By Judy Sheahan
July 12, 2004

Conference Vice President Akron Mayor Donald Plusquellic and Tom Darden, CEO, of Cherokee Investment Partners (Cherokee) announced at the June 27 Plenary Session a joint effort designed to clean up and redevelop contaminated or blighted properties.

"Brownfields redevelopment can be a vital part in improving our economy, putting people back to work and reusing land that was once productive," said Plusquellic, "but it is sometimes extremely difficult to attract private sector investors and redevelopers to take on the challenge of a brownfields site or for that matter any large redevelopment project that is located within our communities. That is why I am so pleased today to announce a new cooperative venture between The United States Conference of Mayors and Cherokee Investment Partners."

The initiative would match underutilized or blighted sites, commonly known as "brownfields," identified by mayors who are interested in redeveloping with Cherokee, the nation's largest investor in brownfield redevelopment. Under the agreement, the Conference will refer Cherokee to its members who have an interest in cleaning and redeveloping properties that cannot accomplish it on their own.

Cherokee's mission is to acquire environmentally impaired, blighted, or underutilized properties, clean them up, and return them to productive use. But unlike typical developers, they don't have a preset development agenda. "We don't come to your city and say we have an idea, we-d like to build a hotel here or an apartment building or an office building," Darden said. "We come to you and say -What is your vision for your community? We're bringing institutional capital and we would like to help you implement your vision."

"We invest in urban redevelopment areas. We spend our investor's capital and our time on environmental remediation, urban planning, and designing community redevelopment," said Darden. "We focus on large projects in communities that have the will and vision to do what is needed to carry out these audacious plans."

Cherokee is funded by large public and private pension funds and endowments. Cherokee's current fund comprises nearly a billion dollars of discretionary debt and equity capital to be deployed over the next few years.

Since 1990, Cherokee has acquired over 330 sites in the United States, Canada and Western Europe where it will spend over $200 million cleaning up pollution, with an estimated built-out value of its projects exceeding $4 billion as these brownfield sites are redeveloped and returned to productive use.

Some examples of their work in progress can be found in Elizabeth and Camden (NJ) waterfront redevelopment projects as well as cleaning up and redeveloping an area of Charleston where there are three Superfund sites.

Cherokee is seeking properties that meet its investment criteria, which includes:

• Properties can be owned or controlled by municipalities, private parties or a combination of both.
• Cherokee prefers large tracts of property, but would be willing to buy a portfolio of sites as long as they represent an appropriate economic return.
• The preferred investment will require $10 — $20 million or more of equity and financing, with no maximum.

For more information about this initiative, please contact Judy Sheahan of the Conference staff or view Cherokee's website at cherokeefund.com.