New Retail Space to Replace Boscov’s at South Hills Village Mall

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Construction of new retail space is underway at the site of the former Boscov’s department store at South Hills Village shopping mall.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-gazette, the investment entails the development of both a 145,000-square-foot Target store and a new 85,000-square-feet Dick’s Sporting Goods facility.

Scott Brilhart, director of community development for Upper St. Clair, said the construction of the new stores has been delayed by about a year and should be finalized in 2013. He added that the lower mall entrances will remain closed during construction, and the front parking lot will be reconfigured.

In an attempt to reduce traffic delays in the area, Simon Property Group, owner of the mall, designed a temporary traffic route to minimize the impact of construction traffic at the entrances into South Hills Village.

In other news, 31st Street Studios announced it would bring Hollywood-based Knight Vision Studios and Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) into the 330,000-square-foot Strip District facility.

31st Street also established a long-term agreement with Paramount Studio Group and its Paramount On Location division, which will offer film production support services.

As reported by the Pittsburgh Business Times, the companies intend to set up an unrivalled movie and video game production hub. Don Marinelli, executive producer of the ETC program, stated that Knight Vision’s presence at 31st Street Studios will give ETC students a tremendous opportunity to advance filmmaking in Pittsburgh.

In a recent statement, James Knight, the founder of Knight Vision, said the cooperation with CMU’s ETC is a unique opportunity. James Knight had launched the company after producing groundbreaking digital effects for blockbuster movie “Avatar.”

The terms of the financial agreements or the estimated installation costs of the new motion-capture capabilities were not disclosed. Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald welcomed the collaboration as it is expected to have a positive impact on the local economy.