BOMA applauds passage of Brownfields expensing legislation.

M2 PRESSWIRE-22 December 2000-BOMA INTERNATIONAL: BOMA applauds passage of Brownfields expensing legislation (C)1994-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:22122000

Washington, D.C. - The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, the leading advocacy group for the commercial real estate industry, today applauded President Clinton for signing into law legislation that will assist landowners with brownfields revitalization efforts.

Brownfields are vacant, abandoned, or underutilized commercial and industrial properties where real or perceived environmental contamination challenges redevelopment or utilization. More than 400,000 contaminated tracts exist in the United States and are often located in urban areas. BOMA International believes that, absent reform of current Superfund law that would accelerate the cleanup of brownfields and enhance the land reclamation process, brownfields legislation is necessary to promote the transformation of contaminated urban sites into useable, economically self-sufficient properties.

The law signed by the president, as part of the federal budget, allows owners of brownfields sites to expense their clean-up costs, as opposed to capitalizing them, until January 1, 2004. This tax deduction will free up $489 million in investment capital to be used on remediation efforts.

The provision also expands the criteria for an eligible site to include any contaminated or potentially contaminated site that has been certified by a state environmental agency. This does not include those sites designated as national priorities that are already part of the Superfund program and therefore targeted for federal cleanup.

"The major hindrance in returning these properties to productive ...