Category Archive: Neighborhood Development
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A Day in Bedford County is a Reviving Trip Back in Time
By Rege Behe, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, June 21, 2010Bedford, a little more than 120 miles east of Pittsburgh, might be best known for being the stop on the Pennsylvania turnpike before Breezewood. But this charming town, settled in the early 1750s, is awash in history and nostalgia. First known as Raystown, the town took its current name from the British fort established there in 1759. It became a key site in the Whiskey Rebellion, with President George Washington arriving there in 1794 with 13,000 troops in tow.
Today, it’s a cozy small town that looks and feels like a Norman Rockwell painting. The shopkeepers are friendly, the town is clean and manageable, and there’s even ample free parking for visitors.
10 a.m.
Old Bedford Village successfully re-creates the feel of an 18th-century village, with about 50 buildings on the grounds reassembled from sites in Bedford County. There’s everything a family from that period would need — a doctor’s office, carriage house, general store, schools and a church — along with period-specific crafts such as a whitesmith (a tin maker) and a basket shop. Re-enactors often are present, notably the blacksmith and coopersmith. Feather’s Bakery serves great cookies and other snacks, and, on certain days, the Pendergrass Tavern (modeled on the pub that sat outside the walls of Fort Bedford in the 1750s) serves simple repasts from days of yore. Make sure you say hi to Jack, the white cat with brown, black and gray markings, who roams the grounds as the unofficial mascot.
Upcoming events include Gunfiight at the OK Corral on Saturday and Sunday, and an 1820s Weekend on July 17 and 18.
Old Bedford Village, 220 Sawblade Road, Bedford. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Labor Day; closed Wednesdays. After Labor Day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays. Admission: $10 adults, $5 students, under 6, free. Details: 800-238-4347 or here.
Noon
Head south to Bedford, just a few minutes away. The downtown area has the feel of mid-20th century America, with small shops and restaurants lining the streets.
For lunch, stop at the Green Harvest Company, which features a variety of teas, coffees, pastries and breakfast and lunch entrees. The decor is simple but comfortable, and many of the menu items are fit for the health-conscious. Notable was a tropical shrimp wrap ($6.65), which featured chilled shrimp, greens, pineapple, coconut, onions and green peppers.
For bargain hunters and antique collectors, Founder’s Crossing is a must. Located in a building that once was home to a G.C. Murphy’s store, the co-op of 145 dealers features three floors of crafts and collectibles, from old photos to housewares and jewelry to knickknacks. Plan on spending at least an hour here browsing through the many items. There’s also a small cafe, The Eatery, on site.
Details: The Green Harvest Company, 110 E. Pitt St.. Hours: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays. Details: 814-623-3465 or here.
Founders Crossing, 100 S. Juliana St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; noon to 3 p.m. Sundays. Details: 814-623-9120.
2 p.m.
Stop at the Bedford County Convention Bureau for a walking tour. From a Civil War monument to Fort Bedford to the Espy House, where George Washington commandeered troops to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, it seems there’s a remnant of history on almost every street corner. A self-guided walking tour of downtown Bedford takes about 30 minutes. Every Friday through the end of October, free guided tours are offered at 3:30 p.m. starting at the convention bureau, and lasting about 90 minutes.
There are 14 covered bridges in Bedford County, ranging from Turner’s Bridge, which sits off a gravel road near Mann’s Choice, to Snook’s Bridge just north of Spring Meadow. Ten of the bridges still are drivable (four are privately owned, but accessible for photos). A complete tour takes up to three hours, but shorter tours can be mapped that last half that time. It’s possible to visit just one or two bridges. Maps and other information are available at the Bedford County Convention Bureau.
Details: Bedford County Convention Bureau, 131 S. Juliana St. Details: 800-765-3331 or here.
6 p.m.
No visit to Bedford County is complete without a stop at the refurbished Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa. Since it opened in 1806 as the Bedford Springs Resort, the property has hosted presidents, diplomats and celebrities, many of whom came to be nourished by the renowned restorative powers of the nearby springs.
