COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES

BOULDER, COLORADO

8TH & PEARL SHOPS AND RESIDENCES

8TH & PEARL was an abandoned gas station with an environmental nightmare — leaking underground storage tanks in a dense urban location. The exact cost to remediate was unknown, but could have been over $1 million; the potential environmental disaster risked making it an economic disaster. Before we could do anything, we had to solve the environmental problems and figure out a way to mitigate the risk posed by open ended remediation costs. We came up with a creative solution whereby prior to purchasing the property we fronted the clean-up costs up to an agreed limit and secured those costs by a first deed of trust against the property. In so doing, the seller had the benefit of our expertise in coordinating the investigation and remediation; however, we avoided open ended environmental liability for a problem which was clearly the seller’s responsibility. In voting to award the project the Congress of New Urbanism’s highest award — the Charter Award — a juror described it as, “An important prototype.”