IHOP to open in Squirrel Hill

The International House of Pancakes, also known as IHop, will open a restaurant on Browns Hill Road in Squirrel Hill.

The outlet is expected to open in early 2009 as part of a development under construction by Walnut Capital Partners of Shadyside. It is the company's fourth restaurant opened or planned to date in southwestern Pennsylvania. A site in Robinson is open, a second is under construction near Uniontown, and a third is planned for the Cedarwood project in Butler Township.

Steve Esposito, commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, negotiated IHop's purchase of the Squirrel Hill site from Walnut Capital for $1.05 million. He said the traditional IHop restaurant is about 5,000 square feet.