'Region on the Rise' details local stimulus efforts

In these harsh economic times of halted bulldozers and parked construction cranes, "Region on the Rise," the title of a development forum yesterday in Philadelphia, seemed more optimistic than realistic.

Unless the rise to which it referred was the anxiety level of the 240 people who turned out for the event at the cruise terminal at the Navy Yard.

There was Matthew Schlindwein, a senior project manager at Opus East L.L.C., a Plymouth Meeting commercial developer, who complained in an interview that business was "very slow . . . capital is tight."

A few tables over, Don Pinkney from YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School worried about finding work for its graduates, particularly those interested in construction. The school trains high school dropouts for jobs.

"Now that the housing environment has dried up," Pinkney said, placing YouthBuild students in construction jobs has become "even more difficult."

On the other side of the room, Charles Best, a sales representative for Natural Pest Control Co., of Camden, talked about the pinch that extermination companies feel when disposable income becomes what it is now in many households - largely nonexistent.

That makes the hunt for commercial jobs much more intense, he said. Before the current infestation of economic ills, Natural Pest used to encounter three or four competitors when it bid on commercial work, Best said. "Now, it's 10 to 15."

Each had made his way to the morning-long conference, put on by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the General Building Contractors Association, in hopes of learning how the $787 billion federal stimulus plan might help his business.

Keynote speaker James P. Creedon, chief implementation officer of Pennsylvania's stimulus program, said the state's allotment would provide "an unprecedented opportunity to invest in infrastructure."

An expected $100 million for the state's energy program will enable Pennsylvania to make investments in wind and solar development and help businesses make energy-efficiency upgrades to their offices and manufacturing plants, Creedon said.

Not only will that prove a boon for installers of solar panels and distributors of concrete and steel, he said, but it should mean more business for lunch-truck operators, who will have that many more work sites to visit.

The region's roads might soon prove a reliable stop for those food vendors, said panelist Christopher Holliday, a vice president at STV Inc., a national architect and engineering firm with an office in Philadelphia.

"You're going to see a lot more guys on highways with hard hats," Holliday predicted.

Speakers on two panels - one focused on infrastructure, the other on minority-owned business opportunities - stressed that the federal spending plan would not be a cure-all, but that it represented opportunity to businesses of all sizes.

"This is the time you want to consider marketing to places you wouldn't have before," said Angelo Perryman, president and chief executive officer of African American-owned Perryman Building & Construction Services Inc., of West Philadelphia.

Schlindwein, the commercial developer, left the forum not expecting an instant turnaround, but still encouraged. "Any spending," he said, "is . . . bound to do a lot of good for the economy."

Best, of Natural Pest, agreed: "I'll keep networking."