Business leaders gather to tout South Fayette as next ‘Boom Town’
Over the last 20 years, South Fayette’s residential population has boomed.
Residents have seen more people move into the township, their school district thrive and their property taxes skyrocket due to a larger population.
To balance the community, some have been clamoring for more commercial development, and that’s an area of focus for the township’s commissioners.
With the high residential population, it’s proximity to downtown Pittsburgh and the construction of the Southern Beltway, some believe South Fayette will be “Allegheny County’s next boom town” – the title of a promotional event hosted by Burns Scalo Real Estate on Nov. 14.
“This is the next big thing on I-79 in Allegheny County,” said Jim Scalo, president of Burns Scalo Real Estate. “We’ve watched Southpointe and Washington County thrive. We have watched Cranberry and Butler County thrive. I’m driving that this is the next big boom town.”
By Jacob Calvin Meyer
Staff writer
jmeyer@thealmanac.net
State Rep. Jason Ortitay speak about the Southern Beltway, traffic and the future of South Fayette.
The event, held on one of the three unused floors of Burns Scalo’s new eco-friendly building, Beacon I built above the former Star City theater property, welcomed about 200 business leaders in the Pittsburgh region. Attendees enjoyed breakfast and conversation to start the event, with the main event being a panel of five speakers with Scalo as the moderator.
State Rep. Jason Ortitay said the Southern Beltway, which is set to be completed in 2020, will be a “godsend” for South Fayette.
“It connects all of that together, and the proximity of everything in that corridor is amazing,” Ortitay said.
With traffic being a big issue in South Fayette, Ortitay also talked about improving traffic on Route 50 and Washington Pike in South Fayette.
“Hopefully this nightmare will be a thing of the past,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll know soon and have a major announcement by the end of the year.”
South Fayette Commissioner Gwen Rodi pointed to new commercial development, such as TopGolf and Sheetz, as two examples of businesses coming to the township.
By Jacob Calvin Meyer
Staff writer
jmeyer@thealmanac.net
Jacob Calvin Meyer/the almanac
Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis speaks to the audience Nov. 14 about how the future of the airport and Southern Beltway tie in together with the future of South Fayette’s commercial development.
“We as commissioners have asked ourselves what we can do to help businesses come to the community,” Rodi said. “We have made a commitment to work with every business that comes in here. We want business.”
Specifically about TopGolf, which is set to open next summer, Rodi said they chose South Fayette because of the region’s atmosphere and the community.
“They chose us because we have the space for them, but it was also because of the region. It was because of the connectivity, being close to the airport and close to the city,” she said. “It was also because of the demographics and the clientele they can draw from the community.”
Paul Griffith, senior managing director at Integra Realty Resources, said big corporations care most about how close they would be to the airport and to downtown.
“This southwest span of property that’s going to be opened up by the Southern Beltway is exactly the geographic location (they’re looking for),” Griffith said.
Meanwhile, Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis said she’s focused on making nearby Pittsburgh International Airport a “front door” to the region with a major renovation project.
“We formalized a process and that became the beginning of us reflecting the community right here at the airport,” she said. “So that what they remember when they depart Pittsburgh, or what they see when they arrive, is a sense of who and what this community is, what it was and where it’s going.”
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald is optimistic about the future of the Pittsburgh region as a whole, pointing to its consideration to get Amazon’s newest headquarters.
“Pittsburgh is taking off in a big way,” he said. “When you look around, Pittsburgh is on every shortlist, and sometimes on the top of the list.”
Fitzgerald thinks Pittsburgh is a “city of the future,” and the possibility of Amazon shows that.
“We’re in a good spot. It excites me as much as anything. Five years ago if you had said do we have a chance at Amazon, most Pittsburghers wouldn’t have believed we would have a chance at Amazon. But right now we do.”