A real estate developer and the estate of the owner of a defunct Pittsburgh gay bar filed a lawsuit to prevent the shuttered site from being nominated for historic designation status.
WESA.fm reports Laurel Communities and the estate of Donald Thinnes filed their lawsuit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against Lizzie Anderson and Matthew Cotter, alleging they were seeking to stop a proposed planned housing development on the property that was once the home to Donny’s Place, a popular gay bar that operated from 1973 through 2022 in Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood.
Jonathan Kamin, an attorney for the plaintiffs, stated Thinnes signed an agreement with Laurel in 2019 to redevelop the site for housing. The lawsuit was filed a few hours prior to the city’s Historic Review Commission was schedule to consider the nomination of the site for the local historic property register. Buildings that are reviewed for historic nomination are protected from demolition, and the lawsuit argued that Thinnes’ estate – which owns the site and adjacent parcels targeted for redevelopment – could lose more than $1 million if the prospective sale does not go through.
The planned development has been delayed for years, with opposition by some city leaders and a lawsuit filed by the Polish Hill Civic Association trying to stop it. The current proposal seeks to construct 19 market-rate townhouses on about 3 acres, including the Donny’s Place site.
If approved, Donny’s Place would be the first historic landmark in Pittsburgh that pays tribute to the local LGBTQ community. However, Kamin stated the Donny’s Place building was in a derelict state that was not deserving of that designation.
“There is nothing historic or significant about this property,” Kamin said.
Photo courtesy GayCities.com.
