A leader of the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority acknowledged Thursday that the agency had not adequately balanced community wishes with economic realities in selecting finalists to revive the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum in Homewood.
Last week, the URA scrapped all of the proposals it had advanced to the final round of its year-long search for a buyer of the community landmark, a sprawling property that has stood vacant for years. The URA plans to relaunch the process, but on Thursday URA board chair Kyle Chintalapalli offered no estimate for how long it will take.
One of the canceled projects would have restored a roller rink the Coliseum once housed, while another would have turned the facility into an advanced manufacturing shop. The skating rink had been popular with residents who attended public meetings and completed surveys that the URA ran over the past year. But the mayor’s office indicated last week that the idea was not financially viable.
The URA didn’t weigh in publicly until Chintalapalli addressed the matter Thursday. “We want the community to win,” he said at the URA’s monthly board meeting. “[But] part of ensuring [that] community benefits ... that are promised in a proposal become a reality for Homewood residents includes our responsibility to evaluate a proposal’s financial feasibility.”
Chintalapalli, also the chief economic development officer for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, said the URA had determined that its process for choosing a buyer had been “an insufficient vehicle for developing a proposal that would ensure the Coliseum sustainability and longevity.”
URA staff will need to “regroup” before restarting their search, he said. “No one's looking to take more time than is needed. But we do need to obviously take the time to be thoughtful on this.”
The Coliseum consists of two similarly-sized parcels, and the URA has owned one of them since 2018. The agency first solicited bids to redevelop the property in July 2021.
Rico Rucker, who owns a commercial cleaning service, proposed the roller rink, along with a bowling alley and arcade games. But his plan did not identify investors who were to fund roughly one-third of the $6 to $8 million project.
Conturo Prototyping, which is based just outside of Homewood, wanted to move its CNC machine shop to the Coliseum. The company makes precision parts for robotics, medical devices, autonomous vehicles, power generation, and other uses.
It’s on course to double its 30-person staff in the next few years, according to founder and president John Conturo. In his proposal for the Coliseum, he set aside space for a free vocational school and neighborhood businesses.
At Thursday’s meeting, Conturo told URA board members that he’ll likely have to move his company outside city boundaries now that the agency has dropped his idea. He has previously said there are no suitable sites in the city.
“All that I ask is that everyone here clearly understands the implications of this decision,” he said at the meeting. “This decision implies that Pittsburgh no longer values our business nor our workforce.”
He and Rucker had met privately Wednesday to discuss how they could combine their plans to satisfy the URA’s criteria. But Conturo said they could not reach a workable agreement.
Rucker did not return a phone call or text message Thursday, but at the URA meeting, he asked board members whether the agency could expedite its timeline in the event he and Conturo were to collaborate.
In response, Chintalapalli reiterated that the URA would not commit to a timetable.
