Groundbreaking is set for next week for High Point’s $36.5 million downtown stadium. But now we learn the stadium site is contaminated:
A city consultant who performed an environmental assessment of the site found that soil and groundwater were impacted by past uses on the property, including the former High Point Enterprise facility.
The use of solvents to clean newspaper printing operations prior to the use of soy-based inks in the late 1990s may be the source of contaminants found in groundwater samples, although the exact source is unknown, the consultant’s report stated.
The High Point Enterprise in January 2017 sold the 3.1-acre property on Church Avenue to DJ Worldwide LLC, which sold the land to the city for the stadium in October 2017.
A gas station, paint factory, two automotive repair garages and a laundry facility also operated in proximity to the Enterprise at various times dating to the early 1900s, the report stated.
Assistant City Manager Randy Hemann said he’s not sure how long it will take to get a brownfields agreement in place, but it isn’t expected to delay stadium construction.
“What we’ve got there is pretty minimal. It’s not anything we didn’t know about when we bought it,” he said. “We’re not worried.”
Seems Hemann being a bit cavalier here, considering contaminated soil ruined the original site for Greensboro’s downtown baseball— the site it’s on now was Plan B. Outgoing council member Cynthia Davis brought possible brownfield contamination up several months ago, and as she told me in an email “my inquiry seemed to catch some staff off guard.”
Stay tuned.
