Shortly after he took office in February 2023, state Rep. Joe McAndrew, D-Penn Hills, sat down with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Councilman Khari Mosley to identify common issues they should address along the city’s eastern border with Penn Hills.

One of the first things to come to mind was access to the former East Hills Shopping Center, a 40-acre site at Frankstown Avenue and Robinson Boulevard with most of the property in Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg and a sliver in the city. The land is mostly vacant and overgrown except for the facility operated by its owner, Petra International Ministries, and a massive salvage yard, U Pull-and-Pay Pittsburgh.

State and local officials delivered a $250,000 check Tuesday to Petra to pave the main access to the site, the pothole-filled and littered East Hills Drive that winds for about a quarter mile from Frankstown to the developed portion of the property. The money comes from Allegheny  County’s share of gambling proceeds through the county’s Redevelopment Authority, where grant requests were more than 10 times the money available.

But the trip getting there wasn’t easy.

Part of the reason the driveway hasn’t been cared for in the past 15 years was that no one claimed ownership of the road, which passes through the site and continues onto heavily populated streets in the city’s East Hills neighborhood. After an extensive records search, McAndrew determined that the road had been developed privately by the former Zayre’s discount store and had never been turned over to a municipal entity.

So that means the church, which now owns the property, also is responsible for the road. With that information in hand, officials set out to find a source to fund improvements at the site, which will include streetlights and fencing to limit dumping, and settled on the gambling funds.

“I think for years, [city residents and leaders] thought Penn Hills was being jerks by not taking care of this,” McAndrew said. “I’m very excited to see this first step accomplished. This is what can happen when we work together.”

Gainey praised the communities and the church for working together rather than pointing fingers.

“Instead of arguing, they came together to figure out how to get it done,” the mayor said.

State Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, agreed.

“[McAndrew] and I have been working on this for a long time,” he said. “I know what this means to Petra. Teamwork leads to dream work.”

Changing mission

When Petra bought the site in 1999, the church had big plans for commercial development along with the headquarters for its ministry. East Hills had been a popular strip shopping center with several dozen stores including Sears and Joseph Horne, but it fell on hard times after a March 1972 incident in which two Penn Hills police officers were killed, and it closed in 1980.

When the church tried to redevelop the site, it initially ran into trouble because of the triumvirate of property owners and zoning standards. The three communities reached an agreement to standardize zoning and share tax proceeds regardless of who owned property that was developed.

At the behest of potential developers, officials funded a housing revitalization effort in East Hills to make the area more attractive. Bishop Donald O. Clay Jr., pastor at Petra, remembered Tuesday there were several near misses over the years with retailers such as Walmart, Kmart and Lowes strongly considering the site before walking away.

“For years, we were trying to do a community development,” Clay said in an interview after the news conference. “We sat for a long period of time to see what would work here and what won’t work.”

Now, Clay said, the church is changing its approach from trying to draw developers and worshippers to the church to reaching out to the community to help meet the social service needs of nearby residents. Symbolically, paving the driveway will make it easier for residents to come to the site, but it also will encourage the church to extend its ministry into the community.

“For all of us … we are committing to a new East Hills,” he said. “Right now, we have a community in crisis. We’re really going to be creating wrap-around social services to provide what people really need.

“I’m truly seeking to take [the ministry] into the community. I believe a big part of the church’s responsibility is to go into the community. What are the services that are lacking, and how can we help?”

Clay already has a strong endorsement of that effort from state Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, D-Morningside, whose district includes East Hills.

“The sentiment in the community is that East Hills has been forgotten,” she said. “East Hills will always be a priority for me. This is a big day for East Hills.”

Building connections

As McAndrew begins his second term, he said he already has identified a series of other potential areas to work across the border with the city. He believes joint sponsorship of the paving application with Mayes played a big role in getting it approved.

“The East Hills has hundreds of people who are really close to Penn Hills,” he said. “They shop, drive and visit in Penn Hills.”

McAndrew said he has already identified other areas of cooperation, such as a portion of Verona Road that is in unsatisfactory condition as it weaves its way back and forth between the two communities.

“This is the first step between Penn Hills and the city as we’re growing our work together.”

Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he’s currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.