Developer proposes Strip District apartments, grocery store on site of departing produce wholesaler

A proposed development in Pittsburgh’s Strip District follows a familiar pattern of replacing the neighborhood’s legacy industry, wholesale produce, with modern apartments and shops.

New York City-based Midwood Investment and Development wants to take one of the Strip District’s last produce warehouses, tear it down and turn it into a complex with 464 market-rate housing units and a grocery store.

Pittsburgh’s Indovina Associates Architects, representing Midwood, gave a half-hour presentation on the proposal Tuesday to the city’s Planning Commission. No votes on the project were taken.

The J-shaped warehouse at the corner of 21st and Railroad streets has been home to Consumer Fresh Produce since 1997. The company itself dates back to 1952, around when the Strip District’s bustling produce industry was at its height.

Now, Consumer Fresh Produce is moving to Lawrenceville, leaving its longtime home ripe for redevelopment as the Strip District enters the late stages of its mixed-use transformation.

“Essentially, this site is a blank slate,” Ryan Indovina, a principal architect at Indovina Associates Architects, told planning commissioners Tuesday.

Consumer Fresh Produce leadership did not immediately respond to requests for comment on their relocation plans.

Once the company moves, Sunfresh Food Service on 23rd Street will be the last produce wholesaler standing in the Strip District.

The neighborhood has swelled to 3,200 residents from about 700 in the last decade, according to a report from community group Strip District Neighbors. It has also seen substantial commercial growth, with the redeveloped produce terminal between 16th and 21st streets as the crown jewel.

In a sign of the times, Midwood’s site lies between Helm on the Allegheny and Edge 1909, two modern apartment complexes that share many amenities and stylistic choices with the yet-to-be-named project.

On the other side of Railroad Street, farther from the river, developer McCaffery Interests has proposed yet another residential development.

After the presentation, Planning Commissioner Phillip Wu said Midwood’s proposal “blends well with the existing architecture in the area.”

The developer’s vision calls for two buildings: a narrow, eight-story tower mostly filled with housing and a parking garage, and a wider, six-story structure with a grocery store, housing and parking.

Of the 464 housing units, 23 would be town homes. The parking garages would have 344 total spots.

Together, the proposed complex spans 370,000 square feet.

Indovina’s blueprints include a public path between the buildings to give access to an existing trail along the riverfront. A courtyard within the development would also be open to the public, but only during daytime.

The plans also call for a pool and sidewalks along length of the site.

Midwood did not immediately return questions about which grocery store may move in and the fate of an adjacent marina.

The developer or its representatives are expected to be back in front of the planning commission at its Nov. 19 meeting.