Blue Ribbon Award Winner for Land Revitalization

Hartford, Connecticut — At the March 28 Annual Connecticut Real Estate Awards Event sponsored by The Real Estate Exchange, GEI was honored with the Developers Showcase Blue Ribbon Award for their Occum Park Brownfields Redevelopment project. The project won in the category of Land Revitalization. The awards event, held at the new Hartford Convention Center, was sponsored by The Real Estate Exchange and attracted several hundred professional attendees across multiple disciplines – legal, design and construction, appraisal, property management and real estate development.

“Occum Park tells a great story about an abandoned derelict site which went through a cost-effective remediation to become a waterfront park” said Barry Giroux, P.E., LEP. The 5-acre riverfront site in the Village of Occum was once home to a textile manufacturing facility. A fire destroyed the mill complex and various waste materials and contamination remained. After being abandoned for over fifteen years, several parties came together to fund site cleanup and redevelopment. The project was a catalyst for revitalization activities within the Village of Occum.

Along with GEI, key firms to the success of the Occum Park project included: Norwich Community Development Corporation, The City of Norwich, Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The Real Estate Exchange is a statewide organization of commercial real estate professionals from every discipline. The Blue Ribbon Awards recognize significant contributions of the development community to the cities and towns that create a living and working environment in Connecticut.

GEI is a nationally recognized environmental, geotechnical, water resources, and ecological science and engineering firm. Headquartered in Boston, GEI has offices nationwide and has completed more than 15,000 projects in all US states and 22 countries.