The venue has been refurbished and re-opened in 2007 after years of decline. There are tempting dining options, notably in the elegant Crystal Room or the cozy Frontier Room, and live entertainment is offered on weekends. The setting, no matter what you’re there for, is simply breathtaking.
Details: Omni Bedford Springs Resort, 2138 Business Route 220. Details: 814-623-8100 or here.
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Another Big “Whew!” in Manchester
Staff Blogs
by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, 02 June 2010 4:27 PM
Some people make the trek down to Grant or Ross Street for a zoning, planning or historic-review hearing and leave frustrated because the case was continued or the agenda was packed and half their day was spent waiting in a hot room. But today, the room was bearable and a long Historic Review Commission agenda was drastically pruned by a request Councilman Daniel Lavelle made to the Bureau of Building Inspections.
“Councilman Lavelle asked for a hold on all the demolition projects in Manchester,” said the BBI’s acting chief John Jennings. Today, that spared 1302, 1326 and 1328 Adams Street, 1516 Chateau Street and the perennial poster-house for dodging the wrecking ball, 1218 N. Franklin Ave. All were up for demolition consideration. (Manchester, as one of the city’s historic districts, comes under scrutiny by the commission, which is supposed to make decisions to keep the historical integrity of the district intact. In Manchester’s case, it seems that the commission’s biggest challenge is keeping the district itself intact.)
Stanley Lowe, who has become the managing director of the Manchester Citizens Corp., told the commission today that the owner of the Franklin property “was supposed to be here.” Mr. Lowe promised a community barn-raising of sorts to shore up the Franklin property late in the winter, a one-day extravaganza of rehab that has not happened yet.
Two other owners with almost-doomed houses did show up before the commission, explaining their efforts to work as they can with the money they can save to keep their properties. Daphnie Milam is fighting damage from a March fire at the house she owns on Chateau and left the meeting buoyed by the moritorium on demolitions.
“I was a nervous wreck!” she said. She has a building permit, a structural engineer and a contractor and is “just waiting for the insurance company to finalize the paperwork.”
Walkabout hopes to follow up with Daphnie and follow the saga of the demolition list, of which Councilman Lavelle wrote in an email:
“Due to Manchester’s historical nature and the painstaking process of the last few years to work towards its revitalization, it is in a positive light that I view and support the moratorium on demolition. This will allow the community to take the necessary next steps to take hold of the reigns of its future and guide it in a direction of greatest benefit to its principal stakeholders, the citizens and residents of Manchester.”
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Small Movie Theaters Trying to Find a Niche in a Megaplex Era
Thursday, June 17, 2010By Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe seat folds down, the lights dim and the screen brightens. For most, the movie theater is a familiar experience.The Motion Picture Association of America, which collects detailed figures about movie trends, found that more than two-thirds of the U.S. and Canadian population saw a movie at a theater in 2009 and most people saw an average of 6.5.
Is it 2010 -- or 1939? It's hard to tell from the marquee above The Strand on Main Street in Zelienople. In the early 1980s, The Strand closed its doors, but it reopened last year.
In 2010, the movie theater experience, generally speaking, is the multiplex one. Small neighborhood movie theaters are dwindling, most pushed out by the rise of the multiplex and the fall of the weekly movie-going culture.
Nationwide, the numbers are not good for small theaters. When the motion picture association put out its 2009 report, the United States had 6,039 theaters. Of those, 75 percent were multi- or megaplexes, meaning they have at least eight screens; 21 percent were miniplexes, having two to seven screens; and only 4 percent were single-screen theaters.
A few of these small theaters in the Pittsburgh area are bucking the trend and staying open. Some — the Denis Theatre in Mt. Lebanon, for example — are trying to reopen and stake a place in their community’s future.
But bucking the megaplex is not easy; the past few months have seen the closing of several Pittsburgh-area movie theaters, such as the Squirrel Hill Theater and the Hollywood Theatre in Dormont, which had just reopened in August.
It’s survival of the fittest, and when it comes to community movie theaters, only a few are surviving.
