CUNA Credit Union Gets Sweetened Deal from Pollution Grant

MADISON, Wis. – CUNA Credit Union, a $289-million institution based in Madison, Wisconsin, is benefiting from deciding to build its new headquarters on a site formally contaminated with hazardous and other waste, according to a local media outlet. According to The Capital Times, CUNA CU is planning to build on a three-acre site which is part of a larger parcel which had been designated a brown fields site. So-called brown fields’ sites are primarily former industrial sites with a history of environmental contamination. This contamination deems them difficult to clean and redevelop and in order to spur their redevelopment, the paper reported; developers of these areas are eligible for grants to help defray their costs. The developer of the CUNA CU site has been designated for one such grant of $300,000 and part of that grant will be used to develop the CUNA CU headquarters site. CUNA Credit Union CEO Kim Sponem told the paper that CUNA CU has seen its assets increase $210 million this year, and that the credit union plans to begin construction in 2005.