Getting down to business
A busy intersection will likely get busier over the next year or so. And that could be a good thing.
Washington Square, a strip mall featuring retail shops and professional offices, is planned for a 2-acre site facing Jefferson Avenue in Washington. It would be on open land, across from Veltri Cleaners, just west of where Jefferson and Wylie Avenue meet.
David Glickman, commercial real estate broker for the site, said he is aiming for a spring 2014 groundbreaking. “It’s going to be more retail in nature,” he said, adding there will be about 22,000 square feet of space available for shops and offices.
“We’re looking mainly for neighborhood-like tenants: Restaurants, hair salons, boutiques, dentists – any tenant who would like to go into a nice, modern neighborhood center,” said Glickman, director of retail services for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, a global real estate service firm based locally in PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh.
He said he is in initial discussions with potential tenants. “The property just hit the market last week,” Glickman explained. “We hope to get some leases signed, then start construction.”
It is uncertain whether the three buildings that have been leased by Caring Mission, adjacent to the site, will become part of the project. Doug Burig, an agent with Keller Williams Real Estate, confirmed that he “just listed” those buildings, situated on two lots, for $385,000. Gary Mariani owns that property.
Caring Mission provides home care and home health-care services to clients. Only the latter division remains on Jefferson Avenue, but not much longer.
Administrative assistant Carol Celani said the home care division moved to North Main Street, near Washington Health System, on Aug. 6, and the home health-care operation will relocate to Washington Crown Center on Sept. 28.
Glickman, who has more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience, is enthusiastic about Washington Square’s potential. He likes the flatness of the site, the proximity to Interstates 70 and 79 and Routes 19 and 40, and the continuing growth of Washington County.
This isn’t new turf for him. Glickman said he has secured tenants for Trinity Point in South Strabane Township and the former Weber Furniture Co. building in Washington, and marketed the Sprowls property on West Chestnut Street in Washington.
Washington Square is his new focus, and he is pursuing it vigorously.
“We’re excited about this,” Glickman said. “We think this will be a really nice fit for the area.”