EASTON, Pa. — Easton has officially approved an agreement to sell land once occupied by Easton Iron and Metal for $1.5 million, with a developer planning on building housing in its place.
City Council passed a bill approving the agreement between the city and Foundry Development Group, LLC, in which the latter agreed to pay $1.5 million for the former scrapyard.
Vacant since 2015, the site was acquired by the city’s Redevelopment Authority in 2019 and subsequently turned over to the city in 2023.
“It's complicated... but we're experienced with these type of projects, and we're looking forward to getting started..."VM Development Group Partner Gretchen Rice
VM Development Group, which is working on a plan to transform the space into housing and commercial operations, said their original plans introduced in 2021 have not changed much in the time since.
The previous proposal from VM called for 150 homes and 20,000 square feet of commercial space to be built on the property.
VM Development Group Partner Gretchen Rice said there is a “general idea” of what will be done with the property once they are ready to begin the project, though they are not sure as how many units will be available in the structures until they reach the design development phase.
“But it will likely be four buildings, two on each side of Bushkill Drive, multifamily, primarily with commercial components on the first floor all of the buildings,” Rice said.
Rice said that VM is hoping to work with the city to improve stretches of Bushkill Drive as part of the project, in addition to maintaining the Karl Stiner Arts Trail, which she said, “will continue through the parcel, likely hugging the creek on the southern portion of the parcel, and then come back out as part of the larger trail.”
VM may also consider adding a recreation area to the property, Rice added.
Due to the presence of hazardous materials on the 11-acre property, it took some time for city officials to find a developer willing and able to take on the hefty project.
“I appreciate them taking on such a challenging project, and the cleanup and remediation and everything, and then the ultimate development of the project,” Councilman Frank Pintabone said.
VM advertises that it specializes in “adaptive reuse and new construction partnerships in urban environments,” according to its website.
“It's complicated, given the nature of the environmental condition of the site and the floodplain due to its proximity to the Bushkill Creek, but we're experienced with these type of projects, and we're looking forward to getting started and working with the city on the cleanup and the ultimate redevelopment of the site,” Rice said.
Moving forward
While the purchase and sale agreement for the property has passed, it will take some time — possibly a year or more — before everything is finalized and VM can begin work on the property.
Currently, the property sits under the control of the city, Public Works Director Dave Hopkins said, which is currently in the midst of a detailed process with the Pennsylvania DEP, “and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a letter of release of liability, and that is what you need to have for the development to be successful.”
“That way, the city is not liable, and the developer is not liable for anything,” Hopkins said.
Currently, the city has put out a bid for a qualified environmental person, or QEP, a firm that often tends to specialize in special brownfieldsites like the Bushkill Drive property.
The QEP will then create a site remediation plan and a civil drawing — a technical drawing detailing grading, landscaping, and other details found in the land plot — before the city can tap into a $500,000 Brownfields Cleanup Grant they acquired previously for test borings and other necessities.
Following that, the city will have to go to the Conservation District for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which helps in the regulation of sources of water pollution.
“So at that point, at the agreement of sale that was approved tonight, once we can get that NPDES permit from the Conservation District, then the developer will feel comfortable enough that they have enough of an approval where it's not going to result in some kind of disaster where they have to transfer the property back to the city,” Hopkins said.
From there on out, the developer would take remediation efforts into their own hands, Hopkins said, “and that's when the developer will take over ownership of the property, and the development will go from there.”
According to Easton Solicitor Joel Scheer, the complex series of environmental remediation efforts between the city turning over the property to the developer stems from the fact that “there’s nothing standard about this property.”
“I mean, there's a lot of unusual things, because it's a Brownfield site. It is not a clean site, so it's going to take time,” Scheer said, adding “Who knows what they’ll find? They’ve got a lot of stuff to do.”
Mayor Sal Panto Jr. appeared relieved to start the process of turning the property over to VM, and Pintabone seemed rather excited about new housing and commercial properties in the city.
“We're going to get the cash revenue from it, get the [Earned Income Tax] from it, so it’s beneficial to the city,” Pintabone said.
“And again, it was an old iron and metal junkyard — to have that redeveloped and for the city to get some revenue from it, man, it’s just great.”
