HOW THE RDA GOT INVOLVED: In the mid ’90s, just as the Redevelopment Authority and Bristol Borough were going into high gear with their signature Riverfront North project, Bristol Steel’s vacated building came to my attention. How could it not? Here we were, trying to revitalize Bristol’s riverfront by doing things like transforming the historic Dial building into a beautiful Class-A office complex and building an elegant new residential housing community, but sitting smack dab in the middle of all this ambitious activity and grandiose planning was a three-quarter-acre junkyard.
It stuck out like a sore thumb—like someone walking on stage to accept an Academy Award wearing a stylish Armani tuxedo with a football-sized spaghetti sauce stain on their white shirt. Something had to be done. In 2001, Bristol Borough asked the RDA to try to purchase the property from its owners. An appraisal was done on the site that came in on the low side at $116,700 and on the high side at $291,750. The RDA took it by eminent domain in March 2005.
Next Excerpt –>