The free June 23 event will be held at the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center (pictured) in Allentown

The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) has announced the slate of speakers for a panel discussion that will be held during the organization’s upcoming June 23 event about redevelopment in the Lehigh Valley.

The free event, entitled “From Brownfield to Business Incubation,” will feature information on available financial assistance for the redevelopment of brownfields, or abandoned and underutilized commercial and industrial properties.

The speakers will include:

• Jeff Brown, principal with Charles Street Capital
• Kassie Hilgert, CEO of ArtsQuest
• Mike Grather, CEO and founder of Lightlab International Allentown
• Andrew Twiggar, of the Allentown Waterfront

The June 23 event will be held at Allentown’s Bridgeworks Enterprise Center, a business incubator in Allentown. Each registrant will receive a ticket for a free draft from HiJinx Brewing Company, one of the Bridgeworks client companies.

Attendance event is free, but pre-registration is required. Register on the LVEDC website.

Urban reuse is increasingly becoming a priority for development in the Lehigh Valley due to low industrial vacancy rates. LVEDC’s redevelopment program, the Lehigh Valley Land Recycling Initiative (LVLRI), had one of its most successful years 2015.

The newly-announced panelists include a mix of brownfield developers and operators, representing some of the biggest examples of transformative brownfield success stories in the Lehigh Valley in recent years.

Jeff Brown is a principal with Charles Street Capital, which redeveloped the long-vacant former Schoen’s Furniture Store building at 612 Hamilton Street in Allentown. With new life as a loft-style office building with a mix of modern and historical architecture, it is now the home of Trifecta Technologies, Shane Patrick Associates, an Offix Systems showroom, and the Bell Hall gourmet burger restaurant.

Kassie Hilgert has been President and CEO of ArtsQuest since 2014, and before that had served as the organization’s Senior Vice President for Marketing and Advancement for nearly six years. Dedicated to providing access to art, culture, and educational programs for residents of the Lehigh Valley, ArtsQuest runs the annual Musikfest in Bethlehem, as well as the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, Christkindlmarkt, and Banana Factory.

Mike Grather, along with Tracy Silvert, founded LightLab International Allentown, which provides testing and calibration services, equipment manufacturing, and software distribution internationally. A Bridgeworks client company, it is an ISO-accredited photometric testing laboratory that provides testing services for the lighting industry.

Andrew Twiggar is the owner and co-founder of Dunn Twiggar Company, LLC, which is partnering with Jaindl Properties on the Allentown Waterfront project on former Lehigh Structural Steel Co. land in Allentown. Now projected to cost $400 million at full build-out, the development will include six new office buildings, three residential complexes, three parking structures, a vibrant main street, and a signature half-mile River Walk.

The Allentown Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), which runs the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center, is the host sponsor for the June 23 event. Additional sponsors include HDR and Moonstone Environmental.

Additional sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact Andrew Kleiner, LVEDC Director of Redevelopment and External Affairs, at 610-266-7619 or akleiner@lehighvalley.org.