Underground detours cause delay in Penn

Avenue project in Pittsburgh's Garfield

neighborhood

April 11, 2014 11:31 PM

By Jon Schmitz / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Reconstruction of a four-block section of Penn Avenue in Garfield is behind schedule after

underground utility work took longer than expected.

The project began Aug. 19, 2013, and was to be completed by early December of this year, but the

finish line has been pushed back at least a couple months, said Pat Hassett, Pittsburgh's assistant

public works director for transportation and engineering.

"We ran into a lot of unknowns in the ground. We're finding utilities that we didn't know were

there and utilities we knew were there but weren't where we thought. So we had to adjust the

plans," Mr. Hassett said.

"Underground is always tough," he said. "It's an old city, and documentation wasn't as good as we

would have liked back in the day."

The $4.7 million project has caused closure of Penn Avenue to eastbound traffic from Mathilda to

Evaline streets. The plans call for a complete overhaul of the street, with full reconstruction of

pavement, sidewalks and lighting, and improvements for pedestrians.

Mr. Hassett said the project's cost likely would rise because of the utility complications but

hadn't yet determined by how much.

During the nearly eight months since half of the road was closed, little visible progress has

occurred on the surface as crews labored to relocate underground storm sewers. The contractor,

Matcon Diamond Inc. of the South Side, only recently started digging up the pavement near

Mathilda.

Meanwhile, the lane open to westbound traffic resembles a moonscape, with rugged pavement

and potholes.

"Basically, it's been a difficult start to a project that is much needed," said Richard Swartz,

executive director of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., the neighborhood group that has pushed for

improvements for more than a decade. "Like a birthing process, it's painful."

In addition to utility complications, crews found soil that was contaminated by rusting streetcar

rails buried under the street, he said.

The impact on merchants in the corridor has been uneven. Some have reported a loss of business

while others say they haven't been affected.

Aggie Brose, deputy director of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., said she warned business owners that

the construction would cause "a living nightmare. But at the end of the day, it will enhance your

businesses and property values."

She said few complaints have been received so far. "They are being very patient during this

disruption."

"There are folks that have lost business and lost customers with all the disruption," Mr. Swartz

said. "It's going to take a while for them to bounce back.

"When it's all said and done, Penn Avenue will be a well-lighted place, it will be more inviting,

more friendly to pedestrians," he said.

Planning will begin soon for a second phase, reconstructing Penn from Evaline to Graham Street,

Mr. Swartz said.

Carl Kirschbaum, co-owner of Carl's TV & Electronics, a repair shop that has done business on

Penn Avenue for decades, has a parking lot and a business that doesn't depend on impulse

shoppers and browsers.

"I would say it hasn't affected me," he said. "I'll be glad when it's done."

Dine: Neighborhood construction hits

restaurants hard

June 7, 2014 8:45 PM

By Melissa McCart / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With many restaurants operating on razor-thin profit margins, being on the fault line of local construction projects --

especially those that stretch over years -- can be a major blow to their bottom line. Some local restaurants are reporting

drops in business of up to 40 percent -- and a few have even closed -- as they lose customers to a growing list of restaurants

where parking is easier, traffic is lighter, noise pollution is minimal and debris is hardly an issue.

As restaurants swallow losses, community groups and developers are in various stages of acknowledging or addressing

how much the work hurts surrounding businesses in the short term.

In other cities, restaurants and shops can apply for loans and are considered for tax relief. Yet Pittsburgh does not have

plans that would help businesses taking a hit. In Washington, D.C., for example, business owners in the U Street

neighborhood were eligible for no-interest D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development loans during a

streetscape rehabilitation project in 2012-13.

"The city has plenty of small business loans, including several that can benefit restaurants that may be renovating or

relocating, but nothing that would offset the financial strain of construction,“ said the councilman for the 8th District,

Daniel Gilman. ”It’s an idea that I’d seriously consider.“

Smallman  Street  construction

The midday-crowd at Lidia’s has thinned as construction takes a toll. A financial backer of the restaurant, Walnut Capital,

is also behind the demolition and construction next door that started in April to create a 160-room Hilton Homewood

Suites Hotel. It is scheduled to open in June 2015.

Construction has “definitely had an effect on business,” said Adam Greiner, general manager of Lidia’s. The restaurant is

considering offering lunchtime valet service to ease parking issues for customers.

“As their landlord, we’re happy to say that Lidia’s renewed the lease in January and that she [Lidia Bastianich] is

committed to Pittsburgh,” said Gregg Perelman, managing partner of Walnut Capital.

Ms. Bastianich has four New York restaurants and one in Kansas City. The chef, TV host and cookbook author is also the

founder and president of Tavola Productions.

Mr. Perelman said Walnut Capital has boosted marketing efforts for Lidia’s during construction, including signs along

Smallman and extra promotion elsewhere and on social media.

“We have good rapport with the landlord and the construction crew,” said Mr. Greiner, noting that work stops at dinner

hour and, at lunchtime, workers head to projects on the far end, away from the restaurant.

The restaurant that’s been open since 2001 will make cosmetic changes in time for the hotel debut. “It gives everyone the

opportunity to refresh before the hotel opens next door, which will provide major opportunity for them,” Mr. Perelman said.

As the summer wears on, restaurants may take more of a hit as people flock to outdoor dining, leave town on vacation or

take advantage of the bounty of the growing season to eat at home. Yet Lidia’s remains focused on the long term. Mr.

Greiner cited an era when after-work in the Strip meant late-night clubs rather than hotels, restaurants and shopping.

“We’re looking forward to having good neighbors,” he said.

