Meeting Thursday Will Present Redevelopment Vision for City

The study group behind a year-long comprehensive review of redevelopment opportunities in McKeesport will present its findings to the public on Thursday.

A public meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. (Nov. 12) by The Collaborative, a group of internationally known community planners who have been working with local residents, community groups, business owners and experts from Harvard and elsewhere to discuss a redevelopment program that includes housing, commercial and industrial development, and recreation.

The meeting will be held at the McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center, 1832 Arboretum Drive, Renziehausen Park.

The Collaborative, which developed similar programs for other small cities such as Bethlehem, Pa., and Savannah, Ga., was retained to do the study by the Young Preservationists of Pittsburgh with grant funding.

People who have seen the proposal say it pays particular attention to the Downtown business district — which has long suffered from vacant storefronts and a lack of commercial activity — and the riverfront corridors.

McKeesport Mayor Tommy Maglicco said the work already done “has blown me away.”

“You can always get out of your comfort zone and try new angles and new techniques,” Maglicco said. “And that’s where the wealth of their experience shows. They have not just one person, but several who have experience with both small cities and large cities.

“They have a wealth of knowledge, and I’m looking forward to learning and growing into my capacity as mayor, and my administration is excited about this opportunity,” he said.

Dominick Anselmo, executive vice president of KU Resources, which is consulting on the project, said “anyone and everyone” is welcome to attend Thursday’s event, and organizers will answer questions from the community.

“We have to make this a place where people want to live and work,” Anselmo said. “That attracts people. So you have to address all of the different things — housing, recreation, education, workforce, jobs.”

“And the way to start to do that is to improve the quality of life for people who are already here, who have shouldered the burden of economic decline,” he said. “And if you do that, people will come.”

The plan being unveiled by The Collaborative on Thursday is a product of multiple meetings and tours of the city, Maglicco said, but it is not a detailed set of blueprints. Instead, it’s a road map for reinventing existing city zoning regulations, policies and procedures to encourage investment, he said.

“This is not just one thing,” Maglicco said. “This starts a process of community engagement and getting out into the community.”

Separately, city council is considering a proposal to replace its in-house community development director with The Collaborative.

A.J. Tedesco, who served as the city’s community development director for 13 years as well as executive director of the Redevelopment Authority of the City of McKeesport, resigned in September to accept as job as assistant manager of Ross Twp.

Maglicco said the city solicited proposals from several community development firms and received three, including one from The Collaborative. The proposal has to be reviewed by the city’s personnel committee and a contract would have to be approved by council, Maglicco said.

McKeesport is one of three municipalities in Allegheny County that directly receives federal Community Development Block Grant money, which is targeted toward projects and programs for low- and moderate-income residents and households.

In addition to code enforcement and building inspections, the community development director also oversees the allocation of federal CDBG money each year. The position reports to Maglicco.

The city budgets $82,264 per year for the community development director’s salary. Maglicco said city officials anticipate the cost of hiring The Collaborative to do the work would be roughly the same.

After seeing the work The Collaborative did for the Young Preservationists of Pittsburgh, the mayor said, when the firm made a proposal to take over operation of the city’s community development program “it struck me as an opportunity for them to do a lot more.”

“All of the pieces are there,” Maglicco said. “We have a grant writer from Urban Design Ventures, he’s been there, he knows all of the ins and outs. And now we potentially have (The Collaborative) to be our negotiators. Reading some of their different ideas, and seeing some of the cities they’ve worked with throughout the United States, it just blew me away. It would be an honor to work aside them.”

Three other positions are located in the community development department — a secretary and two code-enforcement officers. Maglicco said those jobs, and the people in those roles, would continue.

Building inspections are already contracted to an outside firm, Building Inspection Underwriters, based in Moon Twp.

(Above photo: In November 2025, Dom Anselmo of Duquesne-based KU Resources and Ed Shoucair, president and co-founder of The Collaborative, led a community discussion group at the Palisades. Tube City Almanac file . )

Meeting Thursday Will Present Redevelopment Vision for City

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