Newspaper building gets new life as Tube City
City hosts grand opening of center
The former home of the McKeesport Daily News has a new life and a new mission.
A collection of local, county and state officials on Monday celebrated the grand opening of the new Tube City Center for Business and Innovation.
The center occupies the former McKeesport Daily News building, which has been sitting vacant since the newspaper closed in December 2015.
The Tube City Center, whose name reflects the city’s industrial history of producing steel tubes and hoses, will now house Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation, Tube City Community
Media, local newspaper the Mon Valley Independent, as well as a regional office of the Allegheny County district attorney, and Flashover Fire Apparatus and Equipment Co.
“We knew someday, we’d be able to do this,” McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said at the grand opening festivities.
Mr. Cherepko added the opening of the new Tube City Center, as well as other development, is a good thing for the entire area.
“There’s a lot of potential in this area,” Mr. Cherepko said.
State Sen. James Brewster, D-McKeesport, who helped secure funding for building renovations, said he had been working with Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. on getting services to the Mon Valley for “probably a dozen years.”
Mr. Brewster also was pleased to see that the center will be home to a newspaper serving the Mon Valley.
In 2017, the city of McKeesport purchased the building for $1 from former owner Trib Total Media. Mr. Cherepko praised Trib Total Media and its president and CEO Jennifer Bertetto, for making the building available for redevelopment.
Ms. Bertetto said it was a “tough day” when Trib Total Media closed the doors to the McKeesport Daily News, but added donating the building to the city for $1 was something its late publisher, Richard Mellon Scaife, would have wanted.
“We felt it was crucial to bring the newspaper back,” said Nazareth Victoria II, who is one of three independent directors of the Mon Valley Independent,
along with Joseph A. Dalfonzo and Emil “Moe” Galis.
“Starting tomorrow we will have a presence in McKeesport fulltime,” Mr. Victoria said.
The building also will be home to Tube City Community Media’s office and its internet radio station, WMCK-FM.
“This is very humbling to me,” said Jason Togyer, who serves as executive director of Tube City Community Media, a nonprofit corporation, and sits on its board of directors.
Mr. Togyer said he started Tube City Community Media in 1996 “as a hobby.”
“We’ve been steadily growing since 2015 and the space in the Tube City Center will offer us the additional room we need to better collaborate with the community,” Mr. Togyer said.
Those studying to be journalists also will have a place in the Tube City Center.
“When the Daily News closed its doors, it really felt like a big blow to the community,” said Andrew Conte, director of Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation, which will take up part of the second floor.
“We want to help the people of McKeesport to tell their story,” Mr. Conte said.
He also looks forward to collaborating with the Mon Valley Independent and Tube City Community Media in the future.
As for the District Attorney’s Mon Valley Support Center, Mr. Zappala said it will serve 31 communities and be a regional intelligence hub allowing police departments to share information in an efficient and accessible manner.
The center also will be used to coordinate training among area police departments.
Also on hand for the ribbon cutting were state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, state Rep. Austin Davis, DMcKeesport, state Secretary of Community and Economic Development Dennis Davin, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and Gisele Fetterman, wife of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
Mr. Cherepko pointed out that there is still plenty of room in the building for future tenants and for anyone interested to reach out to his office.
“We felt it was crucial to bring the newspaper back.” Nazareth Victoria II, independent director, Mon Valley Independent