Upcoming redevelopment of the Civic Arena site will include a concert venue, planned as part of a partnership between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Live Nation.
Plans announced on Thursday by the Penguins and development partner The Buccini/Pollin Group call for a new concert venue to be constructed at the site, located at Wylie Avenue and Logan Street. It will be one of the key amenities in an upcoming phase of development, which will come after the Penguins spent years working to move forward with plans for the site.
The concert venue will be built above an 850-space parking garage, while filling a niche in the Pittsburgh concert scene by drawing mid-size shows too small for the Penguins’ PPG Paints Arena and too large for some smaller facilities in the region. More from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
The live music venue, capable of holding 6,600 people, will feature a “three-in-one” arrangement, with a stage, a fixed seating area for club and theater performances, and an outdoor lawn. It will be built on top of an 850-space parking garage and surrounded by as much as 51,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.
“There will not be another venue like this in the region, and we expect it will become the entertainment anchor for the lower Hill, drive significant business to nearby restaurants and contribute to the rich fabric of live music in Pittsburgh,” Penguins CEO David Morehouse said in a statement.
The Penguins and their developer, The Buccini/Pollin Group, envision a music spot that will complement and not compete with other Pittsburgh venues, including the adjacent PPG Paints Arena, where the Penguins play; Stage AE on the North Shore; and smaller clubs in the region.
Kevin Acklin, the team’s senior vice president, said the venue would be on par with the Anthem in Washington D.C., which has a capacity of about 6,000 people, and the Irving, Texas, Toyota Music Factory, which can hold 8,000 people.
A groundbreaking is slated for this summer, with the venue expected to open in the spring of 2022. The planned concert venue is one of the highlights of the upcoming phase of construction, which will also include a 24-story office tower anchored by First National Bank and 288 housing units. PPG Paints Arena was built on a site adjacent to its predecessor, so this development will be part of the area immediately surrounding the Penguins’ current home.
Civic Arena, known affectionately by many as The Igloo, opened in 1961 and was home of the Penguins from 1967-2010. It was demolished in 2012, with the site used for parking in the years since.
Rendering courtesy Pittsburgh Penguins.
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