New Beginning: Allentown’s Warrington Avenue Poised For A Makeover

The crowd inside — and eventually outside — 816 E. Warrington Ave. one recent evening gathered to showcase a newly renovated Allentown property. The former Ken’s Variety had been vacant for more than 20 years.

As the evening deepened, “Open in Allentown,” a “pop-up” event with a garage-style glass door rolled up, became a stew of neighborhood leaders, investors, consultants, residents of Allentown and nearby neighborhoods mingling over cocktails and catered nibbles.

The event and mix of people signified what Hilltop Alliance executive director Aaron Sukenik called “Warrington Avenue in its reinvention phase.”

One mile from Downtown (Pittsburgh) and cradled by the hot markets of Mount Washington and the South Side Slopes, Allentown is riddled with residential blight, and 35 percent of its commercial properties are vacant. But the newly repaved Warrington Avenue is on the cusp of a transition from being seedy to being seen.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2015/04/06/New-beginning-in-Allentown-Warrington-Avenue-poised-for-a-makeover/stories/201504060015

August Wilson Center To Be Sold To Foundations

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dollar Bank and the court-appointed receiver for the debt-ridden August Wilson Center for African American Culture struck a deal on Monday to sell the embattled Downtown cultural center to a coalition of foundations for $8.85 million.

The agreement nixes the proposed $9.5 million sale of the center to New York-based 980 Liberty Partners, a developer that wanted to build a 200-room luxury hotel atop the existing two stories and share space with the center.

The surprise announcement shortly before noon in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court halted what was supposed to be a two- to three-day trial over deed terms before it began. It marked a shift in course for court-appointed receiver Judith K. Fitzgerald, who had previously urged the judge to approve the sale to 980.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/6866840-74/million-center-court#ixzz3Ej4UAIHV
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Pontoon Rentals Catching On With Recreational Boaters In Pittsburgh

In a city of stunning views, Jim Malanos might have found the best one yet.

“I go near The Point, drop an anchor, and read a newspaper or a book,” said Malanos, 61, of Brighton Heights. “Sitting there on the water, looking back at the town and the North Shore — it’s beautiful. There’s no traffic, it’s quiet; it’s just very relaxing. Best view in town.”

Malanos is a repeat customer at Boat Pittsburgh LLC, a pontoon rental startup at the James Sharp Landing boat launch in Sharpsburg.

Owner Nicole Moga started the business at the end of May. Though other rentals offer kayaks and canoes, Boat Pittsburgh fills a regional void by offering the larger pontoons, which seat 10.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6373132-74/boat-pittsburgh-moga#ixzz36Vph7jut
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Supermarket Opens In Pittsburgh’s Hill District, The First In Three Decades

Locator map with the Upper Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Hill District‘s long-awaited Shop ‘n Save supermarket opened this morning in the Centre Heldman Plaza.

Neighborhood and elected officials, including Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, celebrated the opening of the 29,500-square-foot grocery at 10 a.m. The full-service facility, described as the first in the neighborhood in more than three decades, ends what has been known as a “food desert” there.

After many starts and stops, the $12.5 million store was completed by Ross Markets. In a press release, owner Jeff Ross said the store will have more than 100 employees, 95 percent of them minorities and 65 percent from the neighborhood.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/supermarket-set-to-open-this-morning-in-pittsburghs-hill-district-707982/#ixzz2i0k29Zed

Three Rivers Arts Festival Opens Friday

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whether you’re paddling to a floating platform for a mind-elevating experience or scratching your head over the meaning of a painted white Mustang with corn rows in place of racing stripes, you’re doing just what the organizers of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival hope you’ll do.

The 54th annual festival begins at noon Friday and continues through June 16 Downtown.  Admission is free to the 100 visual and performing events and activities that will bring in more than 500 artists to 20 venues including four stages.

New this year will be a half dozen artworks with the primary purpose to engage, perhaps puzzle, and inspire discussion.  Generally referred to as “public art,” these outdoor, often large and ambitious projects will extend from the middle of the Allegheny River by Point State Park to the walls of Tito Way in the Cultural District, near the “Cell Phone Disco.”

There are two ways of thinking about art, said, who became this year’s festival director as a part of her earlier appointment to Pittsburgh Cultural Trust director of festival management and special projects.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/art-architecture/three-rivers-arts-festival-opens-friday-with-a-broad-spectrum-of-arts-and-entertainment-690509/#ixzz2VS8mw0Q1