east liberty station: realizing the potential - City of Pittsburgh

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Around the same time as Eastside
opened, the former East Liberty Station
development along Penn Avenue
rebranded itself as the Village at Eastside.
Revitalization of the 130,000 square foot
suburban style plaza commenced with
the addition of the Pittsburgh areas first
Trader Joe’s discount gourmet grocery
store in 2006. The complex added national
retailers Staples, Tuesday Morning and
Petland soon thereafter along with a
host of smaller commercial services and
regional retail.
Redevelopment of the former Nabisco
bakery on Penn Avenue continued this
momentum. Constructed in 1918, Nabisco
vacated the facility in the late 1990s.
The Regional Industrial Development
Corporation (RIDC) took control and leased
space to the Atlantic Baking Company
Bakery Square - Photo: Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority
for several years. It was eventually taken
over by the Bake-Line Group who declared
bankruptcy in 2004. RIDC commenced
remediation in 2007 and the property
was purchased by Walnut Capital shortly
thereafter with plans for redevelopment.
Known as Bakery Square, the $150
million LEED Platinum project combined
rehabilitation of the bakery complex with
new construction. The urban lifestyle
center combines over 200,000 square
feet of class A office space with 160,000
square feet of first floor commercial
space, a fitness center and 110 room
Marriot SpringHill Suites. A 900 plus
space parking structure was also provided
with an additional 99 surface spaces. In
2010, Google commenced occupancy with
their first office in the Pittsburgh region.
Various programs of the University of
Pittsburgh followed along with UPMC’s
Technology Development Center. Major
commercial tenants include Urban Active
Fitness, Anthropologie, Jimmy Johns and
several boutique retailers.
Residential: New higher quality mixedincome
rental and affordable housing
projects commenced alongside the
commercial revitalization led by the efforts
of ELDI, the URA and The Community
Builders. In a little over a decade, 1,400
public housing units within three high rise
structures - Liberty Park, East Mall Tower
and Penn Circle Apartments - have been
replaced with 450 new mixed-income units.
New Pennley Place, a $23 million, mixedincome
174-unit apartment complex on
Penn Avenue and Broad Street marked
the first major housing investment in
the troubled neighborhood in more than
a generation. The project redeveloped
a severely distressed, HUD-insured
residential “superblock” created as part
of the sweeping urban renewal. Phase I
of New Pennley Place opened in late 1999
with 102 new and renovated apartment
units in a mid-rise building, townhomes
and duplex style residences. The next two
phases followed in 2001 and 2002 with
additional townhomes and duplexes, as well
as a 38 unit low-rise apartment building for
low income seniors. In total, New Pennley
created 146 units reserved for low and
moderate- income households along with
market rate options.