PANTS to Move Back to Pennsylvania

After three years at the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey, producers of the Penn Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (PANTS) announced the event will be moving to the new Greater Philadelphia Expo Center near Valley Forge, Pa., in 2009. PANTS, a Mid-Atlantic region green industry trade show, moved to Atlantic City when the Fort Washington Expo Center in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, closed suddenly in early 2006.  The Fort Washington facility had been the event’s home for eleven years.  PANTS is produced by the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association (PLNA) and will be held July 28-30, 2009.

“We have appreciated the warm welcome and assistance we received from the folks at the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority during our three years in Atlantic City,” says Ed Copenhaver, chairman of the PLNA board of directors.  “However, many exhibitors and attendees have asked that we again hold the event in Pennsylvania.”

“We decided we would consider this as a viable option when there was a facility large enough to accommodate our exhibitors that also had the dates we needed,” says Rick Wojton, PANTS chairman for 2008 and 2009.  “We are pleased that with the opening of the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, those two criteria have been met.”

The new Greater Philadelphia Expo Center is in the middle of one of the largest concentrations of green industry companies in the country.  According to Dun and Bradstreet, almost 6,000 nurseries, landscape contractors and garden centers are within a fifty-mile radius of the new expo center. More than 20,000 green industry companies are within 150 miles of the center, a region that stretches from the New York metro area, through Philadelphia, down to the Baltimore-Washington metro area. 

The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center is located in a newly-developed 300-acre retail and entertainment complex.  Hotels, restaurants, retail stores and entertainment are all within an easy walk. In addition, the area is known for its retail shopping opportunities, with a major outlet mall within three miles and the King of Prussia mall within five miles.  The Valley Forge National Park is adjacent to the site. The Center is under construction and will open in January of 2009.

This year's PANTS show is July 29-31 at the Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantic City, N.J.