Friday, February 13, 2009

Kudos to Kuhn's!

After a shaky "financing" round, Kuhn's is now ready to move forward with constructions plans for a grocery store in the Hill District.

This is really a win-win situation for Kuhn's. Thanks to the URA, Kuhn's only has to spend 15% of the cost of construction and tada! new grocery store. The catch? They have to stay open for 10 years.

According to Google Maps
, it's at least a 35 minute commute to the nearest grocery store (Giant Eagle on the South Side) from a central location in the Hill District. No wonder they're clamoring for a grocery store. Those residents have been missing out on those oft-touted benefits of urban living for the past 3 decades. Now they're on target to have a full-fledged pharmacy-bakery-deli-one-stop-shopping-bonanza by 2010.

The real hat-trick will be if this Kuhn's can help revitalize the Hill District while invigorating downtown living. If folks in the new downtown lofts feel comfortable enough to head into the dreaded Hill to do their grocery shopping, that would even be a win-win situation for taxpayers.

1 comment:

Bram Reichbaum said...

The origional Kuhn's concept seemed to include a cafe and an outdoor dining area. That fell out along the way. Seems like that's probably for the best, since now they can focus on their core business and there are other business opportunities available for lunchers and lollygaggers. Very pleased.

I still think this is just one leg of the stool, but it's a solid one.