Cherrytree Group LLC Blog

The Cherrytree Group has developed a streamlined procedure for getting their clients Brownfields Tax Credits. What is the Brownfields Tax Credit? Massachusetts General Laws forces developers or owners of a site that has environmental contamination to clean up that site. The law holds the current owner responsible for the cleanup costs.

However, if the issues were caused previous to your ownership, Brownfields Act absolves you the owner of the property, of the liability for cleanup, and gives you a tax credit of up to 50% of the eligible costs of cleaning up the site. What you do with the credits is up to you, take the credits on next years taxes, or monetize those credits by selling them for cash to a buyer.

Why use The Cherrytree Group?

We are able to sift through the all of the information, determine which costs are eligible for the credit and prepare and file the application to the DOR. There are three functions to applying for these credits:

1. securing tax credits
2. brokering the sale of the tax credits
3. closing on a tax credit purchase

The Cherrytree Group can perform all 3 of these functions. The benefit here is that the costs to the client is significantly less when we provide those services than if separate professionals were retained for each service.

By using The Cherrytree Group, you employ an accounting professional to work on analyzing the eligible costs, a legal professional to close on the tax credit purchase, and a developer to assist with, and advise on the cost and development issues.

The Cherrytree Group acts as a consultant and a syndicator, applying for and obtaining the Brownfield Tax Credit for you. We can also sell that tax credit for cash.  Please contact us.

American Capital Energy, Inc. (ACE) was awarded a landfill contract to construct $85 million, 18.2 MW of solar generating facilities by Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative.

The project will convert town owned property and landfills in six Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard communities into solar farms which will produce approximately 25% of the energy needs of the participating communities.

Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Mass. Department of Energy Resources, said, "This is a significant game-changing model."

The project is projected to save participating towns $1.42 million in energy costs in the first year.

Across the USA, every city and town has vacant capped landfills and brownfields which could be converted to solar facilities to produce solar electricity to power the grid, reduce carbon omissions and cut corporate and municipal energy costs. American Capital Energy, a Massachusetts based company and leading solar expert has completed over 35 large scale utility and brownfield projects since its founding in 2005.

Selected from more than 150 submissions ACE was the Engineering Procurement Construction firm that recently completed the Silver Lake Solar Facility for Western Mass. Electric Co.

Silver Lake is the redevelopment of 8 acres of brownfield floodplain land into a renewable energy facility.

The 1.8 MW Silver Lake facility is located in Pittsfield, Mass. accommodates a variety of complex permitting restrictions and is a shining example of what a public-private partnership can accomplish.

Silver Lake is the largest utility scale solar project completed to date in Mass. and consists of 6,500 ground mounted photovoltaic panels covering 8 acres.

As cities and towns across the country struggle with energy consumption and costs the conversion of these polluted open sites, brownfields, will produce not only much needed power but also help communities balance their budgets.

NERJ

...by Warren Kirshenbaum

As part of $3.5 million in Brownfields grants that EPA is making available for Massachusetts communities, EPA has provided $600,000 for Somerville to clean up the former Kiley Barrel Property site. The funding is part of more than $76 million in EPA Brownfields investments across the country announced this week by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to protect health and the environment, create jobs and promote economic re-development in American communities.

EPA Brownfields grant money assists work to reclaim sites including old textile mills, sites containing hazardous substances and petroleum products and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties.  EPA’s Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

 “This EPA funding will help strengthen the economic foundation of these communities,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA New England’s office. “Cleaning and revitalizing contaminated sites helps create jobs, providing a solid foundation for a community to create new businesses and neighborhood centers, while making our environment cleaner and the community healthier.”

"These federal funds will help transform the Kiley Barrel site, eliminating old contaminants and revitalizing it so that the land can be used for future development. Brownfields grants have had a tremendous impact here in Somerville and all over the country, giving communities the resources they need to revitalize old industrial sites," stated Congressman Michael Capuano.

The $12.55 million in grant and Revolving Loan Fund money awarded by EPA to a variety of New England communities and organization will provide substantial help around the region.  The EPA funding leverages over $46 million of other money to pursue brownfields cleanup and revitalization work. In New England, these projects have created 98 clean up jobs this year as well as 135 redevelopment jobs.

As of June 2011, EPA’s brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $16.3 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding, and helped create more than 70,000 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment. These investments and jobs target local, under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods – places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are most needed.

Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, in New England alone EPA has awarded 268 assessment grants totaling $67.1 million, 61 revolving loan fund grants and supplemental funding totaling $65 million and 174 cleanup grants totaling $39.3 million.  These grant funds have paved the way for more than $1.3 billion in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 8815 jobs in assessment, cleanup, construction and redevelopment.

Some of the money announced today falls under EPA’s brownfields revolving loan funding.  Since 1995, EPA RLF recipients have provided 53 loans and 63 grants in New England totaling more than $29 million for brownfields cleanup. The loan funds have paved the way for more than $189 million in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 1034 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment.