Planners see potential in a revamped Mellon Square

Could Mellon Square become the next Market Square?

While its no European-style piazza, some believe the area around the newly restored park could be primed to become one of Downtowns next hot spots for restaurants and retail.

I see it becoming the next great Downtown destination, said Herky Pollock, executive vice president of the CBRE real estate firm.

Only a few years ago, the Smithfield Street corridor between Fifth and Liberty avenues that includes Mellon Square appeared to be ready for last rites.

The Saks Fifth Avenue department store had closed, the Henry W. Oliver building next door was 70 percent vacant, and the former Lord & Taylor department store and the James H. Reed office building were empty.

Today its a different story.

The upper floors of the Oliver building are being converted into an Embassy Suites hotel. Lord & Taylor is now a PNC Bank call center with about 700 employees, and the James Reed building is being turned into an upscale 249-room Hotel Monaco. Saks is being redeveloped for retail and parking, and the upper half of the former Alcoa building is becoming apartments.

Add to it the rehabbed square and Mayor Bill Pedutos interest in making Smithfield a grand boulevard of Pittsburgh filled with small shops and boutiques, and its easy to see why some think better days are ahead for the corridor.

If you fast-forward 18 months to two years from now, the whole Mellon Square corridor will be unrecognizable given all of the redevelopment going on, in and around the square, Mr. Pollock predicted.

David Glickman, director of retail services for the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank real estate firm, believes Market Square, with its piazza and teeming restaurant scene, is unique in Downtown, but he sees the potential for Smithfield to generate as much, if not more, retail.

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Planners see potential in a revamped Mellon Square