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All aboard

Forest City rejuvenates 25-year-old Pittsburgh project

By Maura K. Ammenheuser

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Station Square, on Pittsburgh’s South Shore, is in the midst of a $100 million renovation.

It ain’t exactly broke, but Station Square is getting fixed. The 25-year-old, mixed-use complex on Pittsburgh’s South Shore will gain more shops, restaurants, hotel rooms and another festival venue as part of a $100 million expansion that began this fall.

Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. began work on the yearlong first phasein September, adding 105 rooms to the 292-room Sheraton Hotel.

But that’s just the beginning of improvements planned for Station Square, which draws more than 3 million visitors annually, thanks in part to adjacent tourist destinations such as a historic railroad building; the Gateway Clipper fleet of tour boats; and the Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines, trams scaling Mt. Washington, which looms over the South Shore.

Station Square’s shops gross $300 per square foot, according to Brian Ratner, Forest City’s senior vice president of development for the East Coast. And the Sheraton claims the highest occupancy among Pittsburgh’s hotels.
So why spend millions on a property that’s cruising on autopilot?

“You can always improve things. We’re not offering what we think is the full package,’’ Ratner said. “The property isn’t — undervalued isn’t the right word — but we think more value can be added ... We bought it [in 1994] because we saw tremendous potential. We’re now doing what we committed to do.’’

Future work will include: Converting a parking lot into the three-building Bessemer Court Festival Center, 90,000 square feet of new retail, restaurants and nightclubs. Bessemer Court will serve as the visual and geographic center of Station Square and command impressive views of the Pittsburgh skyline across the Monongahela River.

Existing retail, 135 tenants occupying 223,000 square feet, is housed in two buildings — the Freight House Shops and the East Warehouse. Bessemer Court will go up between them and the water.

Other changes will include adding levels to a 805-space parking garage, and a new public dock and network of pedestrian bridges, scenic trails and a waterside boardwalk.

Forest City also operates some 150,000 square feet of office space but plans no changes to it. A separate company operates an amphitheater for concerts and festivals at the site.

“Station Square we call ‘Pittsburgh’s place to play.’ It’s the entertainment center of Pittsburgh,’’ Ratner said, and Forest City wants to make the most of that. It seeks local and national entertainment-oriented tenants for Bessemer Court, to complement existing merchants that tend more toward specialty boutiques with quirky names — “Beyond the Tracks,” “You’re Putting Me On’’ — and nationally known mall-based chains.

Station Square’s growth coincides with a building boom sweeping Pittsburgh. New baseball and football stadiums and a renovated convention center are pending, and “the more things you add, it brings more people,’’ Ratner said.

Forest City is also in tune with a general public consensus that “the riverfront is really where the future is,’’ and that the city should showcase its waterside properties, said Davitt Woodwell, executive director of the Riverlife Task Force, a nonprofit group dedicated to maximizing use of the waterfront. Albert Ratner, Forest City’s co-chairman, is among its 40 members.

The city lies at the intersection of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers. “The property Forest City owns on the South Shore represents a great opportunity to present Pittsburgh as a great waterfront city,’’ Woodwell said.

His task force encourages public trails and activities that bring people closer to the water, as Forest City’s plans will. Today railroad tracks cut off Station Square from the water but the new trails and boardwalk will provide access.
Station Square tenants are itchy for the expansion, more for the expected increase in sales than the physical and emotional connections to the river.

“It can’t be too soon,’’ said Joedda Sampson, owner of Full Moon Rising, a six-year-old, 1,400-square-foot clothing store, and Full Moon Rising Homestyles, a 3,500-square-foot antiques and home accessories boutique that opened a year ago.

While Sampson’s sales have increased slightly every year, she said that in recent years the center has not lived up to its potential.

Fifteen years ago, “this was a thriving mall, with increasing traffic, and it went through a slump,’’ Sampson said. Changes in ownership delayed improvements and prevented attention to leasing that would have kept the center up to date, she said.

Originally owned by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, Station Square was acquired by Forest City and then-partner Promus, parent company of Harrah’s Entertainment, in 1994, according to Forest City officials. Forest City bought out Promus’ share three years ago.

Sampson doesn’t blame Forest City or prior owners for less-than-spectacular sales, and clearly had enough confidence in expansion plans to open her second store.

“It’s an incredible location and beautiful property,’’ Sampson said. Traffic has increased since the recent opening of Italian restaurant Buco di Bepo, she said, and an adult-themed circus performing at Station Square this summer also pulled in great crowds. Everything helps, she said.
“Hopefully my nails won’t break from holding on,’’ she joked.

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial agreed with Sampson, lauding expansion plans by saying the center has “gotten a bit worn and familiar-looking around the edges. If Station Square is to maintain and increase its clientele, it needs a boost.’’

“That’s exactly what the developer intends,’’ said Nancy McCann, Forest City’s vice president of marketing.

“Forest City purchased Station Square because we saw it as a dynamic project in a dynamically growing, revitalizing city,’’ she said. “At that time we took a step back to determine where we wanted to go with it. It was a strategic period of inactivity geared to planning for the 21st century and to working out a merchandising plan for the future, which is now being implemented.’’
Other tenants besides Sampson look forward to additional retailers and activity.

“It’s wonderful. The more, the merrier,’’ said Gilda Laby, owner of Beyond the Tracks, a year-old, 460-square-foot jewelry and gifts shop. She likes the developer’s strategy of adding more entertainment and expanding a tenant roster more unusual than a suburban mall’s.

“I think a place like this has to have unique retailers,’’ Laby said. “When you have tourist groups and all ages, you have to be unique.’’

“I’m very excited about all the additions, all the innovations. They’re all very, very welcome assets to Station Square,’’ said Elaine Manning, owner of St. Brendan’s Crossing, a 1,300-square-foot Irish import shop that’s been there 21 years. She grosses $400 per square foot and expects the expansion to increase that.

“The greater the number of restaurants, the greater the number of events, the greater number of shops — that’s more traffic,’’ she said. “It’s just very timely. It’s much wanted and needed.’’

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