Optimism clear at Jeannette Glass City Heritage Festival

The crowd that walked along a couple of blocks of Clay Avenue at the Glass City Heritage Festival in Jeannette on Saturday afternoon — enjoying the entertainment, the food and drink sold by several city churches and the tables of arts and craft — was part of what appears to be a growing enthusiasm for a rebirth of development in downtown Jeannette.

“It’s bringing people into the city, to the central business district. Some store owners said they are seeing people come into town who haven’t been there in years,” said Carole Babish, president of the Jeannette Business Association.

Jeff DePalma, owner of J&J Jewelers, who has been along Clay Avenue for more than 20 years, and Babish said that the city of what once was a hub and a glass and tire manufacturing center has attracted developers and investors who have purchased vacant buildings along Clay Avenue.

“I think we are about three years away from becoming a little Lawrenceville,” DePalma said, referring to the neighborhood along the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh’s East End that has seen a great amount of growth in the last decade.

Sitting in his store along Clay Avenue, adjacent to where people were enjoying the festivities, DePalma said investors are buying old buildings to create loft apartments, with retail outlets on the first floor.

DePalma credited a city government that is working with business owners to help create an environment for growth.

One of those who has invested heavily into downtown Jeannette is Jackie Sobel, co-owner of the family-owned Sobel’s Obscure Brewery in Jeannette. Its plans to open its brewpub in mid-to-late October at 500 Clay Ave. in circa 1920s building that once housed the Gillespie department store.

“It’s been a long three-year process,” Sobel said. She said the renovation and conversion of the building into a brewery was interrupted by the covid-19 pandemic and accompanying supply-chain issues that have hampered businesses across the nation.

She said they have invested “multiple” hundreds of thousands of dollars into creating a large brewpub, compete with brewhouse-style seating with long tables.

They opened with a wholesale brewery business for five years and then opened the outdoor beer garden in Jeannette in 2020.

With the potential to bring more development into downtown Jeannette, Sobel is anticipating that their business will complement that effort and draw more people into town. They plan to work with local restaurants to provide table service for food and have food trucks, she said.

When California native Jennie Toughlian, now of Penn Township, was planning to open a retail shop for her baked goods, she said her husband’s co-workers at Elliott Co. advised her to take a spot in downtown Jeannette. She has experience in the restaurant business and has sold her baked goods at the farmer’s market in Greensburg.

“I love the charm of the small towns,” said Toughlian, who is naming her bakery Peinetti’s, after her grandmother’s maiden name.

Toughlian said she believes that Jeannette is on the rebound and it is the right place for her business.

“I have been saying it for years.”