When a developer takes on a slab of contaminated, abandoned land, cleans it, rehabilitates it, develops it, and transforms it into a useful component of a thriving economy and community, I’d call that a success by any measure.

But what exactly are the measures of that success? Can you put a number value on environmental restoration by the acre? How do you quantify the community growth generated by redeveloping and making useful a piece of abandoned real estate?

Any evaluation of those measures are inherently subjective, so it’s difficult if not impossible to measure them or compare them in any meaningful sense. But at my firm, Community Capital Management, we’ve found one measure of success that’s easy to track by translating social and environmental impact into financial benefit through investments like the one we made in Cuyahoga County.

The project, spearheaded by the Cuyahoga County Brownfield Redevelopment Fund, targeted a piece of contaminated, unusable land in a terribly blighted community near Cleveland, and aimed to transform it into a facility to help troubled youths. We consider this project a tremendous success, measuring it according to a “triple bottom line”: by its environmental effects, social impact, and its financial benefits to its investors and the community.

Public support paramount
Historically, Cuyahoga County’s economic base relied upon industrial and manufacturing activity. As in many regions in the Midwest, those industries have taken heavy hits in recent years, resulting in a dramatic economic decline and driving middle-income families out of the area. Many industrial areas and properties in Cuyahoga County have been abandoned, leaving some communities blighted, deprived of economic activity and plagued with poverty and crime.

A 1996 study by the Cleveland State University Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center identified more than 4,600 acres of brownfields in Cuyahoga County, which have little to no property value. Many of these brownfields, says the County’s Brownfield Redevelopment Division, have virtually no chance of rescue—without public intervention, that is—due to the environmental and financial risks and liabilities associated with their redevelopment, which few private developers are willing to take on.

To help remedy the situation, the Cuyahoga County Department of Development formed the Cuyahoga County Brownfield Redevelopment Fund (CCBRF), whose mission is to overcome environmental barriers to the full use of abandoned commercial and industrial properties in Cuyahoga County, by financing cleanup and redevelopment projects. The primary goals of the Fund are not only to remedy serious environmental contamination and to revitalize suffering neighborhoods, but also to create and help preserve jobs.

With investments from my firm as well as the Ohio Water Development Authority, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and local financial institutions, in addition to grants from community foundations and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the CCBRF took on one of Cuyahoga County’s brownfields to create an island of relief in a struggling community.

Vision in Cuyahoga County
This brownfield, the former site of Schmidt’s Brewery, is located in the heart of the Midtown Corridor, a desperate inner-city neighborhood in Cleveland. According to census data provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2002 the poverty rate in the Midtown Corridor was 58%, with a shocking poverty rate of 99% for minorities. With public support, this neighborhood is overcoming high crime rates, scarcity of economic opportunity, and dilapidated and run-down structures.

Here, Cuyahoga County officials envisioned an environmentally sustainable Youth Intervention Center that would become a diversion center to provide alternatives to incarceration for youthful offenders. At-risk youth, by court order or voluntary enrollment, would be directed to the center for a second chance at becoming productive members of the community.

This project and its results may be measured by three rubrics: the social and community impact it achieved, its environmental benefits, and its financial performance as an investment.

Rubric 1: Social & Community Impact
The Youth Intervention Center is the first in the world built according to green architecture standards and Department of Justice guidelines. It provides facilities such as a court, probation and court support, detention alternative programs, secure detention, and shelter care for teens with special needs. Other special amenities include common areas like activity rooms, public support space to serve the local community, and an outdoor courtyard with a community garden and greenhouse to serve and improve quality of life—not only for the Center’s inhabitants and staff, but for neighbors in the community as well.

The center provides programs, such as guidance for troubled and at-risk teens and youth offenders, expanded social services, educational programs, and family outreach programs. In a neighborhood whose blighted appearance may deter some potential residents and business owners, the aesthetic improvements and cleanup of the site helps set the stage for a neighborhood revitalization.

