URA Votes To Buy Hill District Shop 'N Save With Plans To Redevelop The Area
PITTSBURGH (KDKA)-- Imagine if the grocery where you shop, and see your neighbors, and know the employees by name suddenly closed, and you are in the shoes of folks who live around here.
Local residents say they miss the store.
Shop 'n Save moved on in March and the building was heading for a Dollar Bank foreclosure and sale before today's vote by the urban redevelopment authority that would be "Essentially paying off the mortgage on the building to Dollar Bank," said board member Daniel Lavelle.
It's abundantly clear what folks who live here want to see happen.
Hill District resident Gerald Thompson said, "Put a giant eagle in there."
Another resident, Tasha Coaston, agreed saying, "make another store, another shopping store for the people on the hill, they need it."
"We definitely need a grocery store, that's to be determined," said Renee Hinton.
URA member and Pittsburgh City Councilman Dan Lavelle says the decision won't be made in a bureaucratic vacuum-- it will be a public process.
"I do believe that many will want to see a new grocery store operator in there. They should bring a grocery store back, our elderly people in this community are suffering. There's nowhere around here to go," said LaValle.
Lavelle says ALDI was interested at one point and they will be approached but the search won't be limited.
One thing is clear, this footprint is larger than what most grocerers are interested in. It may be broken up into sections.
In about three to four months from now, they plan to know what will replace the old grocery store.
