BETHLEHEM, Pa. – From being the home of one of America’s largest steelmakers, to being transformed to an entertainment campus. Bethlehem Steel is in the statewide spotlight.<\/p>\n
“Generally speaking, the area has been a brownfields kind of gem,” said John Gross, Brownfields Development Group Manager with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.<\/p>\n
It is all part of the Pennsylvania Brownfields Conference. Environmental professionals from across the state are getting to see how once contaminated and abandoned properties can be converted into modern day use.<\/p>\n
“Bringing everybody together to get the ideas flowing, the juices flowing is how things can get redeveloped,” said Gross.<\/p>\n
People at the conference are also touring buildings where work has yet to be done, like former Bethlehem Steel Offices.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69c1b6c330688.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
WFMZ-TV | Jack Reinhard<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, they are getting a glimpse at turn and grind. The 150-year-old build helped make parts for Navy ships and is now being transformed into a new ArtsQuest venue.<\/p>\n
“We think bringing together all of the stakeholders of a variety of standpoints coming together is magic. That’s where a lot of these discussions take place, how to get those sites back, other creative ways to use it,” said David Teorsky, general manager of the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Former Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, who is now with Peron Development said he thinks only a few other places around the country have developed brownfields better than Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
“We still have some more work to do, but I think it’s great to bring people here who have similar projects or situations in their community and they can learn from that, as we did before us,” said Callahan.<\/p>\n
People are also touring sites in Easton and Allentown. The Pennsylvania Brownfields Conference runs through Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – From being the home of one of America’s largest steelmakers, to being transformed to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,5998,66755,66756,66757,2220,66758,132,13534],"class_list":["post-146401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-steel","tag-brownfields","tag-environmental-conference","tag-land-reuse","tag-pennsylvania-department-of-environmental-protection","tag-property-transformation","tag-redevelopment","tag-urban-renewal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}