Making environmentally challenged deals work: Tools to manage risk and unlock value in contaminated real estate assets

Abstract

Corporate asset managers are increasingly confronted with the escalating costs, regulatory pressures and disclosure requirements associated with the ownership of contaminated real estate. Corporations historically have been reluctant to sell, or even engage upon site investigation for, their contaminated or potentially contaminated real estate assets. Traditional efforts to address these concerns raise complex legal issues and fail to define or limit liability. Efforts to remediate these properties have often led to projects with ever increasing costs and, in the end, more lingering liability than many corporate directors had been willing to accept. New strategies and management tools are available to assist corporate real estate managers with identifying which environmentally affected real estate assets may be ripe for sale. Similarly, environmental insurance is being considered with increasing frequency as a tool to mitigate risk and facilitate the sale of contaminated and potentially contaminated property. This paper explores, with concepts and examples, how corporate real estate managers can effectively implement these tools to unlock value from underutilised real estate assets.