AN ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING OF THE NEW CENTER OF LIFE BUILDING TO BE PLACED NEAR THE FRONT ENTRANCE OF HAZELWOOD GREEN. | IMAGE COURTESY AE WORKS/CENTER OF LIFE

Two projects are coming to Hazelwood Green that aim to enrich both the neighborhood community as well as youth sports.

The Pittsburgh Planning Commission has approved a $10 million plan by the Steelers to build a youth sports complex at Hazelwood Green, a 178-acre tech and innovation development on a former LTV steel mill along the Monongahela River.

The project, which would operate daily and be branded with the Steelers logo, would include a multipurpose field, bleachers that seat 3,000 people, concession stand, parking and more.

According to the Steelers, activities will include youth football, clinics with current and former Steelers players and coaches, boys and girls flag football, soccer games and clinics and renovation of a 10,000 square-foot building on the site to enable indoor sports and recreation activities, so the site can be used year-round. As it grows, the complex also could include top-tier food and beverage concessions and be enhanced to accommodate high school sports.

This is funded by a $10 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and would be the eighth project at Hazelwood Green, which was purchased in 2002 for development by Alomo LP (a collective of four foundations, which includes the Richard King Mellon Foundation).

This is being developed by Tishman Speyer, which was selected by Alomo to be the master developer of Hazelwood Green. The complex is expected to break ground this winter.

For the other project, the Center of Life, a community enrichment organization that provides youth and family-centered programs for Hazelwood, is expanding to a new home just inside the front entrance of Hazelwood Green.

The Heinz Endowments is providing a $5 million funding match to build a three-story, 67,000 square-foot building that will overlook Hazelwood Green’s 2-acre great lawn. Its current, smaller building is located on Hazelwood Avenue, about two blocks from the Hazelwood Green entrance.

Under the agreement with the Heinz Endowments, the matching funding must be secured by Dec. 31, 2026 for the project to move forward.

Scott Roller, strategic communications manager for the Heinz Endowments, said that after groundbreaking, the new center should be completed in about 16 months.

Center of Life, which was founded in 2001, is “an incredible bridge between Hazelwood families and the new neighbors moving in at Hazelwood Green, and we are excited about their vision to be even more purposeful about that with this precedent-setting project,” Rob Stephany, senior program director of Community & Economic Development for The Heinz Endowments, said in a statement. “The Endowments’ funding match commitment is our stake in that powerful future.”

Center of Life founder and Executive Director Tim Smith, who has been involved in the neighborhood since the early 1990s, said in a statement that the endowment’s commitment “is a great step forward in our next chapter. It has the potential to help us reach even more youth and families and directly connect the community to Hazelwood Green. We are excited because we believe this multi-faceted partnership can be a regional and national model.”

The University of Pittsburgh, which has been a collaborator in the Hazelwood neighborhood for 25 years, is offering a set of educational opportunities in STEM for children and most recently a workforce bridge program to connect community members to the emerging life sciences sector. Center of Life is anticipating anchoring the Pitt Neighborhood Commitment project in its new building.