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A grocery store. Restaurants. A wine bar. Renovated apartments and office space. And a badly neglected movie theater restored into a new nonprofit independent film center.

Those were the ideas four developers pitched to a large and eager crowd of North Side residents at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh Monday night, on how they would redevelop the focal block of long dilapidated property on North Street in front of Allegheny Commons Park.

The developers — Lawrenceville-based Barron CRE; Spokane, Wash.-based Wells and Company, suburban Philadelphia-based Zukin Realty and locally-based Aaron Stubna — presented their plans for the block best known for the looming presence of the Garden Theater. The neighborhood movie theater was originally built in 1915, but has become an image of blight for decades thanks to its use as a pornographic movie house.

With the theater now long closed and the entire block under the ownership of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, a nonprofit organization called North Side Tomorrow is now leading the effort to choose a developer to take on the block of property.

“This is a good problem to have,” emphasized Kirk Burkley, board president for NorthSide Tomorrow. “We could be here today with (no developers). And we have five.”

The fifth developer, James Welker, was unable to attend Monday's meeting.

The first presentation by Bill Barron proposed tearing down the bulk of the auditorium for the Garden Theater, leaving a restored facade, as required by city historic standards, developing the theater’s front into a restaurant, freeing up space behind it for parking while redeveloping the rest of the surrounding buildings into 34 apartments.

Barron acknowledged up front that he expected the plan to be controversial, his plan calling for the URA to ensure the stability of some of the other long neglected property before taking them on as redevelopment projects. He expects to pursue the remaining four-story Bradberry and Mason Hall buildings as viable redevelopment projects, using the remaining space from eliminating the Garden Theater auditorium to provide dedicated parking for each of the apartment units.

Wells and Company has done many historic redevelopments in Downtown Spokane and have become familiar with Pittsburgh thanks in part to their relationship with Mike Edwards, CEO of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. Edwards served in a similar role with Downtown Spokane’s business improvement district.

Wells proposed pursuing the development under the ownership of a separate nonprofit ownership entity, and then leasing the property for a 50-year term, enabling them to structure financing and development plans to better access historic tax credits and other forms of a assistance.

The company wants to restore the theater and make it available to local arts groups while doing historic rehabs to all the surrounding buildings. Their plan calls for developing as many as 100 apartment units on the site, a number predicated on whether or not the considerably damaged properties on the eastern edge of the block that runs up Federal Street are deemed too far gone to rehabilitate.

If not, Wells plans to develop four-story apartment building there with first-floor retail, a project estimated to cost $10.1 million. If the can be restored, the total project by Wells would call for between 50 and 70 apartments. Their total project cost estimate was between $15 million and $20 million.

Zukin Realty Company, which first became familiar with the Pittsburgh market after it bought the Forbes and Murray building occupied by Vivisimo in 2006 for $11.46 million, also proposed redeveloping only the facade and front portion of the Garden Theater building for a new 5,000 square foot grocery. Wayne Zukin, who has developed historic property in Philadelphia and West Chester, Pa., emphasized an approach based on establishing local independent retailers and restaurants and doing basic rehabilitations of all the buildings that are already in place in the Garden Theater block, adding between 35 and 40 apartments. He estimated his total development cost at between $8 million to $10 million.

Stubna, working with partner Bill Porko, only expressed interest in the theater itself, proposing to restore it into a independent film center that would be redeveloped with a companion wine bar and cafe.

While financing for any real estate development is difficult in the current economy, said Burkley, the North Side’s collaborating community organizations have established a strong package of public assistance for the project. That includes $4 million in new market tax credits raised by the North Side Community Development Fund, $2 million in state funding, and $1.5 million in tax increment financing.

Burkley said North Side Tomorrow plans to make a final selection of a developer this fall and break ground on construction in summer 2011.

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Stocks rallied Friday, finding momentum at the end of a choppy session ahead of the first wave of quarterly corporate results due out next week.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 59 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 8 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq (COMP) composite rose 21 points, or 1%.

