[Grego43]

There can be access to the depressed Mon Valley and still be a a Hazelwood.

Providing access and an alternative to the Squirrel Hill tunnel are the most siginificant parts of the project.


Too bad others, especially elected officals, don't see the issue as clearly. Access is key to growth & success for the entire region.

[Evergrey]

The Mon-Fayette is Truly a Dismal Use of Public Funds (http://www.pennfuture.org/files/event_camp/monfayettereportb_42402.pdf)


Braddock doesn't want the Mon-Fay
http://media.indypgh.org/uploads/2006/07/img_0494.jpgmid.jpg
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/24272.php

[themaguffin]

I guess the Bizarro Cranberry, Braddock will see its booming beautiful streets and economy destroyed by this highway. Oh that's right, it happened 30 years ago and nothing has changed for the better there.

[DBR96A]

Pittsburgh's highway infrastructure is pathetic. Yet some people cheer about the Mon-Fayette project stalling. I took it as horrible news. It means Pittsburghers will be stuck driving the horribly inadequate Parkway East, tacky "DUI enforcement zones" and all, while McKeesporters will still need 45 minutes to get downtown.

People ask whether the "best" cities have good public or private transportation options, but there's no point in asking. They have BOTH.

BUILD THE GODDAMN HIGHWAYS! BOTH OF THEM! :hell:

[PittPenn 03]

I buy into the Jim Kunstler 'Long Emergency' theory. The days of where a highway such as this is a worthwhile investment are very quickly coming to an end. The money that would be wasted on this should be used to build a light rail link from Downtown to Oakland or used to shore up our locks and dams for barge shipping.

[Grego43]

Sounds perfectly logical to me to allow backwaters like Braddock and Hazelwood to determine the direction in which all of the Metro area goes. :koko: Why do Pittsburghers have such a hard time understanding that with Access comes Progress? Because of a few knuckleheads, thousands of acres of land along the route of the Southern Beltway will remain without access, which just encourages more sprawl farther from the city along current expressways. The Brownfields of the Mon Valley will remain brownfields without new access. Good luck to the fine people of Braddock...they're gonna need it. To the rest of the region...WAKE UP!

Someone name one city, just one, that has over the decades stalled or killed as many transit infrastructure projects as Pittsburgh and now has a stable/growing population, and a robust economy. Yeah, I can't think of any either.

DBR96A said it best: "BUILD THE GODDAMN HIGHWAYS! BOTH OF THEM! :hell: "

[hyperion1110]

Oil prices continue to rise. The days of suburban sprawl are quickly coming to an end. People are already moving back into the cities...they're the future.

I say invest in public transit in and around the city. In the long run, that is the best return on investment.

[UrbaniDesDev]

They need to concentrate on the Southern beltway. I believe Westinghouse might not have moved to Cranberry if the Southern Beltway was guaranteed. This would tie the Eastern burbs to the Airport and start to form a beltway around the city. Mon-Fay has soooo many problems and is hugely expensive. It should not be tied, financially to the Southern Beltway. The existing section of the Mon-Fay X would connect to the Southern Beltway, but the Beltway should have priority. Many cities have freeways that begin at their beltways.

The connections they have planned for the Mon-Fay X are to connect to the already overcrowded Parkway East near Bates Street! Are they kidding? This thing has not been thought out. Building 2 freeways, oh, not freeways, toll roads, at the same time WILL NOT HAPPEN! Let's face it, we just can't afford both!

This Turnpike Commision needs a good audit. I think they're having greedy little wet dreams. They want to spend millions and millions to turn I 80 into a TOLL road!? This is disastrous! None of the Toll roads they have built, Greensburg and the Beaver Valley, have even come close to the predictions they made as far as usage.

There is no regional planning done here. Everything here is done piecemeal. Thats why so many projects have been cancelled or stalled. The route chosen for the Mon-Fay X is ridiculous. Instead of using the hub and spokes theory, as most cities have done, we now have 2 direct routes to Morgantown! Routing the Mon-Fay X from Uniontown toward Cumberland, Md. roughly along Rt 40. connecting it to Maryland's beautiful new I 68 would provide an alternate route to DC/Baltimore. This would divert traffic off of the overcrowded Pa Turnpike. That would make sense to me. But that would give to much competition to the old Pa Turnpike Route.

The purpose of this freeway is to benefit all the communities along the Mon Valley. So what do they do? They cram it right through the heart of all these communities!

It seems to me the biggest beneficiaries of all this is the Turnpike Commsission!

I'm not against the Mon-Fay X but I'm appalled at the plan they have.

[maudibjr]

How many sq feet is the Us Steel Tower? I knew it was the tallest tower, but I didn't realize its bulk.

[hyperion1110]

:previous: The US Steel Tower is about 2.3 million square feet.

[BMikeSci]

Each floor is a little more than an acre.

[BMikeSci]

Highways:

Building more roads is not the solution. We need to change the types of vehicles we use. Single occupant vehicles are the future for commuters. I know that sometimes a car or truck is necessary, but not all the time. When is government going to start giving some sort of incentive for those who buy alternative "smart" transportation? Moreover, dedicated roads have to be designated. If you are in a small lightweight electric vehicle, you can't have huge trucks and buses bearing down on you. Just trying to get around PGH on a bike is a challenge.

A single lane could easily handle twice to three times the traffic with single user vehicles - covered three wheelers and electric bicycles. I have an electric bike cost $300.00 that goes 20 miles on a $.10 charge, and I get a little exercise too and no pollution. Hybrid vehicles go even further. Let's not spend hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance old technology. With about 10 years of oil left, we need to be much smarter. Personally, I would like to have oil so food can be delivered to the supermarkets 15 years from now rather than a joy ride today. Those same hundreds of millions could go a long way to getting everyone an electric vehicle. With 140,000 workers downtown, we could subsidize about $2000 per person for $300 million - about the price of the new arena. That could buy a lot of smart vehicles. BTW, it would do a lot to solve the parking problem too.

I guess the big problem is the american car industry. Their lobbyists will never allow a program like what I propose to pass. Bastards! Instead, we will spend millions to advertise what great guys the american car manufacturers are. Bend over america, here comes another Lexus.

BTW, please leave your car home for earth day at least!:-)

[BMikeSci]

Yesterday I went over to PPG place. Once again I was struck by how badly that square is treated. Thankfully the plasic chairs and sandbags were gone, but the square still looked drab. The buildings are really marvelous, but, on their own, they are grey and lifeless. Of course the castle motif is fantastic, but, like a castle, totally devoid of color. It occurred to me that richly colored flags or penants would be fantastic there. They could do a modernized medieval village theme there, and it would be fantastic. The fountain and pedistal are totally out of place, and the water drizzling along the pavement is just depressing. What a shame that what could be PGH best square is a total nothing.

[Grego43]

I agree that public transit upgrades are sorely needed in the region, but an LRT line to Oakland does nothing for business/industry which needs road access. Two lane, substandard roads which are common throughout the Mon Valley will not entice companies to relocate or expand there. I'm talking about opening up brownfields in the Mon Valley and thousands of landlocked acres along the path of the Southern Beltway. The land along the Beltway would not contribute so much to sprawl as it is already well within the airport corridor.

[Grego43]

Correct BMikeSci...that plaza, along with Market Sq has the potential to be one of the most dynamic public spaces in the country, yet it is downright depressing.

I haven't seen much on the proposed redesign of Market Sq., please tell me the playground component has gone away!

[PittPenn 03]

Sounds perfectly logical to me to allow backwaters like Braddock and Hazelwood to determine the direction in which all of the Metro area goes. :koko: Why do Pittsburghers have such a hard time understanding that with Access comes Progress? Because of a few knuckleheads, thousands of acres of land along the route of the Southern Beltway will remain without access, which just encourages more sprawl farther from the city along current expressways. The Brownfields of the Mon Valley will remain brownfields without new access. Good luck to the fine people of Braddock...they're gonna need it. To the rest of the region...WAKE UP!

Someone name one city, just one, that has over the decades stalled or killed as many transit infrastructure projects as Pittsburgh and now has a stable/growing population, and a robust economy. Yeah, I can't think of any either.

DBR96A said it best: "BUILD THE GODDAMN HIGHWAYS! BOTH OF THEM! :hell: "

So it is okay to encourage sprawl down this highway? I feel bad for the Mon Valley, but the city should not pay the price of more companies and residents fleeing the core to develop around the interchanges of this highway. Which is exactly what will happen, that and just a shift of other regional companies and population moving around for the next big thing. It is not like outside companies and non-Pittsburghers are looking at our region and saying, you know I will relocate in the economically depressed Mon Valley just because you have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build this highway. The future is with the core and this is where the money should go. I see you live in South Florida. If you feel for the Mon Valley so much, why don't you move back? I am sure McKeesport, Braddock, Duquesne, etc. would love to have you. (What? No! - then why would anyone else?) I am quite certain the fault of our areas highways not being modernized like other cities lie squarely on the backs of all the people who left and no longer contribute to the PA tax base. I do not mean to sound snotty here, but our main economic problems are now based on not being able to build the service industry that comes with a growing population. If our population was growing these highways would likely have been built years ago.

That said, I think are region is going to benefit in the future for not having 12-laned white elephants hung on us like a noose (like the rest of the country) to maintain when no one but the rich can afford to drive anymore.

[Grego43]

PittPenn, do you think the way to protect a city from jobs and population loss is to not build roads? No offense, but in what parallel universe are you living? Look at any healthy metro area and you see an excellent road system: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake...et al. You don't think outside companies look at Pittsburgh for relocation? Low cost of living and a large workforce are enticing, but for many, open flat land with access is a problem. Have you driven along the Mon and seen all the vacant, flat land? Perfect places to set up large-scale manufacturing (as it was before), but global companies no longer rely on river transport and the circuitous railroads are very inefficient. They need road and air access.

And yes, I do feel for the Mon Valley as you say...because I was born in Mckeesport and lived in and around Pittsburgh until I had to leave to get a job. Its a shame that good people that don't have the means to leave put their trust in misguided fools that would rather preserve boarded up storefronts and abandoned houses than allow, or even encourage, infrastructure that would help lift these areas from a 25-year depression. By the way, because of the type of work I've done, I have been able to do a lot more for the Pittsburgh metro area tax base while living outside the region, than most do living there, so let's not start a pissing match.

Neither of the proposed expressways are slated to be "12-laned", they are supposed to be the typical Pennsylvania narrow four-laners that are outdated before they are completed.

[themaguffin]

Those against the road act as if Pittsburgh is like any other metro. It's not. the Mon Valley is not a collection of burbs from sprawl, it was urban sprawl from the mills along the rivers. It's all Pittsburgh, but in name. I want an incredibly elaborate transit system, but that still doesn't negate a need for car and truck access to this area and for an alternative to the squirrel hill tunnel.

[Evergrey]

Yesterday I went over to PPG place. Once again I was struck by how badly that square is treated. Thankfully the plasic chairs and sandbags were gone, but the square still looked drab. The buildings are really marvelous, but, on their own, they are grey and lifeless. Of course the castle motif is fantastic, but, like a castle, totally devoid of color. It occurred to me that richly colored flags or penants would be fantastic there. They could do a modernized medieval village theme there, and it would be fantastic. The fountain and pedistal are totally out of place, and the water drizzling along the pavement is just depressing. What a shame that what could be PGH best square is a total nothing.

I walked through there yesterday... they need to lose the roving security guard... it's totally pointless and just creates an atmosphere of fear and suspicion... and it's infuriating how the security guard will not let anyone take photographs of the complex...

PPG Place gets a little more lively in the summer months when children are playing in the fountain under the cautious eye of the security guard... and in the winter months when people are ice skating... but in the interim periods it's just a dead zone

[Evergrey]

so much for all this talk about improving transportation in our region... while the rest of the country moves forward... Pennsylvania goes backwards

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07118/781749-85.stm

No help coming soon for Port Authority
Chief sees little hope for avoiding further cuts

Saturday, April 28, 2007

By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland returned from a lobbying visit to Harrisburg with no extra money and little hope of the state resolving a funding crisis in time to avert more bus-trolley cuts in September.

"I found more people talking about the issue, but the prognosis is not real good," he said after yesterday's monthly board meeting. "Nobody gave us cause for optimism that there will be a solution soon and certainly not by June."

Mr. Bland spent Tuesday at the capital meeting with key House and Senate members from across the state and with local lawmakers from both parties.

An initial round of 15 percent in service cuts, including the elimination of 29 bus routes, goes into effect June 17 as part of reducing an estimated $80 million budget deficit by $35 million for the 2007-08 fiscal year that begins July 1.

But June is important for another reason.

If no extra operating assistance appears forthcoming from the state -- or the county -- by then, the authority will start implementing the 10 percent of additional bus-trolley cuts threatened in January. They would go into effect Sept. 2.

Although the second round of cuts would wipe out the remaining $45 million budget deficit, it would be more far-reaching, eliminating up to 95 routes spared in the first round. Mr. Bland has characterized it as cutting into the "meat and bones" of the system.

"A lot of people still have the false hope that money will fall out of the sky," he said. "My focus has moved to September" to make the fewest possible number of cuts and impact the fewest number of riders and employees.

During his trip, Mr. Bland did not meet with Gov. Ed Rendell, whose proposal to tax corporate profits of oil companies to raise money for transit appears politically dead.

Nonetheless, the heat is being turned up in Harrisburg because the Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is facing a $129 million budget deficit, 50-cent fare increases, 20 percent service cuts, employee layoffs and the loss of 40 million rides a year.

Last week, the Port Authority announced the layoff of 267 employees -- 251 union and 16 nonunion workers -- over the last two weeks of June.

Yesterday, the board approved $13,000 one-time cash payments as an incentive for up to 228 of the older union workers to retire.

The deal is being offered on a first-come basis to 138 bus-trolley operators, 79 maintenance workers and 11 first-level supervisors who belong to Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union.

Even by paying $13,000 to retiring hourly workers, the authority would save up to $6,000 a year for each worker in the first year alone inasmuch as that person would be replaced by a newer employee lower on the pay scale. New hires receive 60 percent of regular pay and take four years to reach full union scale.

Also, the more employees who take up the offer will reduce the number of union colleagues slated to be laid off.

The offer is being extended to full-time hourly and salaried, first-level supervisors meeting minimum normal retirement eligibility that includes 25 years of service, age 65 with 10 years, and a combination of service and age totaling 85 "points."

Also yesterday, the authority board authorized spending the remaining $2.5 million from a 2004 debt refinancing deal to leverage an additional $7.5 million in state operating subsidies. The state provides $3 for every $1 of local matching money, typically provided entirely by the county but using the special fund as one-time help this year.

But because there's still a shortfall of "local" money, the authority is unable to lay claim to another $585,586 in state subsidies and is, in essence, losing it.

And members of "The Campaign to Stop the Bus Cuts" delivered petitions bearing 20,000 signatures to County Executive Dan Onorato's office, asking him to order the Port Authority to open its books "so the public can see how much state money is needed to stop the proposed cuts."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1985. )

[hyperion1110]

I think PittPenn03 said it best. We cannot encourage further suburban sprawl, and that is all the completion of the expressway will accomplish.

Btw, road and air transportation are the least efficient forms of transport. Rail and waterways, two things which Pittsburgh still does very well, are MUCH more efficient. And with the world reaching peak oil production, you can be sure companies are going to look VERY hard at the most energy efficient solution, not the quickest.

Pittsburgh is really nothing like any other metro area in the country. The combination of topography and demographics set us apart a great deal. We are facing the problems now that other metros will be forced to deal with in 20 years, and I seriously doubt they will handle it with a tenth of the grace Pittsburgh has.

Invest in mass transportation...it's the future!

[Top Of The Park]

..a true city of the future!

[RamsayHank]

Look at any healthy metro area and you see an excellent road system: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake...et al.

Well, not exactly. Portland in particular is a great example of what happens when a city decides not to build a highway. In their case, they tore down a highway that ran through downtown along the riverfront in the 1970's and used the federal funds that had been earmarked for the highway's renovation to starting the famously efficient light-rail system they have now. The only effect that the MFX would have on the remaining downtowns in the Mon Valley would be to finish off the job of killing them as people worked instead in Pittsburgh and McKeesport and others became bedroom communities. You may want to have a look at Robert Fogelson's Downtown: Its Rise and Fall for insight into the effects of expressways on cities.

[James2390]

Great things going on it the Pitt! :)

[cdc]

Turns out we like cities, but we really want to live in towns.
(So why focus on building housing downtown PGH?)

Click on "LISTEN" here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9899336

"Architect Witold Rybczynski is known for his books exploring the most basic questions of the man-made environment. His latest book is called Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville."


I googled Rybczynski and found that he has a short paper
on "Shrinking Cities" here:

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/334.pdf

that is a bit dated, but quite relevant to PGH, though he
does not mention us directly. An interesting read.

[BMikeSci]

Correct BMikeSci...that plaza, along with Market Sq has the potential to be one of the most dynamic public spaces in the country, yet it is downright depressing.

I haven't seen much on the proposed redesign of Market Sq., please tell me the playground component has gone away!

I don't know. This project seems to be on the back burner again. That whole square needs to be closed off from traffic and opened up as a park. Then it will be really something. It could be like one of the terrific squares they have in europe. A destination for workers during the day and for play at night. I remember watching movies at the main square in Florence. PGH could have that too.

Traffic in the downtown needs to be discouraged as much as possible. Once again, I think we need a downtown driving pass system like the one in Singapore. NYC is looking to go that route now. The pass could be greatly discounted for residents and employees of the downtown and include incentives for alternative vehicles.

[BMikeSci]

I walked through there yesterday... they need to lose the roving security guard... it's totally pointless and just creates an atmosphere of fear and suspicion... and it's infuriating how the security guard will not let anyone take photographs of the complex...

PPG Place gets a little more lively in the summer months when children are playing in the fountain under the cautious eye of the security guard... and in the winter months when people are ice skating... but in the interim periods it's just a dead zone

Why would anyone want a photo. It's so depressing there. They need to plant some trees at least. The only part I like is the little walk thru to market square. At least there are a few flowers planted there.

[UrbaniDesDev]

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e235/UrbaniDesDev/PPGPlazaFountain7.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e235/UrbaniDesDev/PPGPlazaFountain5.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e235/UrbaniDesDev/PPGPlazaFountain.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e235/UrbaniDesDev/PPGPlazaFountain3.jpg

[BMikeSci]

$8 to enter NYC.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9884050

[BMikeSci]

Yes, the children cheer up the place:-) The fountain can look nice, although I still think the monument looks out of place and more than a little funereal. Why do the paving stones look so filthy and old? Is it just a maintenance issue? The color from the swim suits add a lot of cheer. Imagine what a few flag poles and some colorful pendants would do. It's a shame that there are no vendors there. If there were, there would be some justification for management to put some money into the square.

