Prepping for a ‘Promenade’

Another project will be landing at Meadows Landing. But the estimated arrival time is unknown.
The Promenade at Meadows Landing, a multi-tenant building with an accent on retail, is planned for the rising mixed-use development along Route 19 in South Strabane Township. It’s on a hill above Racetrack Road.
David Glickman, leasing agent for Promenade, said it will be built on 3.5 acres fronting Route 19 at the north end of the property. Plans are for an L-shaped structure that, as viewed from Washington Road, will be to the right of the entrance, Helen Drive, and in front of the existing Washington Area Federal Credit Union.
Promenade “will probably be mostly retail,” said Glickman, a director at the Pittsburgh real estate firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Martin J. Perry, also of Newmark Grubb, is managing director of this project.
Construction, however, will not begin “till we get a few key tenants,” Glickman said. He could not provide an approximate start date, saying, “we’re preleasing right now, in discussions with (potential) tenants. Just discussions.”
No one has signed on yet.
Glickman is an active commercial real estate agent throughout Western Pennsylvania, but this is his first endeavor at Meadows Landing, a 204-acre complex that has been years in the making.
Mt. Lebanon attorneys Hal Kestler and Gerard Cipriani purchased the hillside property from Reservation Development Corp. in 2006, then formed a partnership, Meadows Landing Associates, and started formulating plans for the site.
“We had a bunch of (tenants) lined up for the fall of 2008, when the economy went bad. We had to weather that storm,” Kestler said in September 2013, five years after the storm commenced. This was at the groundbreaking for Washington Health System’s new Outpatient Center, a $14 million, 50,000-square-foot facility that would open 13 months later.
The center is one of three businesses operating at Meadows Landing. The credit union also launched there in the fall of 2014, and the Speedway convenience store/gasoline station opened in mid-February this year.
Growth there has been impressive, but it is not unprecedented in the immediate area. A mile down the hill, Park Place at the Meadow Lands has been going full bore. It is a mixed-use development as well, featuring a convenience store, investment firm, gas pumps, restaurants, ice cream, yogurt and more.
Tons of earth are being moved for Phase II of the 44-acre project, which will feature a 206-unit apartment complex and small retail. The entrance to Park Place is at the intersection of Washington and Racetrack roads.
David Biafora of Morgantown, W.Va.-based Metro Property Management is developing the property, virtually all of which is in North Strabane Township, with a sliver in South Strabane.
A third major project is going up about a half-mile west of there: Street at the Meadows. Horizon Properties is developing an apartment/restaurant/retail complex near the Meadows Racetrack & Casino, also in North Strabane. Primanti’s restaurant opened recently and leases are available for the apartments, which are near completion. Buford’s Kitchen, Touche Nail Spa and Great Clips have committed to the Street.
Little more than three months ago, a 155-room Hyatt Place hotel enhanced the immediate landscape by opening adjacent to The Meadows. An enclosed skywalk connects the Hyatt to the casino.
The boom in this square mile or so is resounding. Glickman certainly hears and feels it.
“I can’t say enough about that area,” he admitted, before proceeding to say a lot. “They are experiencing growth in all areas – residential, entertainment, offices, energy sector – to go with the casino and Tanger Outlets.
“That area, combined with downtown Washington, makes this the hub of Washington County.”
And, certainly, a hub of activity.