HUD Strikes Bullseye with Target

The grand opening of Target in the East Liberty neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh, PA on July 19, 2011, was cause to celebrate! Target now joins Home Depot and Whole Foods Market as anchors in a newly crafted and dynamic East Liberty commercial corridor that not long ago was festering with inner city urban blight. With each new storefront comes job creation--the hallmark of solid community development.

This new Target is located on the site of the former Penn Circle Towers, a 152-unit HUD-funded affordable housing high-rise. Sold to the Urban Redevelopment Authority City of Pittsburgh (URA) in a negotiated foreclosure sale in 2003, the Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the redevelopment of the site for commercial use and released the deed restrictions related to the continued use of the land as affordable housing in 2008. At the time of the conveyance of Penn Circle to the URA, there were 86 residents living in Penn Circle. Off-site replacement housing has since been developed to replace the housing lost with the conversion of the Penn Circle site into a commercial site.

The East Liberty Target marks the company's first venture within the City of Pittsburgh limits and is the first Target in the Pittsburgh area with a full-fledged grocery store. The 2-story East Liberty Target will be the first store in the nation to include windows for natural lighting.