Penn-McKee’s Fate Could Be Decided Soon

Consultants will present proposal at May council meeting

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
April 04, 2024
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Editor’s Note: The writer of this story sits on the board of directors of the McKees Point Development Group, a non-profit corporation that has been coordinating demolition and remediation efforts in the Downtown area. This is a conflict of interest. See previous explanations of this issue.

(Tube City Almanac file photo)

The fate of the long-vacant Penn-McKee Hotel could become clearer after next month’s city council meeting.

McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said the city has been meeting with potential developers and they will present proposals for the site of the historic — but severely deteriorated — building near the McKees’ Point Marina and the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.

In 2022, engineers concluded that much of the hotel was probably too far gone to save.

“We are looking for things that can make us a destination point,” Cherepko told council Wednesday. “There are all kinds of things we can capitalize on, and we are most certainly are doing everything we can to make sure we don’t miss the boat.”

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 1 in city council chambers on the second floor of the Public Safety Building, 201 Lysle Blvd. at Market Street, Downtown.

City officials have been working with a coalition of local agencies and private companies, including the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh, KU Resources of Duquesne and others to evaluate the entire area from the hotel to the marina, including several private homes near the Palisades that date to the Civil War era.

In 2019, the Young Preservationists developed a marketing plan that concluded up to $141 million in tourism money that could be spent in McKeesport — including along the bike trail and the riverfront — is instead leaving the area because of a lack of amenities, including restaurants, retail and other attractions.

The city in recent years has taken a renewed interest in the Fifth Avenue corridor Downtown. A state-run tax-credit program has led to the demolition of numerous blighted and abandoned commercial buildings.

McKeesport officials also have worked with local developer Jonathan Stark to bring the Executive Building and People’s Bank Building back online.

“The Downtown area really has a lot of small mom-and-pop businesses, run by hard-working people but it’s a question of getting them more traffic flow,” Cherepko said. “Think of the snowball effect it can have. There is so much potential for development, not just on Fifth Avenue but on the Walnut Street corridor as well.”

Designed in the 1920s by Pittsburgh architect Benno Janssen, the hotel was the site of some of McKeesport’s most historic events in the 20th Century, including the first debate between future U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and John Kennedy in 1947. The hotel also served as the first home of Community College of Allegheny County.

But after the hotel closed in 1985, it was subject to multiple fires, scrappers and vandals, as well as a lengthy fight to determine the building’s rightful ownership, during which it sat open to the elements.

Multiple attempts to include the hotel on the National Register of Historic Places were rebuffed after a state historic review commission concluded that due to remodeling, scrapping and damage, the interior of the building no longer possessed the features that would have made it historic.

An engineering report commissioned by the city in 2022 concluded that the hotel had deteriorated significantly. Engineers concluded that the Strawberry Alley side of the L-shaped structure was probably too far gone to save, and that the Fifth Avenue side of the building could not stand on its own if that wing was demolished.

The city has raised approximately $1 million for an environmental remediation of the Penn-McKee to remove asbestos, lead, and biological material, including animal and human waste, prior to reuse or demolition, if necessary.

Following Wednesday’s meeting, Cherepko said some of the parcels near the hotel — including the Civil War era houses — have been acquired by the Redevelopment Authority. The city will coordinate development of the Penn-McKee property with private individuals who own the other parcels, he said.

Cherepko said it was too soon to speculate publicly on what the proposals to be presented May 1 would look like, but that he would rather wait until the presentation to comment further.

“I think we’re going to see some very interesting plans and we feel pretty confident that we can make them come to fruition,” he said.

Jason Togyer is the volunteer editor of Tube City Almanac and executive director of its parent corporation, Tube City Community Media Inc.

Originally published April 04, 2024.

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