Shop 'n Save Announces Plans for Vacant Store

Hill District residents could be shopping at a South Side Aldi's grocery by Thanksgiving 2015.

That was the timeline advanced by representatives of the Shop 'n Save Board of Directors today as they announced that they had secured a developer to to build a 29,500-square-foot full-service grocery on city-owned land at Centre Avenue and Heldman Street.

"We fully expect that within the next five years that this store will sit vacant," said SuperValu Senior Vice President and CFO Donald R. Chappel, "The site will be an excellent building for, perhaps, a sporting goods store or a pet store."

The supermarket chain, once owned by owned by SuperValu until early 2006, has generally found itself unable to compete with Wal-Mart entering the Pittsburgh Market and decided to sell or close many of their stores. Shop 'n Save used to be the 2nd largest supermarket in the Pittsburgh Region, but has since dropped to third place. The brand still continues to struggle, however, and many former locations are now dark. Supervalu still supports Shop 'n Save's store inventory.

Victor Roque, Hill House president and CEO, said the agency hopes to assist SuperValu in closing its store by late summer or early fall, with the goal to have it completely shut down by Thanksgiving 2015 if not sooner. The store is expected to lose money because of poor inventory selection and substandard management.

Owner/Developer Jeff Ross, who has signed a lease agreement with the Hill House EDC, will own and operate the store with his family. He currently has difficulty competing with area Giant Eagle supermarkets and other discount grocery chains.

Aldi's has also announced plans to build a store in Pittsburgh's South Side, which will attract customers from the Hill District.

Mr. Chappel was very optimistic about his company's goals.

"We're confident that with this deal, Shop 'n Save will position itself to be another Ames or, God willing, Hills Department Store."

Breaking(ish) News: Lemieux, Penguins co-owner offer to buy Pirates

From the P-G:

Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, co-owners of the Penguins, recently made an unsolicited offer to buy the Pirates in a face-to-face meeting with that team's owner, Bob Nutting, but the offer did not receive a response.

Sources on the Penguins' side last night described the offer made by Mr. Lemieux and Mr. Burkle as "very serious," without divulging a dollar figure, and said they remain interested in following up...

The reasons Mr. Lemieux and Mr. Burkle would want to buy the Pirates will not be clear until they speak to that, though that is not expected soon, if at all.

One possibility, according to a source, is that a joint ownership of the Penguins and Pirates could create a business "synergy" that would allow one to pick up the other in tough times, and vice versa. It would help, the source added, that the NHL and MLB seasons have little overlap and that the teams currently have the same local television rights-holder in FSN Pittsburgh...

I have my own theory: the Penguins are trying to provide job opportunities for Hill District residents as party of the agreed upon CBA. Hiring someone from the Hill to play third base would probably net you at least equal quality as what they have now.

If that were true and if I were a Hill Resident, I'd be insulted. I mean, the CBA calls for "quality" jobs, not 3rd rate, minor league jobs.

A Bureaucrat's Aside Re: Prevailing Wages

I find it interesting that this story and this story broke in the same week.

I wonder what impact the former is going to have on resolving the latter, or, more fundamentally, if there's even a grocery store out there willing to go into the Hill District and also willing to pay prevailing wages.

Looks like this could be a case of unintended consequences, n'at.

Planning to Plan

Well, this is just plan-tastic:

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and city Councilwoman Tonya Payne held a press conference today at the Hill District branch of the Carnegie Library to announce that the city is seeking a consultant to write the plan, which would guide Urban Redevelopment Authority investments and city Planning Commission decisions regarding the entire neighborhood, from Crawford-Roberts on its west to Oak Hill on the eastern end.

The plan is part of a hard-fought Community Benefits Agreement negotiated between neighborhood groups and the Penguins, city and Allegheny County related to the new arena.

Just so we're clear: this doesn't actually mean there is a plan yet, and it doesn't mean that anyone has been selected to craft a plan, and it doesn't mean that anything new is going to happen in the next year in the Hill, and it doesn't mean that even after the year of planning anything is going to happen, but it is going to be *something* which politicians will be able to point to in the Hill and say "look what I did."

I'm going to echo Rep. Wheatley's quote that this event was "not newsworthy" and say that it would have been more appropriate as a solitary Tweet on Twitter... right up there with "OK, poop's coming out."

I would like to say that it is a huge coincidence that both Ravenstahl and Payne are up for re-election this year, but I don't think anyone would buy that, with, perhaps the exception of my Uncle Bernie who collects both wooden nickels and bridges in certain New York City boroughs.

Now, don't get me wrong: an outline for where the City should be focusing its limited resources in this neighborhood is great, I just don't think that the announcement of the release of the document that will generate proposals for the formulation of a plan to allocate resources is all that big of a deal.