If the headstone were removed, a fire and water feature would be terrific. I think there was a good one done by Yackov Agam for La Defense.

[BMikeSci]

Yaacov Agam:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/156.jpg

[PittPenn 03]

PittPenn, do you think the way to protect a city from jobs and population loss is to not build roads? No offense, but in what parallel universe are you living? Look at any healthy metro area and you see an excellent road system: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake...et al. You don't think outside companies look at Pittsburgh for relocation? Low cost of living and a large workforce are enticing, but for many, open flat land with access is a problem. Have you driven along the Mon and seen all the vacant, flat land? Perfect places to set up large-scale manufacturing (as it was before), but global companies no longer rely on river transport and the circuitous railroads are very inefficient. They need road and air access.

And yes, I do feel for the Mon Valley as you say...because I was born in Mckeesport and lived in and around Pittsburgh until I had to leave to get a job. Its a shame that good people that don't have the means to leave put their trust in misguided fools that would rather preserve boarded up storefronts and abandoned houses than allow, or even encourage, infrastructure that would help lift these areas from a 25-year depression. By the way, because of the type of work I've done, I have been able to do a lot more for the Pittsburgh metro area tax base while living outside the region, than most do living there, so let's not start a pissing match.

Neither of the proposed expressways are slated to be "12-laned", they are supposed to be the typical Pennsylvania narrow four-laners that are outdated before they are completed.

You really do not believe that the storefronts of the Mon Valley are all going to be filled because of this highway do you? ALL the development will go around the interchanges and the old towns will continue to crumble. In the last few decades I will agree that roads were important if you wanted an economy based on building suburban sprawl - which is pretty much all that was going on, but we should be looking beyond that now. $5.00+ a gallon for gas is going to change everything. I think the best hope for the Mon Valley would be to make our lock and dam system down the Mon as state of the art as can be, and try to entice companies to locate operations along the rivers that would be interested in shipping by barge. There was an article years ago that said if we invested enough in our locks and dams that we could potentially bring 20,000 to 30,000 jobs to the region due to the cheapness of barge shipping. This type of job growth would be real job growth rather than drawing a handful of firms from say Cranberry and Downtown who feel the need to chase the shiny lure of a new office park or warehouse park around the metro every 5 years as these places open up. And come on, with our union heavy metro - particularly in areas like this, do you really think enough companies would want to touch this area when it comes to manufacturing? The tax incentives that would have to be given away to get companies to operate manufacturing at the scale that would supposedly save the Mon Valley would be staggering. -This on top of the costs of the highway?!

I was not referring to this highway as having twelve lanes - it was directed at twelve lane beltways that most metros have "so-called modern" that I believe will be a disaster to maintain in peak oil days. I think Pittsburgh will be better off for not having them in the not too distant future.

I have no interest in a pissing match with you. If you are doing things for Pittsburgh then good for you. Though I am sure McKeesport would welcome you back with open arms.

[Grego43]

You really do not believe that the storefronts of the Mon Valley are all going to be filled because of this highway do you? ALL the development will go around the interchanges and the old towns will continue to crumble. In the last few decades I will agree that roads were important if you wanted an economy based on building suburban sprawl - which is pretty much all that was going on, but we should be looking beyond that now. $5.00+ a gallon for gas is going to change everything. I think the best hope for the Mon Valley would be to make our lock and dam system down the Mon as state of the art as can be, and try to entice companies to locate operations along the rivers that would be interested in shipping by barge. There was an article years ago that said if we invested enough in our locks and dams that we could potentially bring 20,000 to 30,000 jobs to the region due to the cheapness of barge shipping. This type of job growth would be real job growth rather than drawing a handful of firms from say Cranberry and Downtown who feel the need to chase the shiny lure of a new office park or warehouse park around the metro every 5 years as these places open up. And come on, with our union heavy metro - particularly in areas like this, do you really think enough companies would want to touch this area when it comes to manufacturing? The tax incentives that would have to be given away to get companies to operate manufacturing at the scale that would supposedly save the Mon Valley would be staggering. -This on top of the costs of the highway?!

I was not referring to this highway as having twelve lanes - it was directed at twelve lane beltways that most metros have "so-called modern" that I believe will be a disaster to maintain in peak oil days. I think Pittsburgh will be better off for not having them in the not too distant future.

I have no interest in a pissing match with you. If you are doing things for Pittsburgh then good for you. Though I am sure McKeesport would welcome you back with open arms.

Of course I don't believe a highway will fill empty storefronts...shops that would be needed to service a working population would fill empty storefronts...shops that would be a result from increased employment in these dead areas that would be drawn to the area by cheap flat land, a ready work force, good access, and yes, tax incentives. A reduced tax rate and employed citizens is better than no taxes and unemployed citizens in crumbling towns, no? As much as I would love to see the rivers utilized, it just isn't logical for delivering goods to warehouses, airports, or all the rest of the country that isn't in the Ohio/Mississippi River Valleys, not to mention the time involved. As someone who knows a thing or two about manufacturing & inventory management, I can tell you that given the choice of a 10 hour truck journey to St. Louis or a 10 day barge journey, I'd go with the truck route 9 out of 10 times. Of course, the goods to be shipped would play a part as well.

I don't think anyone has illusions of turning Braddock into the next Robinson Twp. by drawing office workers from Cranberry or downtown, its about creating a cohesive metro area with access and opportunity. Those brownfields will remain without access.

Oh, and please don't start blaming unions for the regions problems, were it not for unions, the whole damn country would be working for Wal-Mart level wages, and the same wonderful fringes they offer.

I'm also sure McKeesport would welcome me back with open arms, it does in fact a few times every year when I visit my grandparents. However, I much prefer the Pittsburgh welcome with open arms I get from men I meet in bars...;)

'nuff said about this topic...from me at least...we'll never agree.

[themaguffin]

roads will never be obsolete. even now, we hear talk of "alternative" energy which is alternative sources to fuel vehicles.

There is no national cry for transit as the alternative.

[Evergrey]

some photo updates

examples of scattered-site owner-occupied housing development in South Oakland pursued by the Oakland CDC http://www.oaklandplanning.org/realestate/currentprojects.html
http://www.pbase.com/image/77954904.jpg

work progressing on the pedestrian portion of the Hot Metal Bridge
http://www.pbase.com/image/77955748.jpg

the former St. Casimir school in the South Side... under conversion to condos
http://www.pbase.com/image/77956741.jpg

first phase under construction for Riverside Mews at 18th and Merriman in the South Side... 48 townhomes ranging from $300k-$500k
http://www.pbase.com/image/77957428.jpg

15th St. Glassworks in the South Side... three townhomes and two lofts ranging from $475k-$500k
http://www.pbase.com/image/77957435.jpg

never heard of this place... luxury apartments in the South Side around 13th St. behind the park with the baseball field... forgot to get the name... looks new
http://www.pbase.com/image/77958237.jpg

the park PNC built next to its FirstSide Center downtown
http://www.pbase.com/image/77959655.jpg

806 Penn Ave. is being converted to 5 lofts
http://www.5lofts.com
http://www.pbase.com/image/77959671.jpg

the McNally building (red) on Penn is getting a wine bar / chophouse called Maury's
http://www.pbase.com/image/77959675.jpg

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07120/782142-85.stm

Housing grants to help area's neediest

Monday, April 30, 2007

By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The region will receive $3 million to help provide housing for its neediest residents.

At a news conference today, U.S. Reps. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, will announce the grants for housing to serve the homeless, people with disabilities and people with low incomes.

The grants are privately funded by Federal Home Loan Bank through its annual set-aside of 10 percent of its income for use in its affordable housing program.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato will be accepting those grants on behalf of the region.

The largest chunks of money, $500,000 each, will go to Bedford Hill Apartments and Dad's House and Safe Haven to develop rental units in the Hill District and East Liberty.

Another $450,000 will be awarded to Hosanna Industries Inc., which, using volunteer labor, plans to rehabilitate homes in Duquesne, East Liberty, the Hill District, Homewood, Oakland, Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg. Hosanna Industries also will receive another $160,000 to renovate abandoned homes in Pittsburgh's East End.

Amani Christian Development Corp. and Pittsburgh Housing Development Corp. will be able to use a $250,000 grant toward housing they are building in the Upper Hill neighborhood.

The Allegheny County Housing Authority and TREK Development Group Inc. will get a $175,000 grant for renovation of rental housing in Homestead.

McKeesport Housing Corp. and the city's Neighborhood Initiative will receive $100,000 to use in the construction of 10 new homes in the city's 7th Ward.

In Beaver County, the Sisters of St. Joseph will receive a $230,000 grant to convert a convent into 23 apartments for nuns.

The Fayette County Community Action Agency will get a $400,000 grant to put toward the construction of 30 lease-purchase homes in Uniontown.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699. )

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07120/782127-53.stm

Brightwood hopes for brighter future

Residents see church purchase of nuisance bar as a first step

Monday, April 30, 2007

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



When the Home Plate Bar had finally become indefensible, owner Jim Cowan called the New Hope Church to offer first dibs on buying it. Like the owner before him, he had struggled with a problematic clientele.

The corner, at Shadeland and Woodland avenues, had become malignant, a betrayal of Marshall-Shadeland's history as a solid, blue-collar neighborhood. Along the Ohio River on the North Side, it is also known as Brightwood and claims about 5,500 residents.

The bar closed four weeks ago under the pressure of resident complaints and scrutiny of the nuisance-bar task force. New Hope for Neighborhood Renewal, the church's development arm, closed on the property Thursday, paying $105,000 for it.

"It was more than we wanted to pay," said the Rev. Rodger Woodworth, New Hope's pastor. "But we're buying more than a building. We're buying a corner. It's an investment in redemption."

Paramedic Mark Bonasso was impressed by the transition. Days after the bar closed, Mr. Woodworth walked into Ray's Barber Shop, where Mr. Bonasso was getting a buzz cut.

"Are you the pastor?" Mr. Bonasso asked.

"I am," Mr. Woodworth replied.

"The difference is amazing," said Mr. Bonasso. "A couple Friday nights ago, we were on our way back to the [fire] station, and there was no one on the corner."

New Hope will renovate the bar into an ice cream parlor and coffeehouse, with either upstairs apartments or space for performing and recording, said Mr. Woodworth.

Like every neighborhood that has lost investment over many decades, Marshall-Shadeland has an uphill march. And like many struggling neighborhoods, it has been further demoted by the closing of its school and the fire station across the street, which the paramedics occupy.

Although one property isn't likely to make or break a neighborhood, Ed Brandt, director of the Brightwood Civic Group, called the buying of the bar "a pretty big action. Certain things can have a major impact."

The bar's impact was an example.

"Its closing will probably be significant," Mr. Brandt said.

City police Officer Forrest Hodges, of the North Side station, has noted an improved sense of well-being in the neighborhood. He did not supply requested crime statistics for comparison.

"We had a very big problem with Woodland-Shadeland," he said. "They started a block-watch program last year, and it's a different world over there now. It's really cleaned up."

"We're trying to shore up the market," said Mr. Brandt, whose civic group has built and renovated homes, as has New Hope. The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority is soliciting bids for construction of 17 homes where apartments used to be.

"When you put money into housing, hopefully there is a spin-off," said Mr. Brandt.

The community leaders say they want a good use to come for Horace Mann Elementary School, which the school board closed last year. Mann was a 100-year fixture that residents fought hard to keep open.

Within the same two blocks of Shadeland are the school, the fire station, the church, the Home Plate, a convenience store and Ray's Barber Shop. New Hope's congregation established there in 1993 with the purpose of activist outreach, said Mr. Woodworth.

"We wanted to plant a mixed-race congregation," he said. "Most middle class whites had pretty much left. Fifty percent of our congregation is working poor."

His family lives in the neighborhood, and several congregants have moved there, too. Ken Hale left Greenfield four years ago to move into the house he bought with his wife, whom he had met in the congregation. Mr. Hale is co-chairman of the block watch.

"We're going to take some steps forward and some steps back," he said of the area. "But you can see the community forming. People are stepping up, and the police have stepped up their attention. It has made a big difference."

He said block watch meetings draw 30 to 40 people, including Officer Hodges. Many come because they're frustrated by drug dealing, litter and disrespectful children on the streets.

"It's been an open forum for people, and it's empowering," he said. "A lot of times, people feel like they're the only ones" sticking their necks out.

"But now, when five, six or seven people are out talking," troublemakers get a sense of a growing solidarity. For one thing, he said, "they can't identify who is calling the police."

A neighborhood cleanup Saturday is the next step, he said. Drawing on support from PACleanways and the Pennsylvania Resources Council, it will start at 9 a.m. and the Home Plate will be the hub for signing up, lunch and a raffle.

"Part of the reason for cleanup day," said Mr. Hale, "is to send a strong message to those who don't care for the neighborhood from those of us who do."

Volunteers for the cleanup may call Ginette Vinski at the Pennsylvania Resources Council, 412-488-7490, or Ed Brandt at the Brightwood Civic Group, 412-732-8152.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )

[BMikeSci]

Brightwood hopes for brighter future

Really wonderful news. It amazes me that these neighborhoods have gone without redevelopment for so long. With PGH being such an exciting metropolitan area, the properties in these adjoining neighborhoods are so cheap, it is one of the few cities where average people can make real differences redeveloping areas on their own.

Look at Brighton Heights for example. People have been flipping houses their with some good success for the past couple of years. A project like this one in Brightwood could start a market going.

[BMikeSci]

Flexcar starts today:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07121/782309-28.stm

[Evergrey]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_505437.html

RAD board backs $21.6M makeover plan for city parks

By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, May 1, 2007


The board of the Allegheny Regional Asset District on Monday approved a long-range plan for city parks that includes a new Frick Environmental Center and a year-round swimming pool in Highland Park.
But RAD Executive Director David Donahoe urged parks officials in Pittsburgh to consider ways to save money through shared services with the county parks.

"We think it's time to determine if it's viable or not viable," Donahoe said, emphasizing that he was not calling for a merger.

City Public Works Director Guy Costa responded that the city has a good relationship with the county and shares some of its specialty equipment.





The plan that RAD approved yesterday runs from 2006 through 2010 and contains the following projects:

= Improving the entrance to the recently renovated field and track at Schenley Park;

= Building a maintenance facility for Schenley and Highland parks;

= Building an environmental center in Squirrel Hill to replace one that burned down more than four years ago;

= Converting clay tennis courts to hard surface at Frick Park and renovating five courts in Highland Park;

= Converting the swimming pool in Highland Park to a year-round family aquatic center with a retractable roof;

= Rebuilding the historic cabin and repairing the pool at Riverview Park.

Costa estimated that the projects would cost about $21.6 million over five years: $10.9 million for Frick Park, $6.9 million for Highland Park, $2.8 million for Schenley Park and $1.1 million for Riverview Park.

At $7.5 million, the most expensive item is the Frick Environmental Center. Citiparks Director Duane Ashley said the center would cover 30,000 square feet, compared with 8,000 square feet for the old center.

Ashley estimated that the year-round pool could cost $5 million.

Donahoe said RAD provides 65 percent, or $4.6 million, of the $7 million annual budget of the city's parks. It gives 1 percent a year of all of its revenues, or $765,000, for capital projects in the city parks.


RAD allocates money from an extra 1 percent sales tax in Allegheny County to local attractions and arts and cultural groups.



Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7828.

[Evergrey]

good to hear the Cork Factory is filling its units... I'll admit I was a little worried about how it would perform due to its enormous size (295 units)... so there's about 133 units leased right now

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/factory0502.aspx

May 2, 2007

Reaching the 45% occupancy mark, Cork Factory celebrates grand opening, awaits new retail

The Cork Factory, located at 2349 Railroad St. in the Strip District, has reached forty-five percent occupancy and has completed work on the property’s final development phase--an outdoor courtyard, pool and fire pit.

In May, work will begin outside the Cork Factory on a river wall and walk along the adjacent Allegheny River. The project will take 90 days to complete. The final phase of exterior developments will involve constructing a marina for Cork Factory residents, which should be completed by the fall.

“We’ve been so popular with people new to Pittsburgh,” says Debbie Roberts, who manages the Cork Factory’s 295 loft-style apartments. “Our residents are empty nesters from the suburbs who are tired of household chores, young professionals working downtown and people from out of state." Roberts credits resident referrals and word of mouth recommendations as effective marketing tools. She sites the building’s location, amenities and modern units set within a turn-of-the-century industrial landmark as selling points. “It’s the raw appeal--the basic design of the apartments.”

Throughout May and June, the Cork Factory will host grand opening events, such as "The Sprit of the Strip” in partnership with Neighbors in the Strip. Themed events include pet, “walk and dine” and PUMP festivities.

Next up for the Cork Factory is the completion of the development’s 47,000 square-foot retail space and parking garage, located on Smallman St. Seventy-five percent of the one-floor property is now under contract with commercial tenants.

Writer: Jennifer
Source: Debbie Roberts, McCaffery Interests





Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2059/cork_factory_300.jpg

[Evergrey]

more on the Beacon... looks like they've sold another condo!

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/award0502.aspx

May 2, 2007

$12M 5859 Beacon sells 20 condos, receives top construction awards

Squirrel Hill’s newest condominium 5859 BEACON, located within walking distance to the neighborhood’s business district, has sold 20 of its 28 units and won two top construction awards.

The project team--developers S & W Investment Properties, LLC, which consists of Charles Staley and Fran Wymard, contractor BRIDGES and Company, Inc. and architects Renaissance 3--received two 2006 "Excellence in Construction" Eagle Awards from the Associated Builders and Contractors.

Site manager Marie Louise Vaughn cites the Beacon’s central location, concrete and steel construction and Traco windows as criteria which led to the industry accolades. “It’s the design. The way it’s situated, there really isn't a deep dark unit. They’re all bright," she says.

The $12 million project features 28 for-sale condos, a fitness center and pet grooming facilities. Two- and three-bedroom units range in size from 1,360 to 2,451 square feet, and include balconies,11-foot ceilings and customized interiors designed by Londonbury Homes.

