Federal grant money to pay for initial Eurovest work

REVERE – The city will spend $200,000 awarded to it by federal environmental officials Tuesday to clean up land next to Wonderland station contaminated by oil and other material.Mayor Thomas Ambrosino said the work will be done in 2009 after the commuter drop off lane on the ocean side of the station is relocated to the North Shore Road side.Land adjacent to the station was once the location of an above-ground train yard. The federal brownfields money will pay to determine the extent of hazardous waste contamination on the land and pay for clean up costs.”This was a welcome surprise. Every bit of money helps,” Ambrosino said.Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment or reuse of the land may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous materials.Boston-based Eurovest, led by local developer Joseph DiGangi, plans to spend $485 million building residential and commercial buildings around Wonderland over the next 13 years.Eurovest’s plans for a hotel and public plaza in the early construction phase meets City Councilors’ hopes for the project to draw tourists to Revere Beach.The developer is assembling permits for the project while the city identifies taxpayer money to help the project move forward.In addition to the brownfields money, Revere has a federal commitment to spend $6 million on relocating the drop off lane and $18 million in federal transit and state transit-oriented development money. Some of that money will help pay to build a parking garage.”The Brownfields site assessment funds will help leverage over $23.3 million of public investment for this development and transform a contaminated and underutilized property into a showcase of intelligent design and thoughtful urban planning at a major transit hub,” Ambrosino stated in a letter last October soliciting the brownfields money.He wrote in the letter that the Eurovest project will require 2,000 construction jobs and create 600 to 800 permanent jobs.