The Commercial Development Company (CDC), which calls itself “North America’s leading brownfield developer,” acquires environmentally-impacted lands from industrial operators, pledging to clean them up and sell them for redevelopment. But residents are often left frustrated when the properties remain undeveloped, sometimes for decades. In a six-month investigation supported by the Fund – involving property records, court documents, site visits and interviews – Daniel Propp (reporting for Inside Climate News) tracked down 63 brownfield sites currently or formerly owned by CDC subsidiaries and found that only 15 had been successfully redeveloped. The article exposes the playbook CDC follows for brownfield acquisitions – and why it can be more profitable for the company to leave a distressed property unused than to sell it for redevelopment.
Grantee uncovers how North America’s leading brownfield redeveloper makes millions by not redeveloping brownfields
