Steven Cohen was 26 years old in 1987 when he and his father, Ted, bought the East Liberty warehouse on Centre Avenue at Penn Circle South and Penn Circle West.
The Cohens renovated the building and turned it into the first location for their fledgling business, Guardian Storage.
The business has grown to 40 locations in Pennsylvania and Colorado with another location opening in July in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Now, Steven Cohen is turning his attention back to the original building, which serves both as a storage facility with 835 units and as the company’s headquarters.
He met with local residents on May 7 to discuss his plan to purchase two adjacent buildings.
The one at 5865 Centre Ave. serves as a storage facility for another company. The other, at 5869 Centre Ave., had been used for storage before being converted to office space, which meant changing the occupancy permit for the building. But the commercial office space market collapsed and the building is empty.
Still, Cohen and Guardian must go before the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment on June 6 to have the use of the building changed back to storage.
As part of that process, Guardian Storage had to hold a public Development Activities Meeting with residents before its zoning hearing.
Cohen plans to clean up the two buildings, one of which currently has a graffiti-covered garage door. Inside both buildings, the company will build 250 storage areas.
Both buildings will have a bit of a facelift. The yellow brick building at 5869 Centre will be painted a chocolate brown and the windows will be reglazed with white screens behind the glass so passersby do not see storage units inside. The windows of 5865 Centre will also be reglazed with screens behind them. “so it looks like an office streetscape,” Jeff Michelson from Desmone Architects said.
Valerie Parm, the chair of the Village Collaborative of East Liberty, the registered community organization that hosted the May meeting, said she hoped that instead of white screens, the company would install murals. Her suggestion was echoed by Lenore Williams, the chair of the Baum-Centre Initiative, an organization that coordinates development in the Baum Boulevard and Centre Avenue corridor as it runs through four neighborhoods.
Williams said when the Fresh Market opens across the street in the building where Whole Foods once was, there will be more foot traffic along Centre Avenue and those pedestrians may enjoy murals in the windows.
When asked about lighting the outsides of the buildings, Michelson said there are no plans to add more lighting to the buildings, which are already well-lit by the streetlights.
While the main Guardian Storage building has huge signs painted on the north and east sides of the building, Cohen said he does not foresee needing a large sign on either of the two buildings next door.
Michelson said there may be smaller direction signs, such as those telling people where to park.
