DELAWARE COUNTY — Four Delaware County brownfield projects will receive a combined $1 million in state funding to assess or clean up contaminated properties and prepare them for redevelopment.
Gov. Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik announced $61 million in Brownfield Remediation Program grants last week for projects in 75 Ohio counties.
The latest round includes $45.8 million for 84 cleanup and remediation projects, and $15.3 million for 76 assessment projects.
“Sites like these do no good when they’re left alone to contaminate the soil and impact the health of our neighborhoods,” DeWine said in a press release.
“Throughout the past five years, we’ve changed the trajectory of hundreds of properties that once held our communities back, turning long-neglected eyesores into places of possibility.”
The Brownfield Remediation Program helps communities assess and clean up industrial, commercial and institutional sites that are abandoned, idled or underused because of known or potential contamination from hazardous substances or petroleum.
Since launching in 2021, the program has provided nearly $780 million to support 841 projects in 87 counties, according to the governor’s office.
Former Beeghly Library receives largest local award
The largest Delaware County award is $754,845 to the Delaware County Land Reutilization Corporation for asbestos removal at the former Beeghly Library at Ohio Wesleyan University.
OWU broke ground on the newly-renamed John F. Milligan Library renovation Oct. 3, 2025. The building, which opened in 1966 as OWU’s main library, is undergoing a full renovation to become a learning, collaboration and creative arts hub.
As part of the project, OWU’s Department of Fine Arts will relocate to the building, including faculty offices, studios, classrooms and gallery spaces. The renovated facility will also include community-building areas, study spaces, high-tech classrooms and galleries.
Cole Hatcher, director of media and community relations for OWU, said the renovation will also remove loading docks and other barriers that currently separate the building from the community.
“An important goal of the donor-funded project is to make the library more inviting to both the campus and Delaware communities,” Hatcher said.
The state grant will help remove asbestos-containing materials and support selective demolition inside the former library building.
The project is expected to create four new jobs and retain 12 existing jobs.
Downtown Delaware gateway project gets assessment funding
The city of Delaware will receive $195,000 for Project Gateway, an assessment project involving the remediation of the BP gas station and adjoining city-owned parcels at the eastern gateway to downtown Delaware.
“This is one of several tools we utilize to determine feasibility of future projects,” said Nic Langford, economic development director for the city of Delaware.
“This particular grant will assist with environmental due diligence for the potential redevelopment of the BP gas station. Gas stations are notoriously difficult to redevelop, so this grant helps see what’s possible.”
Historical operations at the site date back to the 1880s and have included machine shops, auto repair facilities and print shops, according to state documents.
The funding will support a Phase I environmental assessment and the development of a remedial action plan. A Phase II assessment is expected to include soil borings, groundwater wells, vapor sampling and work to determine the extent of contamination.
The assessment work is described in as a “prerequisite” for a planned $41 million mixed-use redevelopment expected to produce 460 construction jobs, 95 permanent jobs and more than $600,000 in new annual property-tax revenue.
Fairgrounds grant will support early assessment work
The Delaware County Land Reutilization Corporation will also receive $25,000 for assessment work at the Delaware County Fairgrounds.
Delaware County Commissioner Jeff Benton, who also chairs the land bank, said the fairgrounds project is still in the early stages.
“It’s an assessment of what remediation work does need to be done all across the fairgrounds,” Benton said.
The work could include reviewing existing buildings and the grounds themselves for potential issues, including asbestos and other environmental concerns.
“For the fairgrounds, it’s just the assessment phase,” Benton said. “In other words, they do a complete survey of the fairgrounds and set the stage for their ongoing improvement program.”
The state’s project description says the assessment will cover the 149-acre fairgrounds, where several aging structures are approaching the end of their useful life.
Benton said the fairgrounds itself is approaching 100 years old, and some structures are also nearing that age. Currently the grounds host a mix of newer or renovated buildings alongside older structures, including aging barns that may need to be removed or replaced.
“There’s a number of barns, the old barns, that will probably need to come down,” Benton said. “They’re just one-story, basic wooden structures.”
Benton said the fair board is considering a mix of renovations, demolition and new construction. Possible future improvements include continued work on the grandstand, renovation of at least part of the Coliseum, year-round improvements to the Merchant’s Building and a potential covered riding arena.
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Benton said. “There’ll be some renovations. There will be some knockdowns. There’ll be some new construction.”
Benton said the larger fairgrounds improvement effort is primarily supported by the county’s bed tax, a 3% tax on hotel stays in Delaware County. The tax was passed in 2016 and later renewed and extended through 2036, he said.
The brownfield grant, Benton said, helps with the environmental review that has to happen before those projects move forward.
“Before you do any of these renovations or new construction, you have to do site assessments,” Benton said.
Ashley site receives assessment funding
Ashley Gateway LLC will receive $25,155 to assess environmental conditions at a former gas station and vehicle repair site in Ashley.
The work will investigate historic petroleum releases, a remaining used-oil underground storage tank and a potential hydraulic lift cylinder, according to state documents.
Assessment activities will evaluate soil and groundwater contamination, remove the remaining underground storage tank and move the site toward No Further Action status.
The latest round of Brownfield Remediation Program funding was supported through House Bill 96, the state’s most recent biennium budget bill, which allocated $200 million toward the program.
Applications for additional projects in counties with remaining set-aside funding will open at 10 a.m. May 18 and close at 11:59 p.m. June 5.
