Leading New York City real estate and environmental law professionals will gather at a daylong symposium, "Redeveloping Brownfields in New York: Where Do We Go From Here?" sponsored by the Center for Real Estate Studies at New York Law School on Friday, January 11, 2008 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:35 p.m. at the Law School, located on 47 Worth Street.
"This conference will feature the first announcement of the results of the 2007 New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP)," Adjunct Professor of environmental law Larry Schnapf said. "It will be the first opportunity in 2008 to talk about what the state and city of New York have in store for the future of the program."
The BCP's goal is to enhance private sector cleanups of brownfields, properties where expansion or redevelopment may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of environmental contaminations, and to reduce developmental pressure on clean undeveloped land.
"The Center for Real Estate Studies is pleased to gather experts on brownfields from agencies such as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), the Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination, and the New York Environmental Protection & Spill Compensation Fund to discuss a wide range of difficult issues commonly encountered when redeveloping contaminated sites in the New York metropolitan area," Professor Andrew Berman, Director of the Center for Real Estate Studies, said.
Some of the issues that will be addressed include:
-The first discussion and analysis of the recent landmark decision in which the State Supreme Court in Rochester ruled that the NYSDEC was wrong to exclude Lighthouse Pointe Property Associates LLC from the BCP.
-Recent guidance and application procedures for the BCP
-Legislative proposals for amending the BCP tax credits
-Case studies on tax credit reimbursements awarded to date
-How to interweave the New York City Department of Environmental Protection "e" designation program with the BCP and/or other NYSDEC remediation programs
-Alternative mechanisms for remediating sites that are not eligible for the BCP
-Financial incentives for petroleum-contaminated sites and green buildings
-How to work with local community groups to plan and promote sustainable redevelopment
The Center for Real Estate Studies is co-sponsoring the conference with the Environmental Business Association of New York State and the Environmental Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.