All three major indexes drifted on both sides of unchanged during the session before finally turning higher in the last hour.

Investors returned from the Independence Day holiday this week in the mood to buy shares that had been battered in a two-month selloff. In the four sessions this week, the Dow gained 512 points, or 5.3%. The S&P 500 rose 5.4% and the Nasdaq was up 5%.

It was the best week in nearly a year for the market, with all three major gauges seeing their biggest results since the week ended July 17, 2009. in that week, the three majors all gained between 7% and 7.4%.

"The market has rebounded this week in anticipation of a fairly decent period of corporate earnings," said Tyler Vernon, chief investment officer at Biltmore Capital. "This will be a nice bounce, but long term, I think a lot of the concerns about the global economy are still there."

While there haven’t been many positives on the economic front, there’s been some optimism that companies will still be able to continue to make profits, even with the economic strain.

Analysts currently expect year-over-year growth of 27%, according to the latest figures from Thomson Reuters. Dow components Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) and GE (GE, Fortune 500) are all due next week.

Google: The Internet behemoth renewed its license with the Chinese government to operate its site in that country, following a four-month battle over censorship.

A renewal had been in question due to tension between the company and China over the censorship of search results online payday loans. But Google’s decision last week to no longer automatically redirect users of Google’s China site to its uncensored Hong Kong site seemed to pave the way for the renewal.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) shares gained 2.4%.

On the move: Financials were among the big gainers Friday, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), US Bancorp (USB, Fortune 500) and Regions Financial (RF, Fortune 500) among the stocks lifting the KBW Bank (BKX) index by 2.4%.

Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), DuPont (DD, Fortune 500), Merck (MRK, Fortune 500) and Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) were among the Dow’s biggest gainers.

Market breadth was positive and volume was very light. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers by almost four to one on volume of 880 million shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by three to one on volume of 1.61 billion shares.

Economy: Wholesale Inventories rose 0.5% in May after climbing 0.2% in April. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected inventories to rise 0.4%.

World markets: European markets gained, with Britain’s FTSE 100 rising 0.5%, Germany’s DAX advancing 0.5% and France’s CAC 40 climbing 0.5%.

Asian markets rallied after South Korea raised its benchmark interest rate, seen as an optimistic sign for the economy. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.6% and the Shanghai Composite rose 2.5%.

Commodities: U.S. light crude oil for August delivery rose $1.01 to $76.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for August delivery gained $16.30 to $1,209.80 an ounce.

Bonds: Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.06% from 3.02% late Thursday. Debt prices and yields move in opposite directions. 

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ST. LOUIS — With less than a week until the President Casino shuts its doors, the union representing workers there turned up the heat Monday over benefits for those who will lose their jobs.

About 25 casino workers gathered at a north St. Louis church to urge Pinnacle Entertainment to give retention or severance benefits to the more than 200 employees who still work at the soon-to-close riverboat casino. They say Pinnacle, when it agreed to close the President, told workers they would receive either severance or jobs at one of the company’s two other casinos. But the company later backed away from that offer.

It is a slap in the face, say employees, many of whom have worked at the riverboat since it opened in 1994.

"We just want to know what we’ve done wrong," said Pamela Perry, a cage cashier who was turned down for jobs at both Lumière Place and River City. "We want answers."

The issue has been a sore spot for months, with the union — Unite Here Local 74 — holding rallies and trying to gather local support, accusing Pinnacle of dumping its President employees. On June 3, a worker filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing Pinnacle of age discrimination for refusing to hire many President employees over age 40 at its other casinos. And the union has asked three area congressmen to investigate.

Pinnacle says it is not that simple. It says only 63 President employees have applied for jobs at Lumière or River City since December, and it has hired 20 since March. It held a job fair and training programs, but relatively few employees came, said Jack Godfrey, the company’s general counsel.

And in a statement Monday, Pinnacle said the union could have helped save jobs by being a stronger ally when the Missouri Gaming Commission was trying to close the casino early this year.

