Itchy Glassner moved to Pittsburgh from Montreal with his family in 2021. He soon noticed something about his new neighborhood. "We were looking for a nice grocery store for the community and we didn't find one," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August. Rite Aid went bankrupt and started selling off its leases. Glassner bid on the one at the corner of Forbes and Murray. He had never run a grocery store.
The former drugstore has been dark at Squirrel Hill's busiest intersection for months. Murray Avenue lost several longtime businesses over the past year, and of all the spaces they left behind, this one now has the most detailed plan. The ground floor is set to become Murray's, a 12,000-square-foot grocery. The second floor is fully leased to a consulting firm, a dental practice, a health nonprofit affiliate and the newly relaunched Pittsburgh City Paper. None of these are places you'd plan a trip around. They're the errands and appointments that keep a corner busy every day of the week.
How a Bankruptcy Lease Became a Grocery
The corner took close to a year to reach this point, and it ran through a bankruptcy court, a change of building owner and a zoning hearing. The Post-Gazette's account lays out the sequence:
- September. The bankruptcy court overseeing Rite Aid approved Glassner taking over the store's lease for his proposed market.
- December 2025. The building at 1700 Murray Ave. had been changing hands after its former owner defaulted on its mortgage. Brandywine Communities bought the property that month, according to an April 27, 2026 release.
- May 2026. The market's representatives went before the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment. Brandywine, now the landlord, was still opposing the proposal.
- July 2026. The zoning board approved the grocery over the owner's objections.
- August 7, 2026. Brandywine put out a release naming Murray Avenue Market as the building's anchor tenant. Glassner told the Post-Gazette, "Us and the landlord — we settled everything."
Brandywine's marketing director, Jamison Combs, said in that release that the grocery "represents exactly the type of tenant we hoped to attract." He described it as one that "provides an everyday service that strengthens the neighborhood and serves residents from every background." The release also said the store fills one of the building's largest remaining vacancies and brings back an everyday service at a spot that has long been a retail anchor.
What Murray's Plans to Be
The store's name appears two ways. The Post-Gazette calls it Murray's, and Brandywine's announcement calls it Murray Avenue Market. Glassner describes the same idea either way: a full supermarket where everything is kosher, aimed at "the broader community and neighborhood at Squirrel Hill" rather than run as a specialty shop. In Brandywine's release, he called the vision "a kosher market that's also a true community grocery store."
Here are the plans as described in August 2026:
| Detail | What's planned |
|---|---|
| Size | 12,000 square feet in the former Rite Aid |
| Departments | Produce, meats, baked goods, prepared foods, kosher groceries, household essentials and personal care items |
| Prepared food | An in-store commercial kitchen making take-away items, plus 8 to 10 seats for eating in |
| Ordering | Online ordering and delivery, starting with third-party apps |
| Hours | Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday from 8 a.m. until two hours before sundown |
| Parking | A 23-space lot, with an ADA ramp at the back of the store for shopping carts |
| Target opening | Around March 2027 |
The March 2027 date is a goal, not a fixed schedule. In late August, Glassner said remodeling would start once the engineering plans were final. Brandywine's August release said renovations were underway across the property, that the grocery would begin construction "in the coming months," and that opening details would come later. Expect work to show up inside the storefront before a date is posted on the door.
Who's Moving In Upstairs
The building wouldn't come back to life on the grocery alone. Two of the four second-floor tenants aren't new to Squirrel Hill. Brandywine and its leasing broker, CBRE, announced in the April 27 release that they had signed three leases totaling more than 12,000 square feet within 100 days of the purchase. By August, the whole second floor was leased:
- Techstra Solutions is a management consulting firm expanding within the neighborhood and moving to upgraded Class A space. Founder and CEO Jennifer Honig said in the April announcement that the space keeps the company "located in Squirrel Hill."
- Generation Dental was also nearby before and is building a new dental office on the second floor.
- Pittsburgh City Paper is relaunching here, close to the neighborhood's restaurants and shops.
- An affiliate of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation took the remaining second-floor space.
In August, all four were expected to move into their remodeled offices later in 2026. Brandywine's plans also include a full lobby remodel, new access control and new tenant signs, so the entrance should look different before long.
City Paper's move is a story of its own. Block Communications announced on New Year's Eve that it was shutting the paper down, ending a 34-year run, WESA reported in January. On March 19, 2026, the nonprofit LocalMatters announced it had bought the paper, which continues as a for-profit publication under nonprofit ownership, according to WESA. Chris Maury organized the revival and invested in it. Ali Trachta stayed on as executive editor, and nearly all of the editorial staff came back. The paper's own announcement promised a return online and in monthly print issues. It added a reader membership program, and the paper stays free. Its new office will sit above the Forbes and Murray corner.
The building has a longer office history than most people walking past would guess. According to the April release, it was first home to IBM and later to M*Modal, which 3M bought in 2019. Space is still open on the 17,000-square-foot third floor. CBRE's Charlie Must said in April that several parties had asked about it.
Farther Up Murray, the Empty Spaces Have No Plans Yet
The corner's progress matters partly because of how much the rest of the avenue has lost in the past year. Three well-known closures came within about eight months of each other:
- Murray Avenue Grill closed on December 28, 2025, after nearly four decades, WPXI reported.
- Stuntpig served its last day on Murray Avenue on May 23, 2026, in a space that had been Bull River Taco. Its owners told the Post-Gazette they were looking for a larger sandwich-shop space and planned pop-ups in the meantime.
- Starbucks at 2345 Murray Ave. was set to close on Friday, August 28, 2026, after at least 23 years in the storefront, TribLive reported. An employee said the lease was ending.
None of these three spaces has an announced new tenant. The Rite Aid corner, one of the largest spaces in the business district, needed a court-approved lease, a new owner and a zoning approval before its plan came together. That plan now includes a grocery with its own parking lot and a fully leased office floor.
What to Watch at the Corner This Winter
Three things will show whether the March 2027 target holds:
- Construction inside the old Rite Aid. The store's remodel can't begin until the engineering plans are final.
- The lobby and new signs. Brandywine's planned upgrades will mark when the upstairs offices are ready.
- Office move-ins. City Paper, Techstra Solutions, Generation Dental and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation affiliate were all expected in later in 2026.
If you own a home near Forbes and Murray and are wondering what a grocery and a full office floor could mean for your block, The Onufer Team is glad to talk it through. We're keeping an eye on 1700 Murray too.
