Bubbling up from a neighborhood redevelopment vision, the 22-acre Arlington Jackson Business Center was carved out of a heavily polluted tract land that suffered from more than 100 years of heavy industrial uses. The business center, generally is bounded by Interstate 35E, Arlington and Maryland Avenues.

Before the Port began cleaning up the property in 1997, the site contained hazardous chemicals — including vinyl chloride — at toxic levels that threatened not only the safety of nearby residents and businesses but which debilitated the surrounding neighborhoods efforts to invest in their own properties.

At the neighborhoods’ behest, the Port removed the pollution and established a business center, from which four businesses now operate. The businesses — Addco Industries, Viking Sprinkler, Asian Foods and Bix Fruit — employ a total of 560 people and pay about $612,046 annually in property taxes.