A developer wants to replace five condemned and vacant buildings in Downtown’s Firstside Historic District with four bocce courts.

One of the buildings once housed Froggy’s bar. In 2020, Michael Troiani with the Troiani Group sought permission to tear down three late-19th century buildings along First Avenue and Market Street and replace them with a 385-foot apartment-and-office tower. But the City Planning Commission at the time blocked the plans in an attempt to preserve the historic district and respect the prevailing smaller scale of the district. 

On Tuesday the Troiani group returned to the commission with plans to demolish four buildings and create courts for people to play the sport formalized in Italy.

The Troiani family began acquiring Firstside parcels around 30 years ago, Michael Troiani told PublicSource in 2020. The family took steps to repair and lease the long-vacant buildings but couldn’t find interested tenants. Several of the buildings became too dangerous for habitation.

The Troiani Group couldn’t be reached for comment in time for publication of this story. 

During the Tuesday meeting the commission noted that the site has a national, but not local, historic designation, and thus the plan didn’t need to be reviewed by the city’s Historic Review Commission. 

Along with four bocce courts, the plan includes seating, trees and a chain link fence surrounding the site. 

Michael Troiani told the commissioners that gameplay will be arranged through paid reservations. He hoped the courts would tap into some of the bocce leagues active in the city.

“This is an opportunity to have everyone mix in good society over gameplay and I think it will benefit the city for quite some time,” Troiani said. 

Commissioner Peter Quintanilla said that the 4-foot-high chain link fence in which the developers are planning to encase the courts wouldn’t fit in with the urban character of the area. The parcel in question is zoned as Golden Triangle District C, which permits construction of parks with lighted playing courts as well as other recreational uses.

“It’s not what you would imagine to see in downtown Pittsburgh; it’s a very rural character in general, the chain link fence,” Quintanilla said. 

He suggested that when the developers bring their proposal for a vote they should provide the commissioners with other ideas for fencing that would be more inviting. 

“I’m concerned about people walking by and what would that look like for them,” Quintanilla said. 

The developers said they would look at other options for the next commission meeting. The developers could ask the commission to vote on their proposal during that meeting, which is scheduled for Dec. 12.

Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter, and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.

Know more than you did before? Support this work with a gift!

Readers tell us they can't find the information they get from our reporting anywhere else, and we're proud to provide this important service for our community. We work hard to produce accurate, timely, impactful journalism without paywalls that keeps our region informed and moving forward.

However, only about .1% of the people who read our stories contribute to our work financially. Our newsroom depends on the generosity of readers like yourself to make our high-quality local journalism possible, and the costs of the resources it takes to produce it have been rising, so each member means a lot to us.

Your donation to our nonprofit newsroom helps ensure everyone in Allegheny County can stay up-to-date about decisions and events that affect them. Please make your gift of support now.

GIVE NOW

Eric Jankiewicz is a reporter focused on housing and economic development for PublicSource. A native New Yorker, Eric moved to Pittsburgh in 2017 and has since fallen in love with his adopted city, even...