Nov. 11—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The Cambria Regional Chamber of Commerce's 2022 economic summit showcased plans for growth and sustainability for businesses in downtown Johnstown, the city-owned Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center and The Johnstown Galleria.

The summit also highlighted Johnstown's branding opportunity as a "mountain town" with quality-of-life metrics some bigger cities lack.

Speakers at the summit on Thursday at the Pasquerilla Conference Center included Mike Artim, president and CEO of Intrignia Inc., who has recently added a 24/7 "maker space" to the list of properties he manages in downtown Johnstown.

"Made in Johnstown," at 134 Gazebo Park, will provide artisans with three floors of co-working space filled with prototyping and small-batch manufacturing equipment, Artim said.

"It's going to be a place where people in the creative economy can go and start a business, a side hustle, or it could be people with ideas about a prototype — there are so many economic opportunities with a maker space," he said.

Made in Johnstown is the successor of Creator Square, which had been in development at the location for years, but hadn't found an executive director to execute the vision. But the move of a California man to his wife's hometown has changed that.

Space for 'makers'

Maker space director Michael Rottman married a woman from Johnstown, and the couple moved from California recently, he said, because the cost of living was too expensive in California.

In Sacramento, Rottman was director of a maker space with 700 members. He called the then-owners of Creator Square to check on opportunities in Johnstown before he moved.

He said Creator Square Inc. had plans to step away, but helped Rottman move in — along with Artim as building manager.

"Made in Johnstown's primary mission is to launch, streamline and grow businesses," Rottman said.

Intrignia also owns Balance Restaurant at 415 Main St., as well as five other properties on the same block. Artim said plans are moving forward to open a culinary school at 421 Main St. in partnership with Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, and at 423-425 Main St., he's opened the City of Johnstown Entrepreneurship Center sponsored by Intuit.

The entrepreneurship center is working with 15 projects and is set to launch two businesses before the end of the year, Artim said.

"There's an ecosystem of entrepreneurs growing downtown," he said. "There's really an alignment of the stars."

Flush with water

Johnstown's growing economic diversity was a point made by the summit's keynote speaker, Johnstown native and Columbia University faculty member Thaddeus Pawlowski.

He said Johnstown was "the definition of resilience."

Pawlowski is managing director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes at Columbia University, where he teaches urban planning and urban design.

He focused on the transformation he saw in Johnstown over the past 20 years. When he left the area, rivers were orange with acid mine drainage, and the jobs providing livelihoods that perhaps made the the environmental degradation worthwhile were gone, Pawlowski said.

He delivered his speech through a live video feed from Egypt, where he was attending a United Nations conference on climate change.

"Today, the landscape in Johnstown is transformed. The forests are lush thanks to state investment and water treatment. The waters are clean and coming back to life," he said. "Johnstown is unique in this way. The western part of the country is starved of water, ravaged by wildfires — but in the eastern region, we are getting more water, which means healthier forests, water and communities."

Quality-of-life factors including natural resources, a lower cost of living and safety are Johnstown's strengths to use to brand the region, said Skip Glenn, assistant professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, who presented a report comparing Johnstown to similar mountain towns in the eastern U.S.

"People are coming out of cities to look for a different pace," he said.

The report showed Johnstown lacked in the entertainment department compared with other mountain towns.

The summit at the Pasquerilla Conference Center also brought to the stage one of the people working to bring life back to the venue.

The city-owned property has been unused, except for a few small events, since Pasquerilla Enterprises L.P. stopped managing the site through its subsidiary Crown Conventions Center Co. effective Feb. 28.

Two locally owned businesses — Top Dog Productions and Flair of Country Catering and Event Planning — were subsequently selected to manage the conference center on an interim basis.

Dustin Greene, co-owner of Top Dog, said the management agreement could become permanent. He said he is working book weddings, large corporate parties and events at the center.

"The ultimate goal is to bring dollars back to Johnstown," Greene said, "but this is a community building, so we want to host civic events, too."

The crowd at the summit also heard an update from The Johns- town Galleria's new owner, Leo Karruli. In the 45 days since he's taken ownership of the mall, Karruli said, the food court has been filled and he's arranged meetings with new stores and service-based businesses to move into vacant mall spaces.

"I'll tell you one thing — the mall is not dead. It can come back to the way it was when it opened in 1992," he said. "And this is not my mall. It's our mall."