4529) THE CITY OF NASHUA “The Cate City”
The Office of Economic Development- Parking Department
TO: Board of Aldermen
FROM: Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
CC:
DATE: Mach 1, 2021
RE: General Status Update on Mohawk Tannery
I am writing in an effort to provide an update on the Mohawk Tannery site. Enclosed you’ll find
a background memo, which outlines the general purpose, rational, history and current status of
the site.
By no means is this memo trying to capture all the various gyrations that have occurred over the
decades relative to this site, but rather provide a current status update.
On Friday, February 12th, EPA announced an agreement with, Blaylock Holdings, LLC,
(“Blaylock”) that will potentially allow for the successful remediation and beneficial reuse of the
Granite State Leathers Superfund Site, also known as Mohawk Tannery. The EPA is
encouraging public input on the agreement during the public comment period, which began on
February 12, 2021 and will conclude on March 13, 2021. There is a project website with
updated documents including the agreement, press release(s), and Federal Register Notice of the
Agreement. You can find the information at www.epa.gov/superfund/mohawk.
Essentially, this means there is a potential pathway forward for cleaning up the site. By the EPA
entering into a unique public-private-partnership with Baylock they are providing some, but not
all the financial assistance necessary for the environmental remediation to occur. Baylock has
asked that the City of Nashua be willing to enter into Tax Increment Financing (“TIF”)
agreement to help provide an additional source of funds to bring the project to fruition. To date, I
have represented that the City of Nashua is open to creating and entering into a project specific
TIF, but there are a lot of details and negations still needing to occur and we have certainly not
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