AKT Peerless merges environmental services with incentive assessment, doubles staff over past decade

Until the mid-90's, there wasn't much reason to redevelop contaminated property. That changed for two reasons: legislation was enacted that dealt with dangling liability issues and federal and state incentives were designed to entice developers to once-untouchable land and buildings.

Wisely, AKT Peerless began to examine ways to help developers... well... develop these types of properties and buildings.

With that in mind, the company decided to expand their focus which, at that time, was solely engaged in the assessment side of environmental services. Sensing the change a-coming, AKT started to hire experts in incentives from places like the MEDQ and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

AKT can now walk hand in hand with a client, whether it be a developer or a municipality, in locating and assessing properties, getting brownfield authorities off the ground and identifying and securing financial incentives towards property redevelopment.

Incentives that AKT works with include: brownfield tax increment financing and single business tax credits, the obsolete property rehabilitation act, fast track land bank authorities, MEDQ brownfield redevelopment grants and loans, Renaissance and Enterprise Zones, EPA brownfield assessment and cleanup grants and loans, New Market Tax Credits and historic tax credits.

"We look for where the financial gap on a project is coming from," says Corey Leon, the firm's director of incentives. "And we try to find a way of filling that gap."

Their approach has helped grow the firm from 20 people with $2 million in sales annually to one that employs nearly 50 and will reach $7.5 million in sales this year. It staffs offices in Detroit, Farmington, Lansing and Saginaw.

Tony Kashat, the firm's principal, says things have really changed at AKT in the last decade. "We're not just dealing with science," he says. He is aware that each project the company is involved with has the potential to change the landscape of a city or neighborhood. "We're helping create redevelopment, a tax base and jobs -- another anchor in an area that can then be built off of."

Sources: Tony Kashat, Corey Leon and Rebecca Savage, AKT Peerless
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh