Pandemic Pushes Back Final Phase Of North Shore Development Project
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The final phase of an ambitious 20-year development project on the North Shore has been delayed for as much as a year. The reason: the pandemic.
Gold lot 4 is on the base side of PNC Park and the final lot to be developed near the stadiums.
The Pittsburgh Stadium Authority, which owns this property, has agreed to give the developer another year for this final project while the economy recovers from COVID-19.
It's an incredible development -- hundreds of millions of dollars for restaurants, hotels and office buildings adjacent to our stadiums. But the final piece of the puzzle remains on hold.
"COVID hit. The markets, leasing, financing -- everything that goes into something like this -- came to a screeching halt," Stanley Lederman with the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority says.
Lederman heads the authority that owns the property around the stadiums and develops it along with the Pirates, Steelers and Continental Real Estate. They're planning to construct an eight-story building with a lot of tenants.
"It's gonna have retail, commercial and the top four floors will be 48 units of luxury condominiums," he says.
But now it could be several months before the work begins on the final project on the North Shore. Parking garages will make up for some of the lost parking spaces and tailgating space will be limited but not eliminated.
"We are obligated to provide so many open spaces on the entire site for the purposes of tailgating. But you can't do it in the garage," he says.
The stadium authority is giving Continental until the end of May 2021 to break ground here. It will become the final development project on the North Shore.