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‘Spirit of King’ posthumously honors Henry, Crawley SEE PAGE A6
Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 115 No. 3 Two Sections
JANUARY 17-23, 2024
thenewpittsburghcourier Published Weekly $1.00
'The Pitt Building' in Downtown Pittsburgh is now Black-owned Courier learns exclusively that plans for a Black four-star restaurant are in the works by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
Imagine a building that’s Downtown Pittsburgh, that’s Black-owned, that’s actively trying to become a Black mecca of sorts, full of Black-owned businesses and Black prosperity. Well, imagine no more. The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that The Pitt Building, which takes up an entire block on Smithfield Street, from the Boulevard of the Allies to Third Avenue, has been acquired by the nonprofit organization The Greenwood Plan. The Greenwood Plan’s executive director is Khamil Bailey, known not only for her “Cocoapreneur” website directory that highlights hundreds of Black businesses in the Pittsburgh region, but for opening the “Emerald City” co-working space, which is on the second floor of The Pitt Building. The Courier has learned that The Greenwood Plan, which is officially listed under the name Greenwood Smithfield, LLC, on the Allegheny County Real Estate Portal website for the purposes of ownership, paid $4.075 million
for the three-story building, which Bailey said is actually one main building and two attachments. Bailey and The Greenwood Plan’s Board of Directors had a plan to purchase the entire building just four months after The Greenwood Plan signed a lease to open Emerald City on the building’s second floor in November 2021. On Dec. 21, 2023, after more than a year and a half of raising the capital, paying attorney fees, etc., the building was officially in The Greenwood Plan’s hands. “We want this to be a Black business incubator,” Bailey told the Courier exclusively, Jan. 15. “Give Black businesses the opportunity to operate in Downtown storefronts where they may not have otherwise been able to do because the terms are not normally favorable. We want to do that through programming and rent subsidies, giving people the training wheels to be able to get into these spaces and get the revenue that comes with the traffic that comes with being SEE PITT BUILDING A3
THE PITT BUILDING ON SMITHFIELD STREET IS NOW BLACK-OWNED BY THE GREENWOOD PLAN, A NON-PROFIT, WHOSE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR IS KHAMIL BAILEY. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
JERRY DICKINSON HONORED
Former Courier reporter Diane Powell-Larche dies at 65
DIANE POWELL-LARCHE
by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
JERRY DICKINSON, vice dean at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, was honored by the Allegheny County Bar Association's Homer S. Brown Division with its Drum Major for Justice Award. The ACBA's 25th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast was held on Monday, Jan. 15, at Bethel AME Church in the Hill District. Dickinson is pictured with his wife, Emily, and daughters Aria and Nyla. See more photos from the event on Page A9. (Photo by J.L. Martello)
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The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that former staff reporter and freelance writer Diane Powell-Larche has died due to complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 65. Her date of death was Friday, Jan.12. A Philadelphia native, Powell-Larche came to Pittsburgh originally to attend the University of Pittsburgh. There, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Political Science. She was a reporter for the Courier during a period in the 1980s and also did public relations duties for the Pittsburgh
Human Relations Commission. She later moved to Atlanta, where she made her mark in journalism and public relations as President and CEO of Larche’ Communications Inc. News of her death resonated across many in the Atlanta community, including The National Council of Negro Women Inc. Television station FOX 5 in Atlanta described Powell-Larche as “well known across Atlanta and beyond for her decades worth of contributions to the world of public relations, advertising and marketing. She was considered a media mastermind and played
an integral role in Atlanta entertainment and business.” While in Atlanta, in recent years Powell-Larche would contribute to the Courier by reporting on Pitt football games that occurred in the Southeast, or Steelers games that involved the Atlanta Falcons. She most recently covered Pitt’s ACC Championship victory in 2021 over Wake Forest in Charlotte, N.C. “Diane was everything, everywhere all at once,” said Roz Edward, Atlanta Tribune editor. The Atlanta Tribune is part of Real Times Media, which SEE POWELL-LARCHE A3