GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Three Northeast Wisconsin communities have been awarded federal grants to help revitalize vacant and unused properties.
It was announced on Thursday that $1.4 million in Brownfield grants will be given to Green Bay, Oshkosh, and Calumet County.
The $300,000 awarded to Calumet County will be used to investigate environmental conditions at properties targeted for redevelopment in Chilton, New Holstein, and Brillion.
The plans for those sites include developing new, affordable housing, building new, sustainable manufacturing companies and expanding retail opportunities.
Green Bay will be using its $300,000 portion of the grant to determine if properties targeted for redevelopment have low levels of contamination, which could halt progress.
Some of those properties are on Velp Avenue, near Broadway, and University Avenue.
The Green Bay Redevelopment Authority also received its own grant of $500,000 and the group plans on using the money to clean up the city’s Shipyard property.
That’s part of a $1.2 million remediation effort to cap soils with low levels of contamination to the make the property safe to reuse.
The Shipyard, which is located next to the Mason Street Bridge along the Fox River, will have a new recreation area, energy-efficient buildings for business, and new housing.
While the $300,000 grant awarded to the city of Oshkosh will be used to determine whether low contamination exists in City Center district properties, including former industrial sites and a vacant hotel building.
This is the third Brownfield grant awarded to Oshkosh, after a previous grant funded the cleanup of the Mercury Marine property, which eventually led to a new $4.4 million development that created almost 20 jobs.