Movies, radio once only choiceThere was a time when the community movie theater business was a booming one. Ed Blank, a film critic at the Pittsburgh Press for 25 years, can remember when it was not unusual for five to seven movie theaters to be within walking distance of his East End home.
In the late 1940s, when Mr. Blank began going to the movies, Americans were starting to buy television sets, but going to the movie theater remained a popular pastime.
“It’s very hard to get a grasp of this now, but they were where you went for the evening, if you weren’t going to listen to the radio,” Mr. Blank said.
But the passing decades, evolving technology and changing market desires resulted in declining numbers of local movie theaters. Television enabled people to watch programs at home, multiplexes gave moviegoers more options under one roof and VCRs allowed people to watch movies on demand.
So, the small movie houses started to die out.
The Strand, ZelienopleOne of the casualties, initially, was The Strand Theater in Zelienople. An Italian couple opened it in 1914, designating half of the building a fruit market, the other half a theater. It thrived for decades but could not compete with the rise of the multiplex and the VCR. In the early 1980s, The Strand closed its doors.
In 2001, Ron Carter was driving through Zelienople when he saw the old theater, in a state of decay, sporting a for-sale sign. Someone, he thought to himself, should do something.
He became that someone. Mr. Carter formed a board of directors, started a nonprofit and began the process of resurrecting The Strand. A combination of private donations and federal and state grants added up, and after two years of renovations, The Strand reopened in 2009.
It’s a happy ending worthy of a Hollywood script, but keeping the one-screen cinema open remains a challenge.
“We don’t try to compete with the multiplexes,” Mr. Carter said. “We focus on classic films, vintage films, as well as our live programs.”
A couple weeks ago, the theater ran a silent-film festival with musical accompaniment, the same type of show the theater presented when it opened in 1914.
The Strand is still learning as it goes, Mr. Carter said, trying to figure out what movies and performances people will pay to attend. Running The Strand as a nonprofit also involves educating people about the benefits of the traditional movie theater experience.
Denis Theatre, Mt. LebanonWhen Anne Kemerer talks about movie theaters, her face lights up. There’s no better way to watch a movie, she said, than to watch it in a theater with people who are laughing when you laugh and crying when you cry.
It’s a comfort place for her, she said, and fundamentally a communal experience.
Ms. Kemerer’s love of movies and belief in the movie theater is not a casual interest — it’s her full-time job. Since 2008, she has focused on resurrecting a small cinema on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon.
The Denis Theatre shut its doors in 2004 in a state of disrepair. Ms. Kemerer, executive director of the nonprofit Denis Theatre Foundation, is determined to see it reopen, which means $750,000 must be raised by June 30, when the purchasing option for the building expires.
Once the foundation owns the building, the renovation process can begin, which means raising more money to open one screen, start showing movies and re-introduce people to what Ms. Kemerer believes is the irreplaceable movie theater experience.
She envisions a three-screen theater that will show art films and also be used as rental space during non-movie hours, for training sessions, auditions, and film education.
As they near the June 30 deadline, the campaign has raised nearly $400,000, including a $100,000 grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. They’ve also been promised a $155,000 grant from an anonymous foundation, if they can match that amount by the end of the month.
A ferocious winter postponed a major fundraiser for the theater twice, and when it finally was held, six inches of snow stranded some people at home. But no one asked for a refund, and the fundraiser brought in $32,000. It’s a sign that people, particularly South Hills residents, are getting behind the concept of a Main Street theater once again taking its place on Washington Road, Ms. Kemerer said.
“Virtually everyone I talk to wants it to succeed,” she said. “Virtually no one doesn’t want it to happen.”
On June 30, she’ll know whether the theater has made it to its first fundraising goal, to buy the theater.
Ms. Kemerer is confident the Denis will succeed.
“The Dormont and Squirrel Hill closing down was a wake-up call to people that Main Street theaters require the passion and commitment of everyone around them,” she said.
Ambridge Family TheatrePassion and commitment sometimes go a long way to keep a small theater open. In Ambridge, for example, Glenda and Rick Cockrum have been running the Ambridge Family Theatre for the past 11 years, since Ms. Cockrum, who had worked as an assistant manager with Carmike Cinemas, persuaded her husband to help her buy the one-screen theater.
