PITTSBURGH | Rundown [Archive] - Page 9

Evergrey

11-01-2006, 07:43 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06305/734543-53.stm

East Liberty development of new mixed-income housing at halfway point
Wednesday, November 01, 2006

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061101sm_sims01_450.jpg
Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette
Alethea Sims leads an East Liberty citizens group that has helped the community transition to a housing mix for all income types, like the new Penn Manor units under construction on North St. Clair Street, where Ms. Sims stood yesterday.

At the midpoint of East Liberty's latest housing transformation, Saundra Truss lives in the only high-rise still standing.

In a year, according to her plan, she will be ensconced in her chosen apartment in the new Liberty Park low-rise apartments at Broad Street and Collins Avenue. A high-rise on that site was razed in 2004.

When finished, the first phase will include 16 three-story buildings with 124 units of mixed-income rental housing.

Alethea Sims is passing on Liberty Park and Penn Manor, a three-story development of 55 units that will be ready for rent next month. She wants to live on the footprint of the East Mall high-rise, where she lived for 20 years.

Plans are nascent for redevelopment of the site where the 17-story building straddled Penn Avenue. It was razed last summer, and Ms. Sims watched the effects of the wrecking ball from a replacement apartment at Penn Plaza across the street.

When all the East Liberty high-rises are gone, most former residents -- about 300 -- will have bided time in temporary housing with dibs on their more community-friendly replacements. Rents will be commensurate with what people were paying before.

Six years ago, East Liberty's comeback centered around 10 new townhouses on Mellon Street and the arrival of Home Depot. But the journey started a decade ago, said Rob Stephany of East Liberty Development Inc.

"In 1996, the citizens began meeting, and the consensus was that East Liberty was a 'traditional town' that needed to undo the effects of urban renewal," he said.

Many low-income people tolerate musical-chairs housing scenarios cyclically. In the most recent cycle, planners and policy makers have deemed high-rises big mistakes and devised human-scale, streetscape planning that avoids isolating the poor and the social problems that shadow them. But it also usually avoids their input.

Ms. Sims, president of the Citizens Organization for East Liberty -- called CORE -- asserted the right of its membership to sit at the table when East Liberty's planners began building a master plan.

"It wouldn't have been done right if it wasn't for CORE," said Ms. Truss. "People would have just been put out."

Ms. Sims said it has taken awhile for the people she calls "the suits" to see the wisdom of listening to people who actually live the plans being hatched.

"They're getting better at it," she said. "I don't know of any other neighborhood where the residents had this much input."

The staff at East Liberty Development Inc. say they have been committed to the needs of displaced tenants.

"It was imperative that we were," said Mr. Stephany, the group's director of commercial development. "With the earlier urban renewal [of the 1960s], the people didn't see the plan, but they bought it, and they got burned."

"When we started the process with residents," said Ernie Hogan, East Liberty Development's director of residential development, "it was agreed we would replace unit for unit for tenants who wanted to return." Mr. Hogan said his group did a four-day outreach to former high-rise tenants this past summer.

The discussions "went back and forth a lot until they were a little friendlier to people who are low- to moderate-income," she said. "Our thing was we didn't want it to be like Crawford Square [in the lower Hill], where people who gave up their homes can't afford to live now."

The company that developed Crawford Square -- McCormack Baron Salazar -- is the developer of the new Liberty Park.

Another housing plan involves scattered-site apartment buildings along the border with Highland Park. Some will include support services for the disabled and recovering addicts, in partnership with East End Cooperative Ministries and Sojourner House, said Mr. Hogan.

He said people are on waiting lists for all the proposed housing.

Some of Ms. Truss' neighbors in the Penn Circle high-rise will be moving into the spanking-new Penn Manor at Penn Avenue and St. Clair Street next month, but she's satisfied to wait another year for Liberty Park.

"There's a smaller number of units in the buildings," she said of her choice. "I'll have my own washer and dryer, central air and a security system. I'm excited to have a new apartment."

Liberty Park is on a 13-acre site, four acres of which will be configured into a public park, said Kendall Pelling, planning and acquisitions coordinator at East Liberty Development.

