Marty's Market Coming To The Strip

Right By Nature in the Strip

A new market is coming to the strip to replace Right By Nature which closed last year.  Marty's Market's new proprietor, Regina Koetters, is not as anxious about her new venture as one might suspect.  Her last assignment was a tour in Iraq, so this by contrast should be a piece of cake.  Marty's will open in late spring, at Smallman and 23rd streets, in the same building that Right By Nature vacated.

Ms. Koetters sees the new market becoming a "destination" in a neighborhood whose chief draw is its unique collection of specialty food stores and produce wholesalers.  She hopes to invite celebrity and amateur chefs to teach culinary classes or to prepare dinners to go. The store will focus solely on food, stocked with fresh produce and meats as well as staples like bread, milk and eggs. There will be freshly prepared meals and other items shoppers can grab for lunch or on their way home from work.  The market also will feature a coffee bar and a cafe with outdoor seating.

She said she will buy and sell produce grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. The meats will be free of antibiotics, steroids and added hormones. She also plans to make ample use of producers located within 150 miles of the store.

Ms. Koetters arrived in Pittsburgh in 2008 from Ann Arbor, Mich. She spent more than 12 years in the Navy, eight on active duty. As a naval flight officer, she flew missions over Iraq in early 2003 while on active duty. She also was stationed in Iraq as a reservist for a year ending in November 2009.
She got the idea for the new market while walking around the Cork Factory apartment complex and seeing the vacant store space. Right By Nature closed last April after less than three years at the location, saying it could not generate enough traffic to "maintain and grow the business."
Nonetheless, Ms. Koetters isn't the least bit anxious about taking over the spot, noting that Right by Nature was more of a full-scale supermarket than Marty's Market, with its focus solely on food, intends to be.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Strip District

New Businesses To Open At Air Mall

Pittsburgh International Airport

 
A sports bar will open two locations in Pittsburgh International Airport's Airmall later this year.  The Burgh Sportz Pub will open a 1,300-square-foot bar in Concourse B and a 530-square-foot bar in Concourse D.

Airmall USA has also signed leases with two other companies for space in Concourse A: Auntie Anne's will open a 400-square-foot pretzel shop and Cinnabon will open a 400-square-foot bakery.  Both are expected to open this spring/summer.

Auntie Anne's
Cinnabon
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Pittsburgh International Airport

New Wal-Mart In North Huntingdon

A new Walmart Supercenter will open Wednesday in North Huntingdon. The store is set to open at 7am and will be especially good for senior citizens who favor having the low-cost giant in the area.  The store will also strengthen the local tax base so the local pols are pleased as well.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
North Huntingdon
Wal-Mart

Architectural Award For CMU

The Gates Center for Computer Science and Hillman Center

A recently constructed Carnegie Mellon University research and classroom facility has received the highest award in the architecture profession.  CMU's Gates Center for Computer Science and Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies has been recognized as one of nine projects worldwide to receive the 2012 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture.
 
The Gates and Hillman centers, which opened in 2009, share a joint space and are located in a challenging spot: the eastern slope of a steep valley that intersects the campus which feeds into Junction Hollow in Oakland. With five main entrances on three different levels and two major pedestrian bridges, they also serve as a crossroads tying the campus together.  Designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects of Atlanta, Ga., they serve as home to four departments of CMU's School of Computer Science.

CMU
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Oakland

Bakery Square Might Expand

The development group responsible for Bakery Square wants to acquire the former Reizenstein school building and replace it with a $119 million project called Bakery Square 2.0 that would include housing, retail and office space.  The proposal was included in the lone bid for the Reizenstein building, one of three city school buildings that are being offered for sale by Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Bakery Square 2.0 is a partnership that includes Walnut Capital and RCG Longview. It offered to buy the site for $5.4 million, demolish the school building and replace it with a $119 million development.


The proposal calls for replacing the "functionally obsolete building" with about 20 new single-family homes and more than 70 new rental townhouses -- in the rear of the site near existing housing -- as well as about 400,000 square feet of first-class office/retail space on Penn Avenue.

Reizenstein is on Penn Avenue, across the street from the new Bakery Square, which was a project of Walnut Capital and RCG Longview. Bakery Square is the home of Google, a Spring Hill Suites Hotel and other businesses. Bakery Square's early plans included a residential component that didn't work out.


Bakery Square 2.0 developers said they plan to improve street lights, sidewalks and bike paths along Penn Avenue.  The proposal included letters of support from the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the Pittsburgh Technology Council and Carnegie Mellon University.




Bakery Square
Larimer
MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

Aspinwall Marina To Be Part of River Park And Trail

Aspinwall Marina

Friends of the Riverfront received a $200,000 donation from Highmark making its Aspinwall Riverfront Park a go.  That was the last piece needed to buy the $2.3 million Aspinwall Marina including it in a park and trail project.  The purchase is expected to close before Sept 30th.


Friends of the Riverfront plans to retain the marina while creating a 10-acre community park to include a one-mile trail through it.  Highmark's donation assures it the right to name the trail.  A spokesperson for Highmark said they made the donation because the project seemed very important to the area and they felt the development of the new trail would promote health and wellness.


Aspinwall
Aspinwall Marina
MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

Washington County Energy Plant Going With Natural Gas

Beech Hollow Energy Project Site

Robinson Power Company has revised the plans for their proposed Beech Hollow Energy Project in Washington County.  They will be burning natural gas to generate electricity as part of the revised plan for a $450 million power plant at the border of Washington and Allegheny counties.   The developers of the Beech Hollow Energy Project in Robinson Towship told township planners Monday night they want to fuel the plant with natural gas in addition to the waste coal that already has been approved.  It would be about a 50/50 split with gas coming from Marcellus Shale.  The 300-gross-megawatt plant would use 21 million to 23 million cubic feet of natural gas each day.

Marcellus Shale

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Robinson Township