International Risk Group LLC

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Cleanup Batters Creating new futures for defunct military bases such as Lowry is complex and arduous. So planners added an ace to their team. Margaret Jackson Denver Post Staff Writer Littleton, Colorado - After spending more than a decade on the redevelopment of Lowry Air Force Base, Tom Markham knows how tough negotiating deals with the military can be. Development of Lowry's southern border with housing cruised along during the project's early years, culminating in a Parade of Homes in 1998, said Markham, executive director of the Lowry Redevelopment Authority. Then, things got tricky. The U.S. Air Force started missing environmental cleanup deadlines, which prevented the transfer of property to the redevelopment authority. "It delayed us with all of our commitments and getting the properties back on the assessor's rolls," Markham said. That's when the redevelopment authority turned to International Risk Group LLC, a privately held Littleton firm that guided the organization through the process. It was the first time the Air Force had negotiated a deal with a private firm to clean up an installation, and now the project serves as a model for other base-redevelopment projects. "We're not a remediation company, and we're not an insurance company," said Brent Anderson, chief executive of IRG, a 35-employee company. "We're a deal shop solving complex transactions." With another round of base closings on the horizon - including 22 on the scale of Lowry - Markham hopes others can benefit from what he has learned. Markham, who also is president of the Association of Defense Communities, said he is encouraging the communities now faced with losing a base to work with companies such as IRG to expedite cleanup. "What we're saying to these communities is if you want to put this property back into productive use and replace the jobs, you need to address the environmental issues much earlier than most of us did," he said. "It's not that the services don't have people who understand environmental cleanup. It's just not their core business." Despite losing a big economic generator when the base closed in 1994, Lowry continues to fuel Denver's economy. At the time it closed, the base was generating $295 million a year in direct and indirect spending. Ten years later, the redevelopment, about 80 percent complete, has had a total gross economic impact of $4 billion, said Hilarie Portell, spokeswoman for the redevelopment authority. Environmental cleanup on military bases is governed by federal base-closure law, making it a cumbersome process, said Portell, who has been involved with the project for 10 years. While the Air Force keeps the liability - and pays the cleanup costs - for environmental issues, the Lowry Redevelopment Authority, with IRG as its partner, manages the work. In 2002, the Air Force started the $39.6 million first-phase environmental cleanup at Lowry, transferring the management of groundwater cleanup, now 50 percent complete, to the authority and IRG. The redevelopment authority and IRG completed capping of the Air Force's old landfill last year.

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