Data Center Brownfields: Acquiring Contaminated Sites Without Inheriting the Liability

Lawrence P. Schnapf, Principal | Schnapf LLC

Lawrence P. Schnapf is the principal of Schnapf LLC and an environmental attorney with more than 40 years of experience handling environmental issues in real estate, corporate, brownfield, financing, and redevelopment transactions. His geology training gives him a technical perspective on contaminated sites, which complements his legal practice in environmental due diligence, liability, and brownfield redevelopment. He also represents clients in environmental litigation, enforcement, and cost-recovery matters.

• Education & Credentials

Larry has legal and geology training and serves as an adjunct professor of environmental law at New York Law School, where he teaches Environmental Law and Policy and Brownfield Redevelopment. He has also taught environmental courses through the Center for Christian Studies at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

• Recognition & Leadership

Larry has been recognized by New York Super Lawyers, The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers, and Chambers USA, and holds an AV® Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He is a past Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and the ABA Business Law Section Committee on Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Law, and a Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources.

• Professional Involvement

Larry co-chairs the NYSBA Brownfield Task Force and has held leadership roles in hazardous-site remediation. He chaired the legal subcommittee of the ASTM E1527 task force responsible for the 2013 and 2021 revisions to the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment standard and co-chaired the legal subcommittee of the ASTM Vapor Intrusion Task Group. He is also an emeritus board member of the New York Brownfield Partnership and the Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast and has authored and edited leading environmental law publications.

• Experience

Larry focuses on environmental risk in corporate, real estate, and brownfield transactions, including contaminated-site acquisition, redevelopment, financing, and disposition. His practice also covers distressed debt, bankruptcy, workouts, environmental litigation, enforcement, administrative proceedings, and private cost-recovery actions. His combination of transactional and technical experience makes him particularly well suited to addressing how attorneys can identify, evaluate, and manage environmental liabilities before acquiring contaminated properties.

Matthew J. Sinkman, Partner | FBT Gibbons LLP

Matthew J. Sinkman is a partner at FBT Gibbons LLP whose environmental practice focuses on contaminated-property transactions, Superfund litigation, site remediation, and environmental enforcement. He represents buyers, sellers, and developers of contaminated properties as well as plaintiffs and defendants in hazardous-site disputes, giving him experience with both the transactional and litigation consequences of environmental liabilities.

• Education & Credentials

Matthew earned his J.D. from Boston University School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Michigan. He is licensed in New York and New Jersey and admitted to practice before the federal district courts throughout New York and in the District of New Jersey.

• Recognition & Leadership

Matthew was recognized by Best Lawyers in its 2026 editions for Environmental Law and Litigation – Environmental and previously named to the New York Metro Super Lawyers Rising Stars list for Business Litigation. He has served on the NYSBA Environmental & Energy Law Section’s Executive Committee since 2019 and has co-chaired its Enforcement and Compliance Committee.

• Professional Involvement

Matthew is a member of the NYSBA Environmental & Energy Law Section’s Global Climate Change and Hazardous Waste/Site Remediation Committees and serves on the Board of Directors of the New York City Brownfield Partnership. He regularly speaks on Superfund, brownfield, cleanup, and environmental enforcement issues and has written on PFAS regulation, New York Superfund amendments, and NYSDEC brownfield and Superfund regulations.

• Experience

Matthew is a former Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where he handled Superfund and environmental enforcement matters, including litigation involving more than $50 million in claims for PFAS contamination at 69 sites. In private practice, he represents parties in Superfund litigation and advises buyers, sellers, and developers on contaminated properties and New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, bringing both government-enforcement and transactional perspectives to environmental risk.

SESSION 1 – Environmental Diligence and CERCLA Defenses for Data Center Site Acquisitions | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session examines the environmental due diligence framework and CERCLA liability defenses available to attorneys representing data center developers acquiring contaminated brownfield sites. Attendees will learn how to structure a Phase I ESA that satisfies All Appropriate Inquiries under ASTM E1527-21 or ASTM E2247 to satisfy one the CERCLA liability protections, how ASTM E2247 differs when the target site is rural or a large tract, and how to maintain post-closing appropriate care obligations and potential advantages of siting data centers on brownfield sites as opposed to greenfields. The session will also address how the PFOA and PFOS CERCLA hazardous substance designations affect diligence scope and acquisition risk. Attorneys will leave with a practical framework for evaluating environmental conditions and protecting a client’s position before and after closing.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – State Brownfield Programs and Redevelopment Agreements for Contaminated Site Reuse | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session examines how state brownfield and voluntary cleanup programs structure liability protection, financial incentives, and regulatory closure for contaminated site redevelopment, with a focus on sites being developed as data centers. Attorneys will learn about program enrollment, site cleanup agreements, institutional controls, and no-further-action letters or the equivalent across multiple jurisdictions, with an emphasis on New York. Attendees leave with a practical framework for sequencing state program participation relative to deal milestones, identifying compatibility issues between site controls and data center operations, and working with state agencies.