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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

A 23-acre parcel at the end of Cherokee Park Drive owned by the city of Elizabethton is the site of an abandoned water filtration facility and a burned-out recycling center, a brownfield the city believes can be transformed into a productive property.

In November, the City Council accepted an initial non-matching $20,000 Brownfield Redevelopment Area Grant (BRAG) from the state to identify properties within the city limits that are eligible for remediation. It was one of 36 brownfield redevelopment grants awarded across the state in July.

The city’s grant application, submitted in August 2024, said priority would be given to brownfield sites “within a target area of former rayon manufacturers, which has also been established as a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district by the City.” Previous reporting by The Star shows a 135.3-acre TIF district was approved by the city and Carter County in 2018 as part of the Watauga River Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan.

During last week’s regular meeting, the City Council passed a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a $100,000 non-matching grant contract from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). The funds will be used to conduct environmental site assessments on the property, which the city once sold to the state but is now back in its hands.

A dilapidated building on the property along the Watauga River is what was once a water treatment facility of the American Bemberg Corp. rayon plant. According to the Archives of Appalachia, the Bemberg plant was constructed in 1925 and was fully operational by fall 1926.

In 2009, the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) purchased the property for possible development of a state-run fish hatchery. The TWRA idea dried up – reportedly due to lack of funding – prompting the state to donate it back to the city in May 2023.

According to the Tennessee Property Assessment database, the parcel abuts Valley Forge Wholesale, 412 Cherokee Park Drive; Carter County Recycling Center, 410 Cherokee Park Drive; Riverview Townhomes, 305 Stonewall Jackson Drive; Lowe’s, 1001 W. Elk Ave.; five acres owned by the city at 407 Cherokee Park Drive; and Bemberg Industrial Center, 761 W. Elk Ave.

In 1997, the American Bemberg plant was among nine new sites nationwide that were proposed for the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List (NPL) of known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. In 2000, the EPA published notice that it no longer proposed the Bemberg site for inclusion on the NPL, and no further federal action was planned.

“We believe it is incumbent upon the city to do all that we can to facilitate redevelopment efforts of this corridor, which lays between SR-91/Elk Avenue and the Watauga River,” the BRAG application says. “This includes the structural remnants of the former Bemberg plant and the concrete slabs that comprise the footprint of the former North American Rayon Corporation Plant along with the remains of the former wastewater treatment plant and adjacent vegetated land that was used for solid waste disposal.”

The narrative also says, “The footprint and remains of the former rayon plants are priority sites not only because of the state of decay of the structures and the high likelihood of environmental contamination but also because this land has high redevelopment potential being along a highly trafficked corridor at the gateway to the city. While Elizabethton is located in a beautiful setting, the presence of decaying industry is (one) of the first things visitors see when entering the city, making for a negative first impression. This can cloud the image of the city for visitors leading to challenges in everything from economic development to tourism.”

The application points out the site covers about a one-mile section of the Watauga River, which is designated as a trophy trout stream and “features some of the best fly-fishing in the eastern United States.”

The General Assembly in 2023 authorized TDEC to establish the Brownfield Redevelopment Area Fund to protect the environment and create economic opportunities. The fund provides grants to identify, investigate, and clean up brownfields to encourage redevelopment.

A brownfield is a property that is vacant or underutilized because of potential contamination, such as gas stations, dry cleaners, factories, or properties that may have contamination from unknown sources. Since 1996, the Tennessee Brownfields Redevelopment Program has worked with developers, communities, and property owners to bring over 1,700 brownfield properties back into productive reuse, according to the state Department of Health.

Another property that was once home to a rayon plant, North American Rayon, 1001 W. Elk Ave., was the scene of a large fire that struck in the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 2000, reportedly destroying 975,000 square feet of the structure and causing an estimated $5 million in damage. Firefighters battled the blaze for six days, only to see it rekindle on a seventh day. They would continue to have firefighters on the scene until March 8.

The site is now home to Lowe’s.