NORCROSS, Ga. – Renowned environmental legal expert Grant Trigger has just been announced as one of the featured speakers at the Industrial Asset Management Council's (IAMC at www.iamc.org) Spring 2003 Professional Forum in Palm Harbor, Fla. on Apr. 6-9. Trigger's Spring 2003 Forum presentation will focus on a corporate estate asset that's both long-standing problem and fast-blooming opportunity – brownfield sites.
        IAMC officials in Atlanta have confirmed that Trigger, a nationally recognized authority, will chair one of the Palm Harbor Forum's eight workshops: "New Value from Old Assets – Turn Excess Property into Profits, the Brownfields Way."

Reuse of brownfield sites like the one pictured above will be a focus of environmental legal expert Grant Trigger IAMC presentation, "New Value from Old Assets – Turn Excess Property into Profits, the Brownfields Way."

        And Trigger knows about reaping value from brownfield reclamation. His Palm Harbor presentation will draw on case studies from the high-profile projects on which he's worked. Those projects include a new 1-million-sq.-ft. (90,000-sq.-m.) retail center now being built on a 240-acre (96-hectare) landfill site and a US$350-million corporate world headquarters in downtown Detroit. Trigger will also focus on a topic of particular interest to IAMC members – converting obsolete manufacturing facilities into modern, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at below-market rates.
        Trigger joins a Palm Harbor speaker lineup that includes frequent CNN contributor and Tulane Business School Assistant Dean and professor Peter Ricchiuti; creative thinking guru Roger von Oech; and "the Pit Bull of Personal Development," Larry Winget. (For more details on those Spring Professional Forum keynoters, see "High-Profile Speaker Lineup Shaping Up for IAMC's Palm Harbor Forum," our IAMC news feature from Jan. 27.)

Revamped Laws Creating Rich
Possibilities for Brownfield Redevelopment

Trigger's brownfield theme in Palm Harbor certainly ties in with IAMC's unique niche. The association is distinctly centered on executive-level managers in the industrial and manufacturing sectors who have corporate real estate and asset management responsibilities.
        Trigger's presentation will address the new opportunities that are rapidly emerging in developing brownfield sites. Between 500,000 and 1 million abandoned, idle or underutilized brownfields are currently scattered across America, according to estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Between 500,000 and 1 million abandoned, idle or underutilized brownfields are currently scattered across America, according to estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Grant Trigger's IAMC workshop will look at boosted federal assistance in brownfield development.

        The Florida workshop will take an in-depth look at the bright possibilities budding for corporations in brownfield reuse
        One of those possibilities – likely a central focus at Trigger's workshop – is the 2002 Brownfield Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act.
        The new federal law sets the stage for new public-private partnerships that can resolve the prickly liability issues that have impeded site reuse, while it also clarifies state-federal relationships vis-à-vis cleanup finality. The Brownfield Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act also addresses the long-standing lack of capital that has slowed essential early-stage redevelopment actions (e.g., site assessment and remediation planning). For the first time, the EPA is now authorized to make direct grants for cleanup.
        The new law, for example, increases fiscal-2003 funding for brownfield reclamation to $200 million, more than doubling the $98 million allocated for fiscal 2002. The revamped environmental legislation also allocates $300 million for extending the Brownfields Tax Incentive, which EPA officials expect to leverage approximately $3.4 billion in private investment and return 8,000 brownfields to productive use.
        Trigger's Palm Harbor workshop will investigate the new grant award criteria that the EPA is developing for the newly authorized programs. Grant guidelines will be in place by Oct. 1, the beginning of fiscal 2003, EPA officials are projecting. The IAMC workshop session will also look at a host of other brownfield-related issues, including uniform covenant laws, liability reform, insurance and remedial strategies.

Member of Governor's Natural Resources
Management and Environmental Code Commission

A partner in the Detroit firm of Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn, Trigger has a long and distinguished history in environmental law.
        He was appointed by Michigan Gov. John Engler to serve on the Governor's Natural Resources Management and Environmental Code Commission and also served six years on the Michigan Toxic Substances Control Commission. In addition, Trigger has been a member of the Owners Section of the National Brownfields Association.
        A 1985 honors graduate of the University of Detroit School of Law, he has also written extensively on environmental law. Trigger, who received his bachelor's in environmental sciences engineering from the University of Michigan, is the author of the Michigan chapter of the 2001 American Bar Association's Brownfields – A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Property.
        He teaches a class on environmental auditing at Wayne State University.
        Trigger's other brownfields projects include a proposed 150-unit residential project on a former municipal landfill site, as well as a variety of other redevelopment projects using creative financing, remedial techniques and liability reforms.
        (To register for IAMC's Spring 2003 Professional Forum or to join IAMC, click on www.iamc.org and follow the links or call toll free 1-888-299-9848 (US). Additionally, first-time attendees may join IAMC and register for the Palm Harbor Professional Forum until March 31 for just $990 – a $600 savings.)