{"id":217473,"date":"2026-06-12T14:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217473\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:38:15","slug":"ura-to-hire-design-firm-to-study-mellon-square-retail-along-smithfield-street-corridor-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217473\/","title":{"rendered":"URA to hire design firm to study Mellon Square retail along Smithfield Street corridor \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh is ready to move forward on an expressed priority of Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor and hire a design firm to study the potential for a restaurant and retail in the long-empty storefronts below Mellon Square along Smithfield Street downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">According to agenda materials for the authority\u2019s upcoming meeting, the URA will vote to enter in an agreement with Strip District-based Indovina Associates Architects LLC, a firm active with various residential projects around town, to \u201creimagine the function of the retail spaces along Smithfield Street below Mellon Square Park and adjacent to the Mellon Square Garage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The URA is choosing Indovina after issuing a Request for Proposals that generated 19 responses to draw in tenants and establish a business strategy for space that hasn\u2019t been occupied with retailers in years and became a location amid the pandemic for homeless encampments and has since been boarded up and covered with murals, some established for the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/2026\/06\/10\/downtown-smithfield-street-mellon-square.html?ana=wpxi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/2026\/06\/10\/downtown-smithfield-street-mellon-square.html?ana=wpxi\">Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times. <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh is ready to move forward on an expressed priority of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95057,73,75,74,17065,2731,56243],"class_list":["post-217473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-mellon-square","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-smithfield-street","tag-strip-district","tag-ura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}