One of the largest underdeveloped parcels of land in Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs has caught the eye of retail giant Amazon for the purposes of a high-tech distribution facility, though the future of that project is uncertain, according to Churchill and Allegheny County officials.

A recent change to zoning of the site prohibits a warehouse or distribution center. On top of that, borough officials aren’t sure the community would welcome the business.

The 133-acre parcel known as Churchill Crossing, formerly the George Westinghouse Research Park, is located in Churchill Borough. It has been on the radar for many major development projects, including other Amazon projects, since Westinghouse sold the bulk of its property in 2012. The property, owned by Churchill Crossing LP of which Nicole DeLuca, Chuck DiLoreto and Adam Hansen are principals, has garnered interest from Texas-based Hillwood Group, a Ross Perot Jr. company. Hillwood is also responsible for acquiring in summer 2019 the Amazon fulfillment center site in Findlay that is under construction.

The facility Amazon has in mind at Churchill Crossing would bring high-tech robotics and development positions, as well as management, warehouse and logistics jobs, according to Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

“When you think about some of the places in the eastern suburbs or the Woodland Hills footprint, we’d love to see more jobs there: more growth, more tax base to help fund education, help fund some of the needs of some of the municipalities in the community,” said Fitzgerald.

The type of facility described by Fitzgerald fits Amazon’s definition of a “sortable” building, which can employ more than 1,500 full-time associates, per a public Amazon document on its buildings.

Taxes from such a development would include $600,000 to $660,000 per year in property taxes to Churchill and $2.3 million to $2.5 million in school taxes to the Woodland Hills School District, said Lowell Mate, a member of Churchill’s Planning Commission.

The most immediate challenge to a possible Amazon distribution facility in Churchill is zoning.

After a motion to advertise on June 3 and a public hearing held Aug. 5, council passed an ordinance 6-1 changing the zoning of the Churchill Crossing site. The change specifically prevented the use of that land for a “warehouse/distribution center,” and, therefore, created a challenge to the proposed Amazon distribution center.

Diane Law, Churchill council vice president and member of the Planning Committee, said Churchill Crossing LP alerted council of a potential buyer. She said council was not aware specifically of Hillwood, or the Amazon connection, until July 2019.

“We didn’t hear anything from (Hillwood) at all before this process was set in motion,” said Law. “So, it may appear to people that that action was taken in response to our first meeting with Hillwood. In fact, that process was in movement before Hillwood ever asked to speak to us.”

Hillwood and Churchill Crossing LP have declined comment, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

Others find the sequence of events too coincidental.

“You would have to be naive to think that there was incredible coincidence, that what they want to do is prevent a distribution center and warehouse, and, by sheer coincidence, Hillwood has now entered the picture, and that’s exactly what they want to do with it,” said Mate. “I just don’t think anyone can believe that for a second.”

According to a few Churchill council leaders, the rezoning has been a long time coming.

“The borough is in the middle of our own process that has been going on for a year-and-a-half or so, and a rezoning process, just looking at everything in our borough,” said Jay Dworin, Churchill’s council president.

“We had been advised by our legal counsel for awhile that we needed to take a look at our entire ordinance zoning system,” said Law. “A few years ago, we took some action to redefine what were allowable uses. So this was a continuation of that process.”

While the rezoning does allow for warehouse or distribution centers in other parts of the borough, the bulk of that land is currently Bullock Pens Park, which is borough-owned land.

“There haven’t been applications put in, no zoning request has gone in,” said Dworin. “There’s nothing from anyone that requires current action from the borough.”

Churchill Mayor Paul Gamrat sees other potential challenges to such a development.

“Churchill is a residential community: We have one business, which is a gas station,” he said. “People like it for that reason. I’m not sure residents would be willing to have trucks running up and down the roads 24/7.”

According to Law and Jeff Bucher, project development engineer and roundabout coordinator for PennDOT, no official traffic study has been performed relative to this development proposal.

