Gripping an unlit cigar between his teeth, Don Rodgers waves his arm over a colorful schematic of his next big development for Cranberry and declares it the consummate mix of everything he's ever tried to do in the township he calls home to both his family and his business.
"It has elements of everything I've done to this point in my career," Mr. Rodgers said of The Village of Cranberry Woods.
Indeed, from hotels to townhomes, from offices to restaurants, from retail shops to "live-work" apartments -- a fancy of way of describing second-floor apartments atop first-floor stores -- The Village is the kind of mixed use development that planners dream of.
"We see this development as exciting. It perfectly meets our vision of what we want in a sustainable Cranberry," said Cranberry planning director Ron Henshaw.
Featuring 630,000 square feet of development, The Village is Mr. Rodgers' single biggest enterprise yet, and that's saying something for a developer who has his fingerprints on much of the township's streetscape. During the past two decades, Mr. Rodgers has brought restaurants to the south side of Route 228, shopping to the north side of Route 228, hotels to Freedom Road and Route 19, offices to Commonwealth Drive and a retro-residential development to Rochester Road. To this point, Mr. Rodgers' single biggest commercial development was the 560,000-square-foot Cranberry Commons shopping plaza across the street from The Village.
He'll have a little bit of all of the above in The Village, a $191 million development that will perch on a 57-acre plateau adjacent to the new Westinghouse corporate campus overlooking the south side of Route 228.
The plan is wending its way through the municipal approval process, having already won endorsements from the township's planning advisory committee. Township supervisors gave conditional use and preliminary land development approval on March 4.
Mr. Henshaw said he expects no roadblocks to be raised by township officials.
"The developer has been extremely cooperative and patient. We've worked very closely together on this plan to come up with something that serves all purposes," he said.
One of those purposes is to meet the needs of Mr. Rodgers' neighbor, Westinghouse. In fact, he said he has met with corporate officials to discuss some of the services they'd like to have at their fingertips: a ready supply of hotels, furnished apartments available for long-term lease, high-end restaurants for wining and dining.
And that's applauded by Westinghouse officials, who acknowledged having relayed to Mr. Rodgers "our views on the types of business that we think will be beneficial to our company and our global guests," said Tony Greco Sr., vice president of human resources and corporate relations.
The plan has been in development for three years and the end result is something Mr. Rodgers' is hailing as a "win for everybody." He said he believes the project will be financially profitable for him, noting that, despite the economic downturn in other parts of the world, he already has private financing in place for the first phase.
He also believes the community will benefit from the array of businesses that will set up shop and he said the township will like the innovative planning elements that are being incorporated, such as walking trails and sidewalks that make the development pedestrian-friendly and aesthetic elements like wrought iron, brick, and heavy landscaping that add attractiveness.
Mr. Henshaw concurred. "The Village at Cranberry Woods returns to a development style of old. That hints at something that is sustainable. That's what we want for the township," he said.
It will allow people to "live, work and play in the same spot," Mr. Henshaw said.
"That's the way of the future -- less reliance on the automobile, a greater sense of community because of the interconnectedness with neighbors," he said.
Mr. Rodgers has divided the project into phases. While the plans are preliminary and will be refined by market demand, the shape of the first phase is most definite and includes extending an existing east-west road called Long Tree Way to Franklin Road where the intersection will be signalized.
Buildings will include a 135-room, five-story Hilton Garden Inn, three restaurants and a retail building. It will be on a section of land closest to Route 228. While he won't disclose the restaurants, he said one is a sports bar and one is a high-end sit-down.
He expects to break ground this spring.
The second phase is to include 18 townhouses, a 114-room Hilton Homewood Suites and a restaurant. It will be built on a section of land closest to Westinghouse. Mr. Rodgers hopes to break ground this fall.
The third phase, to be built at the center of the site, is to include a 13-screen movie theater with a first-floor entertainment complex, a retail building, a restaurant, a 211-stall parking garage with offices above the parking area, 180 apartments in two four-story buildings with ground-floor retail, offices atop a retail building and a 640-space three-deck garage.
He hopes to break ground for this in the fall of 2011 or spring of 2012.
The fourth phase is an a L-shaped retail building at the entrance to the development, where a round-about is situated at the entrance to Westinghouse. Another component of the final phase is a bank and six live-work units with offices or shops on the first floor and apartments above.
He said this component of the plan has no time frame.
The entire site will have 3,200 parking spaces plus hundreds of landscape plants, a center piazza in the phase three with a fountain and play area for children, and a host of gazebos, buildings with canopies and balconies, benches and bike racks.
Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
