Downtown Elizabeth E-Newsletter-1st Quarter 2009

As Tarentum, Elizabeth, Stowe and Swissvale head into their second year in Allegheny Together, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) is encouraged by the implementation steps underway and we are proud to be a partner in several of these efforts. We want to share some early highlights with you.

Model Sign Ordinance: As TCA's workshops highlighted, a vibrant downtown business district takes time and effort on multiple fronts. While it can include expensive restoration and infrastructure projects, it can also include coordinated design efforts that do not require a huge investment. Attention to details can really make a difference. That has to include well designed and coordinated storefront signage. At the request of Elizabeth's Business District Advisory Committee, PHLF is drafting a model sign ordinance, which can be custom tailored to other communities as well. This ordinance provides comprehensive guidance for all types of signage within the central business district with the goal of encouraging the kind of signage that will really highlight and compliment the towns character, architecture and businesses.

Tarentum Town Center: During the Allegheny Together planning phase, PHLF brought in Urban Design Associates (UDA), an internationally known urban design firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, and their summer interns to provide design recommendations for the Tarentum central business district. One of the big ideas they proposed was to create a direct connection between the Tarentum Train Station, which is home to a destination restaurant and serves as the hub of downtown, and Riverfront Park, a remarkable regional amenity four blocks away.

To make this connection, UDA suggested removing an industrial building across the tracks from the train station on 4th Ave. This building is currently home to F-Squared, a machine shop and metals fabrication business. While the business is critical to Tarentum, the building is misplaced in the middle of the central business district. It offers a blank wall to 4th Ave, creating a dead-zone in the middle of a block that is otherwise well leased with professional services and retail businesses. It also blocks the view of Riverfront Park from the train station and the downtown.

As it happens, the owner of F-Squared has seen steady growth in the past two years and is interested in moving to a significantly larger space. He is now working with the Borough, Tarentum's Business Area Advisory Committee and PHLF to determine the feasibility of relocating to an industrial area in Tarentum that will be better suited to his business and give him the room he needs to expand and grow his business. If we are able to relocate F-Squared, it will provide an opportunity to replace the current building with a public space below the train station that would serve as a town center, with room for new construction facing the newly created public space.

Business Recruitment: Each of the Allegheny Together Business District Advisory Committees has spent time discussing what an optimal mix of different types of businesses would be in their downtowns and how to fill prominent gaps and vacancies. Business recruitment can be challenging, particularly in tough economic times. But PHLF can be a partner in this effort. We have launched an on-going outreach effort to quality main street businesses in 12 business districts in Allegheny County. This includes direct contact with over 125 businesses, including a wide range of retail stores and restaurants. If your main street committee has identified specific business types and segments you want to recruit, then please let PHLF know and we will work to help you with this. We have also started distributing a quarterly e-newsletter targeting local retail and restaurant businesses and communicating to them opportunities that exist in the main street districts where we are working. If you would like to receive this publication, or if there are businesses you think would benefit from getting it, then please contact Dave Farkas at david@phlf.org.