Bottom Dollar to open in Bloomfield in old GiantEagle building

BACK  IN  BUSINESS—Twenty-­six  years  after  the  doors  of  this  formerGiant  Eagle  closed  for  good,  Bottom  Dollar  is  scheduled  to  beginrenovation  in  August  and  open  for  business  in  the  spring.  (Photo  by  J.L.Martello)

Jul 12, 2013

Next year, the 5200 block of Penn Avenue will see something it hasn’t

since 1987, a grocery store.

The plan to put a Bottom Dollar food store in the former Giant Eagle siteat 5200 Penn Avenue was held up for a year after residents in neighboringFriendship filed an appeal to the Pittsburgh Zoning Board’s approval ofthe project, claiming they would be burdened by extra traffic, noise andodors. The developer, Commercial Properties Inc. of Raleigh, NC., agreed toerect masonry partition walls along Coral and South Pacific Streets,effectively screening off the neighborhood, and to forego placing a lightedsign on Coral street. The company also said it would plant trees along thewalls to prevent graffiti.

Rick Swartz, executive director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. saidunlike the SHOP ’n SAVE being built in the Hill District with $11.5 millionin subsidies, the Bottom Dollar will have none.

The $10 million-project to renovate the old building into a new 18,000square-foot store is “on their own dime” Swartz said, noting the projectwill also jibe with a $5 million renovation project for Penn Ave nue inGarfield that will include new pavement, sidewalks and lighting.

He also said it would bring more people to that part of Penn Avenue.

“Right now, on the weekends it’s mostly deserted,” he said.

Commercial Properties President Brantley Tillman said constructionshould start in August and be completed by spring.

“We’ll put it out to bid a week after closing. So interior demolition start inAugust, renovation in September, and opening in the spring,” he said. “I’mhappy to be part of it. I think it’s going to be an asset to the community andpeople will be tickled pink to have a full-service grocery in theneighborhood after all these years.

Tillman said he has developed four or five of the Bottom Dollar stores nowoperating in the greater Pittsburgh area, and has a long relationship withboth it and its sister company Food Lion, which is also based in NorthCarolina.

Since 2010 the company has opened 13 Bottom Dollar stores in westernPennsylvania, two near Butler, and the rest surrounding Pittsburgh incommunities stretching from McKeesport to Aliquippa. The Bloomfield

store will be the first within the city limits.

Bottom Dollar offers fresh meat and seafood, as well as brand-nameproducts and store brands groceries at discount prices. It saves onoverhead by keeping its fresh produce in a large walk-in chiller, and byhaving customers bag their own groceries.

Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. Deputy Director Aggie Brose said Tillman told acommunity meeting in February 2012 the store would hire 40-45 people,half of which would be full time.

“He said management would work with the East Side NeighborhoodEmployment Center to host a job fair for those spots,” she said. “We’vealso spoken about getting community people on some of the constructionjobs too, but we won’t know about those numbers until the bids are in.”

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