"We wish that Local 74 really had exhibited the same zest in keeping the property open that they are now displaying with an advertising and web campaigns against Pinnacle," Godfrey said in a statement.

The sharp words came as the two sides prepared to meet today for more talks on a severance package. It is just the first sit-down they have had in a month. With the President set to close Monday, time is running out. But Dave Morton, an organizer with the union, said Local 74 would keep pushing.

"This fight doesn’t end on June 28."

——

Jacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Color & Supply Co. Inc. and subsidiary Kentucky Paint Manufacturing Co. have been sold to Farrell-Calhoun Paint, a Memphis, Tenn.-based coatings manufacturer and distributor.

Farrell-Calhoun’s acquisition includes a manufacturing facility, three Kentucky Paint retail stores in Lexington and Frankfort, Ky., and seven product lines, including FenceGuard, Double Duty, Acrylex and Dura Lex.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Farrell-Calhoun operates 30 company-owned stores in five states and distributes through dealers in a total of 13 states.

The company was founded in 1905 and manufactures industrial maintenance and architectural coatings, including its own product, Green Leaf maximum performance coatings.

The purchase gives Farrell-Calhoun a base for distribution in central Kentucky and a popular line of fence paint used in the horse farm industry, the company said in a news release.

Color & Supply was founded in 1929. Its Kentucky Paint stores will be rebranded as Farrell-Calhoun/Town & Ranch stores and will carry both Farrell-Calhoun and Town & Ranch products, the release said.

Randy McMillen, dealer operations manager for Farrell-Calhoun, will relocate to Lexington to become area district manager.

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Ameren Corp. will cut 75 jobs at its merchant generation business, which produces electricity for the commercial and wholesale power markets.

The jobs, both management and union-represented, are at several power plants and support service facilities in Illinois and Missouri. Affected employees will be notified in mid-May. No further details were given.

"While it is always difficult to reduce staffing, we believe these reductions are critical to meet the realities of today’s depressed power markets. Prices for the power we sell today are far below the levels of earlier years," said Chuck Naslund, president and chief executive of Ameren Energy Resources Co., which operates St. Louis-based Ameren’s merchant generation business.

These staffing reductions, coupled with other planned spending cuts, will reduce net expenses by about $20 million in 2010, Ameren said Monday in a news release. Ameren Energy Resources will also evaluate temporarily ceasing operations at its least-efficient plants and taking actions to reduce its benefits costs.

Monday’s announcement follows the elimination of about 135 Ameren Energy Resources positions in 2009.

The company said the layoffs are unrelated to the Illinois Commerce Commission’s decision to slash Ameren’s request to raise electricity and natural gas rates.

Last week, Illinois regulators permitted Ameren to collect only an additional $5 million a year in electricity delivery charges after it initially sought a $162 million increase to help meet rising costs and pay for infrastructure improvements. The ICC also ordered a reduction in the gas delivery charges for all Ameren customers in that state.

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Customers are flocking to Apple and Best Buy stores in Colorado and elsewhere over the weekend to be among the first to score one of Apple’s new iPad tablet computers.

An estimated 600,000 to 700,000 iPads sold nationwide on Saturday, the first day of sale. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster issued that assessment of sales in U.S. stores and pre-orders, doubling his pre-launch estimate.

Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch, meanwhile, had predicted sales of up to 1.5 million units for the quarter ending in June, and between 2 million and 6 million for the full fiscal year.

By comparison, the first Apple iPhone took 74 days to hit 1 million sales, while the subsequent iPhone 3G and Phone 3GS both hit the million mark in three days.

In Colorado, at mid-morning Saturday there was a line of about 50 people leading into the Apple store at Park Meadows mall in Lone Tree, south of Denver, with shoppers being "metered" into the store, the Mac Observer website reported. It said that about 1,000 people were lined up to enter the store when the iPhone 3GS was launched.

The 9.7-inch touch-screen iPads, which are available at all Apple stores and most Best Buy outlets, are priced starting at $499 and for now include only the ability to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.

