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Penn Plaza residents running out of time to relocate amid court battle

PITTSBURGH — Dozens of Penn Plaza tenants came together Thursday to pass out flyers and fight back against their forced relocation.

Myrtle Stem said she believes she and nearly 20 others are being forced out of Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood by developers.

The deadline to move out is "two weeks away, and I don’t have no place to go,” she told Channel 11 News.

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LG Realty purchased the Penn Plaza apartment complex with the intention of building a Whole Foods, high-end apartments and office space, giving residents until the end of March to move out.

Stem said she wants to remain in East Liberty, but she’s not getting that option.

“They want me to move to Verona. I don’t want to go to Verona. That's out of the city,” she said. “My family is here. Everything is here.”

A judge recently put an emergency stop on construction at the site. Developers and city leaders said they continue to negotiate a fair deal for the impacted residents.

“We are saying to the developers, ‘You got government to build in the community. There is a moral obligation to build housing that is affordable for the people who live here already,’” Stem said.

The attorney representing LG Realty told Channel 11 News that he is under a gag order and could not discuss details of the case. He was able to confirm that LG Realty is working with the city and Relocation Office to make sure the needs of residents are being met and giving them different relocation options.