In 2005, the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County (RAAC) purchased the 168-acre Carrie Furnace Redevelopment Site, a former iron-ore production facility once integral to steel production in the Pittsburgh Region. When the facility was shuttered and eventually sold to the Park Corporation to be dismantled, the Redevelopment Authority, along with the communities in and surrounding the site – The Boroughs of Rankin, Swissvale, Whitaker, Munhall – recognized the importance of remediating the property and turning it into a development that could honor the industrial heritage of the region, and once again feature prominently in the economy of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
In 2006, a portion of the site received National Historic Landmark Designation from the Department of Interior for the remaining blast furnaces, the Carrie Furnace Hot Metal Bridge, and the adjacently located Pump House (site of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892).