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Grocery chain wants to almost triple the size of Shadyside store, add apartments

Saturday, November 30, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Giant Eagle supermarket on Centre Avenue in Shadyside is looking a little dowdy these days, at least compared to its new neighbor -- the big, shiny Whole Foods store a few blocks down the street.

	Vickie Toner, president of the Shadyside Action Coalition, bites her lip as she talks about the row houses along Hagy Street that will be demolished for a Giant Eagle store expansion. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

But Giant Eagle officials have an ambitious plan to fight back. They're seeking city approval to almost triple the size of their store, which used to be a Food Gallery.

They also want to build 130 apartments in two towers -- one of 12 stories and one of five stories -- on top of the store, and a large parking garage behind it, as well as turning Claybourne Street, which runs behind the store, into a cul-de-sac.

That expansion plan, projected to cost between $40 million and $50 million, would involve demolishing 16 older rowhouses and nine other homes located just behind the store, along with a vacant, graffiti-scarred pharmacy. An empty, former beer distributor next to an old Eckerd store may also be acquired and razed.

The expansion plan is worrying residents of the densely populated area around Graham and Claybourne streets, where many families have lived for three or four generations.

"We're almost like a time capsule. We have a good mix of middle-class and working-class people and professionals, all of whom know each other," said longtime resident Suzie Hall. "It's like having a little town within a city."

Hall feared that "the new Giant Eagle could be the beginning of a tide of commercial development that would completely change the complexion of the area. This neighborhood is a treasure and we don't want that jeopardized."

The 3.5-acre Giant Eagle site is squeezed in between the Port Authority busway to the south, Centre Avenue on the north, Negley Avenue on the east and busy UPMC Shadyside and UPMC's new cancer center on the west. A new hotel is being built nearby on Centre. Whole Foods is just three blocks down the street.

Residents worry about overcrowding and excessive traffic congestion lessening their quality of life and the small-town charm of their neighborhood.

"I don't feel the middle of Shadyside is the appropriate place for a sprawling use like the new Giant Eagle, but we are trying to make the best of it," Vickie Toner, president of the Shadyside Action Coalition and a nearby resident, told the planning commission this month.

"This is an old and unique area of Shadyside," she said. "It has a sense of neighborhood to it. Many people have lived there all their lives."

She said families with more than 20 young children have been forced to move out of the area because the rowhouses are being emptied prior to razing next year.

The part of the expansion plan she likes least is "the high-rises proposed on top of the store. It's the bitterest pill I've ever had to swallow."

Together, the 12-story tower and the five-story tower would contain about 130 apartments. Some nearby residents told the city Planning Commission they are concerned about the taller tower blocking sunlight from reaching their houses.

Dick Cameron, who has lived in one of the older rowhouses that's set for demolition, said, "I can't believe what charm [the house] has. It's a unique little jewel that will be destroyed."

Another nearby resident, Ed D'Alessandro, said neighbors "were suspicious" of the supermarket expansion at first. They are still wary, he said, but added that if the project is done right, he thinks it can be "an exciting plan for Shadyside."

He wants to ensure that green spaces are included around the edge of the development to buffer surrounding houses from the large store and apartments.

Another resident, Chuck Wall of Potter Street, said, "Traffic will be the biggest issue. Centre Avenue can be a bottleneck" and a bigger Giant Eagle could make it worse.

The existing store has 24,000 square feet and would be enlarged to nearly 69,000 square feet. Giant Eagle officials said the expansion isn't just a reaction to the Whole Foods store -- they say they've had a larger store in mind for several years.

One of the developers, Bill Craig, said Giant Eagle bought the old Food Gallery in 1999 and began thinking in terms of a store of 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, "a store similar in size to our suburban stores."

An underground parking garage would contain 240 to 300 spaces, mainly for the apartment dwellers. There would continue to be surface parking for grocery shoppers.

Hall said she would have preferred a smaller number of townhouses, where people owned the units they live in, rather than apartments, which mainly house transients.

"But [developers] said they need a [larger] amount of units to make the project profitable," she said.

Craig said Giant Eagle has worked to keep the shadow from the apartment towers from going beyond the edge of the property and affecting nearby houses.

The city planning commission could take action on the expansion plan at its next meeting Tuesday. The project then goes to City Council for final approval.

Councilman William Peduto, who represents the area, is already generally favorable to it. He considers the empty, former Eckerd pharmacy at the rear of the property "blighted" and would like it removed. He thinks the new, larger Giant Eagle with the apartments will improve the overall look of the area.

"A modern grocery store is an amenity for the entire neighborhood," he said. "We have to build our city and increase our tax base."

He said Echo Real Estate Service Co., Giant Eagle's development firm, has made five different drafts of the proposal over the last three months.

The modifications have increased the cost of the project another $5 million to $10 million from the original $40 million, Peduto said.

Claybourne Street now intersects with Negley, but that end of the street will be made a cul-de-sac. That wasn't part of the original plan, but doing so will keep Claybourne from being used as a through street by large trucks and will benefit the neighborhood, Peduto said.

"The developer has made concessions to minimize the impact to adjacent property owners," he said.

If City Council gives its approval, demolition of the 25 existing housing units will likely begin by spring or summer and the new store will take about 18 months to complete.