If you'll excuse me now, I must be off to the bathroom. I'll keep you posted on my status.

Community Benefits Agreement

By now, everyone has heard that the One Hill group has officially signed on to a community benefits agreement with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the City and the County. Among the items that were agreed upon were:

• Provide $2 million, including $1 million from the Penguins, to finance a grocery store or other economic "anchor."

• Create a Neighborhood Partnership Program, giving businesses state tax credits for contributing to neighborhood development projects. Coalition officials said the program could draw $6 million over 12 years.

• Give Hill District residents preference for arena-related jobs and commit the parties to the creation of family-sustaining jobs, with health benefits, in the 28-acre Mellon Arena redevelopment zone.

• Establish a career center, partly funded for two years by the city and county, and require government officials to help the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh develop a multipurpose center for youths, families and seniors.

• Require the city and county to fund a master plan for Hill development.

Like many of these types of deals, however, there were many items that were left, as it were, on the cutting room floor. Among these items were:

• Mario Lemieux must buy a fried chicken franchise on Webster Avenue, and offer free chicken every time Sidney Crosby scores.

• The Penguins must publish a pamphlet on famous black hockey players.

• The One Hill coalition will provide one first round draft pick.

• Tonya Payne will shave off her playoff beard.

• Luke Ravenstahl will receive a four minute major for game misconduct.

• One Hill Chair Carl Redwood will suit up as mascot "Iceberg" for 20 games a year.

• Ron Burkle will ghost write an 11th play for the August Wilson cycle, regarding the tribulations of cross checking in the black community.

• Dan Onorato will continue to suck up to the unions as part of his quest for the Governorship (Ed. Note - This was added back in at the last minute).

• SEA Executive Director Mary Contoro gets one free punch at anyone, any time.

• In addition to a Save-a-Lot grocery store, the Hill will receive a Kings Family Restaurant.

• Hill Leadership will stop taking credit for the work of their predecessors.

• The City has to explain what exactly the Stadium Authority does.

• Everyone will agree that "half-a-loaf" is better than "no-loaf at all."

No word, however, if people that opposed the agreement now will be allowed to claim credit for any success in the future.

Pecuniary Peculiarities

Saw this article in the P-G this afternoon:

Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Tonya Payne said today that she has a plan to fix and maintain the Hill District's damaged Freedom Corner monument that involves transferring ownership to the city and raising money for a trust fund...

The monument is owned by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and had been leased to, and maintained by, the Hill Community Development Corp. before that arrangement expired some time ago, Ms. Payne said today...

"Once it becomes city property, we can maintain it from the same fund with which we maintain other city monuments," she said. Then she will set up a trust fund that can only be spent on Freedom Corner's maintenance and improvement, and approach donors.
"It is a valued monument for the City of Pittsburgh that we can't afford to lose," she said. She said she moved $56,500 slated for unspecified work at Freedom Corner into the district improvement fund because she feared it could otherwise be snapped up for other projects outside of the Hill.

So let me get this straight:

Money that was earmarked for Freedom Corner, but not used, is going to be used to fund other projects in the 6th Councilmatic District. The property will be moved off the URA's books and onto the City's books. Money will now have to be raised to cover the additional expense that the City (I supposed Parks & Recreation) will now have to incur to keep the area maintained.

So really this is just moving money that was a restricted resource allocation to a specific project into a walking around fund, throwing the cost of the site back onto the books of the City, and a big F-you to the Councilwoman's enemies at (what's left of) the Hill CDC... especially those that are involved in the One Hill discussion.

Now, I'm no financial wizard or anything, so I'm really racking my brains to figure out how this is anything but a quick grab for cash by Ms. Payne in order to grease the wheels of her next council campaign... unless it really is just a big F-you.

Broadway Musical Heading to Hill District

A local arts organization is expected to announce at an early morning press conference tomorrow that it has attracted a world renowned Broadway musical to Pittsburgh's Hill District.

The Pittsburgh Opera has been in negotiations with an unnamed third party for the last three seasons. Late breaking news indicates that the musical is, in fact, Lerner and Loewes' 1960 classic Camelot.

The Pittsburgh Opera General Director Mark J. Weinstein said that the organization had been working for "quite some time" and independently of the City, County, Penguins, the One Hill Coalition, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and the August Wilson Center to bring quality musical theater to the Hill District. One of the minor demands of the proposed Community Benefits Agreement has been ongoing theatrical entertainment, in order to complement the planned Penguins hockey arena.

Hill District leaders expressed reservations about Camelot. One Hill Coalition Chair Carl Redwood said "it's a good start, but it is probably not what the community wants... especially since both Richard Burton and Robert Goulet are dead."

Dan Martin, Director at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Arts Management and Technology, says that the community's expressed desire for quality musical theater may not be met by Camelot.

