Old Squirrel Hill Theater To Be Razed, Property Redveloped

PITTSBURGH, PA - Three months after plans were announced to convert part of the old Squirrel Hill Theater into a music venue, it now appears as if the entire building will be demolished and the property redeveloped.

A new development called Flats on Forward has been proposed at the heavily-traveled intersection of Forward and Murray avenues. Action Housing and Brandywine Agency will go before the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh Thursday to request a $1 million loan for the project, according to the authority meeting agenda.

Flats on Forward will have first-floor retail space, apartments and two floors of office space. Neighborhood residents recently were briefed on the project at a meeting at the Jewish Community Center.

In January, owners of the Squirrel Hill Sports Bar two doors down from the old theater announced plans to reopen part of it as The Marquee, a 175-seat performance space. The sports bar abruptly scuttled those plans less than a month later, apparently because the Flats on Forward proposal was advancing.

Flats on Forward would be built next to Krause Commons, the new $16.3 million, six-story building on Murray Avenue on the site of the former Poli restaurant. That building, another Action Housing project, contains 33 apartment units and two floors of commercial space.