Palmyra will receive a national award for the Route 73 redevelopment project. Officials broke ground on Phase II in 2023.
The Route 73 South corridor has transformed into “a significant community asset” of warehouses and affordable housing units.
It was in 2003 that the site was first declared a Brownfields Development Area by the Department of Environmental Protection. The largest sites of the Route 73 project area consist of 65 acres for the National Amusements Inc. site and 104 acres of the Fillit Corporation landfill site.
And for the transformation, Palmyra is receiving the 2025 Phoenix Award for Region 2 through Brownfields 2025 Sustainable Communities Start Here.
“Your team and nomination exemplify excellence in brownfield redevelopment and we look forward to celebrating your success,” Emily Sparks, community director for Brownfields 2025, wrote in a letter to Mayor Gina Ragomo Tait and Business Administrator John Gural.
“The projects nominated this year are especially impressive, and a testament to the impact of transforming a site into a significant community asset.”
Tait will accept the award at the National Brownfields Conference in Chicago on Aug. 7. The four-day conference will offer activities related to brownfields, including plenary sessions with noted speakers, an exhibit hall, a diverse selection of technical seminars, mobile workshops and networking receptions.
At a groundbreaking ceremony in 2023 for Phase II of the Route 73 South Redevelopment Area, it was hard for Gural not to get a bit emotional as he acknowledged the many public and private partnerships made in building the project.
“This is the culmination of really, I guess, my professional dreams that I have had since I have been involved with the borough of Palmyra,” said the former councilman and mayor, noting he was first elected to office in 1994. “Since then, this is what it has been about.”
Gural said the project “was a lot of very hard work for many years.”
“… It paid off and we’re all very proud,” he acknowledged of earning the Phoenix award. “We’re thrilled that our efforts have been recognized on a national level and happy that our constituents will be the beneficiaries of our redevelopment projects for decades to come.”
Phase I of the redevelopment project included the building of a 700,000-square-foot Tac-Pal Logistics Center warehouse on the National Amusements site, a former World War II Army training ground. The warehouse was built last year.
Phase II included another 700,000-square-foot Tac-Pal building on the Fillit property. In addition, 102 affordable-housing units will be built and there will be 34 acres of open space, including wetlands and shoreland restoration.