"I mean, you have a community looking for and demanding Les Miserable or a Phantom of the Opera, but based on market forces, chances are they'll be lucky if they can get Taboo [a Boy George inspired musical] or the Pittsburgh Center for the Deaf's performance of The Sound of Music."

The Hill District has been under-served by the musical theater community since the departure of Shop 'n Save's long running productions of the complete Rogers 'n Hammerstein catalog. Attempts were made to replace these shows with Rogers 'n Hart, Guilbert 'n Sullivan, and even George 'n Ira Gershwin. Despite such efforts, musicals in the Hill died approximately 10 years ago.

In any ironic twist of fate, the Mellon Arena, the destruction of which has been the source of contention for the Hill, was originally supposed to be used to house the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.

A recent study by the Pitt School of Drama shows that the community is currently being served only by back alley recitations of August Wilson's plays and the Kuntu Repertory Theater.

Mr. Redwood, however, remained adamant in the community's desire for quality musical theater. "The Hill deserves The Producers or, at least, Monty Python's Spam-a-lot."

Representatives of the community, City, County and the Penguins have been invited to tomorrow's press conference.

Officials, Hill Reach Agreement on CBA

Thirty-eight hours into a marathon negotiating session, representatives of the City, County, Penguins, and the One Hill Coalition announced that they have reached an agreement relating to the proposed community development agreement which will outline the development of the area around the new arena.

One Hill Chairman Carl Redwood, in a prepared statement, said "we are happy to report a major break through that, we hope, will result in a deal that will be better for the entire Hill District. Truly, this is a momentous day for our community."

Details of the agreement have not been publicly released, but a source close to the negotiation, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, says that the groups have agreed on "two large pizzas, one with pepperoni, one cheese, one medium pizza with peppers and olives, an order of crazy bread, and four liters of pop, to be determined." This agreement marks the first common ground reached between the disparate parties.

The substance of the negotiation has been confirmed by several other sources: Ravenstahl's initial offer to the group was Chinese, which was backed by Onorato. This was soundly rejected by One Hill who complained that they "just get hungry an hour later."

One Hill countered with Indian, but negotiators representing the Lemieux Group said this was impossible due to their acid reflux. The Mayor's Office said that the group could order "a three or four", but the Lemieux Group remained adamant that without their medication, Indian was impossible.

Ravenstahl suggested fried chicken, which was immediately met with cries of racism by residents of the Hill, who suggested that maybe the mayor would like bologna on Wonder Bread instead. Both suggestions were immediately withdrawn with appropriate apologies exchanged.

After 27 hours of negotiations, Dan Onorato suggested pizza, an idea that was met with general approval from the room. The remaining eleven hours were devoted to toppings, with Ravenstahl's suggestion of "ham and pineapple" rejected during the first round. The group quickly reached consensus that anchovies were unacceptable, although Lemieux pressed for cheese curds and gravy for several hours.

The decision will be ratified by the full One Hill Coalition ahead of Monday's planning commission meeting, although some other members say they will protest the vote saying that the agreement does not represent the true needs of Hill: tapas.

The food will be brought to a planning meeting for the outlining of a timeline to plan for meetings at which the agenda for the Community Benefits Agreement will be discussed.

Hill Group Meets With Media While Ravenstahl Battles Godzilla, UFO

Members of the One Hill Coalition today met with members of the media, as part of a tour of the Hill District, outlining the desired development outcomes from the community benefits agreement. The media tour was supposed to publicly press the case for a binding agreement between the Penguins, the City, County, and the residents of the Hill District.

This news was overshadowed by news that mayor Luke Ravenstahl personally battled both Godzilla and a UFO, saving, not only the Hill District, but also the entire City of Pittsburgh.

Mayoral spokesperson Joanna Doven produced a photo showing the City under attack adding that "shortly afterwards, the Mayor transformed into "Jet Luke" and defeated the monsters with "Robot Mayor Attack."

Ms. Doven commented that since 1990, the City has been saved no fewer than 240 times by certain destruction from giant monsters by the Mayor's Office.

Critics of Mr. Ravenstahl pointed out, however, that most of those attacks predate the current administration and that the mayor has little to no experience in actually defeating monsters.

One Hill CBA Coalition chair Carl Redwood added, "Besides, the photo's totally a fake. I mean, seriously. It looks like some amateur just got Photoshop and started sticking shit into a picture."

Ms. Doven brushed off such criticisms. "Mr. Ravenstahl is already prepared to fight both Mothra and Mechagodzilla sometime next week. Mayora Luku: de Panchi Panchi Panchi!"

The Administration photo showing Godzilla (left, background) and Carl Redwood (left, foreground) Possible Aliens shown in the right foreground.