Arkansas city to receive $500,000 in federal brownfield grants
The Jefferson County Courthouse in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
The city of Pine Bluff will use a $500,000 federal grant to assess multiple brownfields in its downtown district and develop cleanup plans, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday.
Brownfields are 'a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant,' according to the EPA.
The funds will be used to conduct environmental site assessments throughout the city, with a focus on the Saenger Theatre, Hotel Pines and the former Pine Bluff Bus Terminal. Four cleanup plans and a revitalization plan will be prepared using the grant money, according to a news release.
The grant is part of the EPA's larger 2025 brownfields grant funding announcement, which saw the agency award more than $200 million. Pine Bluff was the only applicant in Arkansas to receive a grant during this round of funding.
Pine Bluff Mayor Vivian Flowers said the city is 'extremely excited' to further its downtown revitalization plans, with the assistance of the grant.
'We're excited, and we're going to make good use of those funds for the people of Pine Bluff,' Flowers said.
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Lori Walker Guelache, director of the city's Economic and Community Development Department, said the grant money will go toward figuring out redevelopment plans for the three priority properties and area-wide planning. The efforts downtown are part of a broader city revitalization plan.
A key component of the downtown revitalization efforts, Guelache said, is 'understanding what's feasible and how.'
'The purpose of the assessment grant is to help come up with viable uses, to make sure that we understand what barriers there would be to the site in terms of environmental contaminants or anything like that,' she said.
The downtown area has 'historic building stock' that has suffered from years of neglect. The city wants to work to change that, Guelache said.
The assessments will likely reveal asbestos in Saenger Theatre, and there 'could be' asbestos or lead paint in Hotel Pines or the former bus terminal due to their age, Guelache said. Surveyors will look at the historic uses of the buildings to determine what, if any contamination there will require remediation, she said.
The hotel's current owners envision transforming it into a boutique hotel, Guelache said, while the Saenger Theatre could be used as a stage theater, movie theater or a combination of both.
Not only will this put the city closer to putting the properties back into use, Guelache said, but it will also help preserve unique aspects of downtown Pine Bluff's history.
An article republished in Arkansas Historical Quarterly referred to Pine Bluff as a 'paradise of the South' for Black people in the late 1800s to early 1900s, Guelache said, because of the privileges that people of color enjoyed during that period.
'While other communities had established racially segregated business districts, we have evidence in old city directories and old … maps that Pine Bluff — there were Black businesses operating beside white businesses on Main Street,' Guelache said. 'It's like, 'Why preserve these buildings?' Outside of who operated out of them, it's the bigger story of why our downtown is important.'
By preserving and restoring to use historically and culturally significant buildings, the city hopes to highlight and showcase Pine Bluff's past, Guelache added.
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