Landmarks Community Capital Corporation & Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College Hold Landmarks Economic Development Case Challenge

PHLF News
November 14, 2008
by Michael Sriprasert

In light of the recent efforts to bring a grocery store to the Hill District, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation, in partnership with the Heinz College, engaged 25 students in the Heinz Colleges’ first ever non-profit case challenge.  Titled the “Landmarks Economic Development Case Challenge”, students were introduced to the issue that is gaining more attention both locally and nationally: The dearth of quality grocery stores locating in urban markets.

LCCC presented the topic to students and took them on a site visit to the Hill District to speak with local leadership engaged in the grocery store development. LCCC then took the students to Wilkinsburg to meet with the Mayor and the owner of the Save-A-Lot that just opened two years ago to give students a better understanding of the impact grocery stores can have in urban markets and to give them more insight into the business of operating a grocery store in these types of areas.

After a week of conducting their own due diligence, the students presented on which development they thought would have the greatest likelihood to succeed and would drive positive change for the Hill District and for its residents The panel of judges was made up of professors, economic development professionals, City of Pittsburgh leaders, business professionals from the Hill District and Wilkinsburg, and LCCC staff.  The judges all agreed that the presentations were excellent, and making a decision about the top three was very difficult.  After over an hour of deliberation, the winning teams were decided upon:

1st Place Winners – Save-A-Lot
Chapel Dcunha, Jebran Syed, Shruti Mohandas, Emily Burnett, Ling Zhai

2nd Place Winners – Kuhns
Russell Pustejovsky, Matt Solomon, Jarrod West, Eddie Wilson

3rd Place Winners – Save-A-Lot
Conrhonda Baker, Tramaine Brathwaite, Jennifer Clarke, Hanna Smith

LCCC & PHLF would like to congratulate all those who participated in the Landmarks Economic Development Case Challenge, and would especially like to thank the Heinz College for engaging LCCC in this great event.  

Participants were:

• Conrhonda Baker
• Tramaine Brathwaite
• Emily Burnett
• Jennifer Clarke
• John Cowen
• Chapel Dcunha
• Leigh Halverson
• Kristin Kennedy
• Ashish Mehra
• Sruti Mohandas
• Eric Morris
• Russell Pustejovsky
• Rhajiv Ratnatunga
• Lavanya Shaji
• Hanna Smith
• Matt Solomon
• Michael Spotts
• Jebran Syed
• Huimin Tan
• Zhenyue Wang
• Lu Wang
• Jarrod West
• Eddie Willson
• Jingyi Xu
• Ling Zhai

To find out more information about this case challenge, please contact Michael Sriprasert at (412) 471-5808