They both work other jobs to support themselves, and by the end of the year, the theater manages to pay its own bills, she said.
But it’s a genuine family business where their daughter learned to count by working behind the concession stand.
The Oaks, OakmontRandy Collins, manager of The Oaks Theater in Oakmont, is working toward creating a special identity for his theater.
“We have to adapt,” he said.
The Oaks still shows a lot of first-run movies, Mr. Collins said, but it’s trying to capitalize on the movies that sell well in its market and exploring events that could capture the imagination of its audience, such as opera series and concert events.
Not all happy endingsTravel east to Latrobe, and a similar business model has not worked out. The Zimmerman family has been in the movie theater business for 50 years, though their focus is a drive-in. Five years ago, Lee Zimmerman decided to expand to include an indoor theater, the two-screen Latrobe Family Cinemas.
But the indoor theater never attracted enough patrons, perhaps because it was close to a multiplex, and in five years, Mr. Zimmerman lost $150,000 on the deal. Early this month, the family closed the indoor cinema to return their focus exclusively to the drive-in. Mr. Zimmerman said he’s not sure what will happen with the building.
It could be torn down like the old South Hills Cinema on West Liberty Avenue in Dormont, which is being razed to make way for a CVS pharmacy. Or it could sit empty like the Hollywood, also in Dormont, waiting for a new owner.
The Hollywood was, for a short time, a success story. A nonprofit based in Franklin, Ind., discovered it and poured time, money and effort into opening the single-screen theater again.
It remained open for less than a year.
Last month, Bill Dever, of the nonprofit, the Motion Picture Heritage, decided that the Hollywood, with meager attendance numbers, was no longer viable. It had gotten to the point that he was throwing good money after bad, he said in a phone interview, and he decided to close it.
A few weeks before announcing the theater would close, Mr. Dever was pessimistic about the state of the Hollywood and about the state of community movie theaters in general.
“What I see is, quite simply, that the whole idea of movie-going is going to be centralized in the home environment, and the whole idea of community film watching is going the way of the dodo,” he said.
Key to survivalFew would deny that the movie theater business is a difficult one, but some are not so pessimistic.
Screenwriter and producer Carl Kurlander, who teaches in the film studies department at the University of Pittsburgh, recently made the film, “My Tale of Two Cities,” about his return to Pittsburgh from Hollywood.
Pittsburgh, he reminds us, was the site of the birth of the modern movie theater, the Nickelodeon, in 1905.
The key to survival for movie theaters, he said, is reinvention. The movie theater that can reinvent itself, that can create a niche that no other business can fill, is the one that will survive.
“It’s hard for me to believe the city that literally invented the movie theater … is going to give up and not have one,” he said.
The national trendThe United States has 6,039 movie theaters with 39,028 cinema screens. As the industry continues to shift toward theaters with more screens, megaplexes — 16 or more screens — have become the main source of theater growth. The closing of single-screen theaters and miniplexes — two to seven screens — nationwide means that nearly half of the screens in the country are located in multiplexes — eight to 15 screens.
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Pa. Historical Panel Raises Concerns About Mellon Arena
Thursday, June 17, 2010By Katie Falloon, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has expressed concerns about the speed of the planned demolition of the Mellon Arena, prompting a response today from the Sports & Exhibition Authority.
In the commission’s letter sent Wednesday, director Jean Cutler requested more information.
“We are sympathetic with the need to move quickly, however we also want to ensure that we have received all crucial information in a fashion that allows us to fully understand both the process and the project’s effects on historic resources,” Ms. Cutler said in the letter.
Following today’s SEA board meeting, Executive Director Mary Conturo said members think moving through the process quickly is best, Ms. Conturo said. Mellon Arena will be vacant come August, and the costs of maintaining the building will fall on SEA, she said.
Utilities and insurance for the arena will cost between $78,000 and $100,000 per month, depending on whether the intention is to keep the arena dark or there is an opportunity for reuse, said Christen Cieslak, principal at Chronicle Consulting.
