First tenant — Starbucks — should be open in multi-use building by spring
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
If all continues to go as planned, by the end of January The Deck at 1050 University Ave. will be enclosed — which is to say the retail and office space near Sheetz will have walls and a roof.
And by late spring, the building’s first tenant, Starbucks, should be open for business.
This is, of course, if Mother Nature continues to cooperate, said Louie Calabria, project manager at Hardy World, the Pittsburgh-based developer responsible for the two-story, nonresidential, mixed-use building. It will house retail on the ground floor and office space and/or retail up top.
“It’s winter, and we’re in the northeast,” he said. “So there could be crazy weather tomorrow. It could snow forever and we don’t do anything for three weeks.”
But as of now, he added, “things are going well.”
Recent moderate temperatures have meant crews have been able to install sidewalks and curbs around the building, which they are still doing.
Calabria said the building’s steel framework should be wrapped up by the first of the year and soon second-floor decking will be poured.
Starbucks is the only confirmed tenant, though, he added, there are leases out to others who have shown interest.
The coffee chain will be on the first floor space, near Moreland Street, with indoor and outdoor seating.
“It will probably seat eight to 10,” Calabria said of the patio attached to the storefront.
According to the Hardy World website, The Deck will be accessible by pedestrians on three sides and include 41 parking spaces split between the front and rear of the building, which will be two stories along its University Avenue frontage and one story along Chestnut Street. Calabria said there will be a pedestrian bridge connected to the upper lot, which “should be installed the second week of January.”
Matrik Bothers is the contractor for The Deck.
“They’ve done a good job keeping it on track,” Calabria said of the Finleyville, Pa.-based company.
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