He said the three-phase project will be completed by 2010.

Some of the homes for sale in the last phase will have deferred mortgages to help entry-level homeowners, "but we will also have market-rate rentals, something the neighborhood hasn't had," said Mr. Hogan.

"East Liberty lost 4,000 houses to urban renewal" in the 1960s, he said. "We know we won't be able to bring it all back, but we're looking at how to bring some of it back in the most meaningful way."

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

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

Evergrey

11-01-2006, 07:49 AM

the Pittsburgh Metro has its first 5-"diamond" hotel (as defined by the AAA)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06305/734511-85.stm

Falling Rock studded with five diamonds
A resort retrains its staff to capture AAA's loftiest rating; but no 'yunzers,' please
Wednesday, November 01, 2006

By Cristina Rouvalis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Falling Rock at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort yesterday was named the first five-diamond hotel in the region, an elite honor bestowed after it trained its staff to improve its diction, unpack guests' bags or otherwise cater to their every whim.

"It's as if we won a Super Bowl," said Maggie Hardy Magerko, president and chief executive of the Fayette County resort.

To obtain the elusive fifth diamond from the American Automobile Association's 2007 TourBook, managers at the 42-bed hotel that sits on the 18th green of the Mystic Rock golf course did one-on-one training with its staff.

They helped some employees strike "yunz" or "y'all" from their speech, showed others how to draw baths for guests or iron their clothes in the morning, and instructed all to leave alone guests who want privacy.

They even taught them how to point properly -- never with one finger, but with a respectful wave of the hand.

The eight to 10 butlers, dressed in a uniform of black overcoat with five gold buttons over pin-striped pants, act as personal assistants to guests.

"If you want a nice bubble bath waiting for you at the end of the day, or glass of champagne or wine, we would make sure they are waiting," said Tommy Deweitt, lead butler. They also might transport children via a shiny black Hummer to kid's activities on the 3,000-acre resort.

Butlers also are trained to "read" the guests on the amount of service they require and how formal a manner they would like in a hotel whose decor is naturalistic with lots of slate and copper and stone. Butlers are trained not to act stereotypically stuffy in the casual but upscale hotel, which opened in 2004.

"Some guests are old school," said Leslie Walton, director of Falling Rock. "They like to be referred to as Mr. and Mrs. and have their things unpacked. Other guests want you to call them by their first name and want you to play with their kids."

Falling Rock joins a rare stratosphere of five-diamond hotels including Four Seasons in New York City and the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

The 2007 AAA Tour Book rated 60,000 hotels and restaurants nationwide, and only 151 -- 93 hotels and 58 restaurants -- received five diamonds. Sixty-five tourism editors rated hotels on amenities, luxurious surroundings and personalized service. It's one of several rating guides, including Mobil and Michelin.

Only four Pennsylvania hotels received five diamonds; the other three are in Philadelphia: the Four Seasons, the Ritz Carlton and the Rittenhouse Hotel and Condominium Residence. The Greenbrier in White Sulfur Springs, W.Va., has long been a five-diamond property.

Not only will the five-diamond rating draw certain travelers to Nemacolin, it will help Pittsburgh market the region.

"We love to talk about Nemacolin," said Bob Imperata, executive vice president of VisitPittsburgh. "People don't know where one county ends, the other county begins. It works well for us. They can stay a night or two in Pittsburgh and then we can send them off to Fayette County.

"The only surprising thing is that Nemacolin Woodlands did not get a five-diamond rating before this."

At Falling Rock, standard room rates range from $400 to $700 a night. Despite the new designation, owners don't plan to raise the rates.

"We have a good product," said Trey Matheu, Nemacolin's director of resort operations, "We don't want to alienate people out there."

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

(Cristina Rouvalis can be reached at crouvalis@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1572. )

PittPenn 03

11-01-2006, 01:42 PM

Does this mean the Apollo Café has gone away in the Allegheny Building?

The Apollo Cafe is still there. This coffee shop is going in the card shop that closed beside it.

