The City of Easton approved the sale agreement of a brownfield site, which will be developed into a mixed-use residential and retail complex, during its Oct. 9 city council meeting.
According to a contract discussed during the meeting, the land was purchased by the Foundry Development Group, a part of VM Development Group, for $1.5 million. The land formerly made up the Easton Iron and Metal Site, a junkyard site that has since remained vacant since 2015 when it was left a brownfield. Brownfield sites are “real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant,” according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Dwayne Tillman, the director of planning and codes, said that VM Development was one of multiple groups looking into purchasing the land.
“It’s in their wheelhouse,” Tillman said of VM Development. “They’re familiar with tackling the environmental aspect of it and what the actual improvements to the space would entail.”
VM Development plans to use the land to develop a mixed-use complex comprised of four buildings called “The Foundry.” It will include space for both residential and commercial facilities, according to CEO Mark Mulligan.
Mulligan explained that the approval of the sale agreement does not mean the land has been sold. Instead, the agreement details actions that must be completed for the deal to close. These actions mainly include requirements that both the city and VM Development Group must perform work to address environmental concerns.
The document specifies an Environmental Contingency Period, wherein the city’s environmental work at the site “shall be based, in part, upon an environmental clean-up plan,” according to the contract. The work will also include the help of environmental engineers and other professionals at the city’s expense.
The environmental plan also allocated $430,000 of an Environmental Protection Agency Grant to the city, which will go toward funding the clean-up plan.
The complex will be located near the Silk Mill, another mixed-use complex owned by VM Development. Mulligan hopes that the two developments will be able to mutually benefit the other, with residents of each patronizing the others’ businesses.
“This would just work in conjunction with what they have at the Silk Mill,” Director of Planning and Codes Dwayne Tillman said of the project. “It will benefit Easton environmentally by having that connectivity.”
Mulligan feels that the Foundry will also improve the area’s geographic isolation.
“It’s our hope that the Bushkill Foundry will create its own neighborhood in the end,” he said.
At the Oct. 9 city council meeting, Easton Mayor Sal Panto said the project has been in the works for “probably three or four years.”
Panto said the former brownfield site had “some really nasty things buried in it.”
The approval’s announcement has prompted some Easton residents to voice their concerns online.
“I would say that keeping our lands along the creek free of monstrosities is better for the environment,” wrote user John Jem Jr. in a post announcing the sale on the Everything EASTON Facebook public group. “We are losing open space at an alarming rate!!”
Jessica Jones, another Facebook user, voiced concerns about the construction, writing “Dear Easton….take a break.”
“Let us settle in and navigate the extensive changes already made in our small little city,” she continued in her comment.
The Foundry project was announced as The Marquis, another apartment complex in Downtown Easton, is undergoing construction. The project also comes as construction on a new hotel in Center Square will begin in the coming months.
VM Development hopes to have the project completed in around five years. The sale is expected to be completed within a year and a half, with one building being completed in each of the following four years.
