Downtown developer starts small, thinks big
Monday, September 1, 2008 at 01:00PMPittsburgh Post-Gazette - September 1, 2008
By Mark Belko
In his first venture as a developer, Mike Clements isn't exactly playing it safe.
Treading into waters that have swamped so many others, Mr. Clements is intent on doing his part to move the downtrodden Fifth and Forbes corridor Downtown from "blight to bright."
He has spent $258,296 to purchase a vacant three-story building at 308 Forbes Ave. in the heart of the corridor with hopes of converting it into retail and residential space.
After several failed attempts by the city to use big name developers to transform the corridor, Mr. Clements sees the building-by-building approach -- "grass-roots investment," as he calls it -- as the key to energizing Fifth and Forbes avenues and supplementing bigger projects like Three PNC Plaza, Piatt Place, and the G.C. Murphy redevelopment.
"Here's a corridor, one of the most important corridors in the city, and it's now probably one of the most neglected. That's unfortunate. I wanted to make a small contribution to change that," he said.
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