With 71% of its condos sold, Vaughn expects interest to continue. “It's so interesting, because we have an elderly couple in their 80s, and then we have a sophomore in college. We also have couples in their 50s, professors, active and retired physicians, and an economist who worked for the government. It’s truly a mix,” she says. "We're really hoping it sells out by July." Residents will move in during the next three months. Units in the four-story condominium start at $385,000.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Marie Louise Vaughn, Howard Hanna

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2059/beacon_condos_300.jpg

[Evergrey]

more on Crescent Court condos in Summerset @ Frick

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/court0502.aspx

May 2, 2007

$9.4M Crescent Court sells 21 condos, hosts opening events

To welcome new residents and mark the completion of construction, Crescent Court Condominiums hosted an open house on April 27-29th. The $9.4 million project has sold 21 of its 36 units.

“Three-fourths are from the Pittsburgh area, and of that, ten percent are coming into the city from suburbs. The rest are from places outside the region. We have many older couples, working people associated with Oakland, and a very large group of middle-aged, single women,” says Craig Dunham with The Rubinoff Company. “Now that the building is visible, sales are moving. As people move in, it’s not abstract anymore.”

Designed by Perfido, Weiskopf, Wagstaff + Goettle Architects and built by Mistick Construction, the three-story, 87,000 square-foot Crescent Court features one-, two- and three-bedroom condos ranging in size from 1,100 to 1,860 square feet. Units, which have sold for between $299,000 and $489,000, feature large solariums. “We hope they’re perceived as very generous, gracious floor plans,” says Dunham. LaQuatra Bonci Associates completed master planning and landscaping.

Developed by Ralph Falbo and Pennrose Properties, Crescent Court is the latest addition to Summerset at Frick Park, a project of Summerset Land Development Associates and the URA. Adjacent to Squirrel Hill, the 200-acre project includes 200 single-family houses, town homes, rental apartments and condos. When completed, it will feature 700 units, and the addition of 100 acres to Frick Park.

“There’s a diversity of housing types. Streets are interconnected with no cul-de-sacs, garages are in the back, the houses are uniformly set back 20 feet, and small parklets are interspersed throughout,” says Dunham, of Summerset’s New Urbanist approach.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Craig Dunham, The Rubinoff Company

Image courtesy of Summerset at Frick Park

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2059/Crescent_Court_300.jpg

[Evergrey]

more on the regional affordable housing initiative

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/housing0502.aspx

May 2, 2007


$3M in affordable housing grants to fund 440 units throughout region

Grants totaling $3 million will support affordable housing initiatives in Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, and Fayette counties. Overall, 440 rental and for-sale units will be created within new and rehabilitated properties for first-time homebuyers, low-income and homeless populations, people recovering from drug dependency, and physically and mentally handicapped individuals.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh presented the grants to nonprofit groups and developers on April 30th. “This is one of the largest ones, in terms of Southwestern Pennsylvania, that we’ve committed to. Affordable housing developments are very complex to put together, particularly in urban areas. It takes a true partnership,” says John Bendel, director of community investment with the FHLBank Pittsburgh, who contributed ten percent of the total project cost.

The Allegheny County Housing Authority and TREK Development Group received $175,000 to develop 52 units of affordable rental housing in Homestead. In the Hill District, the Bedford Hill project received $500,000 to complete 116 mixed-income rental units. Dad's House and Safe Haven, located in East Liberty, received $500,000 to transform nine blighted properties into 15 rental units located at North St. Clair St. and East Liberty Blvd. “Over the years, we’ve invested $2.5 million in funds in East Liberty, so it’s long-term there. It’s a nice connection between our funding source and what they're doing,” says Bendel.

Housing projects were also funded in McKeesport, Uniontown and Canonsburg, and at scattered sites located throughout Duquesne, Homewood, Oakland, Penn Hills, and Wilkinsburg.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: John Bendel, FHLBank Pittsburgh

[Evergrey]

I took a walk through Chatham's campus for the first time the other day... my goodness, it's glorious... I really had no idea... it's located in Squirrel Hill... but it feels like you enter a different world... the campus is a 35-acre arboretum... lush, beautiful vegetation... gorgeous old structures... really fascinating

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/04/30/daily12.html?t=printable

Chatham now a university

Pittsburgh Business Times - 11:40 AM EDT Tuesday, May 1, 2007by Susan Paff

Pittsburgh is gaining another university.

Chatham College officially became Chatham University on Tuesday, making it the fourth Pittsburgh-area institution to achieve university status in the last five years. The Pennsylvania Department of Education approved the change earlier this year, after roughly a year-long process.

President Esther Barazzone said the shift to university status was a natural progression for the women's undergraduate college, since nearly 60 percent of its 1,700 students are graduate students. It also began accepting men into its graduate programs, which were added in 1994. The state requires graduate programs to be co-educational.

The Shadyside university now has 18 masters programs and three doctoral degrees, with a fourth starting this fall.

"We became a university to recognize our graduate programs and have people understand the overall complexity of our institution," Barazzone said.

Chatham also will be better poised to recruit international students as a university, as well, she said.

The university will maintain women's undergraduate education as its core, though, Barazzone said.

"We are a co-educational university with a women's undergraduate college with it," she said.

The university will be divided into three colleges: Chatham College for Women; the College for Graduate Studies; and the College for Continuing and Professional Education. Barazzone said she is interviewing to fill dean positions for all three.

She also said she expects the university to continue to experience its 15 percent to 20 percent annual enrollment growth, but does not expect the campus to change dramatically since graduate classes are held in the evening or off campus in collaboration with other institutions.

"We are growing in lots of different ways, not all of which affect the ambiance on campus," Barazzone said. "We did this as an acknowledgment of where we've come, not as an engine for growth."

Chatham, which plans to announce the change at news conference later today, follows a number of local colleges that have taken the university title in the last five years: Robert Morris University, Point Park University and Carlow University all accepted the new name.

Ginny Frizzi, director of media relations and communications at Point Park, said she's glad there is another school growing and increasing academic offerings in Pittsburgh.

Frizzi was with Point Park during its transition to a university in 2003. It has seven graduate programs and enrollment of more than 3,500.

"I think overall that just represents a level of higher education in Pittsburgh," she said. "Instead of calling Pittsburgh a college town, we will have to start calling it a university town."

spaff@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3824

[Evergrey]

a kernel of good news before we return to the doom loop... Pennsylvania needs to figure out a way to relieve the burden of ever-escalating arbitration payments from its municipalities


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07122/782605-53.stm

Audit of city finds big surplus

But officials warn that many fiscal challenges still lie ahead

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The city's awash in cash.

The city's swamped in debts and obligations.

Both are true, Pittsburgh officials said yesterday upon the release of an annual audit that found $80 million in the city savings account, more than at any other time in at least two decades.

For the first time in a long time, Pittsburgh can truly be called "a solvent city," said acting city Controller Tony Pokora, whose department performed the audit. But, he added, "this is the high point, and then we're going to go down."

"When you mention that you have $80 million in the bank, that translates to the general public as money that should be spent and invested in them and their communities, and we agree," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. But some of it has to be socked away, he said, and he won't "rush to any judgment on how we use that money."

Last year, the city brought in $443 million and spent $401 million, leaving a surplus of $42 million. That allowed it to more than double its fund balance -- the municipal version of a savings account -- to $80 million.

By comparison, the fund balance was $73 million in 2001, when the city's wallet was still fat from the sale of tax liens and water lines, before it collapsed to almost nothing in 2004.

Last year's good showing was the result of better-than-expected tax collections and below-budget spending, especially in the Police Bureau. The city spent $5.6 million less on police than it had planned, largely because it didn't hire as many new officers as planned.

This year will be different.

"The $5 million they saved on police last year, we're going to spend that $5 million to put more police on the streets this year," said Fraternal Order of Police President James Malloy.

Mr. Pokora attributed the good year to the city temporarily "collecting two sets of taxes at the same time."

Under a state-mandated tax swap, it began collecting new payroll and employee taxes in 2005, even as it phases out some business taxes and lowers the parking tax through 2009.

The road ahead is murkier. It's unclear when taxes from a planned casino will start flowing in, and nonprofit institutions have not yet agreed to make any voluntary payments to the city beyond this year.

The question isn't so much whether deficits will return, but when.

"Even in 2009, the city is going to start sliding back into fiscal problems again," Mr. Pokora said.

"Times get tougher again in 2010," said James Roberts, coordinator of the Act 47 recovery team assigned by the governor to help right the city's fiscal ship when it was near bankruptcy. City employee wage freezes will end and inflation will take its toll, even as taxes stay flat, he said.

"We don't want to start the party yet," agreed Henry Sciortino, executive director of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority -- called ICA -- another state-appointed overseer. "We have to temper any positive news with the reality that there are long-term issues that the city has to address."

The city's debt was $811 million at year's end, and payments continue to eat up one-quarter of city revenue. Debt payments aren't expected to dip for at least a decade.

Pension obligations are creeping up even as state aid for pensions dips. Although the city recently reduced the cost of employee health care, new accounting rules require it to set aside money to cover retiree health insurance. Years of cutting corners in areas like street paving have left an expensive maintenance backlog.

Mr. Ravenstahl said the city will eventually need state aid to deal with its debt and pensions, and he wants officials to be able to tell legislators a story of six or eight years of spending cuts and low taxes when they go hat-in-hand.

Against that backdrop, the debate over how to use the city's savings account took off yesterday.

Mr. Sciortino said the ICA likely will encourage the city to use some of its bank balance to reduce its debt, cover pension obligations, and finance its commitments to pay health insurance costs for retired police and firefighters.

City Council President Doug Shields said he wants the city to spend some of it addressing problems like frequent landslides.

Mr. Malloy met with the mayor yesterday and urged him to start two new police recruit classes this year and buy new cruisers.

Mr. Pokora said it may be premature to commit much of the city's savings account.

"I think we're going to need [that money] over the next couple of years just to keep us afloat," he said.

All of that is on the table, said Mr. Ravenstahl. He said he may use some of the surplus to pay down debt and invest in the pension fund, which is $469 million short of being able to cover future payouts.

But he added that he's going to spend some of it in ways tangible to residents, by addressing citywide problems.

"In many cases it's crumbling infrastructure. It's neighborhoods that have been neglected," the mayor said. "The reality is the long-term cost [of neglecting maintenance] far exceeds what our short-term investments should be."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542. )

[DBR96A]

?beef

[DBR96A]

Meh...how'd this happen?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_on_sc/polluted_cities

L.A. tops list of nation's most polluted

NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Tue May 1, 7:57 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles can continue being the butt of smog jokes now that it has once again topped the American Lung Association's bad air list of most polluted cities in America.
ADVERTISEMENT

The association found that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside metropolitan area had the worst air based on 2003 through 2005 figures.

The Pittsburgh area was ranked as the nation's second most polluted metropolitan area followed by Bakersfield, Calif., Birmingham, Ala., Detroit and Cleveland. Visalia, Calif., Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis rounded out the top 10.

The news wasn't all bad for Los Angeles. Despite the dubious distinction, the number of days residents breathed the nation's worst ozone levels was fewer than in previous years.

"Nobody is surprised that LA has an air pollution problem," said Janice Nolen, the association's assistant vice president for national policy and advocacy. "The problems there are one of the reasons we have the Clean Air Act. But it is important for folks to know that there has been some improvement."

The organization based the rankings on ozone pollution levels produced when heat and sunlight come into contact with pollutants from power plants, cars, refineries and other sources. The group also studied particle pollution levels emitted from these sources, which are made up of a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air.

Such pollution can contribute to heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks, the association said. Those especially vulnerable to polluted air are children, senior citizens, people who work or exercise outdoors and people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Nearly half of the U.S. population lives in counties that still have unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, even though there appeared to be less ozone in many counties than previous years, the study found.

[Evergrey]

Pittsburgh is regularly ranked near the top of the American Lung Association's "most polluted air" ranking. And while I am sure there are measures we can take to improve air quality... I am consistantly skeptical of our high ranking... and apparently others are skeptical as well... local experts believe that our high ranking in this dubious survey is due to an air monitor located near the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works... the largest coke works in the country... this monitor skews Pittsburgh's results... the air quality is undoubtedly terrible for the Clairton area... but this survey doesn't accurately depict the air quality of Greater Pittsburgh... most monitors are in compliance with health standards.... on a side note perhaps the County smoking ban going into effect today will help our ranking in the future!

It should also be noted that most of our air pollution travels upwind from Ohio and West Virginia... which Pennsylvania can do nothing about. East Liverpool, for example, has some sort of highly-polluting incineration operation.

http://media.www.pittnews.com/media/storage/paper879/news/2005/05/25/News/Pittsburgh.Air.Gets.An.f-1786809.shtml?norewrite200612131304&sourcedomain=www.pittnews.com

"But at least one city planner is skeptical of the results. Jayme Graham, the head of planning for the Allegheny County Health Department's Air Quality program, said the location of one of the air pollution monitors -- near U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works -- might have created a false impression.

"It is an accurate monitor, but it is not representative of the larger Pittsburgh area," Graham said. "The Pittsburgh area is a lot closer to the regional standard.""

...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05118/495641.stm

"Thanks to an air pollution monitor atop South Allegheny High School, Pittsburgh officially has the fourth-highest level of short-term particle pollution in the country, and the worst outside California."

...

"The pollution comes from industrial plants both in the area and in Ohio and West Virginia."

...

"But local officials counter that the pollution monitor atop the high school, which is near U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, does not accurately depict the region's pollution levels, and that the state's pollution problem is actually improving.

"We get branded by that one monitor," said Roger Westman, manager of the Allegheny County Health Department's air quality program. "While we recognize the work that needs to be done out there, we are more typical of any urban area."

Four of the county's monitors show pollution levels above the regional standard, including those in North Braddock and Lawrenceville, but six monitors are in attainment of standards.

The county is working to clean up the Clairton area, where the worst pollution levels are recorded, and the state is putting together a plan so that the state can be in compliance with the Clean Air Act by 2010."

...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_328731.html

"Roger Westman, director of the Allegheny County Health Department's air quality program, said one hot spot of airborne particle pollution skews Alleghey County's readings. Airborne particle levels in the Liberty-Clairton area tend to run about 40 percent higher than those in the rest of the county.

Remove those readings, and "we are typical of an urban area in the Eastern United States for the rest of the county. Half of our monitoring stations show compliance (with federal limits), less than half do not at this point in time," he said.

For both airborne particles and ozone, the region's main problem is upwind sources of pollution. About 84 percent of the airborne particles measured in Allegheny County between 2001 and '03 arrived from upwind sources, mainly coal-fired power plants, Westman said.

Those same power plants contribute the nitrogen oxides that combine with volatile organic compounds to form ground-level ozone or smog. For the same three-year period, the ozone readings of air coming into the county already exceeded federal standards, Westman said."

[cdc]

I took a walk through Chatham's campus for the first time the other day... my goodness, it's glorious... I really had no idea... it's located in Squirrel Hill... but it feels like you enter a different world... the campus is a 35-acre arboretum... lush, beautiful vegetation... gorgeous old structures... really fascinating


Agree --- that area of Woodland Road is very nice. In addition to
Chatham, there are a number of 1 to 1.5 million dollar homes in there.
It is one of the most pricy/exclusive areas of Pittsburgh's 14th Ward.

[BMikeSci]

LA tops list:

I think the real issue here is not whether or not we are at the top of the list but what can we do to further clean our air. I would like to see real proposals from our officials - not more studies. Coal burning plants need to be monitored and fined when not in compliance with the clean air act. I see that Apple was recently fined. I would encourage them to "think different" about polluting. I would like to see filtering systems in place, and I would like to see coal free zones. Moreover I would like to see some of these cars, trucks, and buses fined for not complying with emmissions standards. It's our children's health after all; so let's cleanup our act.

[PittPenn 03]

the largest coke works in the country... this monitor skews Pittsburgh's results... the air quality is undoubtedly terrible for the Clairton area... but this survey doesn't accurately depict the air quality of Greater Pittsburgh..."

Yes, this survey pisses me off every time it comes out. In another city I lived in, the air was purple over the downtown area every hot sunny day, and if I was outside for more than 20 minutes anywhere in the metro I would get a sore throat. There is no way our air overall is dirtier than this metro and I do not see it in the top 10. I suffer from asthma and allergies, and I am breathing much, much better in Pittsburgh than I did in the other.

[Evergrey]

I posted a photo of this project a couple days ago

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/condos0502.aspx

May 2, 2007

Early 20th-century schoolhouse becomes luxury loft project

A turn-of-the century Southside schoolhouse is home to 17 new luxury lofts opening on June 9th. Located at the corner of South 22nd and Jane Sts., St. Casimir School was purchased eight months ago by New York City-based developer David Forbes for $1.5 million.

“We sold our first unit last weekend to young professionals originally from Pittsburgh who are returning from California—they’re the exact prototype I think it’s perfect for,” says Lynne Bingham with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. “With no closing costs, low condo fees and a variety of stylish condos to select from, we truly have our niche in the area," says Forbes, a loft specialist who hails from Ireland.

“Instead of just another condo on the Southside, this has full facility and financing packages. Someone just out of college can come to the table with zero down,” says Bingham. The building’s Romanesque Revival style features sandstone lintels, arched entryways, 14-foot ceilings and ornamental woodwork. Amenities include gated parking and fitness, storage and laundry facilities. The condos also feature a barbecue deck, on-site maintenance and guest suites. Bradley Michaels designed the project’s model unit. “Each unit is completely unique in size and structure—no two are the same," says Bingham of the one-bedroom units, which start at $189,000.

“He's fallen in love with Pittsburgh for a couple of reasons. There’s one-fifth of the red tape compared to a project like this in New York,” says Bingham of Forbes’ interest in the Pittsburgh market. “He said this building in New York would go for ten million. I do think he wants to do another neighborhood.”

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Sources: David Forbes; Lynne Bingham


Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2059/casimir_condos_300.jpg

[Evergrey]

151 FirstSide progress

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78179008.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78179022.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78179023.jpg

[Evergrey]

This is one of my favorite projects... amazing how our industrial buildings of 100 years ago are more "human" than our residential and commercial structures of the past 50 years...

I randomly drove past this party tonight... looked like fun


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07125/783217-30.stm

Pop Goes Cork Factory: Strip District lofts offer views, resort-like amenities to tenants

Saturday, May 05, 2007

By Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070506asestatecork4_450.jpg
Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette
The Turkases' living room in the Cork Factory offers a panoramic view of Downtown.

After nine years, Roberta Turkas grew weary of living over a Strip District business and answering calls at 10 p.m. asking if Farmers Choice Poultry and Meats was still open.

