Pittsburgher to take business to Westmoreland County after city turns down plan to buy Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Pittsburgh businessman offered millions of dollars in investment, dozens of jobs and training to a struggling city neighborhood, but the city turned him down.
For seven years, John Conturo has grown Conturo Prototyping, a manufacturing company in Point Breeze that supplies all of Pittsburgh's high-tech economy, by making precision machined parts for robots, autonomous vehicles and a lunar rover.
But when he offered to buy the vacant Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum in Homewood, undertake millions of dollars of renovations, hire an additional 30 people, and develop a job training program for neighborhood youth, the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority said no thanks.
KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan: "You should be the future of Pittsburgh and yet you're not."
Conturo: "I would want this to be here and I want what is best for Pittsburgh and I've tried very hard to keep it here."
Despite his best effort, Conturo was unable to persuade the URA and Gainey administration that expanding his business in the heart of Homewood would help to rejuvenate the neighborhood and create badly needed jobs.
Instead, Conturo is moving to a building he owns in Wilkinsburg while he finalizes a deal to purchase a large space in Westmoreland County to accommodate that expansion. He is disappointed he won't be fulfilling that dream in the coliseum, which has been a hollow shell for the past several years and will now remain so for the foreseeable future.
"I would have loved to grow it even further and employ even more people, especially in urban communities where jobs like this can be very powerful," Conturo said.
The city said Conturo's proposal came during the URA request for information — a survey of the community for the best uses of the coliseum. Maria Montano, the mayor's press secretary, said the survey yielded "a variety of mixed opinions" and now "the whole process is on hold."
She said the city continued to work with Conturo on alternatives, but Conturo, a Pittsburgh native, said he could not find another suitable site in the city and is headed to Westmoreland County with some sadness.
"Proudly made in Pittsburgh has been a big part of our business, which we no longer will be able to say," Conturo said.
The city says there are no current plans for the redevelopment of the coliseum.