Grocery Store in Hill District

Today the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on the two grocery store proposals for the planned grocery store in the Hill District at the corner of Centre Avenue and Heldman Street. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will approve one of two plans in as short as the next couple of weeks. The two options for the Hill District are a standalone Save-A-Lot and a larger complex called Centre City Square which would be anchored by a Kuhn's grocery store. Centre City Square would also have a pharmacy and an outdoor plaza, as well as additional retail space. The total retail space in Centre City Square would be approximately 100,000 square feet, with 50,000 going to Kuhn's.

The bizarre aspect of the article is that the Post-Gazette reported that the Save-A-Lot store would be 1,200 square feet! There's no way that's right. I know the Hill District has gone without a grocery store for a long time, but I think people out there are going to know they come in bigger sizes. A July 3rd article in the Pittsburgh Business Times stated the Save-A-Lot would be 16,800 s.f. That's pretty small, but at 1,200 square feet, they'd only be able to carry about 3 products a day. So maybe on Monday people in the Hill District could buy bread, Tuesday they would be permitted to purchase one or two vegetables, maybe Wednesday they could put out a couple pieces of meat.

It seems like the population of the Hill District could definitely support more than a 1,200-16,800 square foot grocery store, and for the amount of time they have gone without one, it seems like something more should be in the works. However, the Centre City Square idea seems very ambitious for an area that hasn't seen largescale retail development in a long time. Given that taxpayer funding is going to be required no matter what the scale of the project, I hope a good impact study has determined how large a project can succeed so that taxpayers don't have to foot another, bigger bill if the project flops.