Penguins' Lower Hill redevelopment minority workforce plan approved

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ plan to create more jobs for minorities and women as part of the Lower Hill redevelopment project finally appears to be a reality.

The Penguins and their development partner Buccini Pollin on Thursday announced their minority and women business enterprise participation plan was unanimously approved by the City of Pittsburgh’s independent Equal Opportunity Review Commission (EORC).

It calls for 30% minority business and 15% women’s business participation in the redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site anchored by the proposed 26-story First National Bank tower. The Penguins organization holds development rights to the arena site and says it plans to break ground on the FNB project this summer.

“This is a historic day for the Lower Hill redevelopment project because it is the first independent confirmation that we are achieving our goals for Minority and Women Business Enterprise participation, as we have committed under the Community Collaboration and Implementation Plan,” said Penguins president and CEO David Morehouse.

Bomani Howze, vice president of development at Buccini Pollin and a Hill District resident, said the entire Lower Hill development plan has been focused on maximizing opportunities for Black and women-owned businesses.

“At a time when the Hill District and our entire city is recovering from the pandemic, we are building a bridge from the Lower Hill to generate wealth in the community and invest tens of millions of dollars of construction and operation phase contracts for Black and women-owned businesses,” Howze said.

The Lower Hill redevelopment project has been in the works since the Penguins’ former home, the Civic Arena, was demolished in 2012. The Lower Hill was razed in the late 1950s to build the building with the cantilever roof that came to be known as the Igloo.

The Lower Hill minority workforce plan was created to give back the kind of opportunities to minorities and women that were taken away when the Civic Arena was built.

“Our team reached out to hundreds of minority and Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) contractors, and we have already achieved almost 42% participation for minority and women-owned businesses,” Morehouse said. “We now have a detailed plan approved by the independent Equal Opportunity Review Commission for advancing to achieve our overall M/WBE goals for the Lower Hill development.”

However, Hill Community Development Corporation president and CEO Marimba Milliones said the Penguins still have a long way to go toward fulfilling their commitments.

“We’re pleased to hear that the Pens submitted a plan that meets the governmental standard at the EORC. Now all involved parties can turn their attention to improving the other areas of the community reinvestment plan that are sorely lacking,” said Milliones. “It’s important that the same energy is put towards the rest of the project so that they can proceed through the regulatory process and meet the fullness of their commitments.”