Ford Motor Company’s (NYSE: F) Fairlane Green retail and recreational development, today received the national Phoenix Award for excellence in brownfield development.
The Phoenix Award recognizes projects that remediate environmentally challenged sites while stimulating economic development.
Fairlane Green is a 243-acre retail and recreational center built over the Ford Motor Company-owned Allen Park Clay Mine Landfill.
Since 2002, Ford Land, the company’s real estate arm, has been working to transform the once idle landfill.
The Fairlane Green development not only reuses the landfill property, it preserves more land than it develops. In all, nearly two-thirds of the site will be natural green space, including prairie fields, ponds, trails and a future 43-acre park surrounding one million square feet of shops and restaurants.
Furthermore, the buildings on the site feature the latest in green design and construction. Fairlane Green Phase I is the first multi-tenant retail development to earn gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
It is the first development in Michigan to use a three-dimensional legal description to separate the landfill from the surface development. This allows Ford to retain landfill ownership and responsibility while selling the surface to owners and developers.
In 2002, it received what was at the time the largest Tax Increment Financing (TIF) package ever offered by the state. The TIF covers brownfield-related development costs – measures to reduce settlement, protect the landfill cap, reinforce slopes and construct utilities.
Fairlane Green is one of the first vertical construction projects built on Styrofoam-like blocks called geofoam. Traditionally used in bridge construction, geofoam’s light weight reduces the potential for future settlement.
Environmental characteristics of the development include high efficiency, CFC-free heating and cooling equipment, white reflective roofing, low-emitting materials, water-efficient plumbing fixtures, recycled and locally sourced building materials, windows and skylights, and a cistern to capture and re-use rain water.
More visible examples of the site’s environmental mission include large prairie fields and extensive native landscaping in parking lots, entryways, along store fronts and up the sides of buildings.
"It is an honor to receive the Phoenix Award for Fairlane Green," said Sean McCourt, Ford Land chairman. "This project demonstrates how responsible developments can yield corporate, community and environmental benefits."
The award was presented at the National Brownfields Conference held May 5-7 in Detroit. The conference is hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the International City/County Management Association.
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