Upscale Condos, Restaurants And Retail Spaces Part Of Significant Development Coming To North Shore

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Your favorite tailgating spaces may soon be gone as upscale condos, restaurants, and retail spaces are coming to the North Shore.

Since the day PNC Park opened and Heinz Field a few months later, the grand vision of development between them has been slowly evolving.

But something has been missing, and developer Herky Pollock said that's about to change with a building that will soon rise out of Lot 4, which is located on the corner of Mazeroski Way and General Robinson Street.

"It's going to have a mixed component that we have been waiting for, which is residential," Pollock said.

Pollock, the Executive Vice President of CBRE, said there will be 48 condos sitting on top of two floors of retail, restaurant and office spaces.

He said the condos will be "appealing to first-time affluent buyers or empty nesters, players from the teams — could be Pirates or Steelers — out-of-towners who move here and want to be in the urban core."

The 80-storey structure will have two sections wrapped around public green spaces.

"The idea is to ample outdoor space so the Pirates and the Steelers and the retailers can utilize for festivities and events," Pollock said.

But first will come a parking garage with 445 spaces that will make up for the 220 spaces being lost in Lot 4.

The parking lot will be located along General Robinson Street with retail on the first floor. But when it comes next year, tailgating in Lot 4 will be over.

Pollock said the reduction in tailgating spaces is all part of the plan.

"It's evolving much as the North Shore is evolving," Pollock said. "You still have the opportunity to tailgate in the parking lots, but you can tailgate inside if it's cold or raining."

That "indoor" tailgating is available at the growing number of restaurants on the North Shore.

Once the Lot 4 development is complete, attention will turn to Lot 2.

That's the lot with 225 spaces behind the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette building, another prime tailgating spot.

That development is several years away.

So look for work on the parking garage to get started next June, with completion before the baseball season in 2021.

The rest of the building will start next fall, with completion in late 2021 or early 2022.