Versions that are also capable of running on AT&T’s 3G wireless network are scheduled to go on sale at the end of the month.

Many observers praise the design, but some note it also has limitations, such as no camera, no external keyboard, a lack of USB ports and the inability to run flash applications.

Overall, however, the reaction among reviewers and influential players in the technology world was enthusiastic over the weekend.

Fortune reported that as of 8:30 p.m. MDT Saturday night, only one of the 20 stores contacted by Munster’s team had run out of iPads. Twitter messages on Sunday morning, however, reported sellouts at many Best Buys and some Apple stores.

CEO Steve Jobs, his wife and The Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal and Patrick Hoge of San Francisco Business Times contributed.daughter visited the Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., themselves, while co-founder Steve Wozniak made another of his celebrated "regular guy" visits to a company store in nearby San Jose.

The Better Business Bureau cautioned that scams have cropped up around the country in connection with the iPad launch, some of which offer victims a free iPad in exchange for a consumer’s credit card number or other personal information.

The BBB said consumers should buy their iPad dierctly from Apple or an authorized retailer.

Click here for more coverage on the iPad from the DBJ’s sister paper, the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal.

And click here for Apple’s iPad website.

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Ecology and Environment Inc. will expand its operations western United States with the formation of a new subsidiary.

The Lancaster environmental consulting firm said the added unit, Lowham Walsh LLC, will focus on the Rocky Mountain and Northern Great Plains region. E&E (NASDAQ: EEI) recently increased its ownership stake in its Walsh subsidiary to 76 percent from 58 percent.

“E&E has been working in the west for nearly four decades, and we recognize the enormous importance of this part of the country for meeting national energy demands. This increased regional presence will enable us to better serve our clients and is a valuable addition to our domestic operations,” said company president and CEO Kevin Neumaier.

The expansion follows E&E’s recent opening of an office in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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India’s food-inflation rate stayed at around 18 percent for a sixth week, a sign that farm prices may have peaked and will start declining soon.

An index measuring wholesale prices of lentils, rice, vegetables and other food articles compiled by the commerce ministry rose 17.81 percent in the week ended Feb. 27 from a year earlier after a 17.87 percent gain the previous week, according to a statement in New Delhi today.

New crops of wheat, sugar and lentils will ease pressure on farm prices, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said this week. Sugar prices in India have dropped 19 percent from a record on Jan. 8 as production rose and the government took steps to boost supplies.

“Food inflation is already showing some early signs of rolling over,” said Rajeev Malik, a Singapore-based regional economist at Macquarie Group Ltd. “Monsoon rainfall remains a key risk that is too early to call.”

Agriculture prices surged in India after last year’s monsoon rains between June and September, the main source of irrigation in the country, were the weakest since 1972.

To ensure enough supplies, the government extended duty- free purchases of white sugar until Dec. 31 and banned export of wheat and rice.

Food Output

Sugar buyers in India, the world’s biggest user, may renegotiate some import contracts as a decline in domestic prices to a four-month low makes overseas purchases unprofitable, Michael McDougall, a senior vice president at Newedge USA, told Bloomberg News on March 5.

Sugar output in India, the world’s biggest buyer of the commodity, will be higher than forecast as cane yields improve, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said March 9. Production may total 16.8 million metric tons in the year ending Sept. 30, up from an earlier estimate of 16 million tons, the group said.

The wheat harvest will also reach a record this year and the government may consider lifting a ban on its exports, Indian farm minister Sharad Pawar said March 4 free credit report and score.

Even so, India’s benchmark wholesale-price inflation may accelerate to 9.67 percent in February, the highest in 16 months, according to the median estimate of 11 economists in a Bloomberg News Survey. The commerce ministry will release the inflation data on March 15 at noon in New Delhi.

Excise Tax

Sixty percent of the January inflation reading of 8.56 percent was contributed by food prices.

Food inflation “won’t be a cause for concern” in the next fiscal year starting April 1, Ahluwalia said March 9.

