Condemned Rivertowne Tavern slated for demolition

The Rivertowne Pub & Grille building along Route 30 in North Huntingdon is going to be demolished next year, six years after its owner filed for bankruptcy and closed the tavern and more than three years after the township condemned the building as unsafe and uninhabitable.

North Huntingdon has advertised for bids to be opened Jan. 8 to demolish the building in the western end of the township, after a contractor removes 100 square feet of asbestos-laden floor tile. The contractor also must grade the building’s footprint so as to not leave any shear walls after the demolition.

The township voted in August to proceed with the demolition of the structure that has been rotting. Township officials have called it an eyesore along the western gateway to the municipality.

In order to get to the point where North Huntingdon could raze the building, the township underwent a lengthy court battle to enforce its October 2021 condemnation order. Prasad Margabandhu, who purchased the building through his business, Shivs Real Estate LLC of Mt. Lebanon, had argued the building was structurally sound and needed only cosmetic improvements and cleaning of the property around the structure.

Shivs Real Estate appealed the township’s decision to Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas and then to Commonwealth Court, which ruled this summer in the township’s favor. In the midst of the court battle, Margabandhu sold the 2.9-acre property to a sister company he owned.

The building closed in 2018 after Rivertowne Brewery filed for bankruptcy in May of that year. Rivertowne’s bankruptcy also resulted in the closing of its tavern on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, one in Verona, a pourhouse in Monroeville and its brewery in Murrysville.

The North Huntingdon site did not attract bidders when it was placed for auction in October 2018. Rivertowne Brewery owner Christian Fyke and business partner Joseph Boros of Monroeville purchased the property for $520,000 in 2011. Fyke sold his 50% interest in the building for $7,500 to Shivs Real Estate in January 2019. That left Boros to share the remaining 50% interest in the property.

As for Margabandhu, he was sentenced this month to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud and mail fraud in September in federal court in Pittsburgh. He also was ordered to pay $141,000 in restitution and another $100,000 in fines.

Federal investigators accused Margabandhu, 48, of conspiring with someone else to burn down a property at 1925 E. Carson St. in June 2022.

The judge ordered him to begin his sentence Jan. 8, the same time township officials are to open bids on the demolition of his property.