The impact that this Center will have on the troubled youths who voluntarily seek refuge in it, and those who are assigned to the facility by court order in lieu of a jail sentence, is incalculable. It will keep children who commit relatively minor, non-violent crimes, such as drug offenses, from being sent to prison and, further, from being haunted by a jail record for the rest of their lives. Studies show that juvenile criminal records pose significant barriers to finding employment later in life and are also associated with earning lower incomes – not to mention the social stigma, disruption of family and social networks, and the psychological and physical trauma suffered by a teen who serves time in prison.

Although society cannot condone criminal behavior or allow it to go unpunished, many children who commit non-violent crimes deserve a second chance at turning their lives around, and the Youth Intervention Center can help provide that chance as an alternative to incarceration and a provider of counseling and social services.

Rubric 2: Environment Restoration
Prior to the CCBRF’s commitment, the project site was home to varying industrial and mechanical facilities. Beginning from the early 1900s and extending through the 1930s, the site housed a number of industrial operations, including a foundry, a marble company, and a car company. Later, Schmidt’s Brewery and beer distribution center took over the property until the mid-1980s, when it ceased operations and all buildings on the property were razed. Since then, the property has sat empty, vandalized, and uninhabitable due to its chemical contamination.

To assess the site’s viability, the Ohio EPA investigated multiple environmental dangers, including an underground storage tank, oil storage tanks, areas used for metal pickling and enameling, and areas potentially containing asbestos. The results: the Ohio and U.S. EPA’s cited chemicals of concern such as arsenic, metals, PAHs, and volatile organic compounds.

After removing contaminated soil and water, disposing of subsurface foundations and debris, and completing backfill and restoration tasks, the site was finally ready for development.

In accordance with environmental standards for construction, the Center incorporates many “green” features to minimize its consumption of energy and water use. The building itself is sheltered with backfill for insulation. The living and common spaces within are aligned with southern exposure, providing sleeping rooms, recreation areas, and dining facilities with plenty of natural light. As a result, the building’s design minimizes its total energy consumption and assists with conserving the energy it does use.

In all, this project has had a significant benefit on Ohio’s environment by rehabilitating what was contended by some to be one of the area’s most contaminated sites, and by helping the facility continue to be sustainable by economizing its energy use.

Rubric 3: Financial Benefit
Community Capital Management invested in the Brownfield Redevelopment Project by purchasing a taxable economic development revenue bond issued by the county of Cuyahoga, Ohio to provide funds for the CCBRF.

These funds provided the capital necessary to appraise the property, acquire the land, perform environmental testing and remediation, complete site clearance and demolition and construct the facility, among other tasks.

Investments in the Youth Intervention Center resulted in financial return to the community by creating jobs during the rehabilitation and construction periods, as well as sustaining permanent jobs staffing, maintaining and supporting the center and counseling youths and family. In additional to creating a demand for goods and services in its community, the Center will also produce additional tax revenue for the County.

As for the financial characteristics of the investment our firm made in the project, the bonds we purchased have an AA credit rating and a coupon of 5.10%

Summing Up
What does this mean for you, your organization, or your government agency? Successful brownfield redevelopments, like the one described above, require financial involvement from multiple sources and sectors, such as federal agencies, state government, nonprofit organizations, commercial organizations, and private entities such as investors.

By using the “triple bottom line” method of assessing the expected or actual results of your project—the positive impacts on the environment, the community, and the financial benefit—you can effectively communicate to stakeholders the multi-layered spectrum of benefits that will be or have been accomplished by the funding poured into your project. That’s positive public relations, investor relations, and community relations—an investment into the perception of your project and, what’s more, an investment into the future of brownfield redevelopment.

Todd Cohen is President and Chief Investment Officer of Community Capital Management, one of the nation’s largest investment firms that exclusively manages fixed income, mission-based portfolios.