After nearly two decades sitting on exclusive rights to develop the Lower Hill District site that once housed the Civic Arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins have lost their stake, drawing derision for taking so long to create so little.

A 2007 agreement with Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and Sports & Exhibition Authority gave Pittsburgh Arena Real Estate Development — the hockey team’s development arm — sole rights to develop the site.

But that deal expired at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, and the Penguins declined to exercise an option to pay for an extension, according to the URA.

Carol Hardeman, executive director of the Hill District Consensus Group, said Thursday she never felt the Penguins were the right developers for the Lower Hill.

“I don’t think their heart ever was in it in the first place,” Hardeman told TribLive. “We would’ve seen more progress by now.”

The Penguins made little headway on developing the nearly 29-acre site, as more than 21 acres of the property have yet to be developed.

R. Daniel Lavelle, the Hill District city councilman, said he shared the community’s frustrations about delays developing the site under the team.

“They’re really good at hockey,” Lavelle said of the Penguins, “not so good at development.”

With the Penguin’s lock lapsing, development rights have reverted to the pair of authorities that own the property, the URA said in a statement Thursday.

“I think the community should look at this as sort of a blessing in disguise,” Lavelle said.

In the 1950s, about 8,000 residents and over 400 businesses were displaced from the neighborhood to make way for construction of the Civic Arena and other developments. The Civic Arena was razed in 2012 after PPG Paints Arena was built nearby to replace it.

The Hill District community called for affordable housing, public art and new jobs as the property was redeveloped. Residents have voiced frustration that such developments have been long delayed, despite assurances from the Penguins that those benefits were coming.

During a URA board meeting last year, residents said they were growing impatient after years of waiting for investment in the neighborhood.

“You have taxpayers and residents here who are pleading with you over and over,” Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the Hill District Consensus Group, said at the time.

“We don’t want the empty promises we’ve gotten forever,” Renee Wilson, another Hill District resident, said at the same meeting.

The Penguins have made some progress.

A massive office tower on the corner of Washington Place and Bedford Avenue, which serves as FNB Corp.’s new headquarters, opened earlier this year.

Construction is underway on a Live Nation concert venue, to be called Citizens Live at The Wylie, which will seat about 4,000 people and is expected to host between 80 and 110 events each year. A $2 surcharge tacked onto the price of all tickets sold there will go toward revitalizing the Hill District.

Plans for the site also included a six-story, 910-space parking garage and a public safety center.

But Hardeman said the office tower and event space weren’t the community’s top priorities.

“None of this has ever been racial justice,” Hardeman said, explaining she felt there should’ve been more focus on starting with affordable housing, job opportunities for existing Hill District residents and community spaces.

“We’ve been shortchanged,” she said. “It’s been seven decades since the Lower Hill destruction — that’s an important factor. And now it’s been two decades with the Penguins. We still are not seeing any improvement.”

Hardeman hopes whatever comes next for the site prioritizes community input.

Supporting ‘rich corporations’

In a joint statement from the SEA and URA, the authorities thanked Pittsburgh Arena Real Estate Development for “its prior and ongoing investment and progress in the redevelopment of the Lower Hill, especially with the construction of the new music venue, Citizens Live at The Wylie, and the successful completion of the FNB Financial Center.”

But those successes were not in line with what people in the neighborhood sought, according to Carl Redwood, chairman of the Hill District Consensus Group’s board.

“The principal thing for many, many years that people wanted for the Lower Hill District is housing that’s affordable for average Black families, low-income families,” Redwood said.

Redwood envisions housing for low-income residents as a priority in any future development on the site.

He said he also wants to see support for Bethel AME Church, which was set to develop 1.5 acres of the property into housing.

Lavelle said the church’s agreement was with the Penguins real estate arm, so it lost its development rights when the Penguins did.

Redwood criticized city leaders for the lengthy delays in delivering on community priorities.

“Overall, it just highlights how the politicians and the authorities give extra support to very rich corporations and individuals, and they don’t give support to projects that are beneficial to the community,” Redwood said.

The Penguins in a statement said the organization will “continue to be a collaborative partner in advancing future development” after their agreement for development rights expired.

“The Penguins remain committed to the vision for inclusive development in the Lower Hill and are proud of the meaningful progress achieved in recent years with community leaders despite challenging economic circumstances,” the statement said.

The Penguins declined to make anyone available for an interview.

Gainey, O’Connor, Moreno weigh in

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Lavelle in a joint statement said they were disappointed by the lack of development progress, but they assured the community the site remains a priority for the city.

“While this transition marks a significant change of course of the site’s redevelopment, it also represents an enormous opportunity to move beyond the barriers that have hindered truly equitable progress,” the statement said.

Moving forward, they said, officials must “commit to redevelopment that not only honors Pittsburgh’s African American cultural legacy, but actively repairs the historic harm done to the Black community” and protects against gentrification.

“Real justice demands much more in the years to come, but we remain hopeful that we are starting down a path today that honors what the Hill District community has been fighting for over the past 70 years,” according to Gainey and Lavelle.

Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, the Democratic mayoral candidate, said he wants to see progress in developing the area.

“That’s a site we all know has to move forward,” O’Connor said. “It creates economic development. It creates opportunities for the Hill District and connections to Downtown. It’s a very important site.”

Tony Moreno, the Republican nominee for Pittsburgh mayor, said Hill District residents should take the reins on what happens there next.

“I want to see the community come together with our government standing next to them and find out exactly what they need to grow,” Moreno said. “I think they’ve told us enough times they want housing that they can afford to live in. They need business opportunity.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, chairman of the SEA board, said Thursday what happens next remains unclear.

“What’s our future strategy or plan? What that’ll be, I don’t know at this point, honestly,” he said.

Fontana said he imagines the two authorities will meet with Hill District residents, as well as city and county officials, to begin hammering out a plan to develop the property.

“There’s been promises made to that neighborhood there over the years,” he said, citing affordable housing as an example of something that was pledged but has not yet been delivered. “Those promises need to be exercised.”

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