Amazon presents plan to use former Sears Outlet as new station in Lawrenceville

PITTSBURGH — Maura Kennedy spoke with firsthand experience when she told a Lawrenceville community Zoom meeting on Tuesday evening that Amazon’s plan to use the former Sears Outlet on 51st Street in the neighborhood as a new last mile station is expected to be a by right plan without need for any zoning approval.

“We are not actually proposing any changes to the old Sears structure on 51st Street there,” said Kennedy, a one-time Lawrenceville resident and now economic development manager for Amazon. Kennedy served as the city’s first director of permits, licenses and inspections when Mayor Bill Peduto created the new department out of the former Bureau of Building Inspections in 2014.

The fact that the plan was by right, not needing approval for zoning, was a key detail as Amazon made its first public appearance in pursuing the new 330,000-square-foot urban facility as a new distribution hub after first confirming it had committed to the facility last December, making a major change in plans for a building then getting a tech-flex redevelopment makeover.

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