Law said that market interest in Churchill Crossing has been low because potential buyers are reluctant to solicit public opinion for the use of the space. At present, it houses only a sound stage for film productions.

“Along the way, we’ve had numerous conversations with them about what we would, at least initially, be supportive of and what we would not be supportive of,” said Law. “That situation needed a more formal process of getting information from our citizens about what they needed to see.”

Churchill Borough has contracted with a planning consultant, Pashek+MTR, to obtain the opinions of both Churchill citizens and targeted professionals.

Pashek+MTR has been hired by Churchill “to lead a community visioning and planning process” for the former Westinghouse research campus in the borough, according to a document given to the Tribune-Review.

“Our task is to learn: What to citizens want to see happen in this part of their community?” the document states.

The document invites recipients to participate in a panel on “Market Trends and Conditions,” taking place on the evenings of April 29, May 6 or May 13 at the Churchill Borough building. There will be a total of six workshops on those dates, beginning at 5:30 p.m. or 7:15 p.m. Each workshop is scheduled to last about 90 minutes.

The document states, “As a panelist, you will be a crucial part of this effort to explain market trends and conditions regarding redevelopment of the long-dormant, 133-acre site. The long-term hope is redevelopment that reflects market potential and will propel economic transformation in eastern Allegheny County.”

“The borough will use community input to inform revisions to ordinances applying to this zoning district (commercial.)”

Churchill Crossing LP was not mentioned in the document.

“We are engaged in a contract with a planning consultant, and we’re going to be going through a series of actions that will elicit that information from our citizens,” said Law. “So every single one of our citizens in Churchill will be given the opportunity to weigh in on these questions.”

In addition to redevelopment efforts, the former Westinghouse site made news in 2017 after its former owners, Vikas and Ramesh Jain, were penalized $1.47 million by the Allegheny Health Department for the unpermitted removal and disposal of asbestos in buildings numbered 401 and 501 at the site, acts for which they were charged federally in September 2019.

After the Health Department citation was issued to the Jains, they hired NAI Pittsburgh as project managers for the proper removal and cleanup of asbestos for the buildings in question. Per Chuck DiLoreto, principal in both NAI Pittsburgh and Churchill Crossing LP, the asbestos clean-up project involved four or five companies.

“The county inspected the building [501] floor-by-floor and, at the end, cleared it and signed off on it,” he said. “401 will be started in the next 60 days.”

State Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, had previously worked to secure $2.5 million in state grants through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Project and an additional $1 million through the Multimodal Transportation Fund for the redevelopment of the former Westinghouse site while under the Jains’ ownership.

According to Costa, the funds were never distributed but are still available to a qualifying commercial development in Churchill Borough, whether at the former Westinghouse site or elsewhere in the borough. An Amazon distribution center would seemingly qualify for those funds.

“I believe it would because it’s commercial and also because, typically, these [funds] are for infrastructure improvement, in most instances,” said Costa. “It very likely would be.”

While the future of the Churchill Crossing property is uncertain, the potential benefits of a high-tech Amazon distribution center in Churchill Borough are clear to some.

“This is a really important project for an area of the county that hasn’t had a lot of development in recent years, including this many jobs, improving the tax base, giving opportunities for our young people out of the Woodland Hills school district and seeing the increased property tax revenue for the folks in that school district is something that would be really important,” Fitzgerald said. “So, we’re going to work with the community to really come up with something that makes sense for the eastern suburb region.”

This would be the fourth Amazon site in the Pittsburgh area, including a sortation center in Aleppo, a tech hub in the South Side and the fulfillment center under construction in Findlay.

Diane Yankes was the only member of Churchill council to vote against the zoning change made Aug 5. She could not be reached for comment.

Abby Mackey is a freelance writer. You can contact Abby at abbyrose.mackey@gmail.com or via Twitter @AnthroAbbyRN.

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