“Food-price inflation has moderated over the last couple of weeks,” central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao told reporters in Basle, Switzerland, on March 8. He said manufacturing inflation is showing signs of accelerating though.

Subbarao said he expects “some impact” on inflation after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee raised excise tax on fuel on Feb. 26 to mobilize revenue and cut the budget deficit.

Mukherjee imposed a one-rupee levy on every liter of gasoline and diesel while increasing the excise tax on almost all products to 10 percent from 8 percent.

The yield on India’s 10-year government bond touched 8.00 percent this week, the highest in 17 months, on concern inflation will erode the value of the debt’s returns. The yield has gained 36 basis points since Feb. 1.

“The increase in oil prices will push the inflation rate to double digits by March,” said Rahul Bajoria, an economist at Barclays Capital in Singapore.

Companies such as Steel Authority of India Ltd., the nation’s second-largest producer, and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., India’s biggest carmaker, raised prices after the taxes were raised.

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The Senate on Wednesday approved a $15 billion job-creation bill that would give businesses tax breaks for hiring the unemployed and states more money for infrastructure projects.

The four-prong bill would:

• Exempt employers from Social Security payroll taxes on new hires who were unemployed;
• Fund highway and transit programs through 2010;
• Extend a tax break for business that spend money on capital investments, such as equipment purchases;
• Expand the use of the Build America Bonds program, which helps states and municipalities fund capital construction projects.

The legislation, approved by a 70-28 vote, is a scaled-down version of an $85 billion bipartisan draft bill that was crafted by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Some 13 Republicans, including newly elected Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., voted for the measure Wednesday.

"Today’s progress is a small step forward but an important one," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who surprised many lawmakers last week when he announced the slimmed-down measure. "This morning’s vote is a victory for hard-working Americans, especially those trying to find work. This will help our economy grow."

It now moves to the House, which may take it up as soon as Friday, said a Democratic aide at the House, which passed a more comprehensive $154 billion bill in December.

However, the bill does not extend the deadline to apply for unemployment benefits or the Cobra health insurance subsidy. Some 1.2 million people will run out of benefits after Feb. 28 if the deadline is not extended cash advance. Lawmakers are looking to pass a separate, shorter extension by the end of the week in order to give them time to enact a longer fix.

Also, unlike the House’s bill, the Senate’s jobs measure does not provide additional assistance for states. Many governors want the Obama administration to send more federal dollars so they can cope with yawning budget gaps.

The administration said on Monday that it strongly supports the $15 billion jobs measure but indicated it is only one step in the job-creation effort. The president wants lawmakers to take up a bill that would increase small businesses’ access to credit.

Reid said the Senate will vote on extending tax provisions and small business job measures in the near future. The majority leader also said lawmakers will consider providing additional Medicaid money for states, which governors have been requesting.

"We have other things in mind," Reid said. "Remember, we don’t have a jobs bill, we have a jobs agenda."

Still, labor leaders and left-leaning think tanks say the Senate must do more to spur job creation.

"We need to create 11 million jobs to get back to the level of unemployment we had before the recession began," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. "Yet the Senate jobs bill would create no more than a couple hundred thousand jobs."

CNN Radio Correspondent Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report. 

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MONTREAL–Bombardier Inc. has received an order from Spain's national rail operator to maintain a fleet of high-speed trains for 14 years, the transportation equipment maker announced Thursday.

RENFE will pay US$917 million to Bombardier and Spanish railway vehicle maker Talgo to maintain the new trains. Bombardier's share of the contract comes to US$405 million.

The maintenance activities will take place at RENFE's depots in Spain with work expected to begin in 2010.

Bombardier will be responsible for the preventive and corrective maintenance of the train power-heads, power supply, signalling and propulsion system and auxiliaries.

The trains that will be maintained are currently being manufactured by Bombardier in association with Talgo.

Bombardier is no stranger to Spain's railway industry, and employs more than 600 people at various sites in the country. The AVE 102 and AVE 103 high speed trains and the Madrid Barajas airport people mover are among its key projects in the region.

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