Fixing up historic buildings is a common practice in towns across the country.

But what happens when those properties are contaminated with hazardous waste?

That's where the brownfield program comes in.

And the city of Frankfort has used the federal program for two decades to help revitalize its downtown.

And now Kentucky's capital city has become a model for others.

I knew nothing about brownfields.

I didn't know what they were, and I learned that they are underutilized properties that get assessed and then can possibly be cleaned up and used.

So the idea of recycling property was appealing to me.

So I applied for a grant, that first year in 2006, and incredibly, I received the grant.

There's a lot of strong history in Frankfort and beautiful stark buildings.

The architectural integrity of our downtown is very much vibrant.

But with that, I'd say a century of stories.

You also see a century of problems and buildings, and you will look at a building.

And my for an investor standpoint, they're not cheap to rehab.

So it it feels very overwhelming.

And I think the great thing about brownfield is from the start, it makes it feel less overwhelming.

If you have a piece of property that is underutilized because it does have contamination, or at least it's perceived to have contamination, then you can do a phase one, which to me means kind of like a paper trail.

There.

You've got your, consultants that are looking at old Sanborn maps, old city directories, old phone books.

What used to be there in this property?

Was it a gas station?

Was it a laundry facility?

Was it dry cleaning?

Something that might have contamination?

If that is present, then they will do a phase two, which is more like a deep dive into environmental issues.

And then they may do some testing.

They're twofold.

One is for like the environmental part of it that you clean up, get, recognize, identify, clean up anything that's there.

But also they're an economic development driver as it pertains to brownfields.

We try to do downtown revitalization for rural communities around the state.

So we use these particular brownfields as what we call catalyst sites to hopefully incur larger development, like within or around a downtown area.

We always really push places to to think about, you know, what does your community need the most and how can we get there?

It's 2006.

When we started.

We've been at it 20 years, but we're well over 50 million in downtown investments for so long.

There might be buildings that you're looking at.

They're just an eyesore in your downtown, and it encourages you to say that could be something.

This the space we're in was a phase one, phase two brownfield.

It's it's a tavern and a 15 unit hotel.

Then you have the Ashbrook 15 units as well, and a restaurant.

And now you have the, the delegate hotel.

That's another one in that phase one.

Phase two of brownfield.

They're almost a 50 unit hotel, with a large steakhouse restaurant.

It's just a trickle effect to see what, you know, starting with something like brownfield.

When you incentivize projects, what that can actually mean for the community.

And I think there's so many towns throughout Kentucky, I drive through so many beautiful little towns that, the opportunities are there.

A lot of communities are maybe unfamiliar with brownfields as a concept and a program.

Before, you know, they come to one of our events or they come to a webinar or they join us in some capacity, once they find out about brownfields, you know, oftentimes that can be, a first step towards either like multiple redevelopment.

It's almost like a domino effect.

We all want to create the strongest Commonwealth that we possibly can.

And the only way to do that is by working together and by taking risks.

We'll bring you more reporting on brownfield sites later on this week, when we visit a spot in Louisville and what used to be a landfill is now becoming something beautiful.

You won't want to miss it.

That is this Friday on Kentucky Edition.