URA awards $850,000 in new grants

A commercial kitchen project in Homewood designed to help small foodbased entrepreneurs is getting a boost thanks to a new pilot program formed to make it easier to fund neighborhood projects.

The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority announced the first $850,000 in grants under the Neighborhood Initiatives Fund program Tuesday. The 18 grants awarded will impact 30 city neighborhoods, according to the URA.

One of the beneficiaries is a commercial kitchen being built by the Bible Center Church in Homewood. The $100,000 URA grant will allow the church and its community and economic development division known as the Oasis Project to complete the kitchen and have it open in May.

“It has taken us over the top, which is a beautiful thing,” said Cynthia Wallace, Oasis Project executive director. “Not only for our church but the community, this is huge.”

The church has been raising money for the project for the past five years. Ms. Wallace said the commercial kitchen will provide an opportunity for food-based businesses operating out of homes to get to the next level.

“If they don’t have a commercial kitchen to operate in, they can’t take their business to scale,” she said.

The 3,200-square-foot commercial kitchen and training space is being built inside the lower level of a former Rite Aid at 717 N. Homewood Ave. It is part of the church’s Oasis

Project, which includes a business academy designed to help African American, female and other minority entrepreneurs and a cafe that provides jobs and job training.

Bible Center Church was one of three groups to receive $100,000 grants, the highest awarded. The others were the Northside Partnership Project for a McNaugher School heating upgrade and the Hazelwood Initiative to improve a gravel lot at Second Avenue and Tecumseh Street.

Sonya Tilghman, Hazelwood Initiative executive director, said the goal is to transform the lot into “something useful and inviting to the neighborhood.”

She noted that the lot sits at a strategic junction in the neighborhood near the Carnegie Library and the Hazelwood Green redevelopment. It also is next to a building owned by the Hazelwood Initiative that includes three businesses. Improvements could include signage for the businesses.

“It’s a busy corner. It’s right at the library. It’s potentially one of the key corners in the neighborhood because of the access below the tracks and to Hazelwood Green,” she said.

The NIF program awards two levels of grants — under $20,000 with no matching fund requirements and $20,000 to $100,000 with matches required from nonURA and non-city sources.

Nonprofits and community-based organizations are eligible for funds for a variety of projects, including vacant property reclamation and stewardship, historic preservation and brownfield development.

Other grant recipients are:

• Pittsburgh Musical Theater, $94,360, Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s historic building;

• Brookline Together, $19,995, Brookline community apiary and garden infrastructure;

• Bloomfield Development Corporation, $20,000, Bloomfield streetscape improvements;

• Grow Pittsburgh, $18,000, East Commons Community Garden at Allegheny Commons Park;

• The Union Project, $78,000, Union Project front plaza and stairs;

• Manchester Citizens Corporation, $50,000, Juniata Street Green Project;

• ACH Clear Pathways, $80,000, ACH Clear Pathways Arts Center;

• Western Pennsylvania Conservancy; $15,694; Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Community Gardens update;

• Northside Leadership Conference, $5,000, We Like Bikes! Bicycle rack expansion;

• Mount Washington Community Development Corp., $20,000, Wyoming/Virginia/ Southern Intersection Redevelopment Planning Project;

• Elizabeth Seton Center, Inc., $83,333, Elizabeth Seton Center roof replacement;

• Project Love Coalition, $15,800, Agri-Green Space and Learning Garden;

• Point Breeze North Development Corp., $20,000, Westinghouse Park planning;

• Landforce, $19,818, South Side Park Accessible Trail Loop;

• Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, $10,000, Rosedale/Hill Neighborhood Gateway Improvements.