Pittsburgh's Fifth Avenue retail reborn
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Redevelopment has changed the face of lower Fifth Avenue.
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Lower Fifth Avenue is becoming the Eliza Doolittle of Downtown.
Once a gloomy stretch of boarded up buildings and empty storefronts for the most part, Fifth between Wood and Market streets now boasts a shimmering new office tower and elegantly restored turn-of-the-century buildings, scrubbed and polished to bring out rich architectural detail lost to decades of soot and neglect.
And with the metamorphosis, retail, once the lifeblood of the corridor, could be poised to make a comeback.
In the last six months, two clothing stores and a shoe shop have opened in the stretch between Wood and Market, and a small women's boutique is on the way next month.
Some believe it could be the start of something bigger, a return to the days when Fifth Avenue teemed with stores packed with noontime shoppers.
"I see it becoming a center and a main corridor for retail, entertainment, dining and a gateway into the Cultural District," said Jeffrey Ackerman, executive vice president and managing director of the national capital markets group for CB Richard Ellis.
The retail amounts to the first fruits of four major redevelopments in the corridor:
• The 23-story Three PNC Plaza tower, occupying nearly the entire block, is virtually finished. The Fairmont Pittsburgh hotel opened March 29, joining the Reed Smith LP law firm and PNC Financial Group. Twenty seven condos complete the development, with a top-floor penthouse recently selling for $2.5 million.
• Across the street the Downtown YMCA has moved into the former G.C. Murphy store and several other structures now known as Market Square Place, also home to 46 apartments, with all but one rented.
• The Buhl Building, a blue and cream terra cotta gem, has undergone a $3.3 million rehab, with a restored facade and first floor retail space. Developers also razed two adjoining Market Street structures, adding five floors of office space to the back of Buhl.
First Published April 6, 2010 12:00 am
