Workers are tearing down the old Royer's department store building in downtown Greensburg one brick at a time, a demolition that has been underway for about two weeks on the three-story, 40,000-square-foot structure that has sat vacant for decades. Siegel Excavating crews began dismantling the northern side of the building by hand starting October 6, a method chosen specifically to protect the surrounding block.
Why Crews Are Working Brick by Brick
According to TribLIVE.com, Siegel Excavating workers are taking the building apart piece by piece rather than using heavy machinery to knock it down. Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Brian Lawrence said the hand demolition approach is meant to avoid affecting nearby buildings and traffic on North Main Street, where the Royer's building stands across from First Commonwealth Bank. “The alternative would be having … bricks flying all over the place and damaging something,” Lawrence said, according to the same report. Crews are dismantling the structure from the back and pulling material toward the front so debris stays within the property's boundaries, and once the north side is cleared, workers will move on to the southern end of the building. The sidewalk remains blocked off in the demolition area while the work continues.
A Building Too Far Gone to Save
The structure's condition had significantly worsened over the preceding decade, officials said, to the point that rehabilitation was no longer possible. The Westmoreland County Land Bank bought the building for just shy of $1,300 in 2024, according to the same TribLive report, and officials say its deterioration left demolition as the only realistic option. Royer's department store first opened in 1923 and operated for about 56 years before closing its doors in downtown Greensburg in 1979, as reported by TribLive.
Lawrence pointed to the broader economics working against reuse of aging downtown structures like this one. New construction costs far outweigh any potential revenue from office or residential uses, he said, a dynamic reflected in how dramatically municipal downtowns have changed since large buildings such as Royer's were originally built. “I don't think the public truly appreciates just how difficult these things are,” Lawrence said.
Utility Work and Weather Delays Set the Stage
The demolition followed months of groundwork. As noted by TribLive, utility crews began digging an underground conduit trench during the summer and finished that work at the beginning of September, though storms delayed the crews along the way by pulling them into emergency repair jobs elsewhere in the area, per Lawrence. The same report said demolition work is expected to last through the end of 2026, with a total cost expected to exceed $600,000.
What Comes Next for the Site
Once the building comes down, the site is expected to become a vacant lot, and Lawrence said there are no current plans for its next use. Still, local officials see opportunity in the empty parcel. Greensburg Mayor Robb Bell said the demolition is expected to spur continued economic development in the city, noting that developers have already approached officials about the lot, according to community.triblive.com.
One possibility floated by officials involves the building directly across the street. Greensburg officials and the Westmoreland County Housing Authority, which owns the First Commonwealth Bank building, have discussed converting that structure into multigenerational apartments. Alec Italiano said the Royer's lot could complement that apartment proposal if it moves forward. Per a report from Counselors of Real Estate, a 2023 CRE Consulting Corps report identified the Royer's site, potentially combined with an adjacent parcel, as a target for downtown redevelopment and noted the building could theoretically be converted to residential use, though that would require significant gap financing.
Part of a Larger County Demolition Push
The Royer's project is one piece of a much larger county effort. The county's demolition program has removed 305 structures with about 200 more planned over the next two years, and the program has just less than $1.9 million left to spend in that window, per the same account. Over the previous three years, the program demolished six structures in Greensburg alone, alongside 165 in Monessen.
A block away on North Main Street sits another example of that work: the former Advance Furniture store, also owned by the Westmoreland County Land Bank, which was demolished in 2023. The CRE report had described that Advance Furniture lot at 227 South Main Street as vacant once its dilapidated building came down, a precedent now playing out again as the Royer's building disappears from Greensburg's skyline.
