Jeannette officials aim to stop trespassers at crumbling former brewery

Notices discouraging anyone from entering the former Fort Pitt Brewery property in West Jeannette were put up last week after city officials received reports of trespassing, according to code enforcement officer Bill Whetzel.

He said the city was notified that adults and children were inside the abandoned property and that someone was collecting scrap metal.

The signs labeling the crumbling, red-brick complex a dangerous structure and a stop work order were safety measures, Whetzel said.

“Hopefully, it’ll deter people from going in there,” he said.

The remains of the former Fort Pitt Brewery, nestled in a residential neighborhood between Penn Avenue and Clay Avenue Extension, have progressively worsened over the past several years. City and county officials are aware of the problem but lack funding to do anything about it. It would cost at least $1 million to tear down the buildings and prepare the property for redevelopment.

Fort Pitt Brewing operated there until 1955. The property has changed hands a few times in the decades since, at one point housing Papercraft Corp.’s gift wrap manufacturing operations. It was sold at a sheriff’s sale in 2001 and, a year later, purchased by Frank Trigona’s Rufus Corp.

Trigona died in 2015, and the executor — who also has since died — said at the time that the businessman’s estate didn’t have any way to pay delinquent taxes, which date to 2005 and total more than $330,000 on the brewery property alone.

Its size makes it difficult to secure, and city officials don’t have anyone to hold accountable for issues there.

Openings to the inside show fallen bricks, spray paint and old tires. A large section of a rear wall has collapsed, and parts of several roofs are missing, including on one building that is separated from homes only by an alley.

A suspicious fire in July 2017 caused further damage. Then, part of a single-story building the size of a football field went up in flames, resulting in a partial collapse and water main break that flooded several homes.

The property is working its way through the judicial sale system. City leaders have said it is being considered for inclusion in a tax incentive program.