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Updated 42 minutes ago
Construction has begun on a new shopping center in Marshall that already has tenants lined up to lease more than half of the available space.
The 13,175-square-foot Marshall Village is being built at the intersection of Route 19 and Northgate Drive.
“This development complements both the neighboring Labriola's Italian Market and the nearby mixed-use development being constructed,” said John Watson of Robinson-based Fourth River Development, which is overseeing the project's development, leasing and management. Construction is expected to be completed this summer, he said.
The mixed-use development to which Watson referred is Fairmont Square, a 96-unit townhouse project on the northbound side of Route 19 that will include 21,000-square feet of retail space, according to Nicole Zimsky, Marshall's director of planning. Several housing units have already been completed, she said.
One businesses opening in Marshall Village is the House of 1,000 Beers, which announced plans last year to open a second location in the North Hills, according to Art Barbus, who has been operating the craft beer restaurant and bottle house in New Kensington since 2014.
In addition to having more than 1,000 varieties of beer on hand, the casual dining restaurant features outdoor and indoor seating.
Barbus said he considered a number of North communities, but felt Marshall was underserved by his type of business.
House of 1,000 beers is expected to use a little more than 4,000 square feet in Marshall Village, Watson said.
An additional 3,000 square feet will be leased for another restaurant expansion, Bakn, a popular and trendy restaurant in Carnegie.
Representatives from Bakn could not be reached for comment.
Ron Sofranko, one of the owners of Fourth River Development, described the Route 19 corridor through Marshall “a prime location in one of the hottest retail corridors on the East Coast.”
“There are about 800 units of housing under construction or planned for construction in that part of the North Hills,” he said. “And the average household income there is among the highest west of Bucks County near Philadelphia.”
Until the past several years, commercial development in Marshall has lagged behind Cranberry, Pine and McCandless, in part, because of the terrain, Watson said.
“Much of the development in that area has occurred to the north in Cranberry and to the south in Pine and McCandless because the land there is relatively flat and easy to build on,” Watson said. “So that portion of Route 19 in Marshall, which has land that is a little more challenging to work with, has been sort of no man's land.”
Township manager Neil McFadden said development along the roughly 1.2-mile stretch of Route 19 between Gateway Avenue and the Interstate 79 overpass has also been slow because the highway is divided.
He agreed that as land becomes scarce, impediments to development become less of a concern.
The township has long-range plans to reconnect Northgate Drive, which has historically been Marshall's “main street,” with Route 19. Planned improvements call for repaving the road and installing sidewalks, curbs and off-street parking. Officials envision Northgate becoming a retail hub with specialty shops, restaurants and other businesses.
Projects along or near Route 19 that have started or are in the planning stages include:
• The Waters Senior Living, a 146-unit independent living/personal care facility.
• A pair of three-story, 30,000-square-foot office buildings called the Pinewood Corporate Center, plus a separate building that will house an Enterprise Car Rental facility.
• A Staybridge Suites hotel with 102 rooms and a 94-room Holiday Inn Express.
• Park at Marshall, a 125-unit housing development along northbound Route 19.
• Work also is tunderway on a Bentley Motors dealership along southbound Route 19 adjacent to the Lexus, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover dealers. Tesla Motors is currently renovating the former Ethan Allen furniture store on Route 19 for its first full electric car dealership in the Pittsburgh area.
Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-772-6368 or tlarussa@tribweb.com.
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