"I felt like I never left work. I went right upstairs and did bookkeeping. I'd look up and say, 'It's 10 o'clock. Time to go to bed.' "

Then her husband, Raymond Turkas Jr., noticed a leasing sign on The Cork Factory, 2349 Railroad St., a few blocks away from the couple's business at 2123 Penn Ave.

"He looked out our back door, and he pointed to it," Mrs. Turkas recalled.

Three buildings made up the Armstrong Cork factory, which produced flooring, life jackets and bottle tops for Old Grand Dad whiskey and Heinz ketchup bottles before closing in 1974. Now, the historic structures designed by architect Frederick Osterling have been renovated and turned into 297 loft apartments with 35 different floor plans.

"I was the first person to move in. I was the third person on the list to sign up," Mrs. Turkas said, adding that she donned a hard hat to see the one-bedroom loft the couple have lived in since November.

The star of the Turkases' sixth-floor apartment is a breathtaking, panoramic view. Through three arched 10-foot-high windows, a visitor can see the glittering golden domes of St. Stanislaus Kostka church in the Strip District, all of Downtown, Mount Washington and the Allegheny River.

At night, Mrs. Turkas curls up on a curved chocolate brown sofa with Max, her miniature schnauzer, to watch the city's lights cast their luminous spell over the skyline and rivers. Her husband uses a telescope to appreciate the city's wide range of architecture.

"When the baseball stadium is lit up at night, it's really pretty," Mrs. Turkas said, adding that they invited friends over for their first Light-Up Night in November.

"My husband and I both love to cook. We love to entertain," she said.

Mrs. Turkas walks to work every day and often comes home at lunchtime to start dinner. On Thursdays, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., the couple join fellow residents for happy hour in The Factory's Engine Room, a spacious area with a coffee bar, pool tables, poker tables and comfortable leather furniture.

A 24-hour concierge is at the front desk, and a business center with computers and a fitness center adjoin this hub of activity. Bits of graffiti are visible in the buildings' common areas, a reminder that the once-abandoned structures served as a brick canvas and shelter for the homeless.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070506ascork10_450.jpg
Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette
The dining room in a model apartment at the Cork Factory.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070506ascork6_450.jpg
The kitchen.

"I'm 57 years old, and I feel alive again," Mrs. Turkas said, adding that she even likes hearing the whistle of trains. At least two evenings a week, trains packed with food for nearby Consumers Produce blow their whistle at 9 or 9:30 p.m.

"They have to blow the whistle because they are so close to the streets," Mrs. Turkas said.

Between 1978 and 1998, the couple lived in Robinson. They put their home on the market the day after their daughter, Christie, graduated from Montour High School. Now, Christie lives over the store and teaches school, an arrangement that suits her lifestyle.

Living just a few blocks away from her work has made a major difference for Mrs. Turkas. The couple's sleek, one-bedroom apartment features 969 square feet of space and was decorated by Kathy Johnston, an interior designer from the North Hills.

"She thought of everything. Everything that's here is used every day," Mrs. Turkas said. "It's contemporary, but it's a little bit elegant."

The foyer features a large silver mirror and a small credenza that holds wine, liquor and silverware. The chest doubles as a bar when the couple entertain, which they do frequently. A large foyer closet hides a full-size washer, dryer and storage shelves. Usually, storage spaces in these buildings are hidden by curtains, but Mrs. Turkas wanted folding closet doors.

"It gave it such a clean look," she said.

Off the foyer is a long, galley kitchen that runs the length of one exterior wall and a dining room table that seats eight. While the kitchen, dining room and living room are all open, a wall divides the couple's bedroom from their public living space. The concrete ceilings are exposed and so are some of the building's pipes.

A closet in the living room holds a pantry, rods to hang guests' coats, a sweeper, cookbooks and room for pet food storage. Mrs. Turkas hired Space Planning to build the pantry. A flat screen Samsung television hangs on the living room wall.

The bedroom, which has half of an arched window, holds a bed from Z Gallerie and a spacious closet. When the couple had out-of-town guests recently, they rented the building's second-floor guest suite.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070506asestatecork5_450.jpg
Roberta Turkas looks out her living room window.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070506ascork11_450.jpg
Bedroom in a model apartment.

The rent for one-bedroom units at The Cork Factory start at $1,170 per month. Two-bedroom apartments with two baths start at $1,499 and three bedrooms, two baths, start at $2,380 per month. Parking is available in an adjacent structure, a three-story building with 427 parking spaces and 47,000 square feet of retail. For tenants, the first parking space is $25 a month and a second, $100 a month.

With all of its amenities, The Cork Factory feels a little like a resort. The complex has an in-ground pool, a large patio with deck chairs, a gas fire pit and a grassy pet park set aside for residents' dogs.

Once a contractor rebuilds two blocks of the river wall eroded by floods, pilings will be driven for a marina with 64 slips. It's scheduled to open in mid-June, said Chuck Hammel, one of the owners of the complex, along with Strip District businessman Bob Beynon and McCaffery Interests, a Chicago developer.

"A water taxi service is interested in having a permanent location there," Mr. Hammel said.

Two other companies -- York-Hannover Development Inc. and Preservation Investments Inc. of Boston -- tried to redevelop the former factory but failed to raise the necessary $40 million. During a bankruptcy auction in 1996, Mr. Hammel, who runs Pitt-Ohio trucking in the Strip District, bought the factory.

"Our trucking company was growing, and I didn't want to become land-locked," he explained.

At that time, he also owned a block of land across the street from the former factory. On that site sits the brand new silver building containing parking and retail space. Mr. Hammel said he has three letters of intent from businesses that plan to lease space in the new building and hopes there will be one, and possibly two, restaurants.

The Cork Factory complex is 47 percent leased, Mr. Hammel said, adding that many of the tenants are new to Pittsburgh.

"A lot of residents have pets. It's neat to see them walking their dogs in and out of the lobby," he added.

The project, which cost more than $60 million, was completed using historic tax credits from the National Park Service. The developers sold those credits to Sherwin-Williams. The contractor also used that company's paints during renovation.

Sherwin-Williams, Mr. Hammel said, can apply those historic tax credits "against certain taxes they pay as a corporation."

To obtain the historic tax credits, the developers had to agree that the building's ownership would not change for five years.

"You can't sell the whole building. You can't turn them into condos," Mr. Hammel said.

Once those five years pass, Mr. Hammel added, one of the buildings could become condominiums while the other two could remain rentals.

"Somebody might want to buy the entire complex, too, and leave it as apartments," he added.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Marylynne Pitz can be reached at mpitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1648. )


More information
For more information on The Cork Factory in the Strip District, call 412-281-5556 or go to http://www.thecorkfactory.com.




...


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_506185.html

Cork Factory apartments get bubbly reviews

By Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter
For the Tribune-Review
Saturday, May 5, 2007


Debbie Dougherty gushes superlatives when she describes the two-bedroom loft apartment that she and her husband, Bill, share at the new Cork Factory apartments in the Strip District.
"It's just so wonderful. We're enjoying every minute of it," said Dougherty, whose seventh-floor corner unit offers views of both the Allegheny River and Downtown. "We have brick walls and 17-foot ceilings, and it's incredible," she said.

Because her husband is retired and their four children have grown and moved, Dougherty said the couple decided to downsize from their large family home in Murrysville. They moved in March to the 297-unit luxury Cork Factory complex, which celebrated its grand opening Friday.

With 135 apartments -- about 45 percent of the units -- already scooped up by renters, the $70 million project is well ahead of its leasing goals, said Daniel McCaffery, of Daniel McCaffery Interests of Chicago.

"We're very pleased," said McCaffery, who developed the site in partnership with Charles Hammell III and Robert Beynon, the local businessmen who own the property on Railroad Street between 23rd and 24th Streets.

"The important thing is we are making our rental rate and renting at a pace that's faster than we predicted," McCaffery said.

The developers expect the percentage figure will be close to 70 percent as early as the fall.

In addition to the apartments, interest also is high in the 48,000-square-feet of retail space available, he said. Leasing deals may be pending with two upscale restaurants and a local grocery store, he said.

The three-building complex originally was built as the home of the Armstrong Cork Co. in 1901. The estimated development is privately financed although federal tax credits for historic sites cover some of the costs.

So far, tenants are a mixture of young single professionals, many newcomers to the Pittsburgh, a smattering of suburbanites and elderly residents, said Debbie Roberts, Cork Factory general manager.

"We've met so many nice people," Debbie Dougherty said. "We've even formed a dinner-out once-a-month group with people here, and it's all ages -- the young, the baby boomers and so forth."

Now that leasing of apartments is well under way, the development team can move ahead on their plans to develop a private marina on the Allegheny River for the exclusive use of Cork Factory residents.

Also ahead is a river walk that will allow tenants to walk the grounds of the complex.

Other features include the historic, fully restored smokestack and engine room.

Under its current configuration, the complex offers 206 one-bedroom units; 73 two-bedroom, two-bath units; and 18 three-bedroom, two-bath units.

Studio apartments rent from $1,200; other one-bedroom units from $1,009 to $2,480; two-bedrooms from $1,499 to $2,850; and three-bedrooms from $3,430 to $3,800.

The complex offers a game room, 24/7 concierge service, complimentary wireless Internet in select common areas, and out-of-town services such as mail, newspaper and package pickup.

Other features, either already available or scheduled to be opened in the future, include patio/lounge area with fire pit, riverview barbecuing, swimming pool with landscaped deck, hot tub/spa, a courtyard garden, a fitness center, business center, dry cleaners and a 450-car parking garage located across Allegheny Valley Railroad Street.

As the Cork Factory nears completion, Hammel and Beynon can look back on nearly 11 years of frustration since they bought the property in a bankruptcy court sale in 1996.

Several times other investors had come board to help with the project, only to drop out before it could move forward.

"Today is culmination of a lot of hard work," said Hammell, owner of the Pitt-Ohio Express trucking company in the Strip District. Beynon is owner of Beynon & Co., a Pittsburgh-based real estate and insurance company.

"I think it's awesome what they've done with that building," said Larry Lagattuta, owner of The Enrico Biscotti Co., an Italian bakery and cafe at 2202 Penn Ave. in the Strip.

"I think this can only help the Strip when you have more people living here," said Lagattuta, whose has operated his business within two blocks of the Cork Factory for 15 years.

Lagattuta said his only concern is that the Cork Factory and other new developments in the Strip could attract national chains and franchise retailers, coffee shops, and the like that could possibly hurt locally owned businesses.

"We have to be careful about how those things happen," he said. "But otherwise, lets get the people moving in and start shopping in the Strip," he said.

"The Cork Factory is an excellent addition to the downtown housing mix," said Patty Burk, vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

"It adds to the diversity of units and income ranges that we are trying to achieve Downtown. It also represents the 'New Downtown,' which is becoming a mixed-use environment."

"Even when were living in Murrysville, we would come into the city at the minimum, three days a week, for cultural events and ball games," Dougherty said. "We loved the city so much, so we visited a few other loft apartments, but when we walked into the Cork Factory, we stopped. We said this was it."


History of Armstrong Cork site

1901-- Armstrong Cork factory constructed.
1930 -- Employment reaches 1,300.

1974 -- Armstrong Cork closes plant.

Mid-1980s -- York Hannover of Canada plans to develop apartment complex.

1992 -- York Hannover fails to get financing and drops out.

1993 -- Preservation Investments Inc. of Boston expresses interest, but drops out within a year.

1996 -- Charles Hammel and partners acquire property for $1.05 million in bankruptcy auction.

1996 -- Landmark America of Portland, Maine, joins new owners.

2000 -- Landmark America drops out.

2002 -- Hammel and partners bring in Jules Marling of Chicago.

2002 -- Pittsburgh City Planning approves development.

2004 -- Buildings designated landmarks -- designed by Frederick Osterling, noted Pittsburgh architect.

2004 -- Marling drops out, Dan McCaffery Interests of Chicago becomes new general partner.

2005 -- Construction on 297-unit Cork Factory begins.

2006 -- First tenants move in apartments in November.

2007 -- Grand opening celebration held May 4.

...


picture I took of the Cork Factory yesterday... prominent in the middle-left
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78180226.jpg

[Evergrey]

this is a rather grim article... one of the greatest risks to the urban renaissance of Pittsburgh


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_506191.html

Port Authority financial crisis resists fix

By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 5, 2007


Port Authority of Allegheny County's uphill financial battle is getting steeper.
The cost-cutting moves under way -- the most severe in the agency's history -- still will not fix its biggest problem: the cost of providing lifetime health care for employees.

If state lawmakers don't fix the transit crisis, an internal authority report presented to county officials shows that within five years:


1,354 authority jobs would be eliminated






Bus and T service would be cut by 42 percent

18.2 million riders annually would be lost

10,000 additional personal vehicles would be driven to Downtown daily
A solution to the growing crisis seems out of reach as state lawmakers have debated the issue for years and still cannot agree on how to correct an outdated transit subsidy formula. Getting union concessions to cut health care costs during labor talks next year appears to be non-negotiable, the union head said.

Meanwhile, the authority's health care price tag doubles about every six years.

"Health care is the single biggest challenge that Port Authority is facing for its long-term viability," said Ken Zapinski, a senior vice president of transportation with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.

Authority officials cut a projected $80 million budget deficit for its upcoming fiscal year to $45 million by approving a 10 percent cut in service, eliminating 374 jobs and approving a fare increase in January 2008.

The cost of health care for its 2,574 retirees and more than 2,600 employees hit $60.6 million in fiscal 2006 -- a 70 percent increase from $35.6 million in 2001. The cost is projected to double to $121 million in 2012.

Labor agreements determine the level and cost of health care coverage for most authority employees -- 92 percent belong to unions. Current union workers pay 1 percent of their base pay toward health care. Most retirees pay nothing and receive the benefit for life.

Authority and labor leaders are bracing for what's expected to be hard-fought negotiations. The authority wants employees to pay more, and the union wants to maintain the level of health care it has fought years to protect.

"We're not going to sit down and give up retiree health care benefits," said Pat McMahon, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, which represents the union workers. "That's not going to happen."

The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy last month called on union leaders, who it said have "missed the bus," to strike a deal.

"Taxpayers have no moral obligation to provide any more money until this exorbitantly expensive and inefficient system is fixed," the report stated.

The problem is bigger than any other Port Authority issue, officials said.

"Absolutely, that's a huge nut and one frankly that we have long term," authority CEO Steve Bland said. "We have some influence over it but because half of the people enrolled are already gone, it's going to be an ongoing issue."

In Philadelphia, workers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority do not get health coverage for life. They get either three years under a preferred provider organization (PPO) or 50 months with a health maintenance organization (HMO).

Retiree health benefits for all public employees are locked in under state law and cannot be changed even if union workers agree to pay more in their next contract. Port Authority's agreement expires in June 2008.

Unless solutions are reached quickly, the authority plans to cut more jobs and routes.

Officials say fixing the Port Authority will be a lengthy process, and not something that can be done overnight, or even in a few months.

"There's no painless way of doing this," Zapinski said.



Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07125/783580-192.stm

No re-Pete: This was no way to build a convocation center

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Petersen Events Center, the 5-year-old Oakland arena that hosts the Pitt men's and women's basketball teams, should be Chapter 1 in a guide called "How Not to Build a Major Facility with Public Money."

State Auditor General Jack Wagner issued his review this week of the construction problems and cost overruns that accompanied the building of "the Pete." It confirmed previous reporting done by the Post-Gazette and added some flesh to the bone of contentions that the whole enterprise -- a $35 million project in 1992 that exploded into a $119 million center when completed 10 years later -- was mismanaged and a drain on the taxpayers.

The public's share of the work was at least $56.5 million or 53 percent, by the auditor general's calculations. (Oh, and did we mention that the roof leaked the year that it opened?) In their review, Mr. Wagner's staff laid out the chief reasons for how the construction spiraled out of control:

Although the University of Pittsburgh was the owner of the Pete, the state Department of General Services assumed overall responsibility for the project. From then on, costs and contractors truly ballooned.

Despite an agreement with Pitt that DGS would cap state funding at $38 million, the state kept increasing the project's budget instead of controlling spending.

Three separate entities, instead of one, managed the construction site -- and none managed it well.

General Services used 25 prime contractors on the project, when four could have handled it.

Mr. Wagner said a turning point came when DGS took responsibility for the project from Pitt in 1997, which is not what happened, for instance, in the construction of Heinz Field and PNC Park. The stadiums were also major projects with large public investments, but the responsibility for construction and cost overruns was kept with the eventual operator -- the Steelers and the Pirates -- which had the effect of completing the work on time and keeping costs in check.

Despite the importance of the 1997 agreement and the mystery that Mr. Wagner said it poses for understanding the course of construction, his own staff failed to interview the Pitt and DGS officials who signed the transfer letter about why the change was made. "What was behind the transfer agreement," the auditor general told the Post-Gazette editorial board, "we will never know." His office's failure to ask is one reason why.

Regardless, the report made a stark comparison of key numbers on the construction of the Petersen Center, which seats 12,508 and Penn State's building around the same time of the Bryce Jordan Center, which holds more -- 15,261. Cost per square foot: $247 at Pitt vs. $159 at Penn State. Cost per seat: $8,492 vs. $4,273. Number of construction vendors: 25 vs. 8. Total cost: $106.2 million vs. $65.2 million.

Although the auditor general said this was a case of how not to construct a publicly funded building, we'd go a step further and urge the state attorney general to probe whether any laws were broken. Waste and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars are one thing, but it's a fine line between money squandered and money illegally funneled.

The auditor general's review provides some answers, but the public still has questions.

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/52546294.jpg

[EventHorizon]

The cork factory transformation is spectacular!

Here's a perspective of the same area of the building -- what it used to look like and what it looks like now .. such an amazing change in just a couple of years!

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9765/bajc5.png

[BMikeSci]

this is a rather grim article... one of the greatest risks to the urban renaissance of Pittsburgh


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_506191.html

Port Authority financial crisis resists fix

By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 5, 2007


Port Authority of Allegheny County's uphill financial battle is getting steeper.
The cost-cutting moves under way -- the most severe in the agency's history -- still will not fix its biggest problem: the cost of providing lifetime health care for employees.

If state lawmakers don't fix the transit crisis, an internal authority report presented to county officials shows that within five years:


1,354 authority jobs would be eliminated






Bus and T service would be cut by 42 percent

18.2 million riders annually would be lost

10,000 additional personal vehicles would be driven to Downtown daily
A solution to the growing crisis seems out of reach as state lawmakers have debated the issue for years and still cannot agree on how to correct an outdated transit subsidy formula. Getting union concessions to cut health care costs during labor talks next year appears to be non-negotiable, the union head said.

