Environmental clearance imminent for Majestic site

The environmental clearance the city has been seeking for the Majestic Hotel site since 2016 will be tendered Thursday, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality announced in a news release.

The certificate of completion ADEQ will present at the 11 a.m. ceremony clears the city of any liabilities inherited from the previous owner of the 101 Park Ave. property and moves the project toward the long-awaited redevelopment phase.

Any deed restrictions limiting the property’s redevelopment potential are also alleviated by the certificate, which acknowledges that lead-contaminated soil found in subsurface and groundwater borings during the environmental assessment completed last year has been removed from the site.

The city said in September that almost 18 tons of lead-contaminated soil had been excavated from an area about 8 feet long, 6 feet wide and 5 deep.

The public will be involved in the next phase, sharing its vision for how the property should be redeveloped during input sessions facilitated by Kansas State University’s Targeted Assistance to Brownfields program. Those ideas will be distilled into visual form through renderings created by students at the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of

Architecture and Design.

The city acquired the 5-acre site in September 2015 from Park Residences Development for $672,872 after condemning it earlier that year. Almost $1.4 million was spent from the solid waste fund to demolish three condemned structures and remove the remains from a February 2014 fire at the” yellow brick” building.

The city enrolled the property in ADEQ’s brownfield program in 2013.