By Sean P. Ray | Managing Editor

ALLEGHENY CITY CENTRAL — Local grocery store Mayfly Market & Deli will see a significant size increase under a planned move into the historic Garden Theater later this year.

In an April press release, Mayfly — along with Q Development and Trek Development Group, who co-manage the Garden Theater development — announced the relocation planned for late 2025. Mayfly Market will take up about half of the retail space in the former theater, around 3,000 square feet or, according to the release, “nearly double” the size of its current location at 1327 Arch St.

After six-and-a-half years along Arch Street, Mayfly Owner Ann Gilligan said she was “ready to find a larger space for Mayfly.” Post-relocation, she said that Mayfly will be able to “significantly increase the refrigeration” for the store.

“So we’ll be able to have a lot more frozen items, meats, vegetables,” she said. “Our grab-and-go offerings will probably be able to double what we’re doing now, and with the additional kitchen space we’ll be able to have room for people to actually work and produce that stuff.”

Rick Belloli, principal of Q Development, said it was “immensely important” that the Garden Theater development got a “community-focused business owner and food provider,” seeing Mayfly Market as a perfect fit for the development’s needs.

“We could not have drawn up the playbook better to have Ann in there,” he said.

Mayfly, as a grocery store, takes particular aim at offering Pennsylvania-produced products, such as those from Pittsburgh Honey or Brunton Dairy. The store also offers sandwiches, salads, soups and handcrafted sorbets.

Gilligan hopes that with the additional shelf space, Mayfly will be able to stock up on more items requested by customers, expand on their additional array of products and ensure existing offerings don’t sell out as quickly.

While the move will be a big step in terms of Mayfly’s size, it won’t be a big step in terms of distance from its exist- ing location. The Garden Theater, located at 12 W. North Ave., is under a mile away from Mayfly Market’s present store space, something Gilligan feels fortunate about.

“We are very located where we are right here,” she said. “We have a very loyal customer base that really carried us through COVID and then post-COVID, it wasn’t just immediately 100% back to normal right away.”

The facade of the Garden Theater, which will soon host Mayfly Market. The theater was built in 1915 and closed in 2007, remaining vacant since. Photo by Matthew Koscienski

With only a short change in location, Gilligan believes Mayfly will be able to maintain its existing customer base and expand it beyond with a more visible storefront.

“We’ll be on that main drag,” she said. “I think people kind of have to go out of their way to find us here or know that we’re here.”

As such, she’s counting herself lucky to have been able to find a larger area for the store while still not moving too far from the Northside neighborhood Mayfly has called home.

“To be able to find that space, everything that goes along with that space and as close as we are, it’s all just very fortunate that it came together like that,” she said.

As Mayfly is only taking up about half of the available retail space, more storefronts will likely be joining her. Belloli said the development companies have met with some “good prospects” and plan to announce what other businesses will be taking up space in the “not too distant future.” Belloli said the developers are looking for businesses who will complement Mayfly Market, as the grocery store is serving as the “anchor tenant” of the building.

The Garden Theater was built in 1915 and was closed in 2007, though it received its historic designation by Pittsburgh City Council in 2008.

The Garden was rather infamously an adult film theater for many decades of its existence, starting in the 1970s. The Chronicle reported on protests held at the theater in our February 1990 issue.

Under the renovation plans for Q Development and Trek Development Group, the theater is being transformed into 74 apartments and nearly 7,000 square feet of commercial space. Belloli said Q Development specializes in historic buildings, and is working closely with historic designation consultants and experts during the refurbishment.