Meanwhile, the authority's health care price tag doubles about every six years.

"Health care is the single biggest challenge that Port Authority is facing for its long-term viability," said Ken Zapinski, a senior vice president of transportation with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.

Authority officials cut a projected $80 million budget deficit for its upcoming fiscal year to $45 million by approving a 10 percent cut in service, eliminating 374 jobs and approving a fare increase in January 2008.

The cost of health care for its 2,574 retirees and more than 2,600 employees hit $60.6 million in fiscal 2006 -- a 70 percent increase from $35.6 million in 2001. The cost is projected to double to $121 million in 2012.

Labor agreements determine the level and cost of health care coverage for most authority employees -- 92 percent belong to unions. Current union workers pay 1 percent of their base pay toward health care. Most retirees pay nothing and receive the benefit for life.

Authority and labor leaders are bracing for what's expected to be hard-fought negotiations. The authority wants employees to pay more, and the union wants to maintain the level of health care it has fought years to protect.

"We're not going to sit down and give up retiree health care benefits," said Pat McMahon, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, which represents the union workers. "That's not going to happen."

The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy last month called on union leaders, who it said have "missed the bus," to strike a deal.

"Taxpayers have no moral obligation to provide any more money until this exorbitantly expensive and inefficient system is fixed," the report stated.

The problem is bigger than any other Port Authority issue, officials said.

"Absolutely, that's a huge nut and one frankly that we have long term," authority CEO Steve Bland said. "We have some influence over it but because half of the people enrolled are already gone, it's going to be an ongoing issue."

In Philadelphia, workers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority do not get health coverage for life. They get either three years under a preferred provider organization (PPO) or 50 months with a health maintenance organization (HMO).

Retiree health benefits for all public employees are locked in under state law and cannot be changed even if union workers agree to pay more in their next contract. Port Authority's agreement expires in June 2008.

Unless solutions are reached quickly, the authority plans to cut more jobs and routes.

Officials say fixing the Port Authority will be a lengthy process, and not something that can be done overnight, or even in a few months.

"There's no painless way of doing this," Zapinski said.



Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.

Once again, moving toward new types of transportation could solve a lot of this port authority's budget problem too. Single occupant vehicles are much less expensive to own and operate. Pittsburgh has an opportunity to spearhead a move to intelligent transportation.

A pay to access the downtown pass system could be waved for single occupancy vehicles. Moreover, if we could get federal funds to subsidize vehicle purchases, we could build them locally.

Light rail is another partialsolution. Filthy polluting buses are not the answer. Dedicated lightrail can be run without an operator. This can address the growing pension problem. Electric power plants can be located in areas that will not dirty up the urban air - somewhere outside the mon valley.

It's a shame that no politician seems to be talking about clean, economical alternatives to cars and buses. The only smart news has been the flex car program.

[Evergrey]

excerpts from an article on Downtown-based architecture firm Astorino... a rising star of 200 employees that does much work in Pittsburgh... as well as arond the world

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07126/783539-28.stm

"We have close to a billion dollars' worth of work under construction, which is pretty phenomenal," Mr. Astorino said. He ticked off a list of local projects now under way for which Astorino has either done design work or at least drawn up blueprints -- the Downtown PNC skyscraper, new construction for the Veterans Administration in O'Hara, labs for Allegheny County and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Magee-Womens Hospital, luxury condos in Shadyside and the new Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville, a $575 million project and the biggest ever undertaken by Astorino.

...

Astorino won a design competition to draw up the plans for Downtown's PNC Firstside Center, at First Avenue and Grant Street, and since has done other work for PNC. The company designed a PNC office building in Delaware, and Three PNC Plaza, the high-rise now under construction between Liberty Avenue and Market Square, is the latest collaboration between the bank and the architectural firm. (Astorino is doing construction blueprints for the tower, while Gensler, one of the largest architecture firms in the United States, came up with the actual design renderings.)

"They're very gifted designers," said Gary Saulson, corporate real estate director at PNC. "They've designed some of the most iconic buildings in Pittsburgh," including Firstside.

PNC Firstside "was a poster child nationally for green architecture," Mr. Astorino said. It won several design awards, including a silver medal from LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. At one time, about five years ago, Astorino was one of the top five architects nationally in terms of the total square footage of environmentally friendly LEED-certified buildings it had designed. Astorino also is utilizing what it calls "deep design" -- extracting a developer's true wishes for the look and feel of a project, since that sort of thing can be difficult to articulate.

There are more high-profile projects in the pipeline. Astorino is on board for the development of the old Nabisco plant in East Liberty, which plans call for conversion into new retail, office and housing space. The project, to be called Bakery Square, also is to be the beneficiary of Astorino's green design expertise. Demolition for the project began last week, with Walnut Capital serving as the financier of that project as well as The Metropolitan condos in Shadyside.

"Both Lou and Dennis understand what people in Pittsburgh like," said Todd Reidbord, president and principal with Walnut. The Walnut team, for example, went into The Metropolitan design sessions with Astorino thinking that luxury condo buyers would prefer a traditional brick look. But "what people wanted was more contemporary," he said, with lots of glass. The six-story building will be completed this summer, and pre-sales are at 60 percent.

"That's really a tribute to the design," Mr. Reidbord said. "Most of the people have purchased off the plan."

Astorino also may be tapped to team with sports-venue specialists HOK to design a replacement for Mellon Arena. Those discussions are under way, but not finalized. HOK was lead designer on PNC Park, as well, while Astorino was the local designer, serving as the architect of record.

The variety of projects undertaken these days -- hospitals, prisons, condos, single-family homes, ballparks, not to mention loads of interior design work -- means employees, current and prospective ones, shouldn't get bored any day soon. At least, that's what Mr. Astorino hopes.

"We want to attract young people to our city. In our profession, one of the things any young person is going to want to know is, 'What kind of projects am I going to work on?' " Mr. Astorino said. "We're going to get work around the world. And we're going to do it here," in Pittsburgh.

[Evergrey]

tidbits from this week's Business Times:

1. an article on how Point Park University's growth is shaping the future of Downtown... PPU owns 13 properties within a 5-block span in the southern part of Downtown... it is now undergoing a street-level master plan... expected to bolster the retail component in the area (for example, Starbucks opening in former Piccolo Piccolo space)... PPU recently purchased the Conestoga and ICM buildings... and is building new dance studios

Conestoga is the orange/brown 7-story building front and center... ICM is the tall building to its right
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/61055564.jpg

2. The new owners of the Clark Building are opening a "high-end" fashion boutique in the building which they claim will feature a NYC-type shopping experience and should be a boost to the retail scene Downtown... the NYC couple have also purchased a condo at Piatt Place and have marketing the Clark Building heavily as a place for tech offices

Clark Building at right
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/77472700.jpg

3. I was excited when I saw an old Gulf gas station at Murray Beacon in Squirrel Hill undergo demolition... I thought, "oh well, surely this must be a project that will enhance the neighborhood... maybe new retail space or condos"... especially considering how healthy and vibrant Sq. Hill is... but my worst fears have been realized... it will be a National City bank branch with a drive-thru component that will feature three bays... this type of development infuriates me (National City did a similar project on Baum earlier this year)... the three-bay drive-thru creates an "automobile sewer" that harms the pedestrian-friendly atmosphere of Murray Ave's business district... not to mention the bland architecture... it seems to me that PNC seems to be much more sensitive to the urban environment in their local branches than National City or Fifth-Third (which is demolishing a building here in Bloomfield for I suspect... a drive-through bay)

4. There's a couple articles about how Westinghouse's hiring spree is a BAD THING for Pittsburgh... I feel like only in Pittsburgh... would local media try to paint Westinghouse's success as bad for the region...

[Evergrey]

photo essay of projects:

the historic church in this photo was recently converted to the Angel Arms condos
http://www.angelsarms.net/
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78178999.jpg

Try St. Terminal... transformed into residential building for students of Art Institute
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78225949.jpg

Children's Hospital in Lawrenceville
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78252483.jpg

I visited the Oak Hill residential development... that was completed a few years back... it's been in the news lately because the developers and the Hill District community wanted to continue with land acquisition for Phase II of the project... but the University of Pittsburgh wanted the land for athletic fields... Mayor Luke Ravenstahl brokered a compromise amongst the two parties... I can see why everyone except Pitt wanted more housing here... the location is incredible... a lush, panoramic view of the city... quick access to Pitt, UPMC, Oakland, South Side, etc... and the design of the community is quite impressive... I believe it's a mix of market and affordable units... they're called apartments... so I'm not sure if there's any owner-occupied units there...

view of Oak Hill from Grandview Park
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78178995.jpg

Oak Hill rowhouses with South Side Slopes in background
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78252498.jpg

Oak Hill multi-family
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78252499.jpg

view of Downtown with Oak Hill units in foreground...
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78252500.jpg

and lastly... this housing development is U/C on Wylie in the Middle Hill area... don't know much about it (though it's probably been talked about somewhere in this thread)
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78252502.jpg

[haimon]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/05/03/second.lifecomputers.ap/index.html

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- In her native Malaysia, Mary Tiong developed a reputation for selling leftover computer monitors for a large manufacturer behind the industry's best-known brands. She earned a nickname: The Monitor Queen.

From her new base in Pittsburgh,....

[BMikeSci]

Commercial construction may top $3 billlion:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/realestate/s_505914.html

[37TimPPG]

I realize the vacancy rate of downtown is close to 21% However, I would love to someday see another 40 to 50 story tower constructed!:D

[hyperion1110]

I don't understand the vacancy rate downtown at all. There are more jobs in downtown Pittsburgh than there ever have been. So how is it that the vacancy rate it so high??

[Evergrey]

Companies are more efficient with their space. Also, over time, there has been more office space constructed. In this decade, Mellon Client Services building and PNC FirstSide both added huge amounts of office space.

Downtown Pittsburgh has an enormous amount of office space... a legacy of a time when we were the third-biggest Fortune 500 city. The vacancy rate has been hovering around the 20% mark for a few years now... but Grubb&Ellis forecasts a decline in the vacancy rate due to absorption by some major players (UPMC, Heinz, potentially Esmark) and conversion of office space to residential. Our Downtown's office vacancy rate is similar to that of Cleveland (which has much less Class A space) and Cincinnati (which has much less total space), but significantly better than say Downtown Detroit (30%).

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07127/784054-53.stm

Mayor's tax plan leaves out some city locations

Monday, May 07, 2007

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's 10-year property tax abatement plan for housing development included 21 neighborhoods when he proposed it in February.

"It is important to me that the neighborhoods [other than Downtown] are included," he said at the time.

The abatement would ideally spur investment where little or none has happened, but a lot more than 21 neighborhoods are in that camp. To those left out, the plan is a bit like a disaster relief truck without enough food.

A set of planning criteria determined who was in, but neighborhood advocates who roll stones uphill every day rank need more intuitively.

At a recent City Council hearing, Brightwood advocate Ed Brandt, fired by frustration, called the applications "capricious and arbitrary. I have spent 15 years working on the North Side, and nothing tells me the logic of why Spring Garden and not Troy Hill, why Fineview and not Perry Hilltop [Perry South], why Manchester and not Brightwood?"

Sheraden, which has long been in an investment slump, also was excluded from the mayor's tax abatement proposal, an omission that puzzled Sam Palombini, president of Sheraden's Community Council.

Carrick's social dynamic is teetering, as well, but Carrick wasn't included.

Bob Zebra, a board member of the Carrick Community Council, said of the mayor, "I used to think he was a good guy. Now I don't. It is bad up here now.

"We've been fighting and fighting, and it's like hitting your head against a brick wall."

In Troy Hill, a housing plan for Cowley Street had been foundering for years when, in March, the contractor "took off," said R. Dennis Hughes, chairman of Troy Hill Citizens Inc. "We had contracts with them, and it took a long time to get stuff in order. March 15 was the deadline for them to get back to us, and they don't respond. Now, we're seeking other contractors."

A tax abatement might be a sweet lure, he said.

The "in" neighborhoods are Allentown, Arlington, Beltzhoover, California-Kirkbride, Downtown, Elliott, Esplen, Fineview, Hazelwood, Homewood North, South and West, Knoxville, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, Lower and Upper Lawrenceville, Manchester, Spring Garden, the Upper Hill and the West End.

Josette Fitzgibbons, a principal planner for the city, described the criteria.

One is the planning department's vitality index, developed from an analysis of neighborhoods over the past year with help from Carnegie Mellon University's community information system. The indicators include population loss, education levels, single-parent families, tax delinquency and violent crime.

A second criterion was whether property investment, based on building permits, totaled less than 20 percent of the city average.

The mayor's plan would offer tax breaks for new construction and rehabs, as well as office-to-housing conversions. The abatements would be limited to no more than $250,000 of each unit's market value.

City Council's preliminary vote on the matter is pending but could be as early as Wednesday.

Mr. Ravenstahl and Councilman William Peduto, then his mayoral challenger, proposed separate plans in February to give housing developers 10-year tax breaks. Both included Downtown.

Mr. Peduto proposed the incentive for areas of large-scale, very costly development, including the Strip, South and North Shores, Uptown and the lower Hill. The abatement span of 10 years is applicable to such heavy investment, he said, while other incentives, like $1 houses and elimination of closing costs, are better fits for neighborhood projects, he said.

"There is no safeguard that absentee landlords won't develop and make neighborhoods worse," he said.

Developers of large-scale properties urged a 10-year abatement plan.

Timm Judson, chief investment officer for the Ferchill Group of Cleveland, which has developed the Heinz Lofts in Troy Hill and the Pittsburgh Technology Center in Oakland, said the impact of long-term abatements "is almost incalculable."

David Bishoff, president of E.V. Bishoff Co. of Columbus, Ohio, told council, "We'll look back on this as a pivotal time in Pittsburgh." His firm owns a half-dozen high-rises Downtown, including the Carlyle -- the Union National Bank that was refitted into high-end condos.

"Abatement is about repopulating a city. Don't get too bogged down in boundaries. Pittsburgh wins when Pittsburgh has 10,000 to 20,000 new residents Downtown," he said.

Aggie Brose, deputy director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., said she has heard from those concerned that "people will follow the money and leave us behind if we don't have the incentive. But we have a three-year abatement incentive that we're benefiting from now in Garfield," where community nonprofits have developed new housing over the past decade.

The mayor's proposal may be one way to ameliorate imbalances between neighborhoods that have strong development presences and those that don't, she said.

"I want to express gratitude for Elliott," said Norene Beatty of the West End-Elliott Citizens Council. Elliott made the mayor's "in" list. "But it's important to have a follow-up of how these properties are maintained."

She admonished City Council to "look hard at why people left the city. They left for safe streets, good schools and quiet neighborhoods. This is a start, but we need to do more."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07127/784065-53.stm

Piatts describe progress on transforming a former Downtown department store

Monday, May 07, 2007

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070507bd_L_4_Piatt_Place_450.jpg
Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette
Jack Piatt, right, and his son, Lucas, on the roof of Piatt Place, in the former Lazarus department store at Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, Downtown, where three floors of condominiums will be built atop the current building.



By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


From the rooftop of the former Lazarus-Macy's department store, Downtown Pittsburgh dances in a ballet of steel and brick, grittiness and elegance.

The shiny glass steeples of PPG Place mix with low-slung buildings on Fifth and Forbes avenues and old gems like the Commonwealth Building, Union National Bank and the Arrott Building.

Architecture shrouded at street level becomes more visible, from gargoyles to the crouching Atlas-like figures holding up one roof.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070507bd_L_5_Piatt_Place_450.jpg
Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette
Among the sights from the soon-to-be-constructed condominiums atop Piatt Place is the elaborate ornamentation on the back side of the Park Building, which fronts on Fifth Avenue.

"When we came up here and looked at it, in two seconds we said we're buying this building," said Lucas Piatt, vice president of real estate for Washington County developer Millcraft Industries.

It's a perspective some people will soon be experiencing daily, in one form or another, as the Fifth and Forbes renaissance prepares to kick into full gear with the failed store's transformation.

Mr. Piatt and his father, Jack, Millcraft chairman, discussed the project and the progress to date during a tour last week with a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter and photographer.

In its first foray into Downtown, Millcraft purchased the Lazarus building from Federated Department Stores for $8.5 million in late 2005 with the intent of transforming it into housing, shops and office space, offering a ray of hope to the downtrodden Fifth and Forbes corridor.

Lately, the Piatts have found their biggest challenge is convincing people there is actually work going on in the building, renamed Piatt Place. But that shouldn't be a problem too much longer.

By the end of the summer, steel should be rising from the roof, forming the skeleton for 65 luxury condominiums that will add three floors to the four-story building.

To date, 19 of the 65 condos have been sold. One New York investor purchased three units for more than $1 million near the corner of Oliver Avenue and Smithfield Street.

Another buyer, who is moving from the suburbs, bought two units for $1 million on Fifth Avenue.

Lorrie Andria, the sales manager for the condos, which start at $320,000, doesn't hesitate to take prospective buyers to the roof.

"People are really wowed by the view," she said. "Each side of the building really has some unique characteristics. Each side has its own distinct selling features."

The most popular spot so far has been Fifth Avenue, where eight condos have been sold. Of the three floors, most buyers have gravitated to the seventh, or top floor, where nine units have been taken.

Little more than a year before the first condos are to be occupied, Mr. Piatt said he is comfortable with the pace of sales so far. Several blocks away, the Carlyle in the Union National Bank building has sold 21 of 60 condo units.

"It's pretty exciting for us that we're selling our vision, selling our dream and people are actually buying during pre-construction, which is a challenge, especially in a market where this is all new and fresh to everybody," Mr. Piatt said.

The three levels of condos will be situated around a center courtyard to be built on the current roof, now little more than a repository for bulky heating and cooling units.

Outside at street level, little has changed about the store, part of an expensive bid by former Mayor Tom Murphy to rejuvenate the Downtown retail corridor. But inside is quite a different story, particularly on the spacious first floor, only a few years ago a haven for shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, handbags and lingerie.

"Six years ago this would have been the women's department. Now you can order a martini," said Lucas Piatt, standing in what will be the bar area of the Capital Grille steak house at Fifth and Wood Street.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070507bd_L_3_Piatt_Place_450.jpg
Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette
The escalators between floors have been removed in the renovations to create Piatt Place.

Studs have replaced sales in that corner, as more than 10,000 square feet of space is being partitioned for a main dining room and smaller private rooms. The outline of the arch-shaped kitchen is visible and coolers to age beef have been installed.

The restaurant is expected to open in July, providing the first taste of the building's transformation.

