Citizen’s School of Nursing to relocate to Pittsburgh Mills
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
One dark space in the struggling Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills is about to see the lights turn back on.
Allegheny Health Network’s Citizens School of Nursing will relocate from New Kensington to a space once occupied by ITT Technical Institute.
The nursing school will be open in time for the 2018-2019 academic year, AHN said in a statement, adding that the move positions the school for “growth during a critical time for nursing recruitment locally and nationally.”
The school will occupy 21,000 plus square feet at Pittsburgh Mills along Route 28 in Frazer.
Citizens School of Nursing is affiliated with AHN’s Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights. It recently graduated its 101st class.
The school offers a twoyear, hospital-based program that prepares students to take the national licensing exam for registered nurses, AHN said. An average of 150 to 175 students enroll each year, with about 60 to 80 graduating yearly. It employs 27 faculty and support staff, the hospital network said.
The space at the Pittsburgh Mills mall has been vacant since ITT Technical Institute shuttered its locations nationwide in 2016.
“The decision to relocate the Citizens School of Nursing was made after careful deliberation and based on the best interests of our students and faculty,” Bill Englert, AVH president and CEO said in a statement.
“We are happy to have secured a new location for the school in our community that we believe will provide the ideal academic setting for our nursing students. It also affords us the ability to expand and accommodate a growing number of students to meet the future health care needs of our community.”
AHN cited data from the American Nurses Association, which says an estimated 1 million new nurses will be needed by 2022.
“As a health care system, we recognize the need for highly skilled nurses and we work hard to recruit and retain qualified students to our nursing programs,” Mr. Englert said. “The Pittsburgh Mills location is highly visible and conveniently accessible to residents of the Alle-Kiski Valley, Pittsburgh, and the city’s northeast suburbs”
It’s not unusual for shopping centers to welcome new uses for vacant storefronts as brick-andmortar retailers — facing shifting consumer habits and competition from online shopping — shrink their store counts. In many malls, churches, community services and medical centers have moved into spaces once dominated by clothing stores and other mall staples.
Moving and storage company U-Haul bought a vacant Macy’s location at Beaver Valley Mall in Monaca in January. That mall also is home to the Beaver County Office on Aging, DCI Career Institute and a CareerLink location.
The Pittsburgh Mills itself hosts an office for the Alle Kiski Strong Chamber of Commerce, Legends of Pittsburgh Fitness and Performance Center, and Ovation School of Dance, in addition to familiar mall anchors like Dick’s Sporting Goods and J.C. Penney.
Earlier this month, the Mills was sold for $11.35 million to Mason Asset Management of Long Island, N.Y., an price tag worth almost twice the mall’s current assessed value of $6.48 million. The mall opened in 2005.
Citizen’s School of Nursing’s location will be equipped with modern wired classrooms, a library, and space that can be used for continuing medical education for hospital employees, AHN said.
Since 2004, the school has been housed in the former Citizens General Hospital in New Kensington along with other AHN clinical services, which will continue to be offered at the New Kensington Center.