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Blueprint Communities Success Stories

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If You Can’t Fight ‘Em… Think Smarter

In July 2005, the retail environment north of Pittsburgh, PA changed dramatically when Pittsburgh Mills, a trendy shopping mecca, opened to great fanfare. Several weeks later, New Kensington, PA, a blue-collar river town down the hill from Pittsburgh Mills off Route 28, embarked on its own new journey.

It was in August 2005 that New Kensington was named by Gov. Ed Rendell as one of the state’s 22 Blueprint Communities, a designation that qualified a revitalization team from the graying community to take part in a comprehensive training program aimed at developing a long-term vision and strategic plan and setting the stage for additional financial support for “NK”, as the locals call it.

“We realized that competitive retail operations would not be successful within five miles of Pittsburgh Mills,” remembers Kim McAfoose, leader of the Blueprint Communities team and executive director of the local redevelopment authority. “After a thorough review and analysis, we determined that we would exist and thrive based on progress in five areas: educational facilities, service enterprises, specialty retail operations, restaurants and housing.”

In a little over two years, New Kensington has put the brakes on accelerating deterioration through aggressive planning and a never-say-die attitude, fostered largely by the ever-engaged McAfoose. Signs of new life downtown include:

• Ground breaking this fall for Westmoreland County Community College. WCCC will relocate its campus from an aging elementary school in an outlying neighborhood to a new two-story structure containing classrooms and laboratories. Enrollment is expected to rise in stages from 200 students to 500.
• The purchase and expansion of one of NK’s visual calling cards, Lighthouse Landing marina. Owner Frank Manni is adding more than 1,000 feet of dock space and is building a showroom for new boat sales. He also plans on moving his very successful car wash components manufacturing business to the site from Lower Burrell, PA.
• The arrival of a Walgreen’s drug store and telephone sales and service center within the first year of the Blueprint Communities designation.
• The opening of Ladles Restaurant at mid-2006 and the desire of another entrepreneur to open a restaurant in a bank building that is being vacated.
• Construction of a new apartment building featuring 40 units of affordable downtown housing for senior citizens. Opening is scheduled for spring 2008. The waiting list now exceeds 100.

In addition to these positive changes, the Blueprint Communities team has set its sights on participating in PA’s new Neighborhood Partnership Program that leverages state tax credits to help fund important downtown social services - job skills training, preventative health care and drug awareness outreach, for example. Meantime, the “Blueprint Project” has targeted streetscape improvements in a core downtown area.

“We’ve made a deliberate decision to shrink our downtown and we’re moving a host of activities representing our five areas of focus into a more compact area,” observes McAfoose. “You have to be realistic to succeed.”

As New Kensington’s Blueprint Communities team moves into its third year of progress, it appears the shopping mecca over the hill is becoming more and more of a distant memory.

To learn more about the projects moving to fruition in New Kensington, contact Kim McAfoose at 724-337-3525 or at raofnk@verizon.net.