“We think everything done to date is very thorough and very well done,” Ms. Conturo said.
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Garden Theatre Plans in Works
By Sam Spatter, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 17, 2010Five developers — three from out of town — are scheduled to present plans for redevelopment of the Garden Theatre block in the North Side to residents at a community meeting next month.
“This will give the developers an opportunity to explain their plans and for the residents to offer their comments,” said Mark T. Fatia, executive director, Northside Leadership Conference, which received the proposals this week.
The developers are considering a mix of residential and first-floor commercial, Fatla said.
The two local developers are Barron Commercial Real Estate of Pittsburgh and Aaron Stubna of Coraopolis.
The out-of-town developers are Resaca LLC of Bethesda, Md., Wells and Co., Spokane, Wash.; and Zukin Development Corp., of Philadelphia.
Fatla said developer Bill Barron has been active along Butler Street in Lawrenceville, and has started work along Federal Street on the North Side. Stubna is only interested in the Garden Theatre, which he would use for films and art projects.
Resaca, an apartment developer, is interested primarily in the Bradberry Building, a former department store.
Zukin, who recently purchased the drug store at Forbes and Murray in Squirrel Hill, is interested in historic preservation, a similar concept from Wells, which was attracted to Pittsburgh by Mike Edwards, president of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, who formerly served in that capacity in Spokane.
“It will be up to the residents and the conference board to select a developer or developers, since some proposals do not include all of the properties within the block,” Fatla said. That could occur by the end of summer.
The block is bounded by Federal Street on the east, W. North on the south, Reddour Street on the west and Eloise Street, on the north. A previous failed development attempt by Jim Aiello Jr. involved only the Federal Street site, which was 30 percent of the total block project, Fatla said.
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Study Offers 6 Options for Mellon Arena
By Jeremy Boren
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 17, 2010Demolishing Mellon Arena would make way for a mix of new homes and high-end office space covering nine city blocks in the lower Hill District, according to a study released Wednesday.
The 107-page report provides the first detailed look at six scenarios, which include restoring the arena to its original 1961 design; mothballing it indefinitely; preserving its unique silver dome; and razing it to build 1,191 residential units and 608,000 square feet of offices.
Representatives of the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority said last week that they favor demolishing the Igloo and allowing the Penguins to build a mixed-use development — a plan referred to as “Option 5” in the study, prepared by consultant Michael Baker Engineering of Moon.
The firm organized seven meetings and a tour of Mellon Arena for public input. The lengthy report is the result and is open to public comment and revision.
The SEA, which owns Mellon Arena, will consider comments on the report before the authority’s board of directors makes a decision on the arena’s fate, said Chris Cieslak, a consultant working with Oxford Development and the SEA.
“What we don’t want is what has happened in Portland, Oregon, where they have talked about it for nine years and the city of Portland has had to pay the holding costs on (Memorial) Coliseum,” Cieslak said. Groups have opposed razing the Pacific Northwest arena.
Penguins President David Morehouse said the team agrees with the report’s findings, which correspond to a market analysis performed by Penguins consultant AECOM.
He wants demolition of Mellon Arena to begin in a year. The team owns the rights to develop the site.
“The last thing we want to do is put an impediment in front of a developer and say: ‘We want you to put this development in but, by the way, you have to put it underneath this dome,'” Morehouse said. “The people proposing that have no developers and no money for that.”
Those trying to save the arena from destruction are surprised by the study’s release. Architect Rob Pfaffman, founder of the Reuse the Igloo group, said he wasn’t aware the full report was available until told by a reporter.
Pfaffman’s vision is to build a boutique hotel inside the arena with retail and open-air park space.
“They have gone on the record, at least with us, that they prefer Option 5,” Pfaffman said. “We don’t think the process was properly followed.”
Pfaffman’s preservation group hired its own consultant to examine alternatives to tearing down the 49-year-old arena — the National Hockey League’s oldest venue. Mellon Arena will be replaced by the $321 million Consol Energy Center when it opens in August across Centre Avenue.
Pfaffman said if the SEA was sincere about finding alternatives to demolishing Mellon Arena, the authority would conduct a more detailed study and perform an engineering analysis of the building.
