The full real estate ramifications of yesterday’s decision by the EPA to place the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund list won’t be known for quite some time, but the threat of a decade or more of lawsuit-riddled remediation was enough to make Toll Brothers, the developer of one of the two mega sites planned along the banks of the contaminated waterway, to announce it was pulling the plug. “We don’t see any possibility of our doing a project there,” said Toll’s David Von Spreckelsen. “We can’t get financing. We can’t get insurance.” Meanwhile, The Hudson Companies, the other developer with big plans for the area, announced it was going to stick it out. We’re in full support of the project, and we’ll work with the E.P.A., said Aaron Koffman, a spokesman for the Hudson Companies. In related news, McBrooklyn has a round-up of who’s happy and who’s sad about the Superfund listing.
Gowanus Canal Gets Superfund Status [NY Times]
Feds Declare Gowanus Canal a Superfund Site [NY Post]
EPA Adds Gowanus Canal to Superfund List [NY Daily News]
Photo by beau-dog