On the other side, at Wood and Oliver, the shell of McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant is just beginning to form in anticipation of a late fall opening.

The two restaurants will serve as bookends for the building's street-level retail activity. The Piatts are negotiating with a financial services company to occupy the middle of the Wood Street block. They also hope to recruit a high-end fashion retailer to occupy one or two levels at the back end of the store, on Fifth Avenue near the old Revco building.

They have scrapped plans for a European-style gourmet market, moving that concept to the G.C. Murphy building, another old store Millcraft is converting into apartments and shops.

Lucas Piatt said the Murphy building is an "equal or better location" for the market, which will sell prepared foods, lunch meats, specialty breads, produce and other items.

Three floors of Lazarus-Macy's escalators in the heart of the store already have been removed, but the large circular openings that accommodated them remain.

A ceiling is being added on the first floor, but openings elsewhere will stay in place and become a shaft for a massive skylight to be built on the roof.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070507bd_L_8_Piatt_Place_450.jpg
Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette
The living room and kitchen, above, and master bedroom, below, of the model condominium on display at Piatt Place. To date 19 of the 65 condos have been sold.
http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070507bd_L_7_Piatt_Place_450.jpg

The Piatts like to refer to the Lazarus project as "Southpointe in a box," referring to their sprawling Interstate 79 development near Canonsburg that mixes housing, office space, recreation and retail.

"We're changing an elephant into a giraffe," Lucas Piatt said of the Piatt Place work. "We're taking something that was retail and changing it into a new species."

The three upper floors of the store are slated for office space, but so far there have been no takers.

Millcraft has been trying to lure either the Jones Day or Cohen & Grigsby law firm, or both, to the building, but neither has made a decision. Lucas Piatt said a couple of other firms also have expressed an interest.

"It's kind of a waiting game at this point," he said.

For now, the space on those top three floors will remain just as it is -- wide open with much of the original Lazarus-Macy's carpeting, flooring and fixtures still in place.

The idea, Lucas Piatt said, is to allow office tenants to reconfigure the space to suit their needs.

Echoes of the building's recent past are everywhere, from signs for "Customer Service," "Juniors" and "Bed in a Bag" to Polo Ralph Lauren posters and even some cabinets that were left behind.

"It's like they just got up and left," Jack Piatt said.

With much of the heavy construction still to come, the Piatts already have committed nearly $10 million to a project that is expected to run $65 million. It's little wonder they give some extra attention to the things they find as they rummage around the department store.

"We checked every drawer to see if there was any cash lying around," Jack Piatt said with a chuckle.




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(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/05/07/story1.html?b=1178510400^1457667

Point Park shaping Downtown's future

School develops master plan for its 13 properties

Pittsburgh Business Times - May 4, 2007

by Tim Schooley

Don't think of the new Starbucks to open in the former Piccolo Piccolo Ristorante space at the corner of Wood Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard as just another chain coffee shop.

Instead, think of it as a flag marking the Downtown growth ambitions of acquisition-minded Point Park University, which has expanded along Wood Street to the riverfront on one side of its campus and almost to the Cultural District on the other.

"We have an incredible opportunity to revitalize this neighborhood," said Paul Hennigan, who became president of Point Park University last year. "We're looking at all of these properties we're buying and looking at their first-floor opportunities."

Point Park now owns 13 properties within a five-block span and is preparing to undergo the first street-level master plan for its properties in its history. The goal is not just to plan for campus growth but to improve the life of the neighborhood.

Joining Hennigan in the effort is Mariann Geyer, the former executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership who now serves as Point Park's vice president of institutional advancement.

Back in Pittsburgh after a stint in Utah, Geyer brings both an understanding of Downtown development dynamics and a broad range of contacts from her three-year tenure at the PDP. She is considering engaging the Urban Land Institute to help study the street life potential of restaurants and retail around the university campus.

"A few years ago, when we renovated and restored Lawrence Hall back to its original grandeur, it really changed the complexion of that corner," said Geyer, referring to the university's leasing of the building's commercial space to a Barnes & Noble-operated book store. "One of the things that we're looking at for our new buildings is to see what are the opportunities for additional retail."

Hennigan, who first met Geyer in a Leadership Pittsburgh class 10 years ago, comes to his role as the former chief financial officer for the city of Pittsburgh.

"Mariann knows the city exceptionally well. She knows the stakeholders and the political process. She managed a lot of the revitalization efforts of Downtown Pittsburgh for a period of time," he said. "I know the financial structure of city; It seems like the people I don't know, Mariann knows and vice versa."

Point Park University's expansion stems from its surging enrollment. Ten years ago, it had 2,000 students; today it has 3,500.

With more students has come more funding. The university's endowment has swelled from $6 million to $20 million; its operating budget has grown from $20 million to $70 million; and it now has a capital budget of $60 million.

The university's new financial wherewithal has enabled it to acquire properties on the southern side of the Boulevard of the Allies, expanding the campus to the Monongahela riverfront. Recent acquisitions include both the 28,500-square-foot building that housed Piccolo Piccolo and the 100,000-square-foot ICM building across the street. It has a new dance studio under construction and is assessing the possibility of building a new student center and a new performance and audition facility.

Gary Wilson, a principal of Langholz Wilson Ellis Inc., brokered the sale of the ICM building on Wood Street to Point Park for $9.3 million in January. He sees Point Park as an integral part of a growing education corridor that includes the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University and runs from Downtown through Oakland.

"Given the fact that Pittsburgh on paper is not growing, we need to rely more and more on our education institutions for growth," Wilson said. "Point Park is just now becoming one of those major players."

Geyer sees Point Park's early steps toward establishing a master plan as similar to the role that the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust played in helping to revitalize its district, situated on the other side of the Golden Triangle.

"Out of the master plan, what we're doing could be a spark for others who could look at this part of Downtown as an opportunity for retail," she said.

While the university has no timetable for completing the master plan, it has solicited proposals from six firms and will choose one in the next few weeks. Geyer started her job in December and has been meeting with Downtown business and property owners and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Aaron Stauber, president of Rugby Realty Co. Inc., a New Rochelle, N.Y.-based company that acquired a number of properties in the Cultural District in response to the Cultural Trust's planning, may do the same in Point Park's neighborhood. He said he sees Point Park's planning converging with the expansion of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh a few blocks away to create a more vibrant Downtown neighborhood.

"I will definitely be taking a look in that area and seeing if there is an opportunity for us," said Stauber, who admitted Rugby hadn't done so before. "Because of their investment in that area, and the stake that they've put down, it becomes pretty interesting now."

Ralph Falbo, the developer of the 151 First Side condo project expected to be completed this summer, is eager to see how the university's master planning can help spur more retail demand to help enhance his building.

"Thirty-five hundred kids is a lot of kids," said Falbo. "There's more life on the street. It makes other restaurants open up and other shops open up. It all ties together."

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3826

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07128/784226-53.stm

Downtown's 'Encore' high-rise may get market

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The first market catering to Downtown residents may debut at the Encore on 7th, the new 18-story apartment building in the Cultural District.

Lincoln Property Co., the building owner, is negotiating with an undisclosed regional operator to occupy 3,000 square feet of the Encore's first floor.

Kevin Keane, senior vice president and regional operating partner for Lincoln, said the market's offerings would range from soups and sandwiches to full-course meals, all aimed at serving residents in the building and in other locations in the Cultural District and Penn Avenue corridor.

There also are plans for a coffee bar.

The market would stock staples like bread, milk, detergent, soap, paper towels and other paper products. A deli and fresh produce also are in the mix of options.

Mr. Keane said a market is "probably the number one request" from residents at the 151-unit Encore, which is 97 to 98 percent occupied about a year after its opening. Roughly 210 to 220 people live in the Fort Duquesne Boulevard high-rise.

"Before we even built the building, we anticipated a need for a gourmet-quality prepared foods store," he said.

If negotiations go well, Lincoln hopes to open the market by mid- July.

While Mr. Keane would not identify the operator with whom he is negotiating, he said it was not Giant Eagle, with its new Giant Eagle Express concept. He said the space available wasn't big enough for the grocer.

"It just didn't fit their model right now," he said.

The market would occupy one of three retail spaces available in the high-rise. Among the options for the other spaces are a hair salon, an art gallery and a jewelry store, Mr. Keane said.

About a year ago, another developer, Millcraft Industries of Washington County, announced plans for a European-style gourmet market as part of the $65 million conversion of the Lazarus-Macy's department store into condos, shops and offices.

At one time, Millcraft had hoped to have the market open by early 2007. However, those plans changed and Millcraft has since shifted the market idea to the old G.C. Murphy store, which it intends to redevelop into apartments and shops. The work won't be completed until the third quarter of 2008.

Like the Encore, the Murphy's market would offer prepared foods, including entrees, soups and salads. A deli, specialty breads and produce also would be available.

Millcraft has been working with Jeannette-based DeLallo Italian Foods to provide lunch meats, cheeses and other products to the store. It also wants to offer Omaha Steak products.

Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate, said the proposed Murphy's market would be more than twice the size of the one at the Encore, about 7,500 square feet in all.

With 96,000 office workers and nearly 3,000 residents, including students, in Downtown alone, there should be enough demand for two small markets, said Patty Burk, vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

"Competition is always good. It improves quality and options," she said.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )

[Evergrey]

sad news... urban school districts are between a rock and a hard place in Pennsylvania...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07128/784283-298.stm

City schools shrinking; big cuts looming

Declining student population forces trimming 203 jobs, $33 million

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



The Pittsburgh Public Schools last night proposed eliminating 203 positions and making $33 million in other cuts to keep the district from going broke in 2009.

The district said significant spending reductions are needed amid the projected loss of another 3,600 students, or 10 percent of the current enrollment, over the next three school years.

The projected loss of 1,521 students in 2007-08, 937 in 2008-09 and 1,158 in 2009-10 would leave the district with 25,829 students. Enrollment this school year is 29,445, down 1,703 from 2005-06.

Next year's elimination of 131 teachers, 30 aides, 10 counselors, five librarians, one assistant principal and 26 counselors were far from the only cuts that Superintendent Mark Roosevelt and his staff proposed at a meeting of the school board's Business and Finance Committee.

Without tens of millions of dollars in additional savings, the district will exhaust its reserve fund and face a $7.1 million deficit by the end of 2009, according to a report by Christopher Berdnik, executive director of finance.

It was the starkest forecast yet for a district that's long experienced financial problems and so far has tried in halting steps to turn its finances around. The district already has eliminated about 300 positions in the past two years, many by retirements, said Peter Camarda, executive director of budget and management services, and Lisa Fischetti, chief of staff.

Reversing the crisis will be "unbelievably difficult," Mr. Roosevelt told the board. "There is no way we can take you from here to there without a lot of pain, a lot of squealing and you hearing complaints from a lot of folks."

Even with next school year's personnel cuts, officials said, district spending is projected to increase from $524 million this year to nearly $547 million in 2009 without additional belt-tightening.

Under that scenario, Mr. Berdnik said, the district's reserve fund would dwindle from $57 million at the end of 2007 to nearly $30 million in 2008 and zero in 2009. That year, after exhausting the reserve fund, the district would face a $7.1 million deficit.

Mr. Roosevelt said the district's financial picture would be even bleaker if it encounters unexpected expenses, such as the opening of new charter schools in the next few years.

On top of next year's personnel cuts, Mr. Berdnik recommended slashing $16.7 million from the operating budget in 2008, repeating that savings in 2009 and finding an additional $16 million to cut in 2009. He did not say how the cuts would be achieved.

With those cuts, he said, the district's spending would be curbed at $514 million in 2009, and more than $42 million would be left in the reserve fund, which the district has been tapping to balance the operating budget.

Mr. Berdnik did not say how much next year's personnel cuts would save the district. But many teachers are at the top of the salary scale, which is $73,500 for a teacher with a master's degree.

This may be the first time the district has prepared a three-year "rolling" projection of finances. The board made production of the forecast one of Mr. Roosevelt's priorities for the school year.

Mr. Berdnik's assessment was sobering, but he and other officials said they did not want to be unduly alarming.

For example, Mr. Berdnik said 115 teachers already have signed up to retire at the end of the current school year, meaning reduction of 131 teaching positions might be accomplished with few furloughs. In addition, he said no tax increase is under consideration.

Officials added that they hope to draw more families to the district and reinvigorate the tax base with academic improvements. They said the proposed Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program for high school students and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's proposal to offer tax breaks to new city residents could be other draws.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Joe Smydo can be reached at jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.)

[themaguffin]

The number of people working downtown seems to change with every article....

[PittPenn 03]

tidbits from this week's Business Times:


4. There's a couple articles about how Westinghouse's hiring spree is a BAD THING for Pittsburgh... I feel like only in Pittsburgh... would local media try to paint Westinghouse's success as bad for the region...

This situation seems to be one of the main ways other cities grow their population. It is called raiding other cities for their engineers. Other cities' companies do it to us all the time. Westinghouse and other local engineering firms should be taking half and full page ads in city papers that have large a large engineering workforce. If I were in charge of these companies, I would make a point to advertise in cities that have taken a lot of Pittsburghers since I would imagine there would be some who would like to return, but might have given up looking for employment here. I do not see what the problem is. Isn't this type of shortage what we have been lacking for a booming economy with population growth?

You are right Evergrey - only in Pittsburgh would they spin this as a negative.

[themaguffin]

I think that I already mentioned that I saw a display ad at the bottom of the of the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution several weeks ago for nuclear engineering jobs at Westinghouse. I'm sure that other cities had similar large ads. This is what Pittsburgh needs, an abundance of jobs to pull people from other regions.

[Evergrey]

Exactly, PittPenn and themaguffin. The local media is whining about the strain on the local engineering talent pool... and how there aren't enough engineers... and how it will distort wages and hurt other companies... yada yada yada

This is the type of opportunity for Pittsburgh to generate significant in-migration. The miniscule in-migration rate is one of the two major culprits of our population decline (along with the birth deficit). Now we have job opportunities for people to move here from Atlanta or Charlotte or Tulsa or wherever. Increasing the non-native population will have many positive externalities for the region. If Westinghouse can create 10,000 nuclear engineering jobs in Pittsburgh... that should be celebrated. It's supply & demand in the labor market... if Westinghouse has a demand for these positions.. they will be filled... with very well-compensated employees.

[AaronPGH]

Is anyone able to post these Biz Journal articles by chance?

[Evergrey]

Is anyone able to post these Biz Journal articles by chance?

Only themaguffin has that power.

btw haimon, thanks for that update on the entrepreneurship of immigrants in Pittsburgh.. this must be encouraged in our region if we are to succeed

anyone have any thoughts on Ravenstahl's tax abatement proposal that targets 21 neighborhoods? I think it's a pretty half-assed proposal... might as well extend it to the entire city due to the low opportunity cost and the potential of causing resentment amongst the neighborhoods that haven't been selected (as evidenced in the article posted a couple days ago).

[themaguffin]

Only themaguffin has that power.


Trust me I would have posted them if I could. and this week looks like it has a few interesting ones too. When they changed their site last year, it was frustrating, but I was able to access them... ...then they changed their format a week or so ago and I can't seem to get the full articles. I guess they figured they figured out the big loop hole in their url's. bastards.

[Evergrey]

on a random note... there was some sort of Italian grocer that was supposed to open on the Carson St. side of SouthSide Works... I remember seeing the sign there during the winter... but I haven't noticed the sign lately or any sign of it opening... I wonder if it's still in the works?



...

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/northside0502.aspx

May 9, 2007

$7.25M, 26-unit residential development planned for Manchester

A new residential development is planned for a 4.3-acre brownfield in Manchester. Bounded by Juniata St., Columbus Ave., Segwick St., and Fulton St., the $7.25 million project will feature 26 single-family, two- and three-story detached homes ranging in size from 1,600 to 2,000 square feet. Project developers, Fourth River Development and the Manchester Citizens Corporation, acquired the land for $425,000.

The two- and three-bedroom homes will feature front porches and rear garages. “It will be the same concept as Summerset. We’ll continue that New Urbanism with the design,” says Sally Flinn, director of development with Fourth River Development, who previously served as project manager for Summerset at Frick Park while working at The Rubinoff Company.

Flinn is working on infrastructure costs and interviewing contractors. “What’s special about this project is that the architects have incorporated some of the architectural vocabulary from the existing Manchster inventory.” Project architect is Devlin Architecture. LaQuatra Bonci Associates created a conceptual site layout. Homes will sell for between $180,000 and $250,000.

Formerly an American Electric transistor factory, the site is currently undergoing an environmental clean up, which is being conducted by Multi- Lynx. The remediation, which includes an ecological impact analysis, received $275,000 from the state’s Growing Greener II program. Flinn expects infrastructure work to begin on the homes during the spring of 2008.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Sally Flinn, Fourth River Development

[Evergrey]

a couple of interesting conferences on regional development and vision...

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/growth0509.aspx

May 9, 2007

Smart Growth Conference to convene downtown on May 18

"Focusing Growth for Regional Prosperity,” the 7th annual Smart Growth Conference, will take place on May 18 at the Omni William Penn Hotel.

The free conference features keynote speaker Don Chen, executive director of Smart Growth America, a national advocacy coalition that promotes preservation of open space and farmland, reinvestment in existing communities, affordable housing and transportation alternatives.

Attendees will be invited to respond to a draft of Project Region, a long-range transportation and development plan being developed by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. "This is an opportunity for the public to give input on the plan," say Court Gould, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh. "This plan will have a real impact on the face of the region, how we will grow and develop, whether we will continue to sprawl outwardly or focus on our existing communities.”

Participants will hear progress reports from three community committees created at last year's conference: leveling the field for redevelopment, promoting regionalism and transportation funding. The event will also feature a Q&A with state, regional and local leaders.

Project Region: The Southwestern Pennsylvania Growth Plan, which must be adopted by July, aims to make regional planning processes more transparent, maximize infrastructure, and integrate transportation, job creation and economic competitiveness within a plan for regional growth.

“In light of the city's recent top livable city award, this plan will address important quality of life issues for the future. We're at an important point where the plan will steer growth and development for the next 30 years,” says Gould.


...

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/symposium0509.aspx
May 9, 2007

Road to 2010 symposium to address region's major construction projects

The region’s major construction projects, set to occur over the next three years, will be addressed at the “Road to 2010 Symposium.” The free event takes place on May 16 at the downtown Westin and is organized by Navigant Consulting, an international firm with a downtown office.

