Ashley Capital redeveloped two former salvage yards for the Lipari Freezer Warehouse. 18 acres of property became a state-of-the-art, 252,000-square-foot freezer, warehouse, and truck terminal building for Lipari Foods, Inc. This brownfield project was complicated by the environmental conditions associated with the long history of auto salvage use dating back to the 1940s.

A variety of debris and car parts as well as releases of petroleum and lead were present across the Lipari Freezer Warehouse site. A particular challenge was the lead in the former auto crushing and storage areas, where lead was present at levels as high as 55,000,000 ppb.

SME conducted extensive site characterization to assist Ashley Capital in developing an environmental management plan for the construction phase that complied with Michigan’s Part 201 due care obligations. Our approach consisted of several strategic rounds of a combination of test pits and soil borings to characterize the contamination and buried debris at the site.

A further challenge was the extensive historical fill. The fill was not suitable for support of typical shallow foundations. SME developed a foundation plan consisting of rammed aggregate piers to extend building loads through the unsuitable fill into natural soil suitable to support the building.

Other noteworthy activities consisted of characterizing the extent of contamination from a leaking underground storage tank (LUST) and conducting the environmental oversight, sampling, and documentation of its removal. We also evaluated the residual petroleum contamination and the potential for vapor intrusion and presented Ashley Capital with several options for mitigating the potential risk.

We also worked with the construction team to develop a landscaping plan that would include exposure barriers to mitigate dermal contact risks associated with the lead contamination left in place. The building is now complete and fully operational and has created a significant number of new jobs.