Task force wants to keep Saks Downtown - PittsburghLIVE.com Task force, O'Connor want to keep Saks DowntownI don't like the fact that we have "a private task force" setting policy. Herb Burger, chairman of the Pittsburgh Task Force, a private group charged with reinvigorating Fifth and Forbes.
Keeping upscale retailer Saks Fifth Avenue Downtown is among the priorities for mayor-elect Bob O'Connor and those involved in trying to rejuvenate the Fifth-Forbes retail corridor.
They use the word, "charged" with reinvigorating --- humm... Like charge card, like debt, like overspending, perhaps? We don't NEED some private group spending the money and setting the priorities.
The priority for me is not some store downtown with a lease that is set to expire in 2011. This is an article about corporate welfare.
We need to be sure that the youth don't move out of our city -- and expire from school -- from violence -- from poverty. Keeping Saks downtown isn't the key to the real priorities that matter greatly to me.
Saks must and will figure out where to put its stores based upon the marketplace. The stores will go to places where customers have money, tastes, and in turn jobs and opportunities. We need to make sure government does its job of in the sector of government -- and then the citizens can be more prosperous. And, in turn, the marketplace will respond in healthy ways.
The worst thing our city can do is to continute to be a town that is driven by corporate welfare. See: Platform.For-Pgh.org.
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Task force, O'Connor want to keep Saks Downtown
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Keeping upscale retailer Saks Fifth Avenue Downtown is among the priorities for mayor-elect Bob O'Connor and those involved in trying to rejuvenate the Fifth-Forbes retail corridor.
"We hope to meet with them (Saks) very shortly," O'Connor said Monday at a news conference where Millcraft Investments Inc. unveiled its plans to redevelop the former Lazarus-Macy's department store building at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Wood Street.
"They (Saks) are good neighbors, and I want to make sure, as mayor, that they stay here," said O'Connor, who will succeed Tom Murphy as mayor next month.
Saks' lease at its Downtown store on Smithfield Street is due to expire in 2011, said Herb Burger, chairman of the Pittsburgh Task Force, a private group charged with reinvigorating Fifth and Forbes.
While there have been rumors over the years Saks would move, Burger said chances to keep the store Downtown should be enhanced by the task force's efforts and developments such as Millcraft's plans for the Lazarus-Macy's building.
Saks officials could not be reached for comment.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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