Explore ... Downtown
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Ice skating at the Rink at PPG Place. -
Accessories at Serendipity in Market Square in Pittsburgh. -
The windows at Macy's, decorated for the holidays.
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In the face of gloom and doom spreading across the country, Pittsburgh's Downtown is enjoying a bit of a building boom in housing, office development and retail.
The former Lazarus store is being converted into condos, shops, restaurants and offices. The new Three PNC Plaza skyscraper is going up on Fifth Avenue, and a major overhaul of Market Square is in the works. Development continues in the Cultural District, and Equitable Resources has announced it will relocate its corporate headquarters from the North Shore to Downtown, bringing 500 employees with the potential to expand by another 200.
And plans have been announced to transform a bleak patch of concrete by the David L. Lawrence Convention Center into a riverfront oasis. This will link the Point and the Strip District with a riverfront trail, making Downtown a magnet for recreational enthusiasts.
Add the expected retail and development boost from the $800 million Rivers Casino that's slated to open on the North Shore in August, plus the new subway link that will start transporting passengers from Downtown to the North Shore in 2011, and the future is looking pretty rosy in the Golden Triangle.
More than 139,000 people are working Downtown on any given weekday, an increase of 28,000 workers since 1996, according to recent figures from the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. And an estimated 5,500 people are expected to be living Downtown by 2010 to add to its vitality.
While high parking costs and construction woes continue to be a major hurdle in the city's attempt to create a vibrant Downtown shopping and dining experience, there still is a strong mix of one-of-a-kind retail and restaurant opportunities there to draw customers across bridges and through tunnels.
It has Western Pennsylvania's only Saks Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh's grand dame of high-end fashion retail. There's also the largest Macy's in the region, with 11 floors, including a recently added FAO Schwarz store within a store.
You can't beat the charm, however, of the large S.W. Randall Toyes & Giftes store just down the street on Smithfield, which has more than 20,000 items in stock, either in its store or online.
For upscale men's and women's clothes, there's the elegant selection at Larrimor's in the Union Trust Building on Grant Street and Brooks Brothers on Smithfield. Joseph Orlando, a high-end men's store on Liberty Avenue, celebrated its 27th year in September. For other men's stores, there's Kountz & Rider, Joseph Banks, Montaj Custom Clothier and N.J. Richetti's in One Oxford Centre.
The Shops at One Oxford Centre, at Fourth and Grant, also feature other specialty retailers, such as Emphatics, which sells designer fashions for men and women, and St. Moritz Chocolatier. Serendipity, an accessories store, recently moved from Oxford Centre to PPG Plaza, which also recently welcomed Moe's Southwest Grill and Mancini's and Prantl's bakeries.
If furs are what you're looking for, there's Canadian Fur Co. and Carl Herrmann Furs, both on Smithfield, in addition to what you'll find in the fur salon at Saks (a store within a store) and at Macy's.
For dining, there's a trifecta of high-end steak houses: Ruth's Chris Steak House at Six PPG Place, Morton's the Steakhouse on Liberty Avenue and the relatively new Capital Grille at Piatt Place, Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, where McCormick & Schmick's also recently opened to serve up its fish specialties.
The Original Fish Market at the Westin Convention Center Hotel is at the end of town with several other trendy restaurants, like Sonoma Grill and Seviche, both owned by Yves Carreau, and Tonic Bar & Grill. Hot dining spots in the Cultural District are Six Penn Kitchen and Palate Bistro on Sixth Street, and Cafe Zao and Nine on Nine on Penn Avenue. Bossa Nova on Seventh Street attracts the trendy after-work cocktail crowd.
Closer to the heart of the business district are The Carlton in One Mellon Center, the Bigelow Grille at the Doubletree, and the Common Plea on Ross Street. Palomino's rounds out the dining opportunities near the Point. There's even Rosebud Fine Food Market and Deli, a new grocery store at Seventh Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard that opened in March -- the first in 14 years.
First Published December 6, 2008 12:00 am
