The GKE Team

Michael R.Goldstein, Esq.

• Martindale Hubble AV Preeminent rated attorney
• Chambers & Partners rated attorney
• Chairman of the Miami Dade County’s Brownfields Task Force & Oversight Committee, 1996-2004
• Founding Member and First President of the Florida Brownfields Association, President: 2002–2006
• Served on Advisory Board of Bloomberg BNA's Environmental Due Diligence Guide, 2006-2019
• Appointed to the Executive Committee of the National Brownfields Coalition, 2009-Present
• Chair of National Brownfields Coalition’s Public Policy, Redevelopment Incentives, and Regulatory Partnerships Committee
• Awarded the Brownfields Leadership Award by the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals, 2013
• Awarded Chrysalis Award by the membership of the Florida Brownfields Association, 2013
• Awarded Environmental Justice Champion Award by Southeast Brownfield Conference, 2019

For over 29 years, Michael R. Goldstein, Managing Shareholder of The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm, P.A., and a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent and Chambers and Partners rated attorney, has practiced exclusively in the area of environmental law and brownfields redevelopment for a broad range of clients, including industrial, retail, residential, and office developers, public and private companies, private equity, entrepreneurs, lenders, and local governments.  He focuses on pollution assessment and remediation, property transactions, environmental based economic incentives, and helping clients navigate the environmental liability risk associated with buying, selling, financing, building on, and reusing properties impacted by contamination.  Michael is highly experienced in obtaining approvals for cleanup strategies that minimize the cost and time of assessment and remediation, evaluating additional construction costs that result from redeveloping contaminated sites, and limiting the impact of remediation on redevelopment design, schedule, and budget.  He is frequently called upon to structure and manage exposure to regulatory and third-party liability through the use of environmental insurance, covenants-not-to-sue, and agency consent agreements.  Prior to starting his own firm, Michael was a partner at Akerman Senterfitt and Gunster Yoakley & Stewart.

In 2007, Michael formed Goldstein Brownfield Group (“GBG”), to pursue opportunities to acquire, cleanup, and redevelop environmentally impaired properties as a development principal.  In this capacity, he has successfully acquired and facilitated the remediation and/or reuse of a former dairy distribution facility in Miami, a former chemical storage and distribution facility in Miami, a closed landfill (construction and demolition debris) in Coral Springs, and a closed landfill (municipal solid waste and incinerator ash) in West Palm Beach. In 2019, GBG partnered with the principals of Kite Capital Partners to form Goldstein Kite Environmental (“GKE”).  GKE is an integrated family of environmental reuse entities pursuing brownfield and Superfund sites in the Southeast region of the United States and closed coal fired energy plants across the country.  GKE has a particular emphasis on the reuse of brownfield and Superfund sites for renewable energy production and also provides capital – equity and debt – to development and redevelopment projects that are unable to secure conventional financing due to contamination related regulatory, technical, and legal concerns.  In his capacity as co-CEO, Michael leads these efforts by planning and directing corporate strategy; identifying acquisition, investment, and lending opportunities; analyzing and structuring regulatory, technical, and legal risk; leading environmental due diligence; procuring and managing environmental consultants and contractors pre- and post-construction; evaluating and pursuing economic incentive opportunity to increase returns for investors, and serving as GKE’s liaison to regulatory officials, local governments, and community stakeholders.  Michael is also responsible for developing GKE’s environmental justice, climate stewardship, equitable development, workforce, and affordable housing initiatives and ensuring they are fully, meaningfully, and consistently incorporated into all investment and decision making and implementation activities.

In 1996, Miami-Dade County Commission appointed Michael to serve as Chairman of the County’s Brownfields Task Force, a post that he held until the committee's business was completed in 2004.  Michael was the founding Chairman of the Florida Brownfields Association and from 2002 to 2006 served as its Chairman and  President for the first five years of the organization's existence. His tenure was distinguished by his commitment to elevating environmental justice and public health as critical areas of emphasis for business, community, regulatory agency, and local government stakeholders.  In January 2006, Michael was appointed to serve on the Advisory Board of Bloomberg Environment’s highly respected Bloomberg Environmental Due Diligence Guide, which serves as a national reporting, editorial, and opinion forum for environmental transactions and related Brownfields and policy matters.  In 2009, Michael was appointed to the Executive Committee of the National Brownfields Coalition, an affiliation of private and public-sector stakeholders working in the U.S. Congress to advocate for improvements in environmental redevelopment policy and legislation, and in 2019 to its Steering Committee.  Michael currently serves as Chair of the Coalition’s Committee on Public Policy, Redevelopment Incentives, and Regulatory Partnerships and as a member of the Coalition’s Environmental Justice Committee and its Advocacy and Outreach Committee.

In 2008, Michael founded and funded the Goldstein Brownfields Foundation, which is dedicated to empowering economically and health disadvantaged individuals and communities with scholarships, programming, and resources to restore polluted land, revitalize neighborhoods, and protect public health.  The Goldstein Brownfields Foundation also focuses on increasing the ethnic and gender diversity of lawyers working in the environmental arena through academic scholarships, educational and career programming, and professional mentoring.  On May 16, 2013, Michael was awarded the prestigious Brownfields Leadership Award at the U.S. EPA National Brownfields Conference by the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals for his “achievement in and commitment to public private partnerships.”  On October 28, 2013, Michael was awarded the prestigious Chrysalis Award by the membership of the Florida Brownfields Association at its Annual Brownfields Conference for his “outstanding efforts towards the cleanup and redevelopment of Brownfield properties in the state of Florida,” including “educating the public and elected officials about the Brownfield Program, providing volunteer assistance to Florida communities, advancing legislation that promotes the Brownfield Program through increased incentives and opportunities, extreme volunteer participation in the activities of the Florida Brownfields Association, promoting the state and federal Brownfield Programs, and Brownfield site cleanup.”  On October 27, 2019, Michael was recognized by the Southeast Brownfields Conference by receiving the Environmental Justice Champion Award for his distinguished to advocate environmental justice and public health as areas of critical emphasis for business, community, regulatory agency, local government stakeholders, noting that “his legacy has been a positive force for EJ communities to regain hope, leverage tools and partnerships, to achieve revitalization.