More than 150 Pottstown investors, entrepreneurs, and citizens attended the Third Annual Pottstown Investors Conference organized by Hobart’s Run and held on April 12 at The Hill School’s Center For The Arts. The key message of the day – shared by panelists, speakers, and guests – was that Pottstown not only is ripe for investment but is, in fact, well on its way to revitalization.

Guests indicated through a written survey and in conversations during and following the day that they were “wowed” by the nationally recognized keynote speakers, Diana Lind of the Fels Policy Research Initiative, and Alan Berube of The Brookings Institution, both of whom provided research regarding changing demographics and preferences affecting towns like Pottstown. Lind, who is working on a book (Brave New Home: The Smarter, Cheaper, Happier Future of Housing), noted that current trends call for sustainable and affordable living, such as co-living complexes, “tiny houses,” and multi-generational housing. Town planners should look beyond 2023 and think about zoning that permits such options, she said.

Berube stressed that cities looking to reinvent themselves after the loss of traditional industries must “reinvest in their urban core” – their downtown spaces, he said. He saw an “authentic, quality place” during his drive through the Borough, he commented. He urged government officials to realize that the future of the Pennsylvania economy depends upon thriving small, older cities like Pottstown.

Two panel discussions were available to all attendees. One group spotlighted entrepreneurial women who have had business success in Pottstown, and the other was an assembly of Borough, Montgomery County, and state officials who entertained questions relevant to revitalization and making Pottstown as business-friendly as possible.

Lunch featured fare from the town’s rapidly expanding, ethnically diverse foodie scene, and nonprofit organizations were on hand to share information about how their missions align with progress in Pottstown.

Twila Fisher, director of community and economic development for The Hill School and Hobart’s Run, and Peggy Lee-Clark, executive director for Pottstown Area Industrial Development, Inc., talked about available real estate in the Borough as well as Pottstown’s Keystone Opportunity Zones.

Fisher and her colleague, Cathy Skitko, senior director of institutional public relations, shared a “Top 10” list of goals they are pursuing, from community engagement and providing support for the Olivet Girls and Boys Club/Ricketts Center, Edgewood Cemetery, and “clean, green, and safe” projects, to a soon-to-be-launched Homeownership Incentive Program of forgivable loans, rehabilitation of distressed properties into rentals for individuals who want to walk to work in their Pottstown neighborhood, and the Hobart’s Ram Run 5K on April 28, which will raise funds for façade improvements.

The day ended with a narrated trolley tour of Pottstown’s downtown.