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Tuesday, December 25, 2001

By Dan Fitzpatrick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Mon Valley's slow comeback gained significant momentum this year, led by the decision to put a $122 million manufacturing plant in Munhall and the ongoing transformation of the old USX Homestead Works into one of the region's hottest retail and entertainment centers.

	The Waterfront retail and entertainment complex at the former USX Homestead Works site has been an overwhelming success. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)

Suddenly, Homestead and Munhall are hot development spots, and other former steel towns such as Duquesne and McKeesport are hoping the surge in real estate investment moves up river.

For now, though, the center of activity is The Waterfront -- the office, retail and residential development that three years ago replaced the old USX Homestead Works. After Cleveland-based Park Corp. spent almost a decade cleaning the site and selling USX's old industrial equipment, Columbus, Ohio, developer Continental Real Estate Cos. started work on 1.5 million square feet of new stores, restaurants, office buildings and apartments.

Only 25 of 265 acres remain available for development at the project, which got off to a fast start with the opening of a 22-screen movie theater and a Dave & Buster's. The pair made The Waterfront a popular nighttime attraction, helping Continental attract more than 50 stores and persuade Dick Corp., Eat'n Park and RedZone Robotics to relocate their headquarters to the riverfront site.

In September, The Waterfront scored another victory when Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. decided to build its fuel-cell plant on the site's eastern end, in Munhall. The plant, designed to build rail car-size fuel cells that squeeze electricity from natural gas, could employ as many as 500 and eventually span 430,000 square feet. The decision represented a big win for economic development officials, with the Pittsburgh area beating out competitors in Orlando, Fla., and Fort Worth, Texas. More importantly, though, Siemens Westinghouse's presence in Munhall could eventually help bring manufacturing back to the beleaguered Mon Valley.