Penguins, FNB break ground on tower to anchor Civic Arena development

The new FNB Financial Center in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District was touted Wednesday as the catalyst for a transformation of a neighborhood that was razed six decades ago to make way for the former Civic Arena.

“The Hill is greater than just the people who live in it,” said state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District.

The $220 million, 26-story tower FNB is building for its headquarters and related developments on the 28-acre site will be a key for the future success of the city and region, Wheatley said.

He was among the elected officials, community leaders and others who packed into a large tent as remnants of Hurricane Ida created a deluge in the region.

From the time Pittsburgh Penguins Chief Operating Officer Kevin Acklin started speaking shortly after 11 a.m. until the shovels hit dirt more than 90 minutes later, the rain slowed.

People snapped photos and recorded videos, chatting about the historic nature of the day. Redevelopment of the neighborhood has been talked about since the Civic Arena was demolished a decade ago.

The Penguins have held the development rights to the site. Before he joined the team, Acklin worked on the project in his previous role as Mayor Bill Peduto’s chief of staff and chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Development crept at a slow pace as details of a Community Collaboration and Implementation Plan were worked out between neighborhood leaders, the team and the city.

U.S. Steel was originally expected to be the anchor tenant of the site, but its plans changed in 2015 during a market downturn.

In December 2019, FNB announced the Hill District office tower, which would would move its headquarters from the North Shore. In the two years since, various regulatory entities have met to approve plans or announce funding for the overall project.

It totals about $750 million and includes a mixed-use residential, retail and entertainment complex. The developer is the Buccini/Pollin Group, a firm based in Delaware.

There are also plans for a 288-space parking garage, a live entertainment venue along Logan Street between Bedford and Wylie avenues and two residential buildings at the southeast corner of Wylie Avenue and Fullerton Street.

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The state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program is providing $10 million in funding, state Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin said.

The project also coincides with a $30 million project to build a cap over Interstate 579 that will become a park and connect the Hill District to Downtown.

The officials who spoke Wednesday acknowledged the wrongs of the past and the unfulfilled promises that have plagued the neighborhood since before the Civic Arena was built in the late 1950s.

But this project will be different, according to Buccini/Pollin Group leaders, including Hill District residents Bowman Howze and Kimberly Ellis.

They will be held accountable, said Wheatley and city councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, who represents the Hill District.

“You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Wheatley told FNB Corp. Chairman, President and CEO Vince Delie during the groundbreaking. “We show our love by aggressively disagreeing. For too many years we’ve been on the receiving end of bad deals and bad promises.

“We’re all looking to this site, this development to be the spark,” Wheatley said.

Peduto agreed.

“For six decades promises were made that were never kept and today we have the opportunity to begin to rectify those mistakes,” the mayor said.

The coronavirus pandemic slowed, but didn’t stall, the project. The FNB tower is expected to be finished by 2024.