Brett C. Brumund

Overview

Brett C. Brumund is a Partner at The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm. His practice centers on Florida’s Brownfields Redevelopment Program, guiding clients through the complexities of environmental due diligence, property acquisition, permitting, and cleanup agreements to advance complex infill and community revitalization projects. He serves as lead counsel in matters involving site remediation, advises on Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreements (BSRAs), and advocates before local and state agencies to keep projects moving efficiently while balancing environmental and economic goals.

Brett leads the Firm’s Brownfields Practice, bringing decades of programmatic experience, regulatory credibility, and transaction-level insight to the designation, cleanup, and reuse of environmentally impacted properties throughout Florida. He serves as the Firm’s principal strategist and advocate in securing Brownfield Area designations, working closely with senior municipal leadership, elected officials, economic development professionals, and community stakeholders to demonstrate compliance with statutory designation criteria and to resolve complex legal, technical, and regulatory issues associated with designation approvals. Through this leadership, the Firm has assisted local governments and private stakeholders in securing designation of more than 160 Brownfield Areas across nearly 100 jurisdictions throughout Florida, positioning these sites for environmental restoration, economic revitalization, and long-term community benefit.

Brett also leads the Firm’s negotiation and implementation of Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreements (BSRAs) with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and delegated local pollution-control programs, including Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Hillsborough County. The Firm has negotiated more than 200 BSRAs, which frequently serve as the regulatory and financial framework for redevelopment projects. These agreements provide certainty regarding remediation obligations, establish risk management strategies, and secure statutory liability protections that are essential to developers, landowners, lenders, and institutional investors seeking to responsibly redevelop environmentally impacted properties.

Complementing this regulatory and transactional work, Brett directs the Firm’s extensive work under Florida’s Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit (VCTC) Program, one of the state’s most important financial incentive tools supporting brownfields redevelopment. He oversees multidisciplinary teams of attorneys, technical consultants, and financial auditors responsible for preparing, filing, and defending tax credit applications and responding to agency review inquiries to maximize client eligibility and recovery. Collectively, the Firm has prepared and submitted more than 420 VCTC applications on behalf of clients, helping unlock substantial economic incentives that significantly improve project feasibility, particularly for affordable housing developments, mixed-use revitalization projects, and public-sector park, recreation, and open-space reuse initiatives.

Brett is also deeply familiar with Florida’s broader suite of environmental incentives, including sales tax refunds for affordable housing in brownfield areas and job creation tax refunds, as well as federal brownfield funding programs that expand available financing pathways. His background in science enables him to communicate complex environmental and technical issues clearly to diverse audiences, serving as both a facilitator and translator for clients navigating multifaceted redevelopment challenges.

His practice spans advising commercial and residential developers, local governments, and industrial clients on matters ranging from affordable housing and urban infill redevelopment to long-term cleanup obligations, Superfund site strategy, and PFAS litigation risk assessment. Community engagement and advocacy are central to Brett’s work; he frequently hosts and facilitates public meetings, helping residents understand redevelopment plans while ensuring community concerns are incorporated into project planning. He also advises on natural resource issues, including protected species considerations and permitting, and leads the Firm’s practice in obtaining variances from environmental requirements before Miami-Dade County’s Environmental Quality Control Board.

Within the Firm, Brett plays an active role in mentoring junior attorneys and law clerks, particularly in client communication and community engagement, and he closely tracks emerging trends in sustainable development, including LEED certifications and the integration of natural systems into redevelopment planning.

Before joining the Firm in 2019, Brett worked with the nonprofit Miami Waterkeeper, where he gained experience in environmental policy, compliance, and advocacy.

What Brett finds most rewarding is witnessing the transformation of contaminated urban sites into productive spaces, particularly in land-constrained areas like Miami, where infill development can reduce urban sprawl while revitalizing communities.

Outside of his practice, Brett enjoys traveling—counting Scotland, Vietnam, Mexico, and Hawaii among his favorite destinations—and reading.

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Professional Contributions and Publications