Government officials and industry experts will share information about building plans with area construction, engineering and design communities. Sessions will address construction issues relating to infrastructure, higher education, and private and public sector development. “There’s so much development money coming in with gaming and the North Shore. The synergies between different areas will impact the labor market and the lives of all Pittsburghers,” says Jeff Burd with BreakingGround, event co-sponsor. “What an exciting time to be here. We’re at the beginning of a large wave of work.”

Jack Mascaro of Mascaro Construction Company will chair a panel featuring Joseph Fink, associate vice chancellor for facilities management at the University of Pittsburgh. Transportation officials, private developers and non-profit leaders will also participate. Major city developments, such as The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s RiverParc and the new arena, will be spotlighted.

“It’s meant to demonstrate what's coming up, facilitate discussions about what the needs are, and make sure that people understand the full breadth of the region’s three-year climate,” says Burd, a session moderator. “Four out of five experts feel we’re not going to have sufficient skilled labor. We'll need to facilitate people coming here.” Burd feels the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. markets could be a source for labor. “We’re bringing in decision makers who are in charge of funding to make it a high-level event and tie everything together.” To register, call 412.454.4100.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Jeff Burd, BreakingGround/Tall Timber Group

...


Exactly. The projected "skilled labor shortage" should be touted as a good thing... as it necessitates attracting in-migrants from other areas. DC/Baltimore is both the largest destinations for Pittsburgh emmigrants and the largest contingent of in-migrants to Pittsburgh. The opportunity to live in a nearby city with delightful neighborhoods, ample cultural and recreational amenities but with extremely affordable housing stock should be a lure for Capital Region professionals.

[Evergrey]

I used to take this US22 all the time when I lived in State College... always hated it... and it is a "killer"... my previous car was totaled on that road between Blairsville and Ebensburg (though I think that particular section is remaining 2-lane)... very dangerous, annoying highway lol

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07129/784475-59.stm

End finally in sight for Route 22 project

Last 4 1/2 miles of 'killer highway' to be rebuilt

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



After decades of accident survivors, elected officials and residents campaigning to transform Route 22 through Westmoreland County from a "killer highway," the end appears in sight.

A public meeting will be held tomorrow in Derry Township to display plans for the last two construction projects that, when finished several years from now, will bring an end to more than $250 million worth of widening and safety improvements.

The 25 miles between the Allegheny and Indiana county lines were a "death stretch" from the 1950s through 1980s because of high-speed traffic, large trucks and a dangerous center lane used for both passing and turning.

Results were often fatal when drivers coming from opposite directions attempted to pass at the same time. And when drivers stopped to make left turns, their vehicles were often hit violently from the rear or from an angle.

For example, along a 6.6-mile section between Delmont and New Alexandria between 1985 and 1989, there were 184 accidents resulting in 179 injuries and seven deaths.

After upgrades, which included concrete barriers separating opposing lanes of traffic, the same stretch has experienced far fewer and less severe accidents during the past five years: three fatalities and 85 mostly moderate and minor injuries.

Seven of nine contracts for the highway have now been completed or are under way. The last two are the subject of tomorrow's meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. at St. Mary's Dome on Route 982, Bradenville, covering rebuilding the final 4.4 miles east to the Indiana County line.

The existing roadway, which now varies in width from three lanes to four, will be widened to four 12-foot-wide lanes with an 18-foot-wide median. Traffic signals will be installed at the Route 982 and Jonnet Road intersections. A three-span bridge will be built over Stoney Run. Miscellaneous items will include paved shoulders, a new drainage system and a new guide rail.

The estimated cost of the two contiguous contracts is $52 million, with 80 percent funded from the Appalachia Development Program dating to the 1960s.

"Internally, we've been focusing on the year 2010, saying it would be nice to have everything done and be out of there [Route 22] by then," PennDOT District 12 Executive Joe Szczur said. "We're going to be pretty close to meeting that goal."

He said PennDOT plans to "piggy-back" the last two contracts, with bids to be let this fall for work covering the first 1.9 miles east of Route 982.

"Everybody knows the history of the corridor and the terrible accidents," Mr. Szczur said. "While traffic has been increasing, we've seen a reduction in the number and severity of accidents. Some always will be beyond our control."

Route 22 -- also named the William Penn Highway for the state's founder -- once was the best way for Pittsburghers to drive to Harrisburg and New York City, even though it meant crawling up long hills behind trucks.

While it was replaced as the main route for long-distance, east-west travel when the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940, Route 22 has grown in significance as an extension of the Parkway East to the growing suburbs and as the main route to points such as Indiana, Johnstown, Altoona and State College.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1985. )

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070509route22_improvements.gif

[Evergrey]

excellent article on the UPMC paradox... the Pittsburgh Region has many reasons to be proud of and thankful for UPMC... but also many reasons to be frustrated by and angry with UPMC (the city of Pittsburgh especially)

UPMC is the region's largest employer... one of the primary engines of growth in a period of economic sluggishness... a creator of high-paying highly-skilled jobs... they just hired 170 physicians.. which is good...

They are a global leader in many facets of health care... which adds significant prestige to Pittsburgh...

however... when are we gonna stop pretending that UPMC is a non-profit? They are amazingly brash and arrogant considering their situation. And they are strangling the city of Pittsburgh. 1/3 of the city's property value is tax-exempt... much of that due to the ever-expanding UPMC. UPMC does not pay property taxes in exchange for the city services it receives. Furthermore, UPMC offers an insultingly miniscule voluntary "payment in lieu of taxes" to the City of PIttsburgh. Many smaller and less profitable non-profits embarrass UPMC with their voluntary PILOTs. The extreme concentration of UPMC property in the City of Pittsburgh hampers the city's ability to remain fiscally solvent, deliver services and grow its tax base.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07129/784498-28.stm

UPMC earnings nearing new high

'Excess margin' for first 9 months of fiscal 2007 at $459 million, on pace for a record

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



How easy it is to forget that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a nonprofit.

The region's largest employer yesterday said it actually earned $459 million through the first nine months of fiscal 2007 on record revenues of $5 billion, and it is on pace to exceed its eye-popping performance of 2006, when its "excess margin" -- earnings in excess of operating costs -- soared 77 percent to $512 million and revenue nearly exceeded $6 billion.

The results, which include $279 million in gains from UPMC's investment portfolio, are just the latest example of for-profit behavior from an Oakland health care conglomerate that employs 43,000 in Western Pennsylvania, already controls 19 hospitals and accounts for more than 48 percent of all patient discharges in Allegheny County.

And it wants more: A proposed merger with Mercy Hospital would push its share of the market higher than 50 percent, prompting criticism from UPMC rival West Penn Allegheny Health System that such a union would nudge health care prices higher and give consumers less choice. Both the Federal Trade Commission and the state attorney general are reviewing the potential hookup.

"We believe strongly that patients, employers, insurers, civic leaders and health care professionals should be concerned about the negative ramifications to this region if UPMC is successful in acquiring control of the market and thereby lessening choice in health care," said Tom Chakurda, a West Penn Allegheny spokesman.

UPMC has been aggressive on other fronts, as well:

Marketing. It paid $1.1 million last year to wrap its name around Port Authority buses and an undisclosed amount to advertise its cardiac care, cancer and gynecology services across a 3,000-foot-high screen in New York's Times Square, with a 30-second UPMC spot running every half-hour between Christmas and New Year's. The purchases were part of $14.2 million spent on advertising last year, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus.

Air travel. It upgraded flying options this year by leasing a Bombardier Global Express jet to serve international locations in Ireland, England, Italy and Qatar. UPMC would not disclose the leasing costs. It did note that the new jet, which can fly between any two points in the world with only one stop, would replace another one leased in 2005 (at a cost of $1 million a year, according to a former UPMC spokeswoman). That is unless "increasing international demand requires two," said current UPMC spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz, citing potential health care activities in "other European and Mideastern countries."

Office space. It signed a lease for 500,000 square feet inside Pittsburgh's largest and most expensive office building, the U.S. Steel Tower. The deal is valued at $250 million over 20 years, according to real estate Web site GlobeSt.com (UPMC and the building's leasing agent would not confirm that figure). UPMC, which will place its executive offices and boardroom on the top leasable floor, also signaled its desire to place the UPMC logo on all three sides of a structure built for an icon of Pittsburgh's industrial age. Such a move has to be approved by the city planning commission.

The spot atop Pittsburgh's largest building, the new jet and the Times Square advertisement are all "consistent with the way UPMC conducts itself," said Cliff Shannon, president of Churchill-based Small Business Councils, a small-business lobby. "They are not shy. They are not bashful. They do not retreat."

But is that aggression a good thing -- especially when UPMC's nonprofit status allows it to avoid some financial requirements that apply to for-profit enterprises?

"It is very tough to be unequivocal about them," said Mr. Shannon. "They do wonderful things. They are a bulwark of the regional economy at a time when most of the region's economic and civic power has been pulling back and playing defense. ... It is really difficult to overestimate the importance of UPMC to the regional economy.

"That said, how can an outfit that made $500 million last year hide behind state laws that exempt it from property tax? It just seems completely out of proportion that arguably the most profitable enterprise in the region is exempt from all these taxes."

UPMC, Mr. Shannon said, pressures vendors and professional-service firms to do business only with UPMC and not its rivals, using its size as leverage, just as a for-profit would. But "they are not trying to portray themselves differently than they are. They aim to win."

And there is little doubt that UPMC continues to reinvest its earnings in people and projects.

Through the first nine months of fiscal 2007 that ended March 31 -- as revenues increased 13 percent and profits, or "excess margin," rose 17.6 percent -- UPMC added 170 physicians to its staff for a total of 2,300. It also invested $348 million in new construction, including $136 million on the building of a new Children's Hospital in Lawrenceville.

If it receives approval to merge with Mercy, UPMC pledges to retain the 3,000 jobs, reinvest in the Lower Hill District, and donate $30 million to the Pittsburgh Mercy Foundation in equal amounts over a six-year period to support its mission. It also said it will maintain Mercy's history of providing a high level of uncompensated care to the community -- about $25 million in its latest fiscal year (UPMC provided more than $200 million).

UPMC dismisses concerns that the takeover would result in higher prices or less competition. But if the deal falls apart, UPMC President Jeffrey Romoff argued at a press conference last month, patients will migrate to UPMC anyway and the Hill will lose its chance for new investment.

"We are confident the attorney general will see this issue as we have," he said.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Dan Fitzpatrick can be reached at dfitzpatrick@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1752. )

[PittPenn 03]

No story, no photos - I heard about this through my neighbors. I will be very excited to see this building fill up. It is an old Catholic school.

http://www.catalystcondos.com/index.html

[Evergrey]

nice find, PittPenn... I saw a "for rent" sign on the Catalyst Building last year... I believe it was marketed as office at the time...

don't have a good picture of it... but here it is on the left with the "For Rent" sign

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/59151210.jpg

in the middle
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/59151207.jpg

[cdc]

1/3 of the city's property value is tax-exempt... much of that due to the ever-expanding UPMC.

I agree with the gist of your concerns regarding UPMC. But from what
I have read, the 1/3 figure is a bit misleading because the city
itself owns and controls 50% of that (I guess it is parks, schools,
government buildings, forclosures, etc.?).

[Evergrey]

I agree with the gist of your concerns regarding UPMC. But from what
I have read, the 1/3 figure is a bit misleading because the city
itself owns and controls 50% of that (I guess it is parks, schools,
government buildings, forclosures, etc.?).

True... though are schools owned by the School District as opposed to the City?

This still doesn't diminish the fact that non-profits tend to cluster in the core city of the region due to its natural competitive advantage (especially when unencumbered by any sort of taxation). Many of these non-profits perform regional functions... but they're not in Upper St. Clair or Pine Township... they're in Pittsburgh. The intense agglomeration of non-profits in the city drains city resources and infrastructure yet the NPO sector offers miniscule voluntary compensation to the city in return. And in the absence of a commuter wage tax, how does the city benefit from a Shaler resident working at UPMC Presby?

The ever-expanding UPMC, while good for the region in many ways, also continues to gobble up the finite land in the city... taking it off the tax rolls.

And how much of UPMC's jaw-dropping success and profit margin is due to its now-questionable status as a non-profit? It acts like a for-profit corporation, yet doesn't have any of the drawbacks of a for-profit. Pennsylvania forbids the city to challenge the NPO status of UPMC, so the city has no leverage when it comes to negotiating PILOTs.


Pittsburgh isn't unique in its non-profit problem in Pennsylvania... most cities and boroughs are saddled with the burden of hosting non-profits while the surrounding growing townships benefit from these NPOs but don't host them for the most part. Tiny Titusville borough, for example, has 1/2 of its property value tax-exempt (it hosts a Pitt campus). This is just one of a myriad of reasons why almost every borough and city in the state of Pennsylvania is declining.
...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07057/765114-53.stm

"One-third of the city's property value is tax-exempt, and that's split evenly between government holdings and private property. According to a 2003 study by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, medical facilities, churches, colleges and universities owned $2.9 billion worth of property in the city -- land and buildings that could otherwise generate $31.3 million a year in city taxes.

...

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's $1.5 million donation to the fund in 2005 was the largest of any organization. That amounts to around 20 percent of what a for-profit company would have to pay on the $660 million worth of untaxed property the health behemoth owns, according to land and building assessments.

But the donation is less than one-third of 1 percent of the $512 million in surpluses -- like profits in the business world -- that UPMC rolled up that year.

...

The city property tax bill on the Downtown YMCA building -- a small part of which is taxable -- is $5,314, around one-sixteenth of what for-profit owners of a building valued at $8.6 million would pay. When the city asked nonprofit groups to pony up whatever they could in 2005, the YMCA pledged just $100.

...

City Controller Mr. Pokora acknowledged the value of such services, but he said cities should get payments from the state for hosting such institutions. He said those with huge surpluses -- like UPMC and Highmark Inc. -- should also pay the city something.

Highmark made $342 million in 2005 and paid $1 million into the fund.

..

New Haven's deal with Yale and others, plus the state payment, total $42 million a year, which is 10 percent of that city's operating budget.

By contrast, the Pittsburgh Public Service Fund's payment of $4.2 million this year amounts to 1 percent of the city's operating budget.

...

Pittsburgh no longer has any legal means to compel nonprofit payments, and there's no guarantee that public pressure could bring about long-term commitments."

...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07052/763697-53.stm

"For instance, the University of Pittsburgh's $800,000 contribution was around half of what it would have to pay the city if just one of its buildings, the Cathedral of Learning, was taxable. The building's assessed value of $140.5 million would generate a $1.5 million city tax bill.

That "shows that there's a structural problem in the city caused by our tax-exempt facilities," Mr. Pokora said.

He said the state should reimburse cities for some of the revenue lost because of the concentrations of nonprofit institutions within their boundaries, and that large, moneymaking entities like universities and hospitals should make additional payments."




If the state government actually gave a damn about its cities... which it doesn't... it would institute structural reform that allows municipalities to coerce payments from non-profits based on metrics.... much like the systems that have been instituted in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In contrast, the state actually stripped municipalities of any legal power to challenge non-profit status in 1997.

[Evergrey]

this is a pretty huge news item... Kratsa announces a slew of projects across the city... I love that hotels are popping up in different neighborhoods... there has been a significant increase in tourism here... and the tourism-potential of the neighborhoods is reflected by this hotel boom

also... no public money used in Kratsa's developments... yay

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_506952.html

Hotels checking in to Pittsburgh

By Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 10, 2007


Pittsburgh's hotel and condominium count is growing again, with Kratsa Properties of Harmar in the forefront.
Kratsa on Wednesday disclosed plans for two developments in Pittsburgh: a new 200-room hotel in the heart of Downtown and a retail/hotel/condominium development adjoining an already announced hotel, its second, on the North Shore near PNC Park.

William Kratsa Jr., general partner, discussed the development plans after ceremonies marking the start of construction of the company's previously announced $15 million Springhill Suites by Marriott, a 115-room, all-suite hotel on South Water Street, just across Hot Metal Street from the flourishing SouthSide Works development.

"We have found niche markets within the urban core, and we feel we can continue to capitalize on those markets, having seen the success of our current two urban hotels," Kratsa said.

Kratsa said his company is negotiating for a site for the new Downtown hotel, with the likely target the former location of the Jones Law Building on Ross Street, behind the Grant Building. The site is vacant.

Plans call for as many as 200 rooms for the $22 million project. No brand name has yet been designated for the hotel, which could be under construction by the end of the year.

It would be Kratsa's third hotel in the Downtown area.

Its 198-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel adjacent to PNC Park opened two years ago. Construction of a $25 million, 10-story Residence Inn by Marriott is expected to start in July at Mazeroski Way and General Robinson Street. It will offer 177 extended-stay rooms.

Another project disclosed Wednesday would be on a 3-acre site -- between those two hotels -- owned by Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking on the North Shore along General Robinson.

As envisioned, it would include about 40,000 square feet of retail space on two floors, and a combination hotel/condominium building, with eight floors of hotel and eight floors of residential space, with about 120 units.

Stabile, who has teamed with Kratsa in the Residence Inn project, confirmed negotiations for the site but cautioned that plans are in the preliminary stages.

Although the site provides North Shore parking for about 500 cars, there still should be adequate parking in the vicinity, including at the Sports & Exhibition Authority's new 1,300-space garage, Stabile said.

Officials for the Pirates and Steelers could not be reached for comment.

No date was announced for this project. It probably won't be started until the new Residence Inn is opened, William Kratsa said. No local or state incentives are involved in any of Kratsa's development projects, he said.

The Residence Inn, which will probably open in the fall of 2008, will include meeting and exercise rooms, indoor swimming pool and a billiard room with a bar, Kratsa said.

Landscaping in front of the hotel, designed by local landscape architect Randall O'Brien, will have public art and will include plaques commemorating three former Pittsburgh ball parks: Exposition Park, Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium.

Stabile will maintain "a small interest" in the project.

Also ahead for Kratsa is development of a $20 million hotel in East Liberty, adjacent to the Highland Building redevelopment project spearheaded by Pittsburgh-based Zambrano Corp.

As previously reported, Zambrano plans to retrofit the Highland Building into residential units, either condominiums or apartments.

Kratsa has a South Side hotel, a six-story 120-room Holiday Inn, on South 10th Street, which opened several years ago.



Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2007-05-09/0510photels-a.jpg
Kratsa Properties began construction Wednesday on its $15 million Springhill Suites by Marriott across from the SouthSide Works development.
Courtesy of Kratsa Properties

map of Kratsa projects
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2007_pdfs/GX-Northshore-bn-05-10.pdf

...

btw, for you skyscraper geeks... that's an 18-story mixed-use tower for the North Shore... a 10-story hotel on the North Shore... a 13-story tower in E. Liberty going condo... and a 200-room hotel Downtown... I'm thinking that'll be in the 15-20 story range? (smaller lot than a North Shore site presumbly)


also... interesting that they're building a hotel right next to SSW... where that 15-story SSW hotel is supposed to begin construction.... one of these days...


