Tribune-Review
Private development unveiled for Pittsburgh stadia neighborhood
Sam Spatter
January 17, 2001

The first major private development to be built adjacent to Pittsburgh's two new sports stadiums will not only include office and retail space, but perhaps a full-service hotel.

The initial structure to be built in a complex to be called Diamond Pavilion will be a five-story office building with retail and restaurant facilities on the first floor and four floors of office space above.

In addition, the developers of the complex, Walnut Capital Partners of Shadyside and Stabile Family Holdings, said plans for the site at Federal Street and General Robinson Boulevard will include additional retail facilities, a second office tower and the hotel.

Details of the complex, including development plans, were disclosed Tuesday at a meeting of the real estate broker at the Top of the Triangle, USX Tower in downtown Pittsburgh.

Walnut Capital said the first building, a 98,000-square-foot structure, will be named 200 Diamond Pavilion. A spring 2002 opening date is projected. The Sports and Exhibition Authority board last year extended Walnut Capital and Alco Parking President Merrill Stabile an option to purchase land directly across from PNC Park for the building.

The building would be constructed on two tracts, one owned by the authority and the other by Stabile, who owns land near Three Rivers Stadium that is used for parking.

Stabile has said the partnership will not seek public financing for the project.

"Frankly, if I had to ask for a subsidy, I wouldn't do the project," Stabile said. "We figure the public investment has been made over there already. With all of the activity coming in, there shouldn't be a need for more public money."

Proponents of Three Rivers Stadium, when it was built 31 years ago, promised major developments at the site. But little development occurred and that prompted the authority to make North Shore development a central issue of the current stadium projects.

Diamond Pavilion may not be the only development around the stadiums. Thomas G. Whitworth of Legg Mason Real Estate Services in Newark, N.J., has said his firm proposes a five-year development plan for the 25-acre site between the two new stadiums, currently occupied by Three Rivers Stadium. He said a short-term concept is to develop 320,000 square feet of entertainment-retail facilities, 540,000 square feet of office space, a 300-room hotel and a 6,000-seat amphitheater.

As for the residential component, which he recommends as the final phase of development, it could be a mixture of rental and for-sale housing. Whitworth said the development could mean 400 retail and hotel jobs and 2,200 office jobs.

The plan calls for the hotel to be located adjacent to PNC Park with parking facilities located along General Robinson Street. The office space with first- and second-floor retail facilities would be located along the North Shore, facing Downtown, with the amphitheater located on the Steelers' side. Walnut Capital Partners also is developing strip shopping centers in Franklin Park and Cranberry Township and plans to open its new entertainment complex at 1400 Smallman St. in the city's Strip District later this spring.

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