment of 3M Corporations former world headquarters in Saint Paul, MN into the Beacon Bluff Business Center. This 61 acre site represents the largest brownfield redevelopment the Saint Paul Port Authority has undertaken since redeveloping Energy Park as a response to the energy crisis in the 1970’s. Beacon Bluff will replace the 1,000 jobs lost when 3M relocated out of this economically disadvantaged neighborhood, as well as match or exceed 3M’s tax base contributions at the site. This highly visible public/private partnership effort has involved many intertwined concerns such as historic building preservation, community revitalization, creating jobs and tax base through redevelopment, large scale demolition and remedying environmental concerns.

Beacon Bluff site is a keystone light industrial/commercial site which is roughly 1/3 of the length of the award winning Phalen Corridor. It is critical for the ongoing economic viability of the City of Saint Paul, an econimc engine for the entire state. There are many parties that have a strong interest in this project. Mr. Hilleman has skillfully guided this wide diversity of interested parties, ranging from politicians to community members to consultants; and the navigated the sometimes perceived to be diametrically opposed ideas of historic preservation and job creation, through an extremely complex planning, design and construction process. The outcomes of the project are, bringing jobs back to the City’s East Side, innovative brownfields redevelopment practices, advancing sustainable development and ground-breaking collaboration between interested parties and a revitalized community.

The specific sustainable development innovations spearheaded by Mr. Hilleman in 2010 include the carbon footprinting of all new development at Beacon Bluff to assist in meeting the carbon neutral development goals of Architecture 2030, a Next Generation stormwater management system that will treat 163 acres of urban stormwater that previously discharged into the Mississippi River without being treated, using the aforementioned stormwater system as a demonstration, education and research station to gather data on water quality below stormwater BMPs and infiltration rates, developing a groundbreaking partnership between the University of MN, City of Saint Paul, Capitol Region Watershed District, and the MN Pollution Control Agency to implement and monitor the Next Generation system.