Marketing a former nerve gas site

October 29, 2009
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Here’s a challenge for a savvy brokerage.

Vermillion County in western Indiana is preparing to take over the Newport Chemical Depot, where the Army stored nerve gas for a number of years.

About 3,500 acres of the site is expected to be redeveloped for business in the next couple of years. Destruction of the gas was completed last year.

But with a stigma like that, who would want to locate there?

Barbara Coles, who runs a public relations firm in Indianapolis, says the site will need to be marketed with transparency, honesty and lots of facts to overcome the stigma. One more time: Lots of facts.

Several independent sources will need to be called in to verify the site is safe based on verifiable tests. “You need to go in feeling very, very comfortable with the credibility and the facts,” Coles says.

She also would price it at fair market value to remove any suspicion the site has so much as a trace of unsafe chemicals.

How would you pitch the site? Will it be any harder to market than a house where a grisly murder took place?

 

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  • IndymanOctober 29, 2009 2:13 PM
    That place is probably cleaner than your grandmas kitchen table. A friend who worked for a local health department would always eat at a restaurant shortly after it got dinged for major health violations. Is reasoning is it will never be cleaner. Same with Newport. After going through the Army's environmental wringer, it will be squeaky clean.
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  • Agreed
    MikeWNovember 2, 2009 10:20 PM
    I agree, it's fine. They do such good scrub downs and elimination of contaminents that it would be usable for anything right now. That's not the problem, the problem is the location. There is a reason it was in the middle of nowhere near a few power plants to destroy a chemical agent. Desolote. The only thing I could see it for is a Major Multi-modal facility. You've got the track infrastructure there, in the middle of massive amounts of grain, close enough to Chicago without being too far, near Danville and Champaign spurs, close to Terre Haute and close to Indianapolis and Springfield. That would be the best option.

    That or a massive mother ship of all ethanol plants - like a distribution pipeline center for ethanol. Those are the only two options.

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  4. Magician and illusionist!

  5. The basic idea of nice apartments with parking and retail is a good one, but this design seems overwhelmingly big/tall for Broad Ripple. The size could be disguised a bit with lots of big trees/landscaping, but the complex is too massive to blend in easily. That section of canal between College and Westfield will also need to be upgraded on both sides. Nice apartments facing onto a nice promenade with shade trees/plantings could bring together the canal towpath/Monon recreation, the outdoor seating at existing restaurants, and this project into something that upgrades the whole area. A plan for the whole stretch makes more sense than facing nice new housing onto what looks like a ditch. Is there a plan? Does the public have input? Who pays? The apartment idea seems to be reasonable, but Whole Foods is not a good idea for appropriate retail. Besides the store being physically too big, there are already Fresh Market at 54xCollege and Whole Foods in Nora for fancy groceries. Good Earth and Kroger are within walking distance of the Shell site. There are at least 7 grocery stores within a safe bike ride. Whole Foods would add nothing but traffic congestion. This design is on the right track, but there needs to be more work done to ensure that it blends in with and enhances the existing community. A project that large will set a tone for that whole part of town. It could be a real asset, but only if done right.

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