UniFirst buys New Kensington property, proceeds to aid new city playground

A New Kensington business recently bought property next to city hall to give itself some additional space, and some proceeds from the sale will go toward building a new playground nearby.

UniFirst Corp. in November purchased the small park and basketball court at 301 11th St. from the Redevelopment Authority of the City of New Kensington.

The company paid the city $275,000.

UniFirst spokeswoman Donna Kish said the property was appealing because it’s adjacent to the company’s facility at 1150 Second Ave.

“It made sense to purchase it for any future needs or improvement possibilities,” Kish said.

There are no immediate plans for the property, but Kish said it could potentially be used for additional parking space or structural improvements or expansions.

UniFirst is a national company that supplies uniforms and workplace products to businesses. Its New Ken location employs about 160 people.

“(Officials) simply saw a real estate opportunity and decided it’d be prudent to purchase property that became available next to our building,” Kish said. “Especially in a tight real estate market, it’s not very often that a piece of property opens up like this next to one of our existing facilities. So when the rare opportunity arose, we thought it made good business sense to buy it and not miss out on the opportunity to do so.”

Mayor Tom Guzzo said some proceeds from the sale will go toward building a new playground along Asa W. Roberts Way — a section of Fourth Avenue, as well as improvements to some of the city’s other parks.

The proposed Asa W. Roberts Way-Fourth Avenue playground would be behind New Kensington’s magisterial district court office and geared for children up to age 12.

Another new playground and basketball court has been proposed on what is now a parking lot next to Peoples Library at Eighth and Barnes streets. That would be paid for with a $227,000 grant from the state’s Greenways, Trails & Recreation program.

“We are currently in the process of designing,” Guzzo said. “As soon as the design is complete, we will move forward and hopefully start construction after the weather breaks.”

That could potentially happen as early as this spring, he said.

Madasyn Czebiniak is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at 724-226-4702, mczebiniak@tribweb.com, or via Twitter @maddyczebstrib.