URA Considers Development Lease in Strip

A fixture of the city's Strip District could be forced out within a few years. Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority is to vote this afternoon on a proposal to lease city's landmark produce terminal in the Strip to a developer. Under the proposed 5 year lease, the Buncher Company would have the option to buy the warehouse and loading dock terminal for $1.8 million. U.R.A. executive director Rob Stephany acknowledges the fruit and vegetable wholesalers might have to move to make way for restaurants, offices and showroom spaces. But he claims that might help the wholesalers remain competitive in the long run.

A Public Market Returns to Pittsburgh

The neighborhood group “Friends in the Strip” will officially launch a public market Friday morning with a bell ringing ceremony. Market Manager Cindy Cassell says the market was eight years in the making. “Our board of directors along with our market council have just hung in there and persevered until they got it going,” says Cassell, “most major, and minor cities, have public markets.” The Market at the Pittsburgh Produce Terminal on Smallman Street near the intersection of 17th and Smallman will be open Fridays 9a to 7p, Saturdays 9a to 5p, and Sundays 10a to 4p. Cassell says organizers worked with businesses already in the strip in an effort to compliment what can already be found in the Strip on a weekend. “One of the most received phone calls in the Neighbors in the Strip office are people calling to ask if there is any Indian food in the Strip, so this is the first Indian food in the Strip,” says Cassell. While many of the vendors in the market will be back week after week Cassell says there will be two rows of seasonal businesses that will come and go. An old streetcar bell was donated to the market and Cassell says it will be rung every day to open and close the market. Visitors are being asked to bring their own bells Friday for a special opening ceremony at 9:00am. The market will include fresh produce, prepared food and hand made goods. According to Cassell it is a feast or all your senses. The Pittsburgh Public Market held a “soft opening” last week, which attracted several hundred visitors. Cassell says there has not been a public market in the city since the last of four closed in 1965.

Film Company Employees Evicted from Studio

A Strip District film studio may not be a movie-making facility for much longer.

The company that owns the 10-acre building says its tenant has stopped paying rent and owes the landlord about $2 million in back pay.

31st Street Business Park has evicted Mogul Mind Studios. The property owner says unless the studio starts paying up soon, the former warehouse could be razed or used for another purpose.

But Pittsburgh Film Office Director Dawn Keezer says the region’s film industry will continue to thrive even if the Strip District studio stops producing movies.

“We’ve done this for a long time in southwestern Pennsylvania. The Film Office has been keeping track since 1990, but we’ve been making films since 1914,” says Keezer, “and we’ve always been able to find a place where they can shoot.”

Mogul Mind has been in the space since 2008. In that time, the studio has helped produce several films, including “Unstoppable” and “Warrior,” two action movies to be released in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Keezer says although the Mogul Mind Studio is conveniently close to downtown Pittsburgh, there are other options for indoor filming and production in the area. Keezer says several other companies have also contacted the property owner about continuing to run the Strip District building as a film studio.

Boy Scouts in Town

The Boy Scouts of America are celebrating their 100th anniversary in Pittsburgh this weekend.

To mark the centennial, they’ve brought the “Adventure Base 100” to the city to immerse local scouts and residents into the experience of scouting.

In addition to a rope course and a “multi-sensory experience” of Scouting in the Go! Dome, the Adventure Base 100 brings with it a program on late actor Jimmy Stewart, a local Eagle Scout.

A traveling museum also features an overview of BSA’s history and a collection of rare Scouting artifacts.

The Adventure Base 100 is located in the Strip District, in the parking lot across from the Heinz History Center.

Public Riverfront Vision Meeting Scheduled

The first of three public meetings for the Allegheny Riverfront Vision will be held Thursday. The two-hour meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Heinz History Center. Community members are invited to learn about redevelopment slated to happen in the Strip District, Lawrenceville, and Highland Park. Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Rob Stephany says a 6-mile stretch of land along the Allegheny River will see many of its stagnant warehouse properties converted into something more productive. “We’re kind of excited about the idea of converting warehouses into places really for the universities’ technologies to be dreamed up and turned into technologies for research, if not be fabricated and moved forward,” says Stephany. He says housing is another riverfront option, as some of the current successful businesses in the area are attracting people from places like Seattle and New York City. Stephany says the project will keep the good things and change the bad along the riverfront: “It’s both about saving what’s great and trying to reposition the stuff that’s not so great as it is trying to connect those things that are really strong and vibrant and make them more so by connecting them to the river.”

Ribbon Cutting at new Greyhound bus station

This morning's ribbon cutting marked the grand opening of the new Greyhound station, and also opened almost 1000 new parking spaces. The Grant Street Transportation center will not only house the Greyhound bus station, but will also have two parking garages to accommodate business relocations to downtown and relieve parking pressure from the Strip District surface lots. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl says it will be a gateway from the Strip District to downtown, and the project will key into the revitalization to Downtown Pittsburgh. Ravenstahl says weekday parking rates are 20 percent cheaper than the average price charged by prvate vendors, and 37 percent cheaper for event parking rates.

The center is located between the Convention Center and the Strip District.

Foaming Water in Pittsburgh's Strip District, Downtown

If they weren't distracted enough by the 3-alarm warehouse fire, some residents and business owners in the Strip District found soapy water coming from their taps. That lead to a water advisory for the Strip and Downtown, which remained in effect until around 5 AM.
The polluted water was first reported around 4:30 yesterday afternoon, and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) believes it's connected with the firefighting efforts at 25th and Smallman Streets earlier in the day. PWSA opened fire hydrants along the Strip to track the contamination's progress and flush the water system. Later, the pollutants spread to downtown, and PWSA shut off the water main and opened more hydrants.
If you didn't know about the advisory and ate or cooked with your tap water, you're probably not in danger. Allegheny County Health Department spokesman Guillermo Cole says the substance was widely diluted once it entered the system, and the chance of illness is slight. None have been reported yet.
Bob Hutton of the PWSA says they're not sure just how the foam got into the water system. PWSA administrators, City of Pittsburgh officials, and Fire Department officials were to meet today to find out what happened.