Jan. 2021 Est. 1985
The Northside Chronicle
Volume 37 Issue 1 - FREE -
The Community Newspaper of Pittsburgh’s Historic Northside
WYEPFM's Joey Spehar, Northside born and bred By Matthew Benusa Pay no attention to the man behind the microphone. Rather, it’s OK to pay no attention, the man says. Joey Spehar, 37, is best known around Pittsburgh for his voice—the one you hear every weekday morning from 6 to 10 a.m. on WYEP-FM—but in the Northside, he’s better known for his family. The Spehars own Marshall’s, Ltd., a gas station on Spring Garden Avenue, and they’ve been Northside residents for at least four generations. In the family Marshall’s, which is really more of a general store, has been in the family
Photo: Ashlee Green
Mayor Peduto joined both representatives from Northside community organizations and developers on Dec. 3, 2020 for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the official opening of the new Comfort Inn & Suites on East Ohio Street. The 96-room hotel was originally expected to open in 2019. Read the full story below. More photos available on our website: www.nschronicle.com.
Northside Comfort Inn now officially open Over a decade has passed since the Comfort Inn & Suites project in Pittsburgh’s Northside was first imagined. Now it’s open for business, and developers hope it will be a ‘lynchpin’ for more expansion in the area. Photo courtesy of Joey Spehar
Joey Spehar, host of WYEP-FM's Morning Mix, has lived in Pittsburgh's Northside his entire life. He's seen many changes take place over the years and says he can't help but feel connected to the buildings of yesteryear. since 1993 when Spehar says his father purchased it from the former owners for $32,000. Open 364 days a year—“... Even See Spehar, Page 11
INSIDE
By Ashlee Green The new Comfort Inn & Suites in Pittsburgh’s Northside is now officially open. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Thursday, Dec. 3, and John Elash, of hotel developer October Development, along with several other affiliated representatives, spoke to a small crowd about what the day meant to him. Elash said it was also his daughter’s
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11th birthday, which reminded him that the Comfort Inn & Suites project has been a work-in-progress for about the same length of time. The 96-room hotel was originally expected to open in 2019. Mark Masterson, executive director of the Northside Community Development Fund, which has a $500K loan in the hotel project, thanked everyone who has been involved in the project from the start and praised the hotel ownership for sticking
ONLINE
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with it long-term. Mark Fatla, executive director of the Northside Leadership Conference, likened the people involved in the hotel’s planning and development process to a choir and the completed hotel the final “great performance.” “The community had a plan for this corner,” he said, and the developers’ plan See Comfort Inn, Page 8
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