Evergrey

11-02-2006, 09:59 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06306/734948-53.stm

Is sequel in works for New Granada Theatre?
Citizens group hopes to refurbish defunct Hill District hot spot
Thursday, November 02, 2006

By Ervin Dyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Today, it's rusted and shuttered.

But more than 40 years ago, the New Granada Theatre in the Hill District was one of the brightest spots in town.

At one point, it had a ballroom, skating rink, and 1,000-seat movie theater, which specialized in black movies like "The Bronze Buckaroo."

Through its doors waltzed such black celebrities as Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald. In its amphitheater-style auditorium, Duke Ellington was crowned the King of Jazz.

By this time next year, the New Granada Theatre Committee, a group of community residents led by the Hill District Development Corp., hopes to raise enough funds so that the New Granada marquee will shine again.

Yesterday, the committee kicked off its public awareness campaign by visiting a Hill House senior citizens center.

The committee hopes to collect an initial $2.5 million, which it says is needed to stabilize the old building and do a feasibility study of what comes next.

Committee member Marimba Milliones said the state was willing to match $500,000, if the committee could raise that independently.

Committee member Jaylin Thomas reminded the 40 seniors in attendance yesterday that their memories of the Granada are vital to deciding its future.

She told them that it was important to gather their support because the New Granada is a reminder of the history and culture of the Hill that they created.

"Everything old is not worthless," she said, stirring the seniors to applause.

Beatrice Johnson is 101. Her hands frail, her memories sharp.

She left Ahoskie, N.C., as a young woman and came to the Hill District at 15.

Every chance she had, she said yesterday, she took the trolley to the movies: to the Ruumba, the Roosevelt, the Granada.

"I'm glad they are remodeling it. They really need it. I want to live long enough to see the Hill built up."

The Granada originally sat on Centre Avenue, two blocks away from where it is now. Because it was sold and moved to a different location the word "new" was added to its name.

The New Granada set up shop in a building that was designed as a hall for the Knights of Pythians, a lodge of black construction workers.

Cynthia Davis, 50, of the Hill District, said that every Easter in the 1960s she would head to the theater with her cousins, sometimes 20 at a time.

It was not long after the 1968 riots in the Hill that the community's population began to decline. The Granada closed its doors in the late 1970s. The Hill CDC then took ownership in the 1990s -- its goal was to save the building and halt further deterioration.

Eunice Howze, a retired nurse, was excited, but cautious, at the possibility of the Granada coming back.

The Hill has been promised so much, she said: a grocery, a pharmacy, and nothing has materialized.

One of 13 children, she and her siblings would go to the Granada on Sundays and stay all day. A movie was 50 cents and "they had good popcorn."

As she got older, she went to ballroom dances at the Granada.

It would be wonderful to see it restored, said Ms. Howze.

"The Hill was so electrically alive, and now it's dead. If we can bring back the Granada, it would mean so much."

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

(Ervin Dyer can be reached at edyer@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1410. )

Evergrey

11-02-2006, 10:31 AM

The developer never got the plans off the ground and the site was recently purchased by a Philadelphia development outfit. They plan on using the existing 5-story building and adding an additional 4 stories for a luxury condo project.

Some more info on this Penn Ave. project on the 900 block downtown:

16 high end condos with a central core atrium. Purchasers have the option to buy multiple units to combine. Projects will include aprox. 2000 S.F. or retail space. Total development cost is 6+ million.

Evergrey

11-03-2006, 10:33 AM

one of my favorite buildings...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_477985.html

Two Mellon Center's fate being kept under wraps

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, November 3, 2006

A Connecticut company, among others, has expressed interest in buying the ornate Two Mellon Center building Downtown.
However, the future of the building remains unclear, with Philadelphia health insurer Cigna Corp., the mortgage holder, refusing to disclose its plans.

"It's a great building in a phenomenal location, but the window of opportunity is narrowing," said Stanley Cheslock, a founder of Cheslock, Bakker & Associates, a private merchant bank in Stamford, Conn.

Cheslock, whose company invests capital on behalf of its principals and institutional partners, said his firm made an offer on the nearly empty 600,000-square-foot structure, also known as the Union Trust Building.

