Demolition of former New Kensington Kmart to clear way for development

Several new buildings are expected to be built at the site of the former Kmart on Tarentum Bridge Road in New Kensington, a representative of the property manager said.

Sam Rossi, a portfolio manager for Madison Acquisitions, said he was not yet at liberty to identify the retail tenants, of which he said there would be two or three.

Once the site is clear, he said, construction would begin soon.

While not visible from the street, demolition of the former Kmart got underway this week. An excavator was within the walls, tearing apart the structure from the area of the garden shop toward the main part of the store.

While within Riverview Plaza, the building that had housed Kmart, owned by 100 Riverview LP, is a separate property from the rest of the strip.

The store closed in January 2019, just shy of its 55th anniversary. The New Kensington store was the 54th in the Kmart chain when it opened with much fanfare on Feb. 27, 1964.

Its 50th anniversary was celebrated in 2014.

The closing became public in 2018, following Sears Holdings filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In addition to the New Kensington location, stores in Pleasant Hills and Shaler were among 188 unprofitable stores that were shuttered.

That had left a Big Kmart in Allegheny Township as the only one left in the Alle-Kiski Valley. That store, in the Hyde Park Shopping Center, closed in 2019. The last two Kmarts in Pennsylvania, in Lancaster and Luzerne counties, closed earlier this year.

Rossi could not say how long the demolition in New Kensington will take.

He said tearing down the building, rather than trying to repair or update it, helps facilitate the property’s redevelopment.

“In some cases, it just becomes a matter of economics,” he said. “The mechanical infrastructure is always a major issue with any constructive reuse of the facility.”

The store’s signature red “K” remained on the building after the store closed. Rossi said there are no plans to preserve the sign, which he said likely will come down with the structure.