Environmental Liability Support for a National Real Estate Investment Trust

In 2001, during its transition from an owner and operator of gas stations to a real-estate investment trust, the client needed program-level oversight of a number of consultants who were working to retire environmental liabilities on a portfolio of over 500 properties and to quantify and defend their asset retirement obligations (ARO).

The client's need for support expanded in 2012 when they gained ARO for 200+ additional properties following the bankruptcy of a significant tenant. In 2016, following financial challenges with one of their consultants, their needs expanded to include execution of assessment and remediation on over 300 properties.

Antea Group was able to put together a full range of support services to meet all of the client's needs:

Program Management and Accounting

Our expert team developed a scalable and defensible approach to documenting ARO for the portfolio of sites and tracking the progress of the client's consultants. This approach was ultimately migrated into a web-based data management toolto allow more efficient team interaction and to provide a central location for document retention. Our technical experts oversaw and critiqued the assessment and remedial action planning and execution work of the client's environmental consultants.  

Regulatory Advocacy

Antea Group continues to advocate for the client in states where individual regulators have significant influence on cleanup requirements.

Assessment and Remediation

Drawing from our extensive experience executing assessment and remediation work on portfolios of projects, Antea Group established a team of skilled professionals to take on direct execution of environmental work for the client. The team is structured with regional leads to oversee project managers, limiting the points of contact required for the client. Fifteen project managers oversee the day-to-day operation of the projects, supported by a regional team of environmental professionals and national subject matter experts.

Antea Group aligned with the client's goals functions as an extension of their internal team, allowing them to manage their environmental liabilities with a single internal resource. Our work has led to fifteen years of successful quarterly ARO calculations, as measured by third-party audits of financial statements and liability estimates. We have also achieved regulatory closure of 289 environmental incidents, and managed cleanup pace to align with spending goals of the client's organization.  

Multiple early incident closures have resulted from regulatory advocacy, and the client achieved a seamless transition of 300+ active environmental projects to Antea Group in 2016. We continue to produce successful execution of assessment and remedial activities and meet project-specific goals and portfolio spend targets.