Neither has occurred.
The study said that in addition to making room for office space and homes, demolishing the arena would allow three north-south streets to be built. The streets would connect Bedford and Centre avenues — roads that planners eliminated when building the arena.
Razing the arena also would provide space for 208,750 square feet of retail development; a 150-room hotel; 2,145 parking spaces; and 57,560 square feet of “public open space located along pedestrian corridors,” the study said.
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90,000 square foot LEED Building Will Be a Huge Boost to Neville Island’s Revitalization
Pop City Media
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Ground was broken last Friday at the site of a new $5 million speculative 90,000 square foot flex/ distribution building at 4800 Grand Avenue on Neville Island.
LEED Building ground breaking ceremony.
“Neville Island has been waiting to be reborn. I believe strongly in the benefits this area can offer all businesses and its vital role to the economy,” says Chuck Snyder, President of Neville Island Commons, and owner of the property. His son, Josh Snyder, is President of the green minded JLS Land Company, the developers of the site.
Snyder’s company purchased the property in May 2008, which previously housed the corporate offices for Dravo Machining Company, an organization which set up operations on the island during World War I to build 300 ships. The Dravo building sat vacant, however, for the last 15 years. Completion of the new building, which is being constructed with green building techniques targeting LEED certification, is dated for January 2011.
Burns and Scalo Real Estate Services Inc. is the contract representative for JLS, and is set to coordinate and run infrastructure services. Their target tenants for the building include office and light industrial users.
The revitalization of Neville Island is aided greatly by its close proximity to I-79, Pittsburgh International Airport, Route 51, and Route 65. The 90,000 square foot building is the latest project in the redevelopment of the island, following the construction of a new Kings Hometown Grille and 110 suite Fairfield Inn.
In addition to the island’s close location to a number of transportation routes, a Local Economic Revitalization Tax is available, which provides a six year tax exemption to new construction.
Senator Wayne Fontana, who helped break ground for the site, referenced the power of this tax abatement when he said, “Neville Island is a shining example of what can be done through public and private partnerships.”
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Writer: John Farley
Sources: Chuck Snyder, President of JLS Land Company
W. Scott Kaplan,Director of Acquisition and Development Services for Burns and Scalo
Senator Wayne FontanaPhotograph Copyright John Farley
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Homewood’s Cafe 524 Blends Community With Sustainability and Coffee
Pop City Media
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Cafe 524
A collaboration of community leaders is aspiring to create a bright, sustainable place for business development and coffee in a former Homewood post office.
More than just a coffee shop, Café 524 hopes to spur the rebirth of the Homewood business district and serve as a catalyst for sustainability and community activities. The cafe will be located at 524 N. Homewood Ave.
The project has been a work in progress for the past year, bringing together diverse partners to make it happen: the National Black Masters of Business Administration Association (NBMBAA), URA, Urban Design Building Studio (UDBS), The Homewood Children’s Village and PJ Dick Incorporated.
“It’s very much a collaborative effort that grew organically out of dialogue and community meetings,” says John Folan, director of Carnegie Mellon’s UDBS, a studio of interdisciplinary architecture students who are working on the design. UDBS’s mission is to develop climate appropriate building technologies for neighborhoods in Allegheny County.
“It’s a remarkable opportunity for the students, enabling them to work with the community and a real client, giving them a very real sense of working on a project with real partners and multiple entities,” Folan adds.
Café 524 will be net-zero, powered by a geothermal energy system, and serve as a community meeting place and arts and culture destination . The NBMBAA hopes to buy the building from the URA and run a business incubator and real estate business on the second floor to stimulate local business development. The first floor will be leased as a for-profit coffee shop, drawing patrons from the nearby bus stop and neighborhoods.
The project is an extension of another ongoing neighborhood project, the Homewood Children’s Village.
Construction will begin this August and be completed by the spring of 2011. The URA has offered the partners $100,000 toward the predevelopment costs. The collaborators hope to attract the interest of foundations and corporate sponsors we well.
Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Source: John Folan, UDBS