BY LISA GRACE MARR
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

BRANTFORD. An old oak armchair sits in the middle of the blown-out room. A desk rests a few feet away. They're among the last vestiges of the 70-year-old Harding carpet factory that closed about 10 years ago. When Montgomery stepped onto the property four months ago last fall, he had to prowl around piles of tires, wood palettes, barrels of toxic waste, broken glass, bricks and garbage.
"It was a disaster... an above ground land-fill. The potential for a fire was horrendous. The emotional range (when I saw it) was 'Oh, my God'- to frustration, anger because of the way things were let go. Then it was OK, that’s it, let’s do something.”

That can-do attitude makes Steve Charest happy. He's the president of King & Benton, a
Toronto - based real estate company that bought the site in November. Montgomery was retired when Charest, a friend, asked him to head the cleanup of the largest brown-field redevelopment in Brantford's history.

King & Benton ended up paying $263,000 for the Harding site and plans to spend $3.2 million on the cleanup. Charest intends to keep some of the original buildings and use the property as a warehouse facility.