The Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, or simply Pittsburgh Mills, is a super-regional shopping mall northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in Frazer Township, Allegheny County, along PA Route 28 near its intersection with the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The mall is the second largest shopping complex in Western Pennsylvania, and the main retail center for the Allegheny Valley with of retail space on . The grand opening of the mall portion of Pittsburgh Mills was on July 14, 2005. It is the only Mills-branded mall in the United States that was not part of the Simon Property Group acquisition of The Mills Corporation in April 2007. However, as of 2026, due to mismanagement and high vacancy rates, Pittsburgh Mills is a dead mall, with only 20+ stores remaining. Namdar Realty Group has no plans for redevelopment, though they are considering to sell the mall.
Overview
Pittsburgh Mills was conceived and originally developed by The Mills Corporation, now Simon Property Group. On December 30, 2006, the Mills Corporation announced it sold its stake in Pittsburgh Mills to its partner in the project, Zamias Services, Inc. of Johnstown. Because of this, Pittsburgh Mills is currently the only Mills-branded mall that is neither owned or managed by Simon in the United States. Vaughan Mills near Toronto, CrossIron Mills outside Calgary, and Tsawwassen Mills in Delta are the only other Mills-type malls that are not owned or managed by Simon. However, CrossIron and Tsawwassen Mills were developed solely by Ivanhoé Cambridge, not by The Mills Corp., and all three of these malls are in Canada. To date, Pittsburgh Mills is the last Mills mall developed in the United States.
It was the first Landmark Mills property to feature two full-price department stores JCPenney and Kaufmann's (later Macy's) along with a Sears Grand store.
History
Development and opening
The planning and construction process of Pittsburgh Mills was delayed by almost 25 years due to a combination of legal setbacks and financial difficulties.
====1980s====<!--Do NOT turn these into third-level headers. They are part of this section.-->
In 1981, George D. Zamias announced plans for a $50 million shopping center in Frazer Township, with over 300 acres near PA Route 28 being rezoned for commercial use. The mall was planned to be called Frazer Heights Galleria. Due to a "sluggish economy", Zamias announced in June 1983 that construction of the mall would be delayed until the fall of 1984.
However, the mall was delayed again due to a mid-80s recession known as the steel crisis.
In October 1987, Damian Zamias stated that the mall was ready to resume development and begin construction, now costing $80 million. This was once again stalled in the summer of 1988, when PennDOT announced that the proposed $35 million Route 28 interchange needed for the mall site was not on its 12-year construction plan. Without a highway, the mall could not even exist in the first place, and vice versa. George Zamias resolved this in the fall of 1989, announcing that the mall would break ground in October of that year. The project's cost was now $100 million.
In April 1992, Zamias announced that he plans to create his own municipality, called Frazer Heights Borough. His goal was to "secede" the mall's 300+ acres from the township to gain control over his own zoning and tax laws, effectively bypassing the local government that was fighting him. However, the courts ultimately denied his request for an injunction to stop the township from repealing ordinances favorable to his project, which the township officials viewed as yet another "hurdle" in a process that had already dragged on for over 10 years. Zamias disagreed and made the following statement: