Pittsburgh Steel Mill Reborn as 700K Sq Ft Robotics Hub

Where Pittsburgh's last steel mill once stood empty for decades, cutting-edge robots are now being built and a new neighborhood is coming to life.

The Jones & Laughlin Steel Pittsburgh Works closed in the 1980s, leaving 178 acres of prime riverfront land vacant along the Monongahela River. For years, the abandoned industrial site sat unused, a reminder of the city's lost manufacturing glory.

But starting in 2019, something remarkable began happening. The site, now called Hazelwood Green, started its transformation with Mill 19, a renovated tech office space that honored the area's industrial past while building its future.

The real momentum came after 2022. Carnegie Mellon University opened its Robotics Innovation Center at the site this year, creating a world-class facility for developing the next generation of robotics technology. Pitt's BioForge facility will join it this fall, bringing life sciences research to the former mill grounds.

Tech companies followed the universities. ElevateBio, Hellbender AI, and autonomous vehicle company Motional now call Hazelwood Green home, creating hundreds of jobs in fields that didn't even exist when the steel mill closed.

The transformation goes beyond offices and labs. Woodlawn Lofts, the development's first apartment complex with 160 units, opens in December. The housing includes market-rate apartments, affordable homes for low-income residents, and special units for single parents working on their degrees.

Public spaces are bringing life back to the riverfront. The new park hosted movie nights this summer, drawing families to a place many Pittsburghers had only known as industrial wasteland. The U.S. Steel Community Field recently hosted its first high school football game, with thousands of people cheering under the lights where steel was once forged.

The numbers tell the story of acceleration. Between 2010 and 2022, developers built just 250,000 square feet at Hazelwood Green. Since 2022 alone, they've completed or started construction on 700,000 square feet.

The Ripple Effect

The redevelopment received support from Pittsburgh's philanthropic community, with hundreds of millions in donations from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, U.S. Steel, and the Heinz Endowments. Their investment is creating ripples far beyond the site itself.

Austin Gelbard, managing director at developer Tishman Speyer, says the goal is creating reasons for people to visit. "We want to bring folks down to the site for something fun," he explains. The public plaza and park next to the Robotics Innovation Center are designed to become the neighborhood's main street as shops and more housing arrive.

And there's room to grow. The southern end still has 58 acres available for tech companies, light industry, and retail. The northern section can accommodate 1,200 more housing units, potentially making Hazelwood Green home to a vibrant residential community.

Another small park opens next month near the football field entrance, connecting the new development to the existing Hazelwood neighborhood and welcoming visitors to see what's possible when a city refuses to let its story end with its past.