New hostel under construction in Pittsburgh

This project was in the news again recently. The hostel is now estimated to cost $1.1 million USD to set up, and is expected to open in 2014.

Anne Marie Toccket, Director of the Pittsburgh Hostel Project, hopes that this hostel will be one of the most innovative in the US in terms of concept and design.

Pittsburgh Hostel Project in South Side underway

Planning for a hostel in Pittsburgh has been underway for years, after one located in Allentown closed in 2005, although a Lawrenceville man has been running a donation-only hostel out of his home since June.

The hostel Ms. Toccket envisions is larger than the one in Lawrenceville, with rates starting at $25 a night, and programming that could include something like a pierogi-making class for newcomers to Pittsburgh.

Ms. Toccket was named director of the Pittsburgh Hostel Project last summer, when the group secured 10,000 square feet of space on two floors of a building at 14th and East Carson Streets on the South Side, which also houses the Beehive Coffeehouse.

Tom Tripoli, the building's owner, has offered to provide $600,000 of the costs to convert the building into a hostel, and Ms. Toccket is working to raise the remaining $500,000, through a combination of grants, crowdsourcing, donations from businesses and foundations, and fundraising events.

They have already received some funding pledges. American Eagle Outfitters pledged to donate $15,000 and the Sprout Fund gave a $1,000 grant to support community meetings about the project.

Ms. Toccket hopes to secure non-profit status for the project. I wonder if she will affiliate with HI, or if she wants to create an independent non-profit hostel.