However, the bid for an undisclosed amount has expired, he said, adding that the number of major companies looking for space in Pittsburgh's sluggish office market is limited and shrinking.

Earlier this year, for example, the Reed Smith law firm ended its search for a new headquarters when it agreed to be the anchor tenant in the $179 million Three PNC Plaza, a hotel/office/condominium complex PNC Financial Services Group will build Downtown.

And even though the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Equitable Resources Inc., H.J. Heinz Co. and the Kirkpatrick & Lockhart law firm are among those known to be weighing office options Downtown, there are other buildings with enough vacant space to house those businesses, including the U.S. Steel Tower and the Dominion Tower.

UPMC is not considering Union Trust Building, spokesman Frank Raczkiewicz said.

"The longer this drags out, the less likely it is that the building would be able to attract tenants," Cheslock said.

At least three other investors, all from outside of Pittsburgh, have expressed interest in the building, said Rob Geiger, commercial real estate broker with Grant Street Associates-Cushman & Wakefield, a Downtown-based commercial real estate firm.

Geiger said some of the buyers contacted Grant Street Associates because the firm handled subleasing of space there on behalf of Mellon Financial Corp., which occupied a major portion of the structure under a master lease that expired May 30.

"Where they (the buyers) are now, I have no idea," Geiger said. "They all had been dealing directly with Cigna."

Cigna has declined to comment on its plans for the building. It assumed control of the 11-story building last month and hired CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, another Downtown commercial real estate firm, to manage the property.

Mellon Financial, which owned the land under the building, has transferred its ownership to Teal Rock 501 Grant Street LP., a limited partnership wholly owned by Cigna.

Although Allegheny County records still list an affiliate of the Florida-based DeBartolo Property Group LLC as the owner of the building, a document filed Oct. 16 at the county Recorder of Deeds office indicates an assignment of the $35 million mortgage from Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. (a Cigna subsidiary) to the Teal Rock 501 Grant Street partnership.

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

http://www.hflenz.com/UTB-Exterior.jpg

Evergrey

11-03-2006, 10:37 AM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_477979.html

Pittsburghers take to wireless

By Kim Leonard
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, November 3, 2006

Erik Lingren had time to kill. The executive director of Venture Outdoors was waiting at a kayak launch under the Roberto Clemente Bridge for someone to help him close up the site for winter.
He took out his laptop computer and went to work using the new WiFi Pittsburgh network.

"I threw it on the hood of my truck and made productive use of the 20 minutes I had to wait," said Lingren, whose Venture Outdoors organization coordinates outdoors events across the region. "It's kind of cool, like a lot of things about Pittsburgh -- I can say I work in the city with the best Downtown wireless network. It's another hidden gem about Pittsburgh."

US Wireless Online Inc. said interest in the network it started Sept. 7 with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has exceeded expectations. "We thought that there would be, maybe, 50 users at any one time across the network, which is a relatively small network -- just 1.5 square miles," said Timothy J. Pisula, executive vice president of the Louisville, Ky.-based company.

That guess was at the low end of the actual range. Fifty people who work in, live in or are just visiting the Downtown area may be using their two hours of free, daily wireless access in the early morning, or late evening.

But during the lunchtime period of 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a typical weekday, WiFi Pittsburgh peaks at 120 to 130 users.

The busiest locales, based on two months' history, are Stanwix Street, at Liberty and Penn Avenues; Centre Avenue and Crawford Street in the Hill District; the area encompassing the two North Shore stadiums, especially on weekends; and Grant Street.

Usage has been rising despite late fall's chilly, windy and rainy weather -- meaning fewer office workers are spending lunch hours by the Mellon Square or Gateway Center fountains, using their laptops or personal digital assistants.

Mary Pat McCarthy, of Crafton, signed up for WiFi Pittsburgh because her work as a freelance computer consultant frequently takes her Downtown.

Using her Palm PDA with wireless capabilities, "It's nice to be able to check e-mail quickly," she said as she met with a business associate recently in the food court at One Oxford Center.

