This Week’s Top Agenda Items

• Cultural Trust wants to take city street for its venue
• City plans to rebuild salt storage next to Saw Mill Run
• Four startups partner with city government

Cultural Trust wants to take city street for its venue 🔗

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust hopes to paint Downtown with a wider brush.

The trust requested the city transfer ownership of 8th Street from Penn Avenue to Fort Duquesne Boulevard for its forthcoming Arts Landing Outdoor Venue. It also asked for a portion of Maddock Place and a right of way alley abutting 819-821 Penn Avenue. 

Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park expressed concern about giving up public riverfront property. She suggested compromising with a 35-year lease, like the arrangement with the Pittsburgh Zoo, instead of a transfer. 

The trust’s proposal said the land would support safe public access to its four-acre site. Gross asked if council could prohibit the trust from walling in the site—ensuring public passage—as it did with the Produce Terminal in the Strip District.

Work on the venue began in April. The trust intends to have a soft opening for the NFL Draft in April 2026 and a grand opening in June with the annual arts festival. The trust owns much of the surrounding area and provided letters of support from three neighboring property owners. 

Council did not move the bill forward to a voting agenda. It wants to explore options, such as an extended lease and ensuring public passage, for the property.

City plans to rebuild salt storage next to Saw Mill Run 🔗

The Department of Public Works (DPW) has asked for money to construct a new salt storage building.

The department requested $6.9 million to be part of the city’s capital budget for the project. That money would pay for the demolition and construction of a new Saw Mill Run Boulevard salt storage facility.

DPW’s assistant director Chip Gaul said at the Dec. 10 city council committee meeting that the current building, which is the city’s primary salt storage facility, is beyond repair with deteriorating concrete, corroding reinforced steel and an inoperable emergency ventilation system. DPW director Chris Hornstein said the cost of demolition and site adjustments would be about $4 million.

The matter was to be brought up again for approval at the Dec. 9 legislative meeting. However, Council Member Theresa Kail-Smith of Westwood requested to revisit discussion with DPW after she learned the county built a comparable facility for $1.4 million. 

Hornstein said DPW estimates the building itself will cost $1.7 million; the remainder of the request is for contingencies. The site’s proximity to Saw Mill Run and increasing the facility’s capacity contribute to higher construction costs.

Kail-Smith again expressed concern about the feasibility of a $6.9 million project when council needs to cut the proposed 2026 budget by $30 million. “You could really store salt under a tarp,” she said, though Hornstein disagreed.

Council will hold the request for one week.

Four startups partner with city government 🔗

In 2026, four local new businesses will receive stipends of $25,000 from the city that they will use to search rivers, find heat loss, expand AI use, and create 3D maps for the city.

The activity is part of PGH Lab’s 11.0 cohort of new businesses.

“This year, we are very technology forward,” Andrew Hayhurst, the lab’s senior manager of innovation, said during the city council’s Dec. 10 committee meeting. The city government program connects local startups with the local government in what Hayhurst described as a low-risk way to test innovative solutions.

The upcoming cohort includes these companies and their projects:

• Aquatonomy plans to search rivers with their autonomous underwater robots; 

• Pittsburgh Drone Services has proposed locating heat loss in buildings, including houses in lower-economic neighborhoods, so that they can be re-insulated;

• Orange Peel Collaborative intends to collaborate with the city’s artificial intelligence (AI) working group “to think about how we can demystify AI with employees of the city, and how we can expand the use of AI,” said Hayhurst; and

• Vridian, which was also part of the former cohort with a different project. This year it aims to create 3D maps from real-time data which will inform where the city might expand services to residents. 

Each company receives a $25,000 stipend for a six-to-nine-month contract.

The PGH Lab program has partnered with more than 50 startups since its 2016 launch. Last year was the first time the program offered the stipend. Hayhurst said that change has resulted in a 78% increase in program applicants.