 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shopping Centers Today -> October 2003
 PRINT THIS STORY: |
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
|
NORTH SHORE RISES ON PITTSBURGH STADIUM SITE
BY IAN RITTER
 |
The North Shore, a planned mixed-use project in Pittsburgh, might be as good a place for sports fans as it will for shoppers. Continental Real Estate Cos. is building the center between PNC Park (named after PNC Bank), home of baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, and Heinz Field, where the Steelers play football. Furthermore, the center will stand on the former site of Three Rivers Stadium (closed in 2000), where those teams used to play.
At press time a September 2003 starting date was set for the $200 million project, which is to have 250,000 square feet of retail, 650,000 square feet of offices and 350 apartment units. It is going up across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh’s downtown, just north of the city’s center.
After the Pirates and Steelers completed their new stadiums in 2001 with the help of public funds, it became their responsibility to develop the Three Rivers site. They picked Columbus, Ohio-based Continental as site developer. The teams hold the ground lease, though the city owns the property.
This is not the developer’s first project in or near Pittsburgh. Continental is now building The Waterfront, a 2.4 million-square-foot mixed-use project in Allegheny County, southeast of the city. Continental also owns lifestyle centers in Cincinnati; Marlton, N.J.; Portland, Ore.; and other cities.
North Shore is a viable site because it’s in an urban area where people shop and eat downtown, says Jonathan Kass, Continental’s president of development.
“We are going to be giving people more reasons to live, work and play in the downtown area,” he said.
Continental has developed more than 10 million square feet of offices and homes across the country over the past 25 years. Mixed-use projects, said Kass, are “the most interesting [and] challenging and keep us the most stimulated.”
Continental is trying to draw upscale restaurants, Barnes & Noble, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Virgin Megastore into the nine-building North Shore project, Kass says, but no one has signed up yet.
Though Continental does not expect to complete North Shore until 2008, the first phase, with up to 95,000 square feet of retail, is scheduled to open by the end of next year.
Retailers will come if the company can convince them that North Shore will have a steady stream of visitors even when a baseball isn’t being pitched nearby, says Herky Pollock, executive vice president for retail sales at CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, which is leasing the project.
“The challenge,” he said, “is to make it a seven-day-a-week venue.”
 | Current Issue February 2012 |