Brownfields Reuse Success Stories

DiNaso & Sons Incorporated Building Supply Expansion
Camden City, Camden County

The former Camden Recycling Company property, located on Mount Ephraim Avenue in Camden, has been transformed to accommodate the expansion of the neighboring DiNaso & Sons, Inc. building supply company. This expansion, used for building material storage, created thirty new jobs in the community and sparked urban revitalization. Grants that allowed DiNaso to expand also allowed for the rest of the Mt. Ephraim Avenue business corridor to revitalize.

This approximately 80-acre parcel was originally developed as a drive-in theater, and later operated as a scrap metal recycling facility from 1940 to 1995. In 1995, industrial operations at the facility ceased, triggering the Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA) and an environmental assessment. The site investigation, overseen by DEP case manager Al Anderson, revealed contaminated soils associated with the removal of three former fuel underground storage tanks and the presence of historic fill throughout the property.

In response to the soil contamination, an asphalt cap served as an engineered control for the contamination. In addition to the cap, a deed notice was issued for the entire property. A No Further Action and Covenant Not to Sue letter was issued on November 26, 2003 after the case manager inspected and certified the engineering control.

The $500,000 used to remediate the site was generated by taxes from the City’s Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) designation. Camden’s UEZ program, like others throughout New Jersey, has been an extremely successful tool in creating jobs and fostering urban revitalization. According to John DiNaso, "Three years ago this was a contaminated site. Today, thanks to the UEZ, the City of Camden and the State of New Jersey, this project has become a viable part of the revitalization of Mt. Ephraim Avenue, where 45 people, many of them local residents, now have jobs."