On Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Jordan Hess, along with EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker and city staff toured Missoula’s Old Sawmill District.

The Old Sawmill District is a 46-acre abandoned industrial site, formerly home to a lumber mill that operated from 1900 until the early 1990s.

In 2006, thanks to an EPA revolving loan fund Brownfields loan of $1,775,000, cleanup and redevelopment made way for a new 14-acre riverfront park, extension of Wyoming Street, market-rate and affordable housing, businesses and a new headquarters building for Cognizant.

The site has seen over $13 million in public investment through the Missoula Redevelopment Agency through the years and $100 million in private investment.

The area generates between $2 million and $3 million in annual tax revenue.

“We, along with the city, have made investments that have turned this into a park, recreational, residential and commercial. But sometimes developers, if they see that there is contamination or pollution on the site, they don’t want to touch it, so we can help get it cleaned up and get it ready for redevelopment,” said Becker.

During the past two decades, Missoula has been one of the most successful communities in the Mountain West in competing for and using EPA Brownfields grants to give former industrial and commercial properties new life.

The program has brought robust collaboration among city, county, state and federal governments, neighborhoods and developers.

For more information on this partnership click this link.