FRESH LEGACY
Former steel mill site Almono renamed Hazelwood Green
The 178-acre Almono site on the Monongahela riverfront has a new name: Hazelwood Green.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto was joined at the site Friday by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, city Councilman Corey O’Connor, Hazelwood community leaders and others for the announcement.
City officials said the name was changed to establish the old steel mill site as part of the Hazelwood community.
Almono is among 20 properties being offered as possible sites in Pittsburgh for Amazon’s quest for a second headquarters.
In 2002, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, The Heinz Endowmentsand the Richard King Mellon Foundation came together to purchase the property for $10 million, forming Almono LLC. The site took on the name Almono after the first syllables of Pittsburgh’s three rivers: Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio.
The Almono partnership changed the name of the site to recognize the former steel mill and its connection to the Hazelwood community.
Community members were thrilled to hear Hazelwood was made a part of the the name.
“I’m happy that they kept Hazelwood in it. We know this is Hazelwood’s space, it’s not Greenwood, it’s not Pittsburgh, it’s not South Oakland, it is Hazelwood,” the Rev. Leslie Y. Boone, founder of Fishes and Loaves Cooperative Ministries, said.
“I was never a big fan of Almono. I thought it was clever, but it separated the history of Hazelwood away from it,” Mr. Peduto said. “Hazelwood has to be at the front. It has to be about the community. It has to be about the past as much as it will be about the future.”
With infrastructure construction nearly complete, project leaders and collaborators wanted a new name to attract future tenants to the site while honoring the site’s history. During his remarks, Mr. Fitzgerald made multiple references to Amazon.
“This is a wonderful, wonderful site that puts us in a competitive advantage with that company … it begins with an A ends with an N. Amazon, something like that. They might want to think about where to come. Nothing can be better than this,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
“When we go after a company like Amazon, and others, having a site like this is a real advantage,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
So far, the state has invested $20 million in the property’s redevelopment.
The former LTV Coke Works site is already home to an Uber test track. Also, the Regional Industrial Development Corp. is converting the former Mill 19 Building on the site into tech-oriented research and development space. A 1.4mile access road is nearing completion.
Hazelwood Green is not just going to be space for companies, it will also be a site for the community, officials said.
“I’m looking forward to when they will start working on the residential part. Getting back to maintaining that this is not just going to be an RIDC part, it won’t just be industry, there is going to be space for people to play, live and work,” Rev. Boone said.
Project director Rebecca Flora said that 20 percent of the site’s overall space will be dedicated to public space. The first of those spaces is a 2.5-acre area at the south end of the site.
Almono LLC and the Hazelwood Initiative are hosting The Big Tent Event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to include the public in the design process for the space. It will be held at the site, 24 Hazelwood Ave., Pittsburgh 15207.
“The Big Tent Event is about getting people thinking about what they want and what will work in the space,” Ms. Flora said.