A couple of blocks away, Eleven is not yet seeing an effect of the Smallman Street construction, said Bill Fuller, corporate

chef of Big Burrito. But he fears the effect of a second project slated to begin within the month, the Schreiber Real Estate’s

59-unit apartment complex named 1100 Smallman, that will take at least a year to build. “If there’s going to be

construction on both sides of us, that’s going to be a mess,” he said.

He cited last year’s work on the South Highland Avenue Bridge and its effects on Casbah, another Big Burrito restaurant,

during the eight-month project. “It affected us less in the beginning, but by the end, people were sick of it,” he said.

As soon as the bridge reopened in October, “business improved immediately.”

Squirrel  Hill  tunnel  and  Brookline  Blvd.  rehabilitation

Last weekend’s closing of the inbound Squirrel Hill tunnel was a strain on Regent Square restaurants, including Istanbul

Sofra, a new Turkish restaurant that opened in the former Alma space at Forbes and Braddock avenues in April. From 9

p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday all of the Parkway East traffic was detoured up the narrow, two-lane road that runs

through the Regent Square business district -- freezing the neighborhood in gridlock for much of the weekend.

“It affected us a lot,” said co-owner Adnan Pehlivan.

A few blocks south on Braddock Avenue, Keith Fuller’s Root 174 was also slow. “We were dead,” he said. The chef-owner

of the restaurant said that closings due to tunnel construction in 2012 hurt his business eight months after he opened, with

sales plummeting by 40 percent. Mr. Fuller said he saw a similar drop this past weekend compared to weekends when the

tunnel has remained open.

The $50 million to $60 million renovation of the Squirrel Hill tunnel started in February 2012 and is scheduled to continue

through this summer, with inbound and outbound lane closures weeknights and weekends.

Nearly 10 miles from Regent Square, the Brookline Boulevard reconstruction project that began in March 2013 and will

continue through the summer involves fixing sidewalks, expanding curbs, replacing lights, repaving the road and planting

trees. So far, three businesses have closed, blaming the slowdown on the construction, including Tisha’s Sunny Farms at

600 Brookline Blvd. and Isis Cafe at 815 Brookline Blvd. Isis was the city’s only Egyptian restaurant, which had

opened a month before construction began.

And it’s taking a toll on businesses strong enough to remain open during the work. Nathan Mallory, owner of Cannon

Coffee at 802 Brookline Blvd. as well as the vice-president of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce, said he lost $70,000

this year because of construction and that his business is down this year by 30 percent.

An upside of the construction, he said, is that existing businesses are updating their facades. But the short-term effects are

that new businesses are wary to set up in Brookline. Between that and losing money, “it has been an absolute disaster,” he

said.

Penn  Avenue  project

Over in Garfield, the Penn Avenue project has been clobbering restaurants. The project has been nearly 10 years in the

making, a plan that includes a replaced road, curbs, sidewalks, benches, utility poles and landscaping.

The two-phase, $10 million project began in August 2013 and was supposed to be completed in December. Instead, the

first phase will stretch through January 2015.

“We’re finding utilities that we didn’t know were there and utilities we knew were there but weren’t where we thought. So

we had to adjust the plans,” Pat Hassett told the Post-Gazette in April. Mr. Hassett is Pittsburgh’s assistant public works

director for transportation and engineering.

Spak Brothers Pizza at 5107 Penn Ave. said it has lost business, along with Pho Minh at 4917 Penn Ave. and People’s

Indian Restaurant at 5147 Penn Ave.

“We have certainly seen an effect,” said Ryan Spak, co-owner of Spak Brothers. He said it’s hard to put a dollar sign on

losses. “Honestly, I think it’s getting worse. I think people are avoiding the whole corridor like the plague.”

Aggie Brose, deputy director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., said she has not received complaints from restaurants in the

stretch. She cited People’s Indian Restaurant as “not affected,” because they haven’t registered complaints that would be

addressed in bi-weekly meetings with Michael Baker Corp., the engineering firm chosen as the liaison between

contractors, businesses and property owners.

And she said that Spak Brothers’ “loyal client base” has left the restaurant relatively unscathed.

Neither Kuldip Pabla, an employee at People’s Indian Restaurant, nor Mr. Spak concurred.

“It’s been almost a year now, and it’s been really bad, believe me,” said Mr. Pabla. He said both the restaurant and their

grocery store across the street are suffering losses.

“We do have the best customers, but we’re definitely seeing a lot less impulse walk-in and drive-by business,” Mr. Spak

said.

Phase two of the project will likely begin in the summer of 2015. It will tie up Penn Avenue from Evaline to Graham streets.

Ms. Brose said she hadn’t heard any talk of financial assistance for businesses affected by construction.

Though Salt of the Earth and Verde are a few blocks from the work, they said they are seeing a residual effect during this

first phase.

“It certainly hasn’t helped,” said Chad Townsend, executive chef of Salt. He said the transition in the kitchen leadership

has also caused business fluctuations. Mr. Townsend took over the kitchen from Kevin Sousa when he departed to focus on

his Superior Motors, a restaurant that will open in Braddock in 2015.

Jeff Catalina, owner of Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina, had a more definitive answer. “It’s difficult to market lunch to

the hundreds of people connected to Children’s Hospital,” he said, referring to the nearly 300-bed, nine-story hospital a

few blocks west of Verde on Penn Avenue. “They’re so close, yet they don’t have a direct line to Verde. There’s no incentive

to visit during lunch hour because of the detours.”

He acknowledged the rehabilitation project is “a necessary evil” and it helps that Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. has been “very

communicative.”

But he’s seeing the effect the construction has had well into the dinner hour. And he’s anxious about the next phase.

“Our guests say that it’s a hassle for sure.”

Melissa  McCart:  412-­263-­1198  or  on  Twitter  @melissamccart.