Putting on the green pressure

Geothermal energy to power Tanesay neighborhood in Appleton

By Janine Anderson

Tanesay Development, Chicago, is planning a mixed-use development along the Fox River in Appleton. Images courtesy of Tanesay Development

Rendering illustrates what the RiverHeath Project will look like when completed.

Rendering illustrates what the RiverHeath Project will look like when completed.

Mark Geall, a principal of Chicago-based Tanesay Development, said his team first identified a 15-acre site on the Fox River in Appleton in summer 2006.

But after being home to a paper mill, then a pulp mill and then a plant that turned wood pulp products into lubricants for oil rigs, the site was contaminated and was left unused for at least eight years.

Luckily for Geall and Appleton, the city joined Kaukauna, which owned the property because its electric utility operated hydroelectric turbines on the site, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources to remediate the site.

Now Tanesay Development is turning the former brownfield into a $25 million neighborhood that will continue to use the hydroelectric turbines to power the site.

“I’d like to think I’m some sort of philanthropist,” Geall said. “I think it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the market if you’re able to deliver something that everybody is telling you is difficult to do.

“If we’re able to do this, with neighborhood-wide geothermal heating and cooling, everybody will say, ‘Why can’t you do this as well?’”

Scheduled for completion by summer 2009, the RiverHeath project in downtown Appleton can be an example of sustainability, Tanesay said.

Peter Hensler, director of community development for Appleton, said the redevelopment started more than seven years ago. He said Appleton officials worked with Kaukauna and the DNR on a site evaluation, which found significant soil and groundwater issues.

Through remediation, they eliminated the soil problems and opened the land up for development.

“We were not focused on it initially,” Hensler said of the RiverHeath project’s green efforts, “but as Mark took it upon himself to introduce some of these concepts, we as a city fully embraced that.

“We’re just tickled pink, or maybe tickled green, that this project was able to take on this green-sensitive aspect.”

The use of Kaukauna Utility’s hydroelectric turbines to power the development is a major green element of the project.

“The turbines are about the size of a [Volkswagen] Bug,” said Geall, who grew up in Neenah. “What it does do is generate enough power to power all the shops, houses and offices on the site, which is kind of nice. And it certainly fits into our profile of trying to create as sustainable a development as we can.”

Geall said Tanesay also is incorporating green roofs, pervious surfaces wherever possible and on-site storm-water management with swales that lead to rain gardens.

The development also will meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design neighborhood development standards.

“We’re not only trying to build sustainable development with hydropower and geothermal,” Geall said, “we’re also trying to change the way people do things. Once the public sees it, they’ll demand it in the next thing. It’s better for everyone if we consume less energy and if the energy we do consume is produced locally.”