Planned Hazelwood Green projects take big steps forward | The Homepage

Center of Life ‘hub’ gets matching grant, Steelers athletic field clears planning commission

A rendering of the Steelers Charities planned multi-sport turf field on Hazelwood Green. The facility will also include concessions, parking, offices and bleacher seating for 3,000 people. Rendering courtesy of Tishman Speyer

By Juliet Martinez, managing editor

Two of the big projects planned for Hazelwood Green took significant strides forward in recent weeks. Hazelwood-based nonprofit Center of Life received a $5 million matching grant toward the construction of its community center. The Steelers planned community athletic field got Planning Commission approval. Neither project has broken ground yet.

Steelers athletic field

The Steelers community athletic field announced in December 2023 has gotten the go-ahead from the Pittsburgh Planning Commission. The project will bear the Steelers logo and include seating for 3,000 people, parking, concession stands and more. It will be open daily, according to the original project announcement. The entire facility will cover about eight acres. It will include a multipurpose athletic field and will involve renovating an 11,600-square-foot existing building for restrooms, lockers, storage and offices.

The original announcement predicted a 2025 opening, but a spokesperson for the Steelers Charities wrote in an Aug. 8 email that the plan is to break ground this fall. The project has experienced normal delays that nonprofit development projects face, according to the spokesperson. The organization has also been working to build into the plan the public input they received at five sessions in the spring of 2024. Results of these meetings were released in June.

The report based on those sessions says the top three activities participants wanted for the multi-sport turf field were football (42 responses), soccer (30) and cheerleading (27). The top three activities requested for the open space next to the field were strength and agility training (30), and wellness and youth broadcasting (22 responses each). The top three activities requested for the park space are a playground (66), adult exercise (61) and food trucks (34). The report does not specify how many total participants attended the sessions. It can be downloaded at tinyurl.com/hazelwood-steelers.

The Steelers Charities declined to state the full cost of the facility. The Richard King Mellon Foundation has contributed $10 million; the spokesperson wrote that the remainder will come from the Steelers, Tishman Speyer, the site’s master developer; and the Almono Limited Partnership, which owns Hazelwood Green. The partnership is made up of representatives from the R.K. Mellon Foundation, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the Heinz Endowments.

Center of Life Hub

The Heinz Endowments announced the $5 million matching grant on July 30. The grant will cover 13.5% of the total cost of the development’s $37 million price tag. The foundation will release the $5 million grant if Center of Life has raised the other $32 million by Dec. 31, 2026.

Center of Life first announced this project on Nov. 15, 2024. It was originally conceived as a 130,000-square-foot development costing $60 to $70 million dollars. But since then, the plan has become more modest. The square footage of the current plan is 67,000. Hence the lower price tag.

But the building is still shooting for a high standard of energy efficiency, safety and cost effectiveness. The goal is for the community center to be LEED certified, according to Center of Life’s website. This designation comes from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a widely used voluntary green building rating system. The framework will measure how sustainable the building is and how it will affect people, the planet and prosperity, according to the U.S. Green Building Council website.

The Almono partnership has also supported the development by donating the five acres of land where the community center will sit.

The purpose of the center will be to house Center of Life’s “educational, arts, extracurricular, family-strengthening and enrichment offerings for students, teens, parents and community members,” according to the organization’s website. The nonprofit will occupy about 70% of the space.

Some of the remaining space will house the University of Pittsburgh’s Neighborhood Commitment program. The university is a major partner in the development.

The Heinz Endowments’ announcement quoted University of Pittsburgh Vice Chancellor for External Relations Lina Dostilio’s praise for the partnership.

“Our decades-long engagement within the Greater Hazelwood community and current work within our Neighborhood Commitment meshes well with Center of Life’s mission of empowering youth and their families with the life skills, education and resources they need to thrive,” she said.