Salem’s Market selected to open grocery store in Pittsburgh’s Hill District

PITTSBURGH — Salem’s Market & Grill, LLC will open a grocery store in the former Shop ‘n Save site at the Centre Heldman Plaza in Pittsburgh’s Hill District.

Families in the Hill District have not had a grocery store since the Shop ‘n Save shut down in 2019. But that will change next summer when Salem’s Market takes over the space. The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh will be negotiating a lease with the owners.

The locally-owned and family-run company was selected following a community process coordinated with City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle and the Hill Community Development Corporation.

Interested grocery stores and markets applied to fill the vacant grocery store site and four finalists were selected to present their proposals to the community, who voted on which store to select.

Salem’s Market & Grill has been a minority-owned business for over 40 years, with their original store located on Penn Avenue in the Strip District.

“Salem’s Market locating to the Hill District is a tremendous win both for Salem’s and the Hill District community,” said Councilman Lavelle. “It affords Salem’s the ability to grow and expand, while providing the community with a much-needed grocery store and restaurant. What’s more, given Salem’s well established customer base, the new grocery store and restaurant will bring considerable foot traffic to Centre Avenue, which will help support efforts underway to build back Centre Avenue as a business corridor.”

Renovations will be needed for the building, and the organization says more jobs will be brought to the area.

“We want customers to be able to buy everything they need in one stop. All customers from all over the world. We want to make sure that people have everything they need from diapers to formula to their beauty needs to pharmaceuticals as well as all of their food needs,” Salem’s Market owner Abdullah Salem said. “The vision is to have a complete one-stop-shop of all international foods and conventional foods in one place.”

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