Business News Digest

REGION
Executive joins Alcoa
PITTSBURGH -- A former Tetra Pak executive joined Alcoa as head of the aluminum giant's flexible packaging business. Jeffrey Kellar, 51, will be president of the Alcoa unit, which is based in Richmond, Va., officials with Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said Wednesday.
Alcoa flexible packaging is used with pharmaceutical, tobacco, food and beverage, retail, medial and industrial products.
Kellar had been vice president of strategic development and marketing for Chicago-based Tetra Pak, which specializes in aseptic packaging and processing technology.
From store to condos
PITTSBURGH -- A Philadelphia developer plans to renovate a long-vacant dry-goods store in downtown Pittsburgh and replace it with upscale condominiums and a ground-floor retail store.
Solara Ventures wants to build 17 condominiums that will sell for 335,000 to 700,000 on the Penn Avenue property. The project will cost 5 million to 6 million.
To make room for the units, four new floors would be built onto the structure. The building's upper floors were destroyed by a fire in the 1940s.
"We'd like to have people moving in by this time next year," Jack Benoff, president of Solara Ventures, told the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on Tuesday.
Vindicator wire services