Developers of the old Mohawk Tannery site in Nashua say their project could serve as a model for the future clean-up and redevelopment of other contaminated sites across the region.

State, city and business officials held an official ground-breaking ceremony late last month at the 40-acre, long-closed industrial site on the outskirts of downtown Nashua.

If all goes well, the developers – Windcrest Properties and Thorndike Development, doing business together as Blaylock Holdings LLC – hope to clean up the heavily polluted tract of land over the next 18 to 24 months and build 546 housing units over the following eight years or so.

Assuming the $350 million project is completed within its projected 10 years, the final product will not only mean the replacement of a toxic wasteland along the Nashua River with hundreds of much needed condominiums and apartments – as well as with new green space, swimming pools, a riverwalk and other amenities.

The unique clean-up funding partnership could also serve as a blueprint for future redevelopment of brownfield, Superfund and other former industrial sites that need expensive remediation efforts before they can be redeveloped, development executives said.

“It’s a good future model for communities that are not getting the attention they need” to clean up polluted properties, said Bernie Plante, owner and manager of Windcrest Properties, which has offices in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

A ‘Unique Agreement’

The term “public-private partnership” often causes eyes to roll due to its overuse in the past by politicians, nonprofit organizations and business groups alike.

But Plante, whose company is currently handling another major clean-up and redevelopment project in Massachusetts, and others say the Mohawk Tannery cooperative funding agreement is truly unique because it has received the blessing of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Typically, the EPA aggressively pursues the original polluters of a site, demanding they primarily pay for required property cleanups, said Plante. Such a process can take years, if ever, to finally get results.

But early last year the EPA approved what it called a “unique agreement” in which the Mohawk Tannery remediation costs will be shared among a number of different parties, including private developers who are not held liable for pollution at the site.

In the case of the old Mohawk Tannery, the EPA, the state Department of Environmental Services, the city of Nashua, Blaylock Holdings and others have kicked in a combined $31 million to clean up the site, according to an EPA news release.

The EPA alone contributed nearly a third of the funds, or roughly $9.5 billion, via a direct grant, while Blaylock has committed more than $7 million to the clean-up efforts.

Among other funding sources, DES has pledged $3.4 million, the city of Nashua $2 million, and the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority $2 million, officials said.

“This is cooperative federalism in action—unlocking new opportunities for economic growth and community revitalization, using taxpayer dollars responsibly, and delivering cleaner land and water for the people of Nashua,” EPA New England Regional Administrator Mark Sanborn said in a statement earlier this year. “The Mohawk Tannery cleanup agreement highlights a great example of what we can accomplish through strong public and private partnerships.”

Matt Sullivan, the community development director for the city of Nashua, called the funding arrangement “unprecedented” and most welcome.

“We couldn’t be more supportive of this project,” he said.

The Clean-Up

The Mohawk Tannery site has most definitely needed environmental remediation ever since the old tannery closed in the early 1980s.

Cleanup work will include excavation of industrial waste – including old animal hides, heavy metals, asbestos and other contaminated materials – and disposing it all in a new waste containment cell.

The new so-called “secant pile walls,” a type of underground concrete barrier, are designed to contain contaminants and protect the nearby Nashua River, project representatives say.

Secant pile walls have been commonly used over the years at other environmental clean-up sites.

Meanwhile, two contaminated lagoons will be capped, among other numerous remediation efforts at the sprawling Mohawk Tannery site.

“At the end of the day, the project will entail a lot of earth moving,” said Michael Devin, vice president and director of community relations at Thorndike Development, whose headquarters are in Natick, Massachusetts.

“It’s been a huge effort. The amount of time put into planning this [cleanup] was just incredible,” he added.

Future Housing Includes Affordable Units

Sullivan, the city’s community development director, said officials looked at a number of future redevelopment options at the old tannery site.

Among other things, for years the city eyed possibly turning the site, located just west of downtown Nashua, into some sort of economic development zone or a mixed-use development with housing, offices and retail.

But city officials, with the blessing of nearby neighbors, ultimately decided that housing was probably the best use for the site.

“The city has a tremendous demand for new housing – and the site didn’t have the right characteristics for other uses,” Sullivan said. “So multifamily housing emerged as the best option.”

In the end, the city and developers agreed to a tentative plan calling for nine buildings containing 260 apartment units and 316 condos.

About 20 percent of the apartments will be affordable units, while developers have agreed to pay the city $2.5 million for housing-related projects elsewhere in lieu of designating some of the site condos as affordable.

Amenities at the old Mohawk Tannery site will include a playground for children, a canoe/kayak launch along the river, clubhouses and two pools, a riverwalk and a pedestrian bridge across the Nashua River connecting the site to the city’s Mine Falls Park.

Thorndike’s Devin said the final development may include some retail, but not much.

“The city has really pushed for housing,” he said. “If there is ever some retail, it will be nothing of significance. Right now, it’s all going to be residential.”