|
Environmental Site Assessment
Environmental Site Assessments
The purchase of industrial and commercial properties comes with a great number of risks. For more than 30 years, Hardy Environmental Services has been helping realtors, brokers, and developers identify and mitigate the environmental risks associated with commercial property purchase or refinancing. Our environmental professionals conduct Phase I Environmental Site Assessments in accordance with the standards set by ASTM International in ASTM E1527-05. The purpose of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is to identify recognized environmental conditions that may be associated with the property through current or historic use. Site reconnaissance, interviews with adjacent property owners, regulatory file review and report preparation are all part of the due diligence process. We evaluate the potential impacts of a particular property and deliver customized assessment strategies to measure and minimize environmental risks.
Our investigative records review pertains not only to the subject property but also to properties within a one mile radius in order to assess the likelihood that migrating hazardous substances or petroleum products have impacted the subject property. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was enacted in part to limit the liability of the property owner or purchaser and hold both past and current owners and operators of contaminated facilities financially responsible for the costs of cleanup.
Our services include:
Performance of an on-site visit to view present conditions;
Evaluation of risks of neighboring properties upon the subject property;
Review of Federal, State, Local Records by ASTM Standards
Interview of persons knowledgeable regarding the property history
Examination of municipal or county files to check prior land usage
File searches with public agencies having oversight relative to water quality and soil contamination issues;
Examination of historic aerial photography of the vicinity;
Examination of current USGS maps to scrutinize drainage patterns and topography.
We are qualified environmental consultants for the following lenders:
- Bank of America
- CitiBank
- M & T Bank
- Chase Manhattan Bank
- PNC Bank
- Wells Fargo
- WSFS Bank
- Various lenders and mortgage firms
Types of Services:
Transaction Process Screen; Inspection of the property by a licensed environmental professional, review of regulatory files and preparation of a Final Report.
Phase I Environmental Site Assessment: Property Inspection, Record Review, Deed Search to determine ownership, historic aerial photo review to determine past usage, and interviews with adjacent property owners.
Phase II Environmental Site Assessment: Collection and laboratory analysis of subsurface soil and groundwater samples, and assessment of building materials: asbestos, lead based paint, mold, radon, PBCs.
A Word About Environmental Due Diligence Years ago, banks required a borrower to perform a Phase I Environmental Assessment as prerequisite of sale, no matter what the size of the loan. The primarily purpose of this requirement was designed for the protection of the banks, who were concerned that if they loaned money for a contaminated property they would be held liable for the site cleanup. In today’s market, banks do not usually require a Phase I for loans under a million dollars, especially when their borrowers (as often required) supply a significant down payment. Banks hold all the cards and understand where their limit of liability is and exactly what their risk is. Like Gordon Gekko said, “I only bet on a sure thing”. So, why would a commercial property buyer want to spend money on an Environmental Assessment if his lender doesn’t require it? One reason....protection. If a property is purchased without an environmental due diligence effort and subsequent environmental issues are found on the property, the property owner becomes burdened (by federal and/or state law) with the cost of clean-up. Also, identifying environmental issues on a property prior to purchase could be used as a price negotiating tool and/or motivation for the seller to take care of the environmental concerns prior to sale.Many environmental consulting companies will attempt to “sell” both Phase I and Phase II Site assessments for environmental due diligence regardless of the site or the circumstances of a particular transaction. Hardy Environmental Services has consistently provided a tailored approach to environmental due diligence depending on the nature of the property. For example, if the property to be acquired is industrial with known or suspected releases or is located in an area of documented soil or groundwater contamination, then the Phase I Environmental Assessment becomes irrelevant. In this example, we provide the potential purchaser with a carefully planned limited intrusive investigation of the soil and/or groundwater quality based on planned usage/property development. We have performed hundreds of environmental assessments over the past 30 years. Our experienced professionals take a practical but thorough approach on environmental due diligence.
Please contact us for additional information or for an estimate.
|
