2013 looks to be a promising time for commercial development in the Pittsburgh area. The new Shops at Doughboy development in Lawrenceville will feature commercial retail space for new businesses. The shopping area received a $250,000 dollar grant to help fund the massive project.
It has been decades since Lawrenceville’s Doughboy Square was a vibrant
urban center. But with a $250,000 grant to the Shops at Doughboy, a
planned mixed-use development, redevelopment there has been given
another boost.
The Allegheny County Redevelopment Authority last week awarded the
community infrastructure and tourism grant to the $7 million,
48,000-square-foot project.
The Shops will be adjacent to the Roberto Clemente Museum at the
intersection of Penn Avenue and Butler Street. Central Real Estate
Holdings, a partnership between October Development and Senko
Construction, is the developer.
The URA, which has been heavily involved in redevelopment of Doughboy
Square, requested the grant from the county. The funds will be used for
site work ahead of construction, which is expected to begin next
spring.
The URA’s Paul Svoboda calls the site a “100% corner” that is important
not just to Lawrenceville, but to the entire city. The intersection is a
gateway between Lower Lawrenceville and the Strip District.
Though the project has been reviewed by a number of neighborhood organizations, designs and renderings are yet to be finalized.
Because of a slope at the site, parking will be integrated below the
Penn Avenue street grade, accessible from the building’s rear. Retail
will front the street, with residential units above.
Svoboda praises the developers for taking an early financial risk in
acquiring the site, and for working with local stakeholders to ensure
the design is amenable to all parties.
“There’s some risk that they took, but the rewards are going to be big,”
Svoboda says. “Not only for them, but for the whole city.”
Svoboda says recent investments in the square are making good on
priorities outlined years ago in blueprints such as the Allegheny
Riverfront Vision Plan, which called for an intense focus on Doughboy
Square.
Shops at Doughboy is building on the momentum of several other projects
in the square. In the 3400 block, the Doughboy Square Townhomes
development, which was completed last year, brought five single-family
infill homes to the neighborhood.
And at 3431 Butler Street, the planned Doughboy Apartments is a four
story, mixed income and mixed use building that includes 39 apartment
units and 17,000 square-feet of first-floor commercial space.
For more information see Pop City.
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