Published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, by Melissa Daniels

September 29, 2014

A $4 million state grant toward renovating the former Saks Fifth Avenue site and the Henry W. Oliver Building in an investment in the continued transformation of Pittsburgh's Downtown, Gov. Tom Corbett said Monday.

“Pittsburgh is a city on the move,” said Corbett, a Shaler Republican. “Pittsburgh is a destination city.”

The project, a joint venture between McKnight Realty Partners and Millcraft Investments, carries a total cost of more than $130 million.

Plans for the Oliver building include a 225-room hotel operated by Embassy Suites, with a restaurant and other amenities in the top-floor lobby. The Saks site, dubbed 350 Oliver, will have ground-level retail, 100 upper-floor residences, and six levels of parking with room for 585 cars and 60 bicycles.

The development will create an estimated 234 full-time jobs, 65 part-time jobs and 1,250 construction jobs, officials said.

Corbett, who made the grant announcement in Mellon Square Park in front of the site at Smithfield Street and Oliver Avenue, said the development will enable more people “to experience the character of what is Pittsburgh.”

He said the parking plans were “a tipping point” toward making a state investment. Parking is “desperately needed” to get people to stay Downtown for work, shopping or entertainment, he said.

Corbett worked in the Oliver Building as an attorney from 1983 through 1989. Back then, he said, he never dreamed it would become a hotel.

“It's going to make a huge difference in the central business district of Pittsburgh,” he said.

(Melissa Daniels, "Corbett: Downtown project will 'make a huge difference' in Pittsburgh," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/29/14)