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CRANBERRY TWP., PA-The Youngstown, OH-based Petrarca Cos. will break ground by the end of this year for the Shoppes at Cranberry. The 250,000-sf shopping center will be on 24 acres at the intersection of Route 228 and Interstate 79.

Gregg Broujos, a principal with NAI Pittsburgh Commercial, has been handed the leasing assignment. "This is a Main and Main location in the fastest growing suburb of the Pittsburgh MSA," he tells GlobeSt.com. Although no contracts have been signed, Broujos says, "we began marketing at ICSC [the shopping center convention in Las Vegas in May] and even without a site plan, there was so much interest, based solely on the location." Further evidence of retail interest here is a plan, recently unveiled by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, for an 850,000-sf Cranberry Town Center, which is adjacent to the Petrarca parcel.

Broujos says unit sizes in the Petrarca center begin at 1,000 sf and there are some big box outparcels. He's targeting big- and small-box tenants as well as in-line shops, and rental rates, he says, "range between $25 per sf and $35 per sf." Because of the high interest, according to Broujos, "no decision has yet been made on whether to offer the outparcels under ground leases or conventional retail." Occupancy is scheduled for first quarter 2008. A call to Petrarca was not returned by deadline.