In 2026, the West View stretch of Perry Highway is changing in a way that is easy to misread from a car window. No developer has torn down a row of storefronts and put up something new. Small businesses are taking over or sharing buildings that already exist. The borough government is the one buying and clearing property, and it is doing that to pull its own offices into one place.
Bricks are coming down on one end of the highway, and an Italian restaurant is moving into the dining room DiPietro's ran for 44 years on the other. In both cases, fewer separate buildings are being asked to do more work.
A Dining Room From 1979 Gets a New Tenant
DiPietro's served 412 Perry Highway from 1979 to 2023. This summer the building reopened as Iron & Basil, the new Italian restaurant from owners Katie and Terry Malsch. Pittsburgh Magazine reported on August 5 that takeout had started, serving pizza, pasta, hoagies, and salads from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The fuller menu is the bigger news for anyone who misses sitting down to eat on this block. NEXTpittsburgh listed 16-inch pizzas next to pappardelle Bolognese, spinach agnolotti, and chicken and veal Parmesan, and called the takeout launch "the first course" while the owners got the dining room and bar ready.
The owners told Pittsburgh Magazine they expected the dining room and bar to open this fall. As of the September 7 NEXTpittsburgh report, they were still being prepared. The Iron & Basil website now has a reservation form and mentions brunch, lunch, dinner, and cocktails. Its menu page is still labeled "Take out," so checking before you walk in for a table is the safe move.
Pizza and Pastry Under One Roof
A few doors up the highway, two businesses have already become one. Amber Atkins opened The Cakery on Perry Highway in 2020. She stocked its cases with chocolate chip cookies, iced oatmeal cookies, brownies, pumpkin rolls, and custom cakes. In 2022 she took over Mandy's Pizza, a short walk from her bakery, and reopened it with all of its original recipes. Those include the gluten- and allergen-free pies and subs that Mandy's started offering in 2009.
The Cakery's own storefront closed on December 31, 2025, and the baking moved into Mandy's at 512 Perry Highway. Writing about the move in June, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted Atkins on her decision to keep the pizzeria's recipes as they were: "They were already successful, so why change it?"
That means one counter now sells a gluten-free pizza and a pumpkin roll. The highway has one fewer storefront, and nothing it offered is gone.
The Borough Is the Biggest Buyer on the Block
The consolidating that small businesses have done one building at a time, West View Borough is doing at a much larger scale. To make room for a new municipal center, the borough has bought three properties near the West View Firemen's Banquet Hall. According to TribLive, the purchases were:
- Scholl's Bicycle Center, 649 Center Ave., for $535,000
- Grotto Bar & Grille, 403 Perry Highway, for $205,000
- A six-unit apartment building at 400 Perry Highway, for $585,000, with the sale closing July 2
That adds up to $1,325,000 in property. Deller Professional Services is demolishing all three buildings for a total of just under $335,000. The plan is to remodel the Banquet Hall into the borough's administrative and police offices and build a new fire department garage next to it. Borough Manager Bruce Fromlak told TribLive the apartment purchase "completes the acquisition portion of the project and allows us to continue moving forward with demolition and the future municipal complex."
As of July 9, the old bike shop had already been torn down and work on the Grotto was set to begin July 14. The August 12 council agenda included a second payment of $114,417.33 to Deller for the 649 Center Avenue and 403 Perry Highway demolitions. None of the borough documents posted through September say the cleared lots are finished.
Why a $12.6 Million Bid Stopped the Clock
Buying the land was the easy part of the project. Pricing the building has proved harder. When the borough first asked for construction bids, only one came in: $12,552,986 from Massaro Corporation. Council rejected it at its June 10 meeting. TribLive reported the bid was more than double what the borough expected, and that the borough was rewriting the project specifications.
The scale helps explain the pause. All the buying and demolition so far totals about $1.66 million. The single construction bid was more than seven times that. The council agendas posted for August 12 and September 9 list no new bid, no contract award, and no construction start date. So for now, the cleared lots near the Banquet Hall are waiting on a building design the borough can afford.
The Firehouse Leaving the Map
The municipal center builds on a merger West View already finished. The borough's three fire departments combined five years ago, and the department now works out of 471 Perry Highway. That left the former West View No. 2 station at 14 Amherst Ave. empty. The 4,400-square-foot building is zoned residential, is assessed at $145,600 according to Allegheny County records, and has belonged to the borough since 1907.
The borough took sealed bids through September 8 and received four. The September 9 agenda proposed a sale at $175,111.10, about $29,500 above the assessed value. The posted agenda doesn't show the final vote or a closing, so the sale should be treated as pending until minutes say otherwise. One firehouse that belonged to the borough for more than a century is being sold off as government services gather on Perry Highway.
Off the Highway, the Money Goes to Steps
While the borough concentrates its own buildings on Route 19, its spending on the side streets has been small and practical, aimed at getting people up and down the hills on foot. At its September 15, 2026 meeting, the Commonwealth Financing Authority approved $57,169 for the Martsolf Avenue Step Improvement Project and $75,000 to replace the Ridgewood Public Stairs. Together that's $132,169 for two sets of public stairs, about one percent of the rejected construction bid.
The borough's Spring/Summer 2026 newsletter lists more neighborhood-scale work:
- Paving: Stanford Avenue from Vassar to Yale, Center Avenue from Bronx Avenue to West View Park Drive, Cornell and Bellevue Avenues from Center to Highland, and the plaza entrance off Center Avenue
- Bridge: deck resurfacing on the Ridgewood Bridge
- Storm and sewer: storm sewer work on Ashford, Westfield, and Kenyon Avenues and sewer separation on Mt. Vernon, Norwich, and Center Avenues
- Glenmore Park: shade awnings and a bench, paid for by a donation honoring years of service to the community
The newsletter calls that a 2026 schedule. It doesn't say which projects are finished, so a street on the paving list may or may not be done this fall.
The West View HUB is another example of one place doing several jobs. It describes itself as a community facility with a library, a food pantry serving more than 1,100 families, a computer lab, and programs. Its HUBworks arts center runs tutoring, a curiosity club, recording-studio sessions, and youth arts. The borough's newsletter also listed a Movie in the Park hosted by the HUB among the tentative plans for the borough's America 250 celebration at Barry G Schell Memorial Field.
Dates on the Borough Calendar
The borough calendar lists these dates for the coming weeks:
- Wednesday, October 14, 6 p.m.: West View Borough Council meeting, the next chance for an update on the municipal center bid and the Amherst Avenue sale
- Monday, October 26, 7 to 9 p.m.: the borough's Halloween Parade, according to the borough calendar
- Wednesday, November 11, 6 p.m.: the following council meeting
By the time the November meeting comes around, Iron & Basil may have its dining room open, and the lots near the Banquet Hall may have a construction plan.
If you own a home near Perry Highway and want to know how a new municipal center, a reopened restaurant at the old DiPietro's address, or fresh steps on Martsolf Avenue might affect what your street is worth, The Beth Danchek Group follows these North Hills changes closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for your home. Reach out whenever you're ready, and we'll start with your block.