Pop Star: Robert Rubinstein

Just who is talking here, please, can we ask that?

By day, he’s the city’s mild-mannered Urban Redevelopment Authority economic development director, steering deals through the rocky shoals of everything from remediation through impossible-to-decipher government regs. By night, he’s Rasta Man! As guitarist and leader of Ras Prophet, the city’s nastiest reggae band, he rambles ‘round your city, playing clubs and colleges, festivals and parties, Erie to Indianapolis, Market Square to Mountaineer Race Track.

This can’t be the same dude with two different ‘tudes, can it?

Well, as Gandalf reminds us, “there's more to this hobbit than meets the eye.”

A McKeesport native who now calls Swisshelm Park home, Robert Rubinstein traipsed off to Michigan to study engineering -- and incidentally learn reggae. Returning for a CMU master’s in industrial administration, two decades ago he joined the URA as a loan officer. Working his way through the ranks, Rubinstein cut his teeth on public/private financing, technical assistance, project coordination, and public approvals.

Now, his multiple tasks include overseeing some $10 million in annual loans to businesses and commercial real estate projects, and guiding the city’s large-scale development projects, including internationally recognized brownfield redevelopment. As an economic development ambassador, he’s spoken from Florida to California, Poland to the Czech Republic. “People are captivated by the Pittsburgh story,” Rubinstein says. “They look at us as leaders, as creators of best practices. People model their programs after what we’ve done.”

Which is what, precisely? “We help build tax revenues for the city,” Rubinstein says. “We make businesses feel welcome here, make Pittsburgh an attractive place to do business.”

Billeted in a spacious corner office in Downtown’s John P. Robin Civic Building, named for the visionary planner of Renaissances I & II, Rubinstein works amidst photos of his heroes, Bob Dylan to Bob Marley, Roberto Clemente to Jack Lambert. Happy to discus The Great One or Jack Splat, Rubinstein’s less comfortable about taking credit for himself, inevitably praising his 16-person department. “This is a talented, amazing staff of professionals,” he says, “dedicated to their jobs, passionate about the city.”

On the job, that passion finds it way into helping businesses expand and re-locate, creating jobs, bringing goods and services to underused neighborhoods, reclaiming underutilized properties. EastSide, on the cusp of Shadyside and East Liberty, is a perfect example, a property which Rubinstein helped transform from virtually nothing into a significant East End destination, featuring Border’s and one of the city’s better Wines and Spirits stores. Having done extensive work in Lawrenceville, the Pittsburgh Technology Center, Armstrong Cork, the South Side, and Bakery Square, among others, from fundraising to infrastructure, demolition to stabilization, “we’re pretty creative,” he says. “We’re a resource to re-invent the city.”

A veteran of four mayors – meaning four very different visions and management styles – “it’s very rewarding to know that we’ve played a part in the great things that have happened here,” Rubinstein says. “In the last 20 years the city has been transformed dramatically. Now, Pittsburgh is poised for greatness.”

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Abby Mendelson’s latest book, Ghost Dancer, a collection of short stories, is available at amazon and bn.com.

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Photograph of Ras Prophet by Rich Wilson, copyright Ras Prophet.
Photographs of Robert Rubinstein copyright Brian Cohen