The SMPS-MI February 19 program to be held at Tapestry Banquet Hall, 24580 Evergreen, Southfield. Participants will learn how developers and their professional service providers can navigate the regulatory and technical pathways to manage environmental liability, secure and use available financial incentives, and design safe reuse and construction approaches for impacted/obsolete properties.

Among the speakers at the event will be James Tischler, development principal for Steppingstone Properties Ltd., a real estate development firm in Ann Arbor, who will address "The Critical Municipal Role in Brownfield Redevelopment-- Leveling the Playing Field"--a discussion of ways local and state governments can provide land, financial incentives and development support to level the economic playing field between brownfield and greenfield sites.

Also on the panel will be Keith West, manager of closed plants for General Motors, who will talk about the redevelopment of obsolete industrial facilities; and Consumers Energy's director of real estate, Bruce Rasher, who will talk about the nearly completed project in which Consumers Energy's new headquarters were built on a brownfield site in Jackson.