St. Louis Firm Acquires Distressed Savannah Waterfront Site

SAVANNAH, GA—Commercial Development Co. Inc. of St. Louis has acquired a 58-acre environmentally distressed waterfront industrial site here from Atlantic Wood Industries.

Environmental Liability Transfer, Inc., an affiliate of Commercial Development Co., has assumed responsibility for legacy environmental liabilities associated with the site and its former operators. No purchase price was disclosed nor was an estimated cost of the remediation of the brownfield property.

For several decades, this property was a wood treatment facility operated by Atlantic Wood Industries until it was shuttered in 2007. Since closing its doors, ground contamination and environmental hazards have prohibited redevelopment efforts. A real estate transaction and remediation plan proposed by Commercial Development Company and Environmental Liability Transfer has given fresh potential to this blighted industrial area, company officials say.

The transaction has enabled Atlantic Wood Industries the ability to sell surplus real estate and transfer legacy environmental liabilities while receiving a cash payment from CDC.

ELT along with EnviroAnalytics Group, another CDC affiliate company, will now work with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to address the environmental concerns at the site. The existing structures on the site will be demolished to clear the way for a new port-related redevelopment that will put this blighted site back into productive use.

The property is located in the Port of Savannah, in close proximity to downtown Savannah. With a deep-water port, direct rail service, and easy access to I-95 and the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, Commercial Development Co. considers the former wood treatment plant an excellent prospective site for a variety of vertical development purposes. Additionally, the property is located next to Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City Terminal, the fastest-growing container port in the country.

“We are excited to expand our redevelopment efforts into the Savannah area,” says Mark Hinds, executive vice president of new business development at Environmental Liability Transfer, Inc. “Our acquisition and environmental liability assumption of this large deep-water port is the first step to repurposing this property and moving it back into productive use – the Savannah market is already in a growth phase and we are eager to see the environmental and economic benefits this transaction brings to the area.”