Hazelwood’s Center of Life unveils plans for major community center

Center of Life has revealed a $60 million to $70 million community development project that with three partners it will bring to Hazelwood Green, calling it a transformative step not only for the 23-year-old nonprofit organization but also for the neighborhood and its residents.

CEO and President Tim Smith said the cutting-edge building is a dream realized for his organization that provides arts, education, health care and employment to residents of more than 30 ZIP codes, according to a news release. Center of Life has built a coalition for this project, partnerships with the University of Pittsburgh, Primary Care Health Services Inc. and Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center. The latter two both have had locations in Hazelwood for many years, providing child care and health care respectively. The project was announced formally on Friday.

The 130,000-square-foot, three-story multi-use facility will feature resources for STEAM education, performance and practice areas for arts programming, flexible workspaces, and holistic wellness programs, according to the news release. The shared vision for the project will connect Hazelwood Green to the broader neighborhood and create a place for individuals and the community to learn, to live and to grow.

Smith said in an interview earlier this week that the Almono Limited Partnership, its U3 Advisers and developers Tishman Speyer, offered the coalition space at the site for the building. He attributes this to the relationship his organization has developed over time with the entities that have transformed the former home of Jones & Laughlin Steel, a tract of land left as an urban brownfield when all operations ceased in the 1980s.

“[This was a] real opportunity,” he said. “They weren’t going to sell it to us. They were going to give us the land. That meant a lot.”

Todd Stern, managing director of U3 Advisors, said in the news release, “Almono is proud to support the Center of Life in its development of the COL Hub at Hazelwood Green. The Almono members have long recognized the need for and supported the Hazelwood neighborhood in its desire for deep interconnection with this historic brownfield site. Almono and COL, as a community-based organization dedicated to empowering youth and families, have for many years collaborated in programming to ensure that this physical, social and economic community connection gets stronger every day. Almono and COL will continue working together in ways that honor our shared development goals.”

Smith said the community center will be directly across the street from the youth sports complex and community field the Steelers and the Richard K. Mellon Foundation are building at Hazelwood Green. It is expected to open next year. 

The building announcement also served as the effort’s capital campaign launch. Smith said he has support from some major funders, calling it “pretty significant,” but he declined to reveal them, stating they will make their own announcements. The coalition is exploring both federal and state grants and revenue sources, including the Environmental Protection Agency, New Market Tax Credits and Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program money. The CEO said elected officials are supportive of those efforts.

The timetable is ambitious: breaking ground next fall, followed by about 16 months of construction and a ribbon cutting in 2026. Smith said he and the others involved have been working over the past year on the capital campaign’s silent phase and to develop the site plan with AE Works, which has been completed. He said no variances are needed for it, except for a proposed hydroponic farm and an amphitheater.

Smith said the building will be constructed with as high a level of LEED certification as possible. Discussions are ongoing regarding geothermal power for it and stormwater management. The design will utilize the principles of the Living Building Challenge, which encourages development that supports not only the planet but the health, knowledge and economic wellness of the community, according to the news release.

Center of Life currently leases space at a former church building on Hazelwood Avenue and operates many of its programs at the Spartan Center, the former St. Stephen School building now run by a nonprofit organization. It will occupy 55,000 to 58,000 square feet of the new building. “It’s more [than we have now]. Thankfully, we can grow into it instead of grow out of it,” Smith said.

All three partners approached Center of Life to join the project, all with a need for space for programs and better community visibility. Pitt has had a community engagement program in Hazelwood and collaborated with Center of Life, the Greater Hazelwood Community Collaborative and the Hazelwood Initiative among others in various ways for more than 20 years. It held a Kaleidoscope Summit at Hazelwood Green in February on how the life sciences can positively affect the community, and construction on its $120 million BioForge Biomanufacturing Center is underway. Smith said Pitt’s community engagement staff will have space in the building and possibly from its office of child development and nursing school, too.   

The community center’s genesis reaches back to Center of Life’s founding, and to the meetings held on developing the former Gladstone school building. After community meetings and presentations to Pittsburgh Public Schools and its school board, the Hazelwood Initiative purchased it in 2015 and has been working on it since then. The Gladstone Residences will have 53 units, 44 of which will be permanently affordable housing. Leasing began this year. The news release cites inspiration as well from the Almono group’s visionary purchase of Hazelwood Green in 2002, which laid the groundwork for equitable community development.

The Greater Hazelwood Neighborhood Plan, developed in 2019 by the city with the Greater Hazelwood Community Collaborative and a committee of organizations that Smith chaired, listed a community hub as one of the neighborhood’s needs. A city commission approved it, Smith said, but the pandemic hit.

That plan reflected the collaborative’s vision and the neighborhood’s collective resilience and determination, the news release stated. The Center of Life CEO said, “We’re implementing it now.”

The Rev. Michael Murray, senior chairman of The Greater Hazelwood Community Collaborative, responded in the release, “I take pride in sharing how valuable this organization is and take pleasure in being able to work collaboratively together with them. I have placed my own children into the care of this organization, and it’s been such a wonderful opportunity for them […] I share my heart’s appreciation with this organization, and I would do it all over again with them. They are indeed an asset to the lives of those living in the community.”

Smith sees placing the community center within Hazelwood Green as a connection to the neighborhood, with Center of Life serving as its “umbilical cord.”

Further, the center fits into the nonprofit’s four pillars: early learning, the belief that every human being should get the best education at the earliest age possible; family resources, ensuring they can take care of their children and have opportunities to get good jobs; mental and physical health connections; and cutting-edge arts and technology programs.

“We’re building on that,” Smith said. “We’re not calling this building a one-stop shop. But this is a movement to eliminate poverty and illiteracy. We want to make sure that Hazelwood is never considered an underserved community again.”

He’s very thankful for the ongoing support Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University has given his organization and Hazelwood, which the project will build upon and grow. “They have been great partners, going back to the 1990s,” he said. “They have helped us provide programs and services in the community. They have been part of the folks who have kept the lights on in the community.

And Hazelwood residents have more than done their part, Smith said. “It’s not the new buildings that have helped the people who are underserved,” he stressed. “It’s the people who have been volunteering, running programs like Safe Halloween. People do so many positive things in this community.”

His goal has long been then to building something that “was worthy of the people we serve.” And Smith said the new building will not change Center of Life.

“We have one very important value statement: Everything is about people,” he said. “I tell people it’s not about the building but about the people, lifting them up and providing resources. It’s not about the building. You can do all that without a building. [But] When you are in a nice building, that is nice and clean, decorative and artsy, it does something to your spirit.”

The timing is right now, Smith concluded, with a specific window of opportunity to gather partners, raise the money and construct the center.

He said he also knows that with the right development and planning, it will be used for years to come. “When I am long gone, it will still be a blessing to the community,” Smith said. “I feel the community really deserves it.”