During the same lunch hour, at another food court, Len Siger worked on his computer, connected to employer Fiserv Inc.'s network. He, too, signed up for the city's free wireless service, but thought it ran too slow, at 1 megabit per second.

"It was hard to get a connection and do things in a timely manner," Siger said after lunch at Fifth Avenue Place. "I think it's a great idea, and I'd love to be able to use it. I'll keep plugging away at it."

US Wireless' Pisula said the network's speed can depend on distance from an access point, and whether the signal has to travel through windows or walls.

US Wireless so far has registered about 3,000 subscribers for WiFi Pittsburgh. While the first two hours a day are free, account holders pay beyond that at rates of $7.99 a day, $14.95 a month or $119.99 a year.

Pisula said the system is generating "several thousand dollars a month" in subscriber fees, plus revenue for advertising on its Web site.

In the spring, publicity events are planned to remind users about the network as outdoor use again becomes appealing.

Pittsburgh is believed to be the only city of its size or larger with a free access system such as the one US Wireless built with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

While cities nationwide have planned their own wireless networks for years, relatively few have actually launched them -- and major cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco have encountered numerous delays, said Chris Borek, a business development director at Michigan-based Azulstar Networks.

Azulstar has networks in its home state and New Mexico, and recently won bids for systems to serve Silicon Valley, Calif., and Winston-Salem, N.C. Pittsburgh's network, while small, is "a good way to start," he said, and should help change perceptions of the traditional industrial city, while making public safety and other government operations more efficient and extending broadband to residents at all income levels.

Pisula said Dallas-based IElement Corp.'s recently announced agreement to buy a controlling interest in US Wireless is a positive for the Pittsburgh system because it will bolster the company's financial stability, and that could lead to service expansions early next year.

US Wireless says it would work with neighborhood groups outside the Downtown area to extend service as long as funding for the network is provided and the company keeps subscriber and ad revenue -- the same terms as the $356,000 contract for the Downtown system.

Kim Leonard can be reached at kleonard@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5606.

Evergrey

11-05-2006, 12:32 PM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_478283.html

$435M light-rail expansion begins with digging preparations

By Jennifer Bails
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 5, 2006

Call it Pittsburgh's Big Dig.
As part of the $435 million expansion of the light-rail transit system, construction workers this month will prepare to excavate twin tunnels beneath the Allegheny River from Downtown to the North Shore.

The construction feat requires boring 2,400-foot tunnels through wet soil, sand and gravel and keeping them on course within an inch of the proposed route.

"Once you are below ground, it's like being in a totally different world," said tunnel expert Walter Konon, chair of the civil and environmental engineering department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. "The soil has been there for millions of years untouched, so there is that little bit of thrill of going where no man has gone before."

The work starts this month with Downtown road closings to accommodate utility line relocations and road construction.

Port Authority of Allegheny County awarded a $156.5 million contract in July to North Shore Constructors -- a company formed by West Mifflin-based Trumbull Corp. and Obayashi Corp., of San Francisco -- to build the river tunnels in a city of bridges. The 1.2-mile light-rail expansion could open by summer 2011.

In January, crews will start digging a "launch pit" on the North Shore at West General Robinson Street and Mazeroski Way, where they'll assemble a gargantuan, cylindrical tunneling machine that, with its support gear, stretches longer than a football field and weighs more than 600 tons.

"It's like a big drill bit that spins and eats away at the earth and soil," said Dan Linzell, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Penn State University.

The machine can chew through 60 feet of material in 24 hours, pushed forward in 5-foot increments by hydraulic pistons and 3,000 volts of electricity -- 25 times more than a standard wall outlet. It will eject pressurized slurry of clay and water to keep the walls from collapsing. The excavated earth will be piped to the surface for disposal in a landfill.

Altogether, the machine will cut through more than 200,000 cubic yards of sediment -- almost enough to fill Mellon Arena.

From the launch pit, the machine will spend six months sculpting a southbound tunnel that will connect with a "receiving pit" on Stanwix Street between Penn and Liberty avenues.

"The dig will be out of sight and almost out of mind," said Henry Nutbrown, Port Authority's assistant general manager for engineering and construction. "You won't hear anything."

