The Pittsburgh Media Partnership Newsroom (PMPN) reports that, faced with nearly 50 empty storefronts Downtown, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) “is racing to fill dozens of these spaces before” April’s NFL Draft.
The media partnership, part of Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation, says the PDP has “revived a pop-up program in which businesses access retail space — pending an agreement from the property owner — for six to 12 months.”
As Cate Irvin, the PDP’s senior director of economic development, put it:
“This gives businesses a chance to test the waters and see if they want to commit to a longer-term lease. We’re looking specifically at kind of a retail classification, and within that is included, restaurant retail, traditional retail and services like salons,” Irvin said. “We do have a requirement now for our pop-ups that they all need to be up and running by April.”
Just in time for the NFL Draft and all those expected free national TV “impressions” that Draft backers so covet and tout.
But is this effort merely an exercise in “Potemkin Village-ing,” facades for a public relations moment in time? Not if the PDP can help it, it says.
Point Park’s PMPN reports that in an effort to keep these businesses Downtown after the NFL Draft, after all the cameras have left, is a rent-abatement program — half off the monthly rent (up to $2,000) – for the first year of the lease.
The PDP touts that eight new businesses opened through the program last year, part of a total of 19 new startups Downtown. It says the program has been so popular that it had to close applications until this year’s third quarter.
Irvin said the PDP hopes to fill 20 to 30 retail storefronts in time for the NFL Draft in late April. Other empty storefront windows will feature curated artistic windows to highlight emerging local artists, the PMPN report said.
And to further dispel the notion (that has been more of a reality than too many care to admit) of a downtrodden Downtown.
As long as it’s not general taxpayer dollars underwriting these rent deals, and only tax dollars raised by the extra levy attached to real estate taxes through the Downtown merchant-approved Business Improvement District (BID) tax, that’s fine.
As of early Monday morning, Cate Irvin had not responded to an email seeking a rundown of the program’s full funding sources.
We do look forward to hearing what the program’s latest one-year retention rate is. For that will help to reveal if the effort is merely that “Potemkin Village-ing” or sound public policy.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
