North Shore cooking: Del Monte breaks ground on new quarters near Heinz Field

Friday, June 11, 2004

Del Monte Foods Co. has been making politicians in the region happy since it announced two years ago plans to take over some of the H.J. Heinz Co.'s more troubled lines and keep the related jobs in Pittsburgh.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette An oversized drawing of the Del Monte Center looms over some of the crowd near the Fort Duquesne Bridge along the Allegheny River. Click photo for larger image.

Yesterday, the San Francisco company did it again with a ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on a new $43.7 million Pittsburgh headquarters that will house about 600 administrative employees and add credibility to the long-awaited promise of development on the North Shore.

Mayor Tom Murphy, in between answering questions about Act 47, said the doubting Thomases have now been shown that businesses want to be between the two stadiums. A new headquarters for Equitable Resources already is well under way next to PNC Park.

As Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato was making similar remarks, a four-legged spectator impatient with all the talk took off to act on the business at hand. Pisco, a solid, black dog, quickly placed four paw prints into ceremonial concrete arranged by the Del Monte marketing folks, beating his peers to the punch.

The idea had been to allow canines owned by Del Monte employees to put a mark on the new 270,000-square-foot building, a way to highlight one of Del Monte's new businesses, the pet foods product lines it bought from Heinz, and to recruit photogenic pooches for the event and an easily-bored news corps.

Pisco happened to belong to Todd Lachman, managing director of pet products, who later admitted to a moment of panic when his dog took off. Fortunately, his boss thought it was funny. "The fellow who runs our pet business having his pet get out of control," chuckled Del Monte Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wolford.

Pisco wasn't the only character on hand. Beauregard, a 7-month-old basset hound, lay his head down on the plywood centerpiece for a little snooze during speeches.

And on a more official note, StarKist's Charlie the Tuna and Snocrates, the Snausages Dog, stood by to reflect two businesses picked up in the $2.5 billion Heinz deal. Sweetie Pea, a green creature, represented more traditional Del Monte canned vegetable products.

Missing was Morris the Cat. "He's off shooting a commercial," said Wolford, who promised a return of the finicky feline in the fall.

The Heinz deal also brought with it an infant foods division and a private label soup operation.

The administrative staff that will be moving into the new Del Monte digs aren't the only ones on the North Side. Another 600 or so work in nearby plants that make the infant foods and soups.

Wolford said a relaunch of the infant business had gone well. "That was not on a very positive trajectory until we reinvigorated it," he said. Similarly, he said, the soup business is responding to new investment and marketing.

Del Monte, which hopes to be in its new quarters by late next year, will not be taking all the space in the new structure, which looks rather like two buildings linked by their top three floors.

Frank Kass, chairman of Ohio-based Continental Real Estate Cos., said the food and pet food concern could end up occupying about three-fourths, or 200,000 square feet, of the new facility.

The first floor of the structure and that of the new Equitable Resources building will be leased to retailers and restaurants. While that might bring in service stores such as a Kinko's office and print center, Mayor Murphy also is hoping for a lively riverwalk area filled with cafes spilling out onto the sidewalks.

There's still plenty of work to be done on the North Shore.

Kass, whose company also developed the Waterfront, needs to persuade bankers of the viability of a new parking garage. And Continental has asked Howard Hanna Real Estate to see if the market will support condominiums rather than the apartments originally planned. Apartments would probably have to be priced too high, Kass said.

Wolford urged Continental to hurry up and finish his place. He talked about the glories of no longer braving Pittsburgh winters to walk between the various Del Monte buildings off Route 28.

But he may be looking forward almost as much to the big Del Monte Foods sign shown in the artist's rendering of the building. With a billboard such as that facing the Allegheny River, maybe the company will finally emerge from the shadow of Pittsburgh-based Heinz.