Annual chamber luncheon highlights Pottstown’s progress
The TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce began its annual Pottstown Progress Luncheon Wednesday by honoring a business owner who helps connect businesses with each other.
Bob Gueli is the owner of the TriCounty Business Campus and he is the first recipient of the chambers annual “Connector Award,” which was presented by Peggy Lee-Clark, executive director of Pottstown Area Economic Development.
Gueli said his family purchased the campus in 1985 and while business has been good, “the last five or six years have been really exciting.”
Lee-Clark, who presented a video outlining PAED’s mission, also offered remarks about recent activities. She said existing businesses like VideoRay and Precision Polymer are thriving. “They are hiring and they are bursting at the seams for space,” she said.
Last spring, the borough approved plans for the 14,750-square foot expansion of Precision Polymer’s Queen Street facility.
Lee-Clark said PAED is also actively looking for an experienced restaurateur to take over the former Lily’s Grill on High Street, as well as a new business to fill the former Weitzenkorn’s building in the same block.
Lee-Clark also talked about some of the revitalization in Pottstown that is not quite so visible. Inside the Pottstown Industrial Complex, which many know as the former Bethlehem Steel works, are several innovative companies including a Japan-based precision machining firm; a turf recycling business and one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of sprinkler heads, she said.
Lee-Clark also led a roundtable discussion with three elected officials who, she said, “always take the call. They are here because they want Pottstown to succeed.”
State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-24th Dist., who sat on the Urban Affairs Committee when she served in the House of Representatives, said “Pottstown is not blighted. I think Pottstown has a lot to offer and we are on our way forward.”
Pennycuick championed the use of tax breaks to attract new businesses and said there is a bill to speed up the reduction of the corporate income tax. “Businesses will come to Pennsylvania if we have a level playing field with the states around us,” she said.
When Montgomery County Commissioners Chairman Ken Lawrence first took office, he said Lee-Clark contacted him within two weeks to come and see Pottstown. Lawrence, who sits on the newly created Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority, said he was impressed by what he saw and believes Pottstown has as much revitalization going for it as the much-touted Phoenixville.
He agreed with the assessment offered by state Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-146th Dist., that the return of passenger rail to Pottstown would “bring us back to where we were.”
“I’m bullish about the return of passenger rail,” said Lawrence, “but it’s going to take some time to pull it together. It’s going to be transformational and I think we’re going to get it done.”