Clinton receives state grant to clean up former Gene’s Auto Body site on High Street

November 21, 2021 : Telegram & Gazette

The Baker-Polito Administration announced $1.2 million from the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund to support the environmental assessment and cleanup of eight underutilized or abandoned sites across the Commonwealth.  Once complete, the eight projects are expected to redevelop a combined total of 25.6 acres and to adaptively re-use or demolish more than 215,000 square feet of currently blighted buildings.

Among the FY22 Brownfields Redevelopment Fund awarded projects is $116,000 for Clinton to "remediate a contaminated .12-acre site at 329 High St. near downtown Clinton and pave the way for a small business to locate there."

The site is the former Gene's Auto Body. The town acquired the site through a tax taking.

"(Community and Economic Development director) Phil Duffy applied for this grant to conduct further environmental cleanup activities at the former Gene's Auto on High Street to make it more marketable," Town Administrator Michael Ward. "We are truly appreciative of the support from our partners in state agencies helping to address this property in the downtown district."

MassDevelopment oversees the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, which helps transform vacant, abandoned, or underused industrial or commercial properties by financing the environmental assessment and remediation of brownfield sites in “Economically Distressed Areas” of the Commonwealth. From the Fund’s inception in 1998 through FY21, it has supported 765 awards for a total investment of more than $112 million.