Real Estate

      Admirals Wharf
      Forbes Park
      Major Northeast Power Company
      Providence Piers
      St. Croix Renaissance Park

Admirals Wharf

The Admiral's Wharf project will restore a once heavily contaminated 40-acre site on Stamford, Connecticut's South End waterfront to a major economic and recreational resource. The property was the site of a coal gasification plant that closed in the 1970s. Contamination at the site was extensive and included coal tars, cadmium, arsenic, lead, petroleum and PCBs.

BlueWave was an equity partner on the development team and was involved in the site planning and acquisition, environmental permitting, regulatory and community relations and the incorporation of green design standards.

The $250 million redevelopment plan included a 250,000 square foot office building, 500+ housing units (including affordable housing), a 200-room conference and corporate training center, a high-speed ferry terminal with 30-minute service to Lower Manhattan, Long Island and LaGuardia Airport, a marina expansion, 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, parking for 2,300 cars, and a 4,000-foot public waterfront walkway. It will turn an idle brownfield into a tax-paying development that provides public access to the harbor and brings jobs and affordable housing to the area. "[The Project] is being hailed in many quarters of Stamford as a long-sought catalyst for the rebirth of the city's troubled South End peninsula." (NYT, 10/22/00) BlueWave and its partners sold their interests in the property in 2005 upon completion of the state and local entitlement process.

Forbes Park

Forbes Park is an innovative brownfields redevelopment project on the Chelsea waterfront at the confluence of Chelsea and Mill Creeks. The developer, Urban Design and Development Inc., is cleaning up contamination on the 16 acre site of Forbes Lithograph Building, rehabbing the existing 19th Century brick buildings into loft-style residential units, creating an "urban wild" conservation area along the waterfront, establishing an environmental education center, and restoring degraded salt marshes, among other environmentally-beneficial efforts. The development of the lofts incorporates a sustainable design strategy using the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED framework as a guide, and the site will include a utility scale wind turbine generator that will provide renewable energy for a portion of the project's electric demand.

BlueWave served as a strategic advisor to the project on regulatory matters. This support included reviewing regulatory compliance and facilitating consideration of a broader vision for Forbes Park expanded to include the redevelopment of the neighboring Fuel Terminal site. BlueWave assisted during the Energy Facilities Siting Board and MEPA process relative to Chelsea Peak Energy's peaking facility which abuts Forbes Park.

Major Northeast Power Company

BlueWave worked with one of the largest natural gas suppliers in the Northeast, and the nation, to evaluate options for its surplus real estate assets. The Power Company has several divisions that offer energy-related products and services to residences and businesses. As the result of corporate mergers, it also owns numerous surplus prop-erties that are no longer necessary for utility operations but have real market value. The Company retained Blue-Wave to help develop a strategy for the disposition of one of these properties - a contaminated former manufactured gas plant site located on the waterfront and within walking distance of a major commuter rail station in Massachusetts.

BlueWave organized and led a team of real estate, planning, risk management and environmental engineering professionals to determine the highest and best use of the site. As part of this effort, BlueWave:

• Developed a thorough understanding of the site's physical, political and environmental development constraints;
• Identified the permits and licenses needed to redevelop the site and devised a strategy for obtaining them; and
• Presented a detailed summary of the four most promising re-development options.

Providence Piers

Providence Piers will transform a portion of Providence's old industrial waterfront into an exciting new mixed-use development that will feature condominiums, unique workspace, top-notch restaurants, shops, a marina, and ample public amenities. The 15-acre waterfront site is located on Allens Avenue, just south of Downtown Providence. It parallels the eastern edge of Interstate-95 and is only a short distance from three major hospitals. Developers Patrick and Gail Conley are pursuing the $300 million development vision in three phases. Phase I is complete and resulted in the full rehabilitation of a historic 45,000 square foot industrial building into a mixed-use complex containing artists' studios, galleries, a conference center and a special function facility. Phase II includes wharf improvements, a floating restaurant, several waterside transportation services (ferry boats, small cruise ships, etc.), and a marina. Phase III involves the full development of the adjacent land including retail, an extended stay hotel, structured parking, office space, condominiums and public open space.

Conley retained BlueWave to provide strategic counsel on environmental remediation and permitting matters and to assist with outreach and marketing and capital sourcing.

• Environmental Remediation and Permitting Strategies: BlueWave helped develop and execute strategies for site remediation and environmental risk management. As part of this effort, BlueWave met with federal, state and city officials, political leaders and the local community. BlueWave also helped secure a change in site zoning that was consistent with the redevelopment vision.
• Marketing and Outreach: BlueWave designed and wrote a Comprehensive Plan that describes all components of the development plan, including state and local entitlements, environmental commitments, schedules and funding strategies.
• Capital Sourcing: BlueWave developed a strategy for securing public funds for various aspects of the project including site assessment and remediation and efforts to make the project more environmentally sustainable.

St. Croix Renaissance Park

St. Croix Renaissance Park is a 1200-acre industrial property on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). BlueWave is an equity partner in its development and is deeply involved in the site planning, regulatory strategy, public financing, environmental permitting of the on-site power facility and other operations, and the incorporation of "green" elements into the development plans, including renewable energy.

The site is located on the southern coast of St. Croix adjacent to Hovensa, the largest oil refinery in the Western Hemisphere. In 1962, Harvey Aluminum developed the property in conjunction with the USVI Government and built one of the world's largest alumina production operations. Since that time several companies including Martin Marietta and Alcoa have owned and operated the site for alumina production. A declining alumina market led Alcoa to close the facility in 2001. St. Croix Renaissance Group purchased the idle property in June 2002 and from the beginning has made clear its commitment to balance its business objectives with sound environmental stewardship.

The property includes more than 300 acres of industrial buildings and infrastructure. Other site assets include a 65 MW coal-fired power plant, a two million gallon per day desalinization facility, undeveloped coastal areas and one of the largest and most sheltered deep-water ports in the Caribbean. The multi-faceted redevelopment plan includes full utilization of the power generating and water producing facilities, the siting of environmentally responsible industrial and commercial and energy-related businesses and a variety of major port operations. This brownfields revitalization effort offers a true "win-win" in terms of promoting both economic growth and environmental protection in the USVI.