- By Amy.Biolchini
@hollandsentinel.com
(616) 546-4219
Posted Jul. 28, 2015 at 7:00 PM
Holland, Mich.
Redevelopment plans are in the works for a vacant, contaminated piece of property at the southeast corner of 96th Avenue and Port Sheldon Street in Borculo, a small town north of Zeeland.
The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners unanimously supported an amendment to a brownfield plan for the property and to use tax increment financing to support eligible remediation work at its meeting Tuesday, July 28.
Brian Terborg, chief financial officer for Borculo Fuel Services LLC in Zeeland, said the company is planning to build an “alternative energy fueling center” — a gas station with three self-serve pumps that will offer multiple blends of ethanol gasoline, and two diesel pumps.
A 3,070 square-foot convenience store is also slated for the site, and three new underground storage tanks will be installed. The project will take about $2.435 million of private investment.
Though the site is owned by Moline Corners LLC, Borculo Fuel Services plans to purchase the four-parcel property.
The site was the former home to a gas station and to various industrial uses. The soil is contaminated with unsafe levels of arsenic, barium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, selenium and zinc; and benzene, ethylbenzene, 1,2,4 trimethylbenzene, 1,3,5 trimethylbenzene, xylene(s), 2 methylnaphthalene and naphthalene have been found in the groundwater at unsafe levels.
Both the soil and groundwater on the site’s four vacant parcels must be remediated and removed. A building also will be demolished at the site. The total cost of the brownfield plan is $318,354, much of which is eligible for funding from the Department of Environmental Quality.
Terborg said the project will be the second Anew Fuel Concept station for his company. Last year, the company opened the Anew Travel Center in central Nebraska. The Borculo project will be a scaled-down version of that, Terborg said.
The Anew gas station will offer regular gas, E-10, E-15, E-30 and E-85.
The E-30 and E-85 ethanol blends are for flex fuel vehicles.
“We’re trying to offer to the customer these unique biofuel blends at proper pricing,” Terborg said, explaining that often prices on ethanol blends are inflated by petroleum-based companies.
Most of the ethanol that will be used at the Anew station will be grown and processed in West Michigan, Terborg said.
— Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelAmy.