SPRUCING IT UP With a grocery store plan fading, the vision changes for PPG Place’s Wintergarden space

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As plans for a grocery seem to have faded, the owner of PPG Place Downtown is focusing its attention on upgrades to the Wintergarden space within the massive sixbuilding complex.

Highwoods Properties is revamping the 13,000-square-foot Wintergarden, home to gingerbread house displays during the holiday season, to accommodate weddings, corporate events, and other gatherings.

Andy Wisniewski, vice president for Highwoods in Pittsburgh, said the company and partner Bottleneck Management are spending more than $3 million to add air conditioning, restrooms, and full-service bars to the Wintergarden, which fronts Stanwix Street and Third Avenue.

Bottleneck is the owner of the City Works restaurant in 2 PPG.

Highwoods is hoping to complete the improvements next spring. The goal is to make the space “one of the top banquet facilities in the region,” Mr. Wisniewski said.

Wintergarden hosts some banquets and weddings now, but the space is not ideal for those kinds of activities, Mr. Wisniewski said. Once the upgrades have been made, “we’ll pick up all kinds of events,” he predicted.

The space will remain available to the public Monday through Friday during the day. Wintergarden also will once again host the “Spirits of Giving From Around the World” exhibit over the holidays that features life-size Santas along with the gingerbread house display.

Highwoods is looking to continue such events in Wintergarden or to find space for them elsewhere, Mr. Wisniewski said.

Bottleneck also will operate a coffee shop in Wintergarden.

At 2 PPG, Raleigh, N.C.-based Highwoods has been pursuing a large-scale grocery to fill the former food court space below street level for nearly six years.

In a 2018 request for a $3 million state redevelopment assistance capital grant for the project, its plan called for 24,000 square feet devoted to deli foods, take-out foods and