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Pittsburgh Public Market will leave Strip produce terminal
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The Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District plans to move out of the historic produce terminal to a new location in the Strip.
City Urban Redevelopment Authority board members Thursday approved a grant not to exceed $40,000 to help with the relocation. The new site is not being disclosed until lease negotiations have been completed, Becky Rodgers, executive director of Neighbors in the Strip, which owns the market, said after the meeting.
The market has operated out of the produce terminal since its opening in 2010. Ms. Rodgers said the market wasn't being pushed out of the terminal, about a third of which will be demolished to make way for an office and residential development being proposed by the Buncher Co.
She said the terminal location offered limited infrastructure, while the new site will give the market room to expand and perhaps add a restaurant. "It just offers us so much more creativeness," she said.
The market recently got a $30,000 grant to fund a feasibility study for a commercial kitchen, the type of amenity it could not offer in the produce terminal. Construction related to the Buncher project also factored into the decision to move elsewhere, she said. Buncher is planning to demolish the western third of the terminal, the longtime home of produce wholesalers, and fill the rest of the space with retail and offices.
Ms. Rodgers said the market hopes to open in its new location May 1. It now operates on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays but is looking into the possibility of expanding to five days a week in the new location. The move is estimated to cost about $400,000. Neighbors in the Strip is raising money to help pay for that.
The market is home to more than 40 merchants. Some 325,000 to 350,000 people have visited the market over the past two years, based on a counter in the building, Ms. Rodgers said.
"It's a good attraction for the Strip," she said.
First Published January 11, 2013 12:00 am
