500 High Street | Perth Amboy, NJ Engineers

A property at 500 High Street in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, once used by General Cable Corporation and as an industrial warehouse facility, consists of a multi-story, reinforced concrete industrial structure which is currently vacant and has been stripped by the current owner of all former building materials (scrap metals, paints, etc). It is being proposed that the subject property be developed from a former industrial warehouse to a three-story residential apartment complex with a parking garage and take-out restaurant, as defined by the most recent site plan application submitted to the City of Perth Amboy. Since before the 1920s, the Subject Property and surrounding properties had been developed and utilized as industrial and manufacturing facilities. As a result, the property and its vicinity have resulted in known contamination concerns from historic operations.

E2PM became involved with this property in 2011 and initially completed a Preliminary Assessment / Environmental Site Assessment (PA/ESA) and a limited Site Investigation Report (SI) for the property to assess contamination concerns within and surrounding the property. The PA/ESA and SI reports were prepared at the request of 500 High Street LLC as part of their proposed redevelopment assessment activities. Initial investigations revealed the presence of environmental impacts within the property associated with historic operations, historic fill materials, groundwater contamination concerns, former railroad use, vapor intrusion concerns, PCB contamination from former transformers and known contamination concerns originated from surrounding properties.

As requested by the Perth Amboy Planning Board, E2PM was most recently retained by 500 High Street LLC to complete a modified EA for the property prior to redevelopment purposes. This modified EA focused on the status of the remediation and investigations of known on and off-site contamination and discusses how the site- and off-site contamination may impact the proposed re-use of the property. As requested by the City Engineer, E2PM specifically details the site remediation environmental concerns of the property, including a status update of NJDEP environmental investigations on the adjacent site to the south-southwest (associated with former General Cable Corporation) and the adjacent former Dupont facility to the west-northwest (now identified as the Middlesex County Vocation School). Based on the summary of findings presented throughout the modified EA, E2PM confirmed that the neighboring sites and ongoing investigations and known contamination will have a significant impact on the Subject Property. It was anticipated by E2PM, however, that these impacts can be mitigated as part of the redevelopment process. As such, it was determined that the proposed reuse of the property will not present any significant adverse impacts.

E2PM’s services have included the following:

  • Reviewed all available historic files provided by the 500 High Street, LLC and NJDEP File Reviews for both the subject property and surrounding properties (General Cable Corporation, former Dupont Facility, etc.)
  • Prepared a Preliminary Assessment/Environmental Site Assessment
  • Prepared a limited Site Investigation of the interior conditions of the property building
  • Prepared a modified Environmental Assessment in accordance with requests made by the City of Perth Amboy Engineer
  • Provided recommendations to the City and 500 High Street LLC as to how to move forward with the proposed redevelopment of the property and how to address or mitigate all identified environmental concerns