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EastShore, PA - Advisory Services Panel
July 20, 2022
The EastShore communities consist of the boroughs of Braddock, North Braddock, Rankin, and Swissvale. These boroughs are four of the many communities in the Monongahela (“Mon”) Valley, seven miles upriver from downtown Pittsburgh. Historically, each of the boroughs was heavily involved in the production of steel and, as the fortunes of the steelmaking industry waned, the economic vitality of these communities has suffered.
The Enterprise Zone Corporation of Braddock (EZCB), representing all four boroughs, invited the ULI to conduct an Advisory Services panel to address a variety of questions focused on economic development, land use, and organizational structure.
Photo By ULI
The panel was chaired by Alan Razak, Principal, AR Spruce LLC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were joined by panelists Dan Anderton, Senior Associate, Community Design & Planning, Dewberry, Hampton, Virginia, Lucia E. Garsys, Senior Adviser for Community Partnerships, Hillsborough County Government, Tampa, Florida, Kim Morque, Principal and President, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, Norwalk, Connecticut, Douette Pryce, Principal, Pryce Resources LLC, Sewalls Point, Florida
Date: June 6-9, 2022
Location: East Shore, PA
Sponsor: The Enterprise Zone Corporation of Braddock (EZCB)
Panel Chair: Alan Razak, Principal, AR Spruce LLC
The ULI panel recommends that the EastShore communities collaborate to implement the following recommendations:
- Recognize the potential draw of the riverfront by creating a Riverway District that allows vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians to enjoy and experience the Monongahela River.
- Understand the land economics that face the future EastShore and create a land use and organizational model that plays to the social strengths and the markets of the communities and the broader Pittsburgh area.
- Create a Production District that caters not only to the existing need for light industrial uses, but also to the prototype and small manufacturing that is currently being incubated and innovated in the university and innovation areas of the city of Pittsburgh.
- Conduct a parcel-specific inventory of property to determine where revival of housing can be accomplished in clusters and groups to maximize efficiency.
- Create an organization that is the successor to EZCB that can act as a consolidated EastShore economic development entity.
- Staff this organization with the critical positions to focus on bringing the new economy to the production district, creating the housing revival areas, and creating the riverway district. Ensure that coordination with the county is focused on these goals.
- Fund this organization with philanthropic funds initially and eventually from the multitude of local, state, and federal and philanthropic dollars that use the vision of the revived EastShore as the goal.
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