NEW YORK CITY-Almost 20 years ago, Debbie Kenyon, COO of Larchmont, NY-based L+M Development, remembers the burnt out buildings, shuttered stores and contaminated sites in the 35-block Melrose Commons urban renewal area of the South Bronx. But today, the area has turned a corner, now home to La Terraza, an eight-story 107-unit affordable housing complex at 481 E. 158^th St. On Wednesday, the building received the New York City Brownfield Partnership’s 2011 “Big Apple Brownfield Award,” commending L+M’s environmental remediation and redevelopment efforts here.

“It is very rewarding to take land and turn it around,” Kenyon tells GlobeSt.com, thanking the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York City Office of Environmental Remediation and the NYC Brownfield Partnership for providing oversight and support of the cleanup efforts. “I have seen the neighborhood change dramatically to now.”

Years ago, the site fell under the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Cornerstone program, a municipally run multifamily initiative designed to attract mixed-income development on city-owned land. Before construction began in 2009, the largely-vacant site contained an abandoned single-story building previously utilized as a dry cleaner, store and upholstery business. After L+M, Procida Realty and Construction Corp., We Stay/Nos Quedamos Committee Inc., and Melrose Associates formed a joint venture, they applied and were accepted into the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Brownfield Cleanup Program.