Search is on for new firm to lead Hazelwood Green
Owners of the former LTV Coke Works in Hazelwood once again are hunting for a company to spur development of the 178acre riverfront tract, one of the premier sites in the Pittsburgh region.
The ReMake Group, which has been overseeing the preparation and master planning of Hazelwood Green, as the site is called, will be gone at year’s end when its three-year contract expires.
In a statement Tuesday, the Almono partnership said it hopes to announce the firm taking over later this year as the focus shifts “principally to marketing, promotion and development.”
One company that could be considered for the role is U3 Advisors,
a consultant that works with universities, medical centers, nonprofits and civic stakeholders on development. It has been serving in an advisory capacity at Hazelwood Green.
“No decision has been made about the possibility of that role increasing,” said John Ellis, a spokesman for the Heinz Endowments, part of the Almono partnership. “They are in the mix.”
ReMake, led by Rebecca Flora, former executive director of the Green Building Alliance in Pittsburgh, ushered Hazelwood Green through a period during which the key infrastructure was put in place, including a main boulevard that winds through the sprawling site.
In August, construction started on a $5.7 million public plaza, which is to include lawns, rain gardens, trees and a water feature.
ReMake also was instrumental in crafting a preliminary land development and master plan for the site, engaging the community in that effort, and in advancing the Almono partnership’s vision to make the property a global model for sustainability.
Grant Oliphant, Heinz Endowments president, called Ms. Flora’s contributions “immense.”
“She has worked tirelessly and thoughtfully in bringing together the various constituents under circumstances that have been challenging and extremely complex,” he said. “We are especially grateful for the ways that she has most successfully engaged and collaborated with the Hazelwood community and the city.”
Ms. Flora said she is available to help with any transition as it moves forward.
“All of the pieces are in place to accept vertical development and building,” she said. “I think I’m qualified and would love to be involved in that stage. But the partners are envisioning a different management approach as it moves forward.”
ReMake and Ms. Flora took charge of the development in 2016 from the Regional Industrial Development Corp., which had been involved in talking to potential tenants and overseeing work at the site.
At the time, RIDC switched roles, becoming the developer of Mill 19, a 265,000-square-foot complex built from the bones of an old coke works structure.
The first building developed by RIDC as part of that complex now houses Carnegie Mellon University’s Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute and its Manufacturing Futures Initiative.
A second building, about 70,000 square feet in size, is under construction by RIDC. Autonomous vehicle startup Aptiv will be taking all of the space. A third building is in design.
Other than the Uber test track, the RIDC development has been the only one to take root at the site to date, although CMU has acquired options for 8.3 acres to eventually expand its presence.
Last fall, Ms. Flora issued a request for qualifications to build out another 27 acres in the project’s Mill District but so far nothing has come of that, at least not publicly.
Ms. Flora said Tuesday that she submitted a short list of developers interested in the site in February to Almono, which is made up of the Heinz Endowments, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Claude Worthington
Benedum Foundation.
“They were to take it from there,” she said.
In its statement, Almono said ReMake had helped move Hazelwood Green “from a brownfield to a site ready for commercial and mixed-use development.”
It stated that the preliminary development plan ReMake helped to craft “provides a core framework and criteria for vertical development at the site.”
In the planning, Almono has been pushing for the highest sustainability standards of any development in the Pittsburgh region — ones that have given some developers pause about investing in the site.
Ms. Flora said the accomplishment she is most proud of went beyond nuts and bolts and infrastructure.
“I think we created a really positive image for the site and a really positive relationship [with the community],” she said. “I think there’s a lot of positive energy around the site that didn’t exist three years ago.”
In the planning, Almono has been pushing for the highest sustainability standards of any development in the Pittsburgh region — ones that have given some developers pause about investing in the site.