Editorial: A new Strip District

Within a few years, the Strip District may bear little resemblance to today’s collection of shops, warehouses and distributors.

A $400 million housing, office and retail complex, developed by regional real estate developer Buncher Co., will likely occupy the space from the produce terminal to the riverfront, forever changing the aesthetic and atmosphere along the Allegheny River. A bit of the grit will be replaced with new economic activity.

There has been some community opposition to the plan. Pittsburgh City Councilman Patrick Dowd, D-Lawrenceville, is the loudest voice of opposition on City Council, protesting the Ravenstahl administration’s supposed “laissez-faire” approach to handling the developers, allowing them to turn historic buildings into a suburban-style strip mall. He also criticizes the plan’s private driveways that he claims may block public access to the water.

Further complaints have been made by Riverlife, the non-profit community action group responsible for many river developments in the city, including the retrofitting of the Hot Metal Bridge for cars and pedestrians in the early 2000s. They would like to see the development built at least 95 feet from the river, as opposed to the city’s recommendation of 75 feet. They claim the current law risks eventually losing the riverfront trail to riverside soil erosion.

Other complaints center around the planned demolition of roughly a third of the Produce Terminal Building. The iconic warehouse’s construction in the 1920s on Smallman Street marked the apex of the Strip District’s status as a produce distribution center. Many historic groups have expressed reservations about the destruction of such an authentically Pittsburgh location.

Finally, some are upset the location will formally finish its transition from a warehouse and distribution center to the tourist and retail area it is today. The Allegheny Valley Railroad Co., which sold the produce terminal to the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1981, has made this protestation a legal matter, issuing a lawsuit alleging the URA has broken a key point in the original agreement: That the URA make “best efforts” to use the Strip for wholesalers or “some other rail-oriented use.”

This seems like a classic case of a big business destroying a small community. It sounds as if this development may just be another top-down, take-no-prisoners bulldozer extravaganza.

But it isn’t: Buncher Co. and the city have acted as appropriately as any could hope.

In December, city council changed the zoning legislation to ensure private driveways will provide through-access for pedestrians and bicyclists so they can access the river. The setback may only be 75 feet, but that is a compromise from original plans that set it between 50 feet and 70 feet from the river.

Additionally, Buncher Co. has met extensively with the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation: The current plan to raze one-third was the most desirable solution for preservationists who, while perhaps a bit disappointed, played a large role in the process.

And unlike disastrous development plans in Allegheny Center and the Hill District, this plan involves little razing of buildings. Most of the land to be developed is used for parking today.

But to address perhaps the most emotionally-driven aspect of complaints — that this cheapens the Strip District and moves it away from its warehousing roots — we urge you to look around every neighborhood in this city.

The South Side used to be a steel mill. Oakland used to be farmland. The Firstside area of Downtown used to house our chinatown.

The Strip District itself has been home to iron and steel shops, aluminium smelters and George Westinghouse’s air brakes.

With the firm announcing yesterday it will no longer seek any tax financing package, it’s actually one of few developments that could be thought of as coming from the private sector, anyway. Just like the produce terminal, created by the Pennsylvania Railroad, defined the area in the 20th century, the Riverfront Landing complex, created by Buncher Co., will define the 21st.

There remains a small chance the Allegheny Railroad lawsuit will hold up in court. Otherwise, this new plan will be the future.

We are ready.