...


the downtown hotel tower will be rising on a vacant site along Ross St. to the right of the Grant Building in this photo:
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78179005.jpg

Is that the vacant site?
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/55788856.jpg

[Evergrey]

some minor news tidbits:

1. Krasta's new South Side hotel was featured in a KDKA piece titled "Traffic woes put damper on South Side development"... kind of an ironic title. South Side is extremely successful and the bumper-to-bumper traffic (and whining old-timers) is testament to the desirability of the neighborhood. However, I agree with Councilman Doug Shields' statement that the South Side would be a good candidate for "urban trolley" development. It's unfortunate that this region has been so shortsighted with our transit development over the years. The LRT was opened in the 80s... a Spine Line study was dropped in the early 90s... and then the late 90s began the ridiculous North Shore Connector project. An LRT line running down the "back side" of the South Side would be extremely effective... and a launching pad to further extensions to the Mon Valley...

2. Ravenstahl and Nordenburg are leading a housing inspection blitz of Oakland's student ghetto... that area is fun and vibrant... but also dingy thanks to negligent property owners... cleaning up this area would be a huge boost to the perception of Pittsburgh held by students and visitors to the university district
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784880-298.stm

3. Onorato won't use RAD money to save transit... instead we'll pay for Pittsburgh's 250th birthday party... which no one will be able to attend due to severe transit cuts... I'm over-generalizing... but the situation is infuriating and rich with irony... what is more important... transit or the arts? We have this pool of money... which was originally designated for the arts... but can it be devoted to a more pressing need now?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784842-53.stm
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_506936.html

4. Nearby IUP, a popular university amongst SWPA students, is building upscale dormitories... designed by WTW (also working on Riverparc)... sleek renderings
http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070510iup_suite_northern_450.jpg
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784883-298.stm

5. Heinz Endowments grants $200k to revitalization of Hill District landmark Grenada Theatre
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784879-53.stm

6. Pittsburgh Transportation Group continues to expand... looking at expanding taxicab service in several key city neighborhoods by establishing taxi stands... expanding of taxicab service fueled by new condos
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784788-28.stm

7. Equitable Resources, which occupies one of the new North Shore office buildings, is looking for 300,000 sq. ft. of space to accomodate 800 employees (up from 400 employees at the present building)... a new North Shore office building planned by Continental Real Estate could accomodate Equitable... but they might end up in Cranberry
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_506889.html

8. In response to the previous talk about UPMC's incredible profits and their lack of support for their host city... defenders claim UPMC's profit should be celebrated... and I would argue... that nobody's angry at UPMC for being successful... we're just angry that UPMC could be helping out its host city a lot more than it does currently
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784790-28.stm

9. Article titled "Hope fading for quick end to housing slump"... while the rest of the country lingers in a slump... Pittsburgh is bucking the trend... "The Pittsburgh area, which for the most part did not participate in the housing boom, also is being spared the brunt of the housing bust. According to West Penn Multi-List Inc., the listing service that tracks sales by area Realtors, the seven-county region registered a 1.24 percent increase in sales in 2006 over 2005, and a 5.64 percent increase in the average price of homes sold."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784800-28.stm

[designer3d712]

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f354/bully712/iup.jpg

Nice Rendering! Wait a minute. That's my Rendering..:banana:

[Evergrey]

well, the Biz Times have made available the article I mentioned previously about the chic boutique opening in the Clark Building downtown ... so might as well post it!

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/05/07/story17.html?b=1178510400^1456831

Chic boutique aims to bring high fashion to Cultural District

Pittsburgh Business Times - May 4, 2007
by Tim Schooley



Amy Reed hopes to make being early fashionable.

Reed is working to bring what perhaps will be the first fashion boutique to the Cultural District, opening Chick in the Clark Building, Downtown, later this month.

"I definitely feel like we're being a pioneer. I think it's a little risky," said Reed. "The stuff that we're selling is really contemporary and really trendy."

Some of that risk will be mitigated by the fact that Reed's new business will open in a building she owns with her husband, Ira Gorman. They're both New Yorkers who also are buying a condo in Piatt Place, the redevelopment of the former Lazarus department store into a new mixed-use project and condo residence.

Gorman's Singularity Clark LP acquired the 23-story Clark building for $22 million last year.

But Reed admitted she has invested $500,000 on the build-out of the 1,800-square-foot store, which is being designed by the Los Angeles firm Thogmartin Associates.

"We've invested a lot in the store," Reed said. "We spent probably five times what we expected to spend."

Chick will be Reed's first store after working in a variety of retail and fashion jobs in New York. She said to expect a high-end store with a host of fashion labels found in such New York retailers as Barneys New York and Bergdorf Goodman. It will feature both women's formal and casual wear and carry such labels as Theory, Chaiken, Rich and Skinny, Lauren Moffatt and LaRok.

Reed said she was inspired to open the store after meeting many people in Pittsburgh who told her they do much of their clothes shopping in New York.

"Instead of going to New York to shop, now you can go Downtown," she said, adding that Downtown residents and employees will receive a 20 percent discount on merchandise bought before the end of June.

Chick will open amid the building's traditional mix of diamond merchants, which Reed said will help attract the theater-goers, office workers and new residents in the area.

Other Downtown women's clothing stores right now include department stores Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's as well as long-time local Larrimor's.

Yet Lawrence Scott, a former New York fashion designer who now owns the Pittsburgh Jeans Co. on the South Side, isn't convinced there's enough of a market for high-end fashion Downtown.

"I don't know anybody that does well in Downtown Pittsburgh," said Scott, noting that he's been solicited many times to bring his successful jeans concept to the central business district.

"If I thought they were good, I'd be down there," he said of the opportunities.

However, Jason Cannon, a vice president who specializes in retail leasing for CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, said he has seen a growing retail interest in the properties he represents in the district.

"I think we'll definitely see a turn toward fashion in Downtown Pittsburgh," he said. "I'm glad it's starting earlier than others thought it would."

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3826

[Johnland]

That would be an ideal site for a hotel.

[Johnland]

this is a pretty huge news item... Kratsa announces a slew of projects across the city... I love that hotels are popping up in different neighborhoods... there has been a significant increase in tourism here... and the tourism-potential of the neighborhoods is reflected by this hotel boom

also... no public money used in Kratsa's developments... yay

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_506952.html

Hotels checking in to Pittsburgh

By Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 10, 2007


Pittsburgh's hotel and condominium count is growing again, with Kratsa Properties of Harmar in the forefront.
Kratsa on Wednesday disclosed plans for two developments in Pittsburgh: a new 200-room hotel in the heart of Downtown and a retail/hotel/condominium development adjoining an already announced hotel, its second, on the North Shore near PNC Park.

William Kratsa Jr., general partner, discussed the development plans after ceremonies marking the start of construction of the company's previously announced $15 million Springhill Suites by Marriott, a 115-room, all-suite hotel on South Water Street, just across Hot Metal Street from the flourishing SouthSide Works development.

"We have found niche markets within the urban core, and we feel we can continue to capitalize on those markets, having seen the success of our current two urban hotels," Kratsa said.

Kratsa said his company is negotiating for a site for the new Downtown hotel, with the likely target the former location of the Jones Law Building on Ross Street, behind the Grant Building. The site is vacant.

Plans call for as many as 200 rooms for the $22 million project. No brand name has yet been designated for the hotel, which could be under construction by the end of the year.

It would be Kratsa's third hotel in the Downtown area.

Its 198-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel adjacent to PNC Park opened two years ago. Construction of a $25 million, 10-story Residence Inn by Marriott is expected to start in July at Mazeroski Way and General Robinson Street. It will offer 177 extended-stay rooms.

Another project disclosed Wednesday would be on a 3-acre site -- between those two hotels -- owned by Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking on the North Shore along General Robinson.

As envisioned, it would include about 40,000 square feet of retail space on two floors, and a combination hotel/condominium building, with eight floors of hotel and eight floors of residential space, with about 120 units.

Stabile, who has teamed with Kratsa in the Residence Inn project, confirmed negotiations for the site but cautioned that plans are in the preliminary stages.

Although the site provides North Shore parking for about 500 cars, there still should be adequate parking in the vicinity, including at the Sports & Exhibition Authority's new 1,300-space garage, Stabile said.

Officials for the Pirates and Steelers could not be reached for comment.

No date was announced for this project. It probably won't be started until the new Residence Inn is opened, William Kratsa said. No local or state incentives are involved in any of Kratsa's development projects, he said.

The Residence Inn, which will probably open in the fall of 2008, will include meeting and exercise rooms, indoor swimming pool and a billiard room with a bar, Kratsa said.

Landscaping in front of the hotel, designed by local landscape architect Randall O'Brien, will have public art and will include plaques commemorating three former Pittsburgh ball parks: Exposition Park, Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium.

Stabile will maintain "a small interest" in the project.

Also ahead for Kratsa is development of a $20 million hotel in East Liberty, adjacent to the Highland Building redevelopment project spearheaded by Pittsburgh-based Zambrano Corp.

As previously reported, Zambrano plans to retrofit the Highland Building into residential units, either condominiums or apartments.

Kratsa has a South Side hotel, a six-story 120-room Holiday Inn, on South 10th Street, which opened several years ago.



Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2007-05-09/0510photels-a.jpg
Kratsa Properties began construction Wednesday on its $15 million Springhill Suites by Marriott across from the SouthSide Works development.
Courtesy of Kratsa Properties

map of Kratsa projects
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2007_pdfs/GX-Northshore-bn-05-10.pdf

...

btw, for you skyscraper geeks... that's an 18-story mixed-use tower for the North Shore... a 10-story hotel on the North Shore... a 13-story tower in E. Liberty going condo... and a 200-room hotel Downtown... I'm thinking that'll be in the 15-20 story range? (smaller lot than a North Shore site presumbly)


also... interesting that they're building a hotel right next to SSW... where that 15-story SSW hotel is supposed to begin construction.... one of these days...


...


the downtown hotel tower will be rising on a vacant site along Ross St. to the right of the Grant Building in this photo:
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/78179005.jpg

Is that the vacant site?
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/55788856.jpg

I always thought this dense little pocket of downtown was greatly under utilizied. It always seemed that 'downtown proper' ended at Grant St, and the area to east of Grant was out of bounds. However, if that new hotel goes in as a highrise, it could kick off some other developments. If the neighborhood there could get some residential and retail devlopments, it would really expand the 'downtown area' by several square blocks. It would also help to connect Duquesne U. more with downtown.

[hyperion1110]

:previous: IUP's residence halls (we can't call them dorms there!) really are dungeons, so it'd nice their building new ones. At the same time, though, they need better names. Every one of them includes the words "suites" and some generic word locating then (hence: Suites of Grant).

On a related note, it's not just the residence halls that are getting an overhaul at IUP...many of the academic buildings are being renovated or expanded. Recently, Cogswell Hall of the College of Fine Arts has been expanded (and IUP has achieved the status of an All-Steinway School). Currently, Fisher Auditorium and Wahler Hall are being renovated and connected. Here's a story from IUP's website that includes a rendering.

http://www.iup.edu/news/releases/2007/2-1-eleventh-street.htm

Also, Wilson Hall is currently being renovated, but I can't find a rendering anywhere.

Just fyi.

[cdc]

If the state government actually gave a damn about its cities... which it doesn't... it would institute structural reform that allows municipalities to coerce payments from non-profits based on metrics.... much like the systems that have been instituted in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In contrast, the state actually stripped municipalities of any legal power to challenge non-profit status in 1997.

The thing I find annoying about the NPO tax issue is when it is
presented as a "magic bullet" that is going to somehow fix all the
government's financial problems. When people quote the 1/3 figure,
they are implying that the property tax revenue would increase by 1/3
if only we could fully tax the NPOs. That is just not true! First,
the 1/3 number is off by a factor of 2 in this context (NPOs = 1/6th,
not 1/3rd). Second, unlike commercial enterprises, NPOs have minimal
incentive to appeal their initial assessments since they are not
paying taxes anyway --- thus the current assessed value of NPO's
properties is likely to be higher than what it would be after an
appeal. Third, if we tax NPOs it is highly unlikely that it would be
at 100% of the tax rate because of the "community benefits" they
provide.

Frankly, I don't think giving more money to the government is the
answer because the government has no financial discipline. Give them
more money and they are just going to increase the debt load with
overly generous pension and healthcare benefits for city/union workers
in order to buy votes for the next election.


On a related note, UPMC and friends defend themselves here:

"Nonprofit shouldn't mean no profits, UPMC defenders say"
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07130/784790-28.stm


Also, one of the quotes you posted from the PG says this:

"New Haven's deal with Yale and others, plus the state payment,
total $42 million a year, which is 10 percent of that city's
operating budget.

By contrast, the Pittsburgh Public Service Fund's payment of
$4.2 million this year amounts to 1 percent of the city's
operating budget."

The 10% vs 1% comparison is bogus. PGH and New Haven are different
cities in different states with different populations and
infrastructures. You cannot directly compare the operating budgets of
these two cities like the PG is doing without taking other factors
into account!


Finally, I believe that residents of Upper St. Clair (etc.) would
rather have jobs in office parks in their own townships rather than
commute to the city. Unfortunately, too many jobs are in the city.
Maybe we need more office parks in the suburbs...! ha ha.

[cdc]

3. Onorato won't use RAD money to save transit... instead we'll pay for Pittsburgh's 250th birthday party... which no one will be able to attend due to severe transit cuts... I'm over-generalizing... but the situation is infuriating and rich with irony... what is more important... transit or the arts? We have this pool of money... which was originally designated for the arts... but can it be devoted to a more pressing need now?


No. Using RAD money (or flexing road/bridge repair money) to maintain
the status quo is not a good idea because it doesn't provide a long
term solution or address structural problems with the way PAT is run.

PAT needs to be restructured to better live within its means. From
what I've read, PAT's personal costs are out of line (e.g. even
compared to SEPTA) and need to be fixed. (I Guess PAT workers have a
better union --- free healthcare for life is nice, eh?)


One question I have is: "do we really need all the routes that we
currently have?" Most of the press coverage has focused on
individuals who are losing "their" bus rather than on the system as a
whole. Is the current route structure as a whole (before cuts)
efficient? How much of it is "fat" and how much of it is vital to the
region? I honestly don't know, and I'm not sure anyone else does
either.

[themaguffin]

btw, for you skyscraper geeks... that's an 18-story mixed-use tower for the North Shore... a 10-story hotel on the North Shore... a 13-story tower in E. Liberty going condo... and a 200-room hotel Downtown... I'm thinking that'll be in the 15-20 story range? (smaller lot than a North Shore site presumbly)


Yeah it sounds like it will be 18 which would be nice for a change. I don't see the downtown hotel being 15-20 unless it's a very small plot of land forcing the floor sq footage to be smaller than normal for these hotels.



I always thought this dense little pocket of downtown was greatly under utilizied. It always seemed that 'downtown proper' ended at Grant St, and the area to east of Grant was out of bounds. However, if that new hotel goes in as a highrise, it could kick off some other developments. If the neighborhood there could get some residential and retail devlopments, it would really expand the 'downtown area' by several square blocks. It would also help to connect Duquesne U. more with downtown.

I would agree that it's under utilized, but I always considered it very much a part of downtown. It's just that that corner is predominately law offices etc (along with the court house that they desire to be close to).

[Evergrey]

Yeah it sounds like it will be 18 which would be nice for a change. I don't see the downtown hotel being 15-20 unless it's a very small plot of land forcing the floor sq footage to be smaller than normal for these hotels.




I over-estimated the height. The downtown hotel will be 10 stories. I assumed since the new North Shore hotel, featuring 177 rooms, will be 10 stories... that a 200-room hotel downtown would have to be at least a few stories taller... but alas. Oh well... it's still a great development for that part of Downtown. However, the North Shore mixed-use building will indeed be 18 stories... which suprises me... I thought there was some sort of silly height limit for the North Shore

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2007/05/07/daily31.html?surround=lfn

Kratsa planning two hotels

Pittsburgh Business Times - 12:11 PM EDT Thursday, May 10, 2007
by Ben Semmes

Kratsa Properties said it will partner with Zambrano Corp. on two hotels -- one in Pittsburgh's central business district and the other in the city's East Liberty neighborhood.

Bill Kratsa, general partner with Harmar-based Kratsa, said that his firm is working with O'Hara-based Zambrano to secure the vacant lot on Ross Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, for a 200-room, 10-story hotel.

The property, which is owned by the Allegheny County Industrial Development Authority, has a footprint of 34,837 square feet and is assessed at about $2.9 million, according to records filed with the Allegheny County Office of Property Assessment.

Also in partnership with Zambrano, the company has filed an application for a 140-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel to be on the site of the existing Stadterman Building in East Liberty, which is expected to be demolished. Kratsa said he expects to receive word from Marriott this month.

In addition, Kratsa said the firm is in the preliminary planning stages for a retail, hotel and condominium development between its existing 198-room Springhill Suites hotel adjacent to PNC Park and its planned Residence Inn to be built at General Robinson Street and Mazeroski Way.

The 3-acre parcel is owned by Merrill Stabile, president of North Side-based ALCO Parking Association, who Kratsa said would be a partner on the deal.

The company is tentatively planning a roughly 18-story building with two stories of retail, a 120-room hotel above and a similar number of condominiums on top, Kratsa said.

bsemmes@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3829

[Johnland]

While I'm glad to see new development in this particular section of downtown, I really had hoped for something taller than 10 stories. At that height, it really won't have much of an impact beyond street level, ie such as from Mt Washington or the Parkway East. But still, hopefully it will spark a Starbucks or other small retail nearby that would help enliven the area.

[Johnland]

While I'm glad to see new development in this particular section of downtown, I really had hoped for something taller than 10 stories. At that height, it really won't have much of an impact beyond street level, ie such as from Mt Washington or the Parkway East. But still, hopefully it will spark a Starbucks or other small retail nearby that would help enliven the area. However, now that I look at the photo with the Grant Building again, I think smaller is actually better on that site. That way, nothing will block views of the Grant Building, which is absolutley beautiful to me. That wonderful orange brick, the perfect spacing of those big square, industrial windows, the deco set backs all conspire to create a true gem on the skyline. Luckily it's placed 'on the edge' on downtown and will most likely remain in good view for a long time.