Harvard Printing Brownfield Redevelopment and Adaptive Reuse

Located within walking distance of NJ Transit’s Highland Avenue train station, the former Harvard Printing building provides the right space and location for its new life as an apartment complex. TRC played a key role in the project, which transformed a 2.5-acre brownfield into prime real estate for market-rate and low-income renters.

As the project’s Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP)-of-Record, we designed and supervised the site cleanup, which entailed excavation and off-site disposal of historic fill contaminated with volatile organic solvents, ash coal, burnt wood, glass and slag, followed by installation of a geotextile land cap.

Our services included historical site data review, baseline ecological evaluation, soil characterization, site delineation, remediation design, grant funding support, pre-demolition material characterization and sampling, material reuse permitting, off-site disposal coordination and air monitoring

TRC secured the $1 million Innocent Party Grant from the Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund to pay for the work, and we facilitated site plan review and approval before both the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and City of West Orange for flood plain development and stream channel restoration.

Site remediation allowed work to move forward on converting the 4-story printing facility into housing and an adjacent Art Deco building into a parking garage. The project was planned as part of the Central Valley Redevelopment Plan to increase affordable housing and beautify the surrounding residential neighborhood and arts district.

Client Benefit
• Grant-funded restoration and reuse of blighted property
• 128 apartments (70 affordable)
• 160 parking spaces
• Historic building preservation