The most challenging aspect was the fact that the physical site conditions inherited with the Shops parcel caused challenging economic conditions for the redevelopment. Redevelopment at the MVIC involved safely remediating various environmental impacts from over 125 years of industrial use (petroleum-, chlorinated solvent-, heavy metal-, and asbestos-related contamination; contaminated runoff to the Menomonee River); and effectively mitigating miles of subsurface utilities and vaults; addressing stability issues inherent with organic, floodplain soils; and uplifting a parcel situated within the 100-year floodplain. Given this redevelopment's size, location, and political stature, the expectation of producing economic success at the redevelopment within a quick time frame added the final element of challenge. Innovative solutions used by the MVIC project team not only met these challenges, but in many cases achieved both environmental and financial benefits.

The location of the site within the 100-year floodplain was solved using a creative agreement with Wisconsin Department of Transportation to provide fill from their nearby interchange construction work, with a financial benefit of generating $1.5 million in tipping fees for the project and beneficial re-use of 700,000 cubic yards of material otherwise destined for construction or special waste landfills. The contaminated soil, groundwater, subsurface utilities, and building debris were remediated using onsite containment processes which were possible because of proactive and collaborative engagement of stakeholders and via value engineering throughout the program's lifecycle. Financial benefits of solving this challenge included a $10 million savings in offsite management and disposal costs, $120MM in ecological/recreational/aesthetic uplift, $1.5MM in imported fill revenue, and most importantly, a highly impacted, blighted parcel that has been transformed into a thriving development which has so far created over 700 sustained jobs, with a projection for 1200 when the development is complete.The challenge of providing a stormwater facility for the previously-contaminated parcel that met surface water quality standards was met using an innovative subsurface stormwater reservoir/treatment facility. The facility uses natural materials to treat all stormwater from 60 acres of the development area-cleaning water to a quality that exceeds all discharge requirements and providing a facility so that individual developers do not need their own stormwater systems.

• State grants were provided by the Wisconsin Department of Commerce and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) for infrastructure establishment, environmental cleanup and community park development. State Stewardship Funds were used for the creation of the Hank Aaron State Trail.
   
• Federal grants were received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. EPA, and the Economic Development Administration.

RACM wasn't alone in the MVIC effort-group cooperation, coordination, and collaboration built strong alliances among industry, community, and local government agencies. Menomonee Valley Partners, Inc. (MVP), a local nonprofit organization, coordinated monetary and in-kind support from the local community. Before the City took ownership of the site, MVP held public meetings to gather ideas for site redevelopment. A National Design Competition was held to create the development framework. Since then, through scores of public workshops, charrettes, and meetings, input has been gathered from hundreds of people representing a wide variety of constituencies: environmental consultants, bicyclists, birdwatchers, soccer players, neighborhood residents and neighboring businesses, engineers, ecologists, and environmental scientists. Input or continued involvement has come from all of these groups:

• Menomonee Valley Partners, Inc.
• Milwaukee Transportation Partners (including CH2M HILL and HNTB)
• Friends of Hank Aaron State Trail
• Milwaukee Riverkeepers
• Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
• Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin
• Urban Ecology Center (UEC)
• Merrill Park Neighborhood Association
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Wisconsin Department of Transportation
• Layton Boulevard West Neighbors
• Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
• Menomonee Valley Business Association
• Business Improvement District #26
• Urban Open Space Foundation
• Marquette University-Milwaukee
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• The real estate brokerage community
• AmeriCorps volunteer corps

The goal is to have a steady community voice for project progress through the next several years, and to develop and nurture community leaders who have a strong sense of connection to and ownership of the new public space and can serve as ambassadors to the greater neighborhood. Regular Valley events keep the community engaged in the work of building and maintaining a new shared asset. Annual Earth Day cleanup, Community Planting Days, and Run/Walk events keep people involved.

In addition, the City went through great efforts to engage small disadvantaged businesses throughout planning, design, and construction. With workforce development as one of the City's key objectives, pre-construction workshops were conducted, mentoring relationships were formed with larger contractors, and aspiring trade workers, scientists, and engineers were enlisted via the job service corp and the Mayor's youth internship program. These efforts resulted in an un-precedented 34% small disadvantaged business participation, and even more significantly, enhanced the capabilities and the resumes of these companies so they can now pursue a greater portfolio of job opportunities in the area.

The most innovative component of the MVIC redevelopment project has to be the design and construction of a subsurface stormwater reservoir/treatment facility that uses natural and recycled materials to collect and treat all runoff from 60 acres of the development area, offering an attractive alternative to traditional stormwater development requirements and cleaning the stormwater flows into the Menomonee River. This facility was designed and constructed with a system of vertical infiltration zones and subsurface conveyance layers built with recycled materials. The basins in the system use a permeable soil medium over a compacted clay subgrade to maximize stormwater absorption and vegetative uptake

This design removes sediments, road salt, and contaminants from stormwater runoff through both filtration and biological processes-- removing a minimum of 80 percent of total suspended solids as well as sodium, phosphorus, nitrogen and heavy metals. The system's surficial "bioretention" basins are planted with native vegetation to maximize evapotranspiration and reduce the volume of stormwater runoff. The system is augmented by sediment traps at pipe inlets to minimize maintenance of the wetlands and improve the quality of the ecosystems that can be maintained. The last basin in the series is a swamp forest that receives the treated stormwater and then disperses it into the Menomonee River via baseflow rather than overland flow.

The design and construction using recycled materials to meet a "Beneficial Reuse" focus included:

• Demolition and onsite management of more than 120,000 cubic yards of asbestos-containing building debris into landscaped mounds.
   
• 700,000 cubic yards of fill imported from local highway project to raise site (generated more than $1.5 million in revenue).
• 20,000 cubic yards of crushed concrete used in stormwater treatment facility structures and construction roads; excess sold to developers for foundation subgrade.
• Recycled glass panels used in trail and pathway railings.
• Former stockyard beams used to construct park benches and tables for the greenspace areas.
• Grubbed vegetation chipped and used in topsoil.
• Milwaukee region's "Cream City" brick from historical fill incorporated into present-day landscaping.
• Two historic smokestacks preserved as a marker of the site's industrial past-integrated into a park "gathering place."