The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership this week outlined a three-year strategic plan to revitalize the city’s Golden Triangle and realize a vision of a Downtown teeming with new residents and an array of businesses.
The nonprofit wants to make the neighborhood cleaner, safer and more vibrant as part of its ongoing effort to breathe new life into a downtown that, like many others throughout the nation, was hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic and the popularization of remote work.
“We want to see more people working down here, we want to see more people living down here and we want to see more people playing down here,” Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership President Jeremy Waldrup told TribLive Wednesday.
To attract residents and visitors, the partnership hopes to advance construction of four major, pedestrian-friendly streetscape and park improvement projects; install 10 major public art pieces Downtown; and expand landscaping to reduce blight.
The group’s long-term goal is to increase retail occupancy by 10% within the next decade and eventually double the number of people living Downtown.
The partnership already has doubled the staffing of its clean, hospitality and outreach teams, which now employ about 55 people combined. A new operations center on Liberty Avenue serves as the home base for those teams, which collect trash, welcome visitors, support businesses and offer help to homeless or others in need, particularly in the colder months.
The partnership also collaborates with Renewal Inc., a local nonprofit that provides job skills and training for people coming out of the criminal justice system. Those workers help clean alleyways and power-wash streets and sidewalks, Waldrup said.
To secure successes in such initiatives, Waldrup said, the organization will send out biannual surveys to gauge whether the public feels Downtown is getting cleaner and safer.
Festival focus
The partnership — which hosts major annual events like Picklesburgh and a winter holiday market — is looking to expand its event offerings, large and small.
The goal, Waldrup said, is to host at least 300 smaller activities and four large-scale festivals per year. That will include smaller events featuring local artists, musicians and entertainers.
“We’re trying to find a mix of programs people are interested in,” he said.
The organization is spearheading a facelift of Market Square, part of a broader $600 million Downtown revitalization effort championed by Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The partnership also is collaborating with other organizations, developers and government partners to encourage efforts to convert unused office spaces into housing and bring more businesses into the Golden Triangle.
The group’s efforts also will focus on retaining businesses that are already Downtown to keep them from relocating when their leases expire.
Waldrup said the partnership is approaching individual businesses whose leases are set to expire soon to encourage them to stay Downtown. That outreach includes gathering feedback on what might entice business owners to stay.
Transition driver
The organization is advocating for more non-traditional uses of what is now underused office space Downtown. Those spaces could become retail, housing, restaurants, grocery stores, start-ups and youth centers.
Point Park University, located Downtown, hopes to be a driver of the transition from an office-focused neighborhood to one that is more well-rounded and emphasizes entertainment, said Ted Black, the school’s senior vice president of institutional advancement and strategy and a member of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s board.
Black’s vision includes expanding student housing, turning Boulevard of the Allies into a more pedestrian-friendly retail corridor and strengthening connections between the school and the nearby Cultural District.
A new, 2,000-seat sports and recreation venue planned for the university could host public events, offer workforce training opportunities and provide youth programming, Black said.
“I think you look out 10 years, there’s a lot more housing, a lot more people living Downtown,” he said. “Once you hit a critical mass, you’ll start to see more grocery stores and things like that.”
And Point Park University, he said, can help provide entertainment for the new people that will be drawn to the Golden Triangle.
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While some have criticized Downtown as being empty, unsafe and dirty, Black has a rosier view.
“We have a very compact, walkable Downtown surrounded by beautiful rivers,” Black said. “We have one of the most beautiful state parks in North America. We have a very entrepreneurial, can-do work ethic that’s embedded in the DNA here. We have culture and sports teams and things to do, live entertainment, experiential entertainment.”
‘Heart of Western Pennsylvania’
The vision Waldrup and Black imagine for a bustling, vibrant Downtown is supported by city, county and state leaders who are scrambling to stop Downtown property values from plummeting.
Efforts underway to convert office buildings to residential uses will bring about 1,000 new housing units Downtown. A $30 million project spearheaded by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust looks to convert underutilized parking lots and open spaces into an outdoor event destination. Point State Park will see upgrades, including new walkways, improved lighting and other amenities. The Backyard public space is poised to get a new water play area.
The collective efforts, Waldrup said, are “integral to each other’s success” and can help Downtown reinvent itself post-pandemic.
“It’s critically important for our city and our region,” he said. “We are the heart of Western Pennsylvania, and we want to continue to be so.”