Breathing Life into Brownsville
Washington PA Observer Reporter
26 September 2010
By Scott Beveridge, Staff writer
sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com
BROWNSVILLE - The occasional shopper in nearly deserted downtown
Brownsville typically heads to the only store there with regular
business hours.
The foot traffic leads to Brownsville Family Pharmacy, whose owner had
to be coerced by local developers last year to establish a business
among a row of boarded-up storefronts.
"The whole feeling is the downtown is dead," said Gerard O'Hare, who
also owns Jeffrey's Drugstore in Canonsburg. "We made a commitment to
try to make it work."
Meanwhile, Fayette County is making a commitment, too, to bring this
downtown back to life by taking the unusual step of purchasing and
redeveloping most of the blight in town, including the five-story Union
Station.
The county's redevelopment authority, using eminent domain powers
following lengthy court battles, will soon take ownership of eight of
30 buildings there, most of which are owned by a Monroeville couple or
their affiliated corporations. Earlier this month, the authority set
aside $114,400 to begin the process of owning the heart of Brownsville.
"Our intent is to get hold of all of them," said Andrew French, the
authority's executive director.
Brownsville, once a thriving industrial borough along the Monongahela
River, fell further into disrepair after Ernest and Marilyn Liggett
purchased 22 of the 30 properties in the early 1990s, French said.
The Liggetts had announced elaborate plans to develop an upscale
shopping district there anchored by a riverboat casino, a gaming
industry plan the state Legislature considered but eventually abandoned.
The Liggetts fought Fayette County in court to maintain ownership of
their properties, but did not appeal the county court's recent
dismissal of their last appeal, setting the stage for the authority to
begin taking the buildings, French said.
"It is not an option we take lightly," French said. "This is a problem
that has been going on for decades."
The Liggetts could not be reached last week for comment. They issued a
news release from Manor Investments on Tuesday that outlined their
reuse proposals for the downtown, which also included the development
of an Indian casino or an Olympic Velodrome beside a marketplace and
new housing.
The taking of 22 of the 128 properties owned by the Liggetts would
"make it impossible for anyone to use" the entire assemblage of
properties for a "unified Brownsville," the news release states.
The Liggetts have been "scapegoated to detract people from the facts,"
which include the decline of Brownsville began long before they
purchased the properties. They also remain open to negotiate a
settlement, one that wouldn't endanger their development opportunities,
the release states.
The acquisitions will be further complicated because the downtown is
listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it's a
challenge to spend federal redevelopment money to tear down such
properties.
Fayette, though, wants to work closely with local stakeholders,
including the nonprofit Brownsville Area Redevelopment Corp., to
preserve as much of the historic architecture as possible.
BARC owns eight buildings in various stages of restoration, five of
which are in the downtown, including the Flatiron Building, said Dennis
Cremonese, the corporation's executive director.
Cremonese said BARC is under orders from its attorney to withhold from
commenting on the redevelopment authority's plan because it has been
sued in the past by the Liggetts.
There are a number of other businesses scattered about the downtown
district, including a hair salon, paint store and framing shop and
Fiddle's Restaurant - a quaint diner on Bridge Street, Cremonese said.
But restoring the downtown isn't going to be easy or cheap because the
interiors of the vacant buildings are "worse than I have imagined,"
French said. There also are lead paint and asbestos issues to deal
with, he said.
"They are in deplorable shape," French said.
The county, once it owns the first eight buildings, will take immediate
steps to address the blight, he said.
O'Hare said the best thing to do would be to "tear the buildings down
and start fresh" unless the county or BARC can find a developer with a
lot of money.
He said BARC has a record of doing well in attracting money to preserve
buildings.
"They are good and that's why we are there," O'Hare said.
He said there is a great deal of vehicular traffic on Market Street,
and a parking lot that is rarely used across the street from his
pharmacy.
"The cars blow by real fast. If we could only get them to stop," he
said.