Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato had time to eat, sleep and shower before getting to work yesterday on the next big piece of the Penguins deal: redeveloping the 28 acres where the Mellon Arena and its parking lots are now.

Mr. Onorato wasn't flanked by the governor, the mayor and a passel of multimillionaires. Instead, he sat in the conference room of his office with members of the clergy and community leaders from the Hill District to discuss how to redevelop the Hill.

"We wanted to be sure we were included in things from this point forward so there would not be any missteps," said the Rev. Johnnie Monroe, pastor of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church. "They have the people who are coming with money, but it's our community. We do not want the folks from the outside just coming in making the decisions."

"The next step is getting all the key parties at the same table," said Evan Frazier, the executive director of the Hill House Association. He said there should be a meeting with Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials, someone from the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority, Don Barden who won the right to develop the Pittsburgh casino and has pledged to help develop the old arena site, and Hill District leaders.

That meeting was originally scheduled to be a conference call, but after the announcement of the deal to build the new arena and keep the team in Pittsburgh, it was changed to a face-to-face in Mr. Onorato's office. The Penguins will have development rights over the Mellon Arena property.

Mr. Onorato said he wants any potential development to restore the grid from the Hill District to Downtown that stops now at the parking lot for Mellon Arena. He said the arena acts like a wall separating the neighborhood from Downtown.

"Once you do that, the Hill District becomes part of Downtown again," he said.

He said he also wants to make sure any momentum achieved by the development of the site is carried up into the neighborhood so the whole community benefits.

Under the deal with state and local leaders, the Penguins will have development rights over the Mellon Arena property as well as any portion of the old St. Francis Central Hospital site that is not used for their new home. Mellon Arena is to be demolished.

The team also is required to negotiate terms for Mr. Barden "to potentially participate in development rights." The Penguins also must work with the sports authority to put together a comprehensive redevelopment plan for the Mellon Arena site.

As part of the arena agreement, the team has the ability to assign those rights to another party. The Steelers and the Pirates hired Continental Real Estates Co. of Columbus, Ohio, to develop the land between Heinz Field and PNC Park.

One developer the Penguins may pursue is Nationwide Realty Investors, the company that developed the $540 million Arena District in Columbus with a mix of offices, bars, restaurants and housing. That district is anchored by the $160 million Nationwide Arena.

Nationwide Realty Investors is no stranger to Pittsburgh. It was part of the bid by Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. for the city's slot machine license, with a proposal to redevelop the Mellon Arena property with offices, residences and entertainment and to reconnect the Hill with Downtown.

It lost out on that chance when the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board selected Mr. Barden's PITG Gaming LLC over Isle of Capri and Forest City Enterprises Inc. But it could end up back in the picture now that the Penguins have control over development rights.

The Penguins are obligated to begin development after Mellon Arena is demolished and the authority clears the site. If the site ends up being 28 acres, the Penguins must develop 2.8 acres a year or risk forfeiting their rights to any portion that isn't developed.

The team will be required to pay the authority the appraised value for the property, but can take $15 million in credits against the purchase. It also will get the proceeds of land sales it or the authority makes to third parties. After 10 years, if the Penguins have not taken all $15 million in credits, the authority must pay the difference in cash.

At the same time, the Penguins probably won't have to wait until they move into their new home in 2009 to start getting more cash from concessions, parking and other arena revenue streams.

On June 30, the team plans to exercise an option to become master leaseholder at Mellon Arena. With the change, it will get to keep all building and parking revenues, money it now shares with SMG, which has served as leaseholder since 1991. The Penguins also will be responsible for all operating costs.

The team got the option as part of its 1999 bankruptcy. If the Penguins make the change, SMG would become the arena manager and would be paid a set fee.

Under their current arrangement, the team gets all hockey-related revenue and SMG keeps all non-hockey revenues, said Hank Abate, vice president of arenas of SMG. The two parties now share parking revenues, which are estimated at more than $2 million a year, according to some sources. As part of the deal to build the $290 million arena, the Penguins will manage, operate, maintain and retain all revenues from current and future parking at Mellon Arena.

Just how much more the Penguins can earn by keeping all Mellon Arena revenues is not known. Mr. Abate said the change "will probably improve their situation slightly," but declined to release any figures.

Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports finance consultant, said Mellon Arena could generate "low to mid single digit millions" annually for the team once it becomes the master leaseholder.

But he added the real money won't come until the Penguins move into the new arena, at which point the annual profit "should approach eight figures, maybe a couple clicks higher or a couple of clicks lower."

"It should be quite substantial, but they wouldn't be doing this deal if it wasn't," he said.

That should give the team millions of dollars more in revenue each year to help pay players. Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux said during the announcement of the deal Tuesday that the new arena should allow the team to stay competitive and keep many of its talented young players.

As part of its arrangement with the Penguins, SMG will remain as arena manager until at least 2012, even after the opening the new building. Mr. Abate said the firm would like to extend the relationship beyond that.

"I think we can be of significance to the Penguins in terms of not only operating the new facility for them but also in maximizing the new bookings," he said, adding that SMG manages more than 70 arenas worldwide.

The deal between the Penguins and state and local leaders calls for the arena to be built by the fall of 2009, which Mr. Onorato called "a very tight timeline."

He said he expected demolition of the structures that are currently on the site to begin in a month, and that construction of the new arena could begin as soon as summer or fall.