On Thursday, September 25th 2014, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC) partnered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to host a workshop on redevelopment at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

This event was focused on “Maximizing Your Investment in Redevelopment” and featured a morning presentation and an afternoon panel discussion. The morning session was focused on grant application strategy and featured a Question and Answer portion with two EPA reviewers. The afternoon panel discussion centered on grant success stories and included a lengthy discussion of unique projects and creative ways to utilize and maximize EPA grant funding.

Featured panelists included Gretchen Longenbach, Director of Community and Economic Development in Easton and Executive Director of the Easton Redevelopment Authority, and Scott Unger, President of the Allentown Economic Development Corporation and Chair of the Lehigh Valley Land Recycling Initiative. Longenbach and Unger are champions of redevelopment in the Lehigh Valley and are respectively working on key brownfield revitalization projects – Longenbach at the Simon Street Silk Mill and Unger at the Allentown Metal Works.

The site of the event itself was a constant reminder to attendees of the value of brownfield redevelopment, as the Sands Casino is one of the success stories of the revitalization of the former Bethlehem Steel site. The Sands Casino Resort, ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, and Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII – all highlights of the massive Bethlehem Steel site redevelopment – have created jobs, improved the community, and continued to spur the economic revitalization in Bethlehem. Those facts were not lost on the EPA representatives at this workshop who view the Lehigh Valley as a prime example of how to get brownfield revitalization done.

The workshop was sponsored by EarthRes and Moonstone Environmental.

For more information on LVEDC’s redevelopment efforts, contact Andrew Kleiner, Redevelopment Specialist, at akleiner@lehighvalley.org.