Once the machine reaches the receiving pit, it will take about a month to reverse its direction or transport it back to the North Shore to begin cutting a parallel northbound tunnel 10 feet away.

The boring machine will make an S-shaped bend mid-river to avoid tunneling beneath PNC Park. An operating engineer in a cab behind the cutting head will use laser-guided positioning technology.

In the newly dug space, a mechanical arm on the machine will install precast concrete sections to line the tunnel.

Once finished, the North Shore Connector will travel through an aquifer created by an ancient glacial flow under the city that feeds the Point State Park fountain. Cement grout, rubber gaskets and other waterproofing materials will keep water from Pittsburgh's mythical "fourth river" out of the tunnels.

The project

Boring twin tunnels under the Allegheny River is only one aspect of the North Shore Connector project, which includes:

• Constructing three train stations -- under Stanwix Street between Penn and Liberty avenues; under General Robinson Street and Tony Dorsett Drive; and above Allegheny Avenue and Reedsdale Street.

• Removing and replacing retaining walls along the 10th Street Bypass and building supports for Fort Duquesne Boulevard.

• Shifting the weight load of the Route 65 overpass on the North Shore from pilings to drilled caissons spaced for a tunnel between them.

• Extending the tunnel past the launch pit aerially, by excavating a trench and roofing it. Trains would emerge from the ground near the Route 65 overpass and Art Rooney Way, and travel a ramp to a bridge feeding into the new Allegheny Station.

Jennifer Bails can be reached at jbails@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7991.

Open house
A public open house about the North Shore Connector will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Port Authority of Allegheny County board room at Heinz 57 Center, 345 Sixth Ave., Downtown.

Road Closings (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2006_pdfs/GX-BigDig-eds-11-05.pdf)

Learn about the technology here (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2006_pdfs/GX-BoringconG-bn-11-05.pdf)

Evergrey

11-07-2006, 06:38 PM

news from downtown Greensburg

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/36shu.aspx

November 8, 2006
Seton Hill University breaks ground on $21 million performing arts center
On November 1, Seton Hill University (SHU) broke ground on its new 73,000 square-foot University Center for the Performing Arts. The $21 million project is the first in the university’s 117-year history to be built outside its 200-acre Greensburg campus.

“This isn’t just a Seton Hill project; it’s a Greensburg project. We envision Greensburg’s future as a vital place full of magnetic energy and excitement,” says SHU president JoAnn Boyle.

The project completes the city’s Cultural District, along with the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the historic Palace Theatre, restored train station, and new restaurants and bookstores.

A collaboration between the City of Greensburg, the Redevelopment Authority of Westmoreland County, the Greensburg Salem School District, local legislators, and the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, the facility will feature a flexible theatre, music hall, costume design rooms, classrooms, and faculty offices.

“Westmoreland County is a fascinating place--a laboratory for what we want to accomplish across the state,” says Larry Segal with the Governor’s Office of Housing and Community Revitalization. “Small urban areas are coming back; what makes this project great is the breadth of its collaboration.”

Among other honors, SHU was recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Molly Robb Shimko, director of media relations, SHU

Image courtesy of Seton Hill University and MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni Architects, Inc.

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2036/seton_hill_300.jpg

EventHorizon

11-10-2006, 01:57 AM

Carnegie Museums funding almost complete

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06313/736873-298.stm

Thursday, November 09, 2006
By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are in the home stretch of a $150 million fund-raising drive to help pay off a major dinosaur hall expansion, new educational facilities and other long-term museum improvements and investments.

Museums President David Hillenbrand told a group of board members, donors and trustees last night that $118 million, or 79 percent, of the goal already has been reached, with hopes to complete the fund raising in 12 to 18 months.

The largest chunk of private financing came from the Hillman Family Foundations, which donated $12.8 million.

Museum visitors will notice the improvements late next year when touring the $36 million Dinosaurs in their World exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, displaying the world's third-largest dinosaur fossil collection.

The museums will revamp the educational spaces at the Oakland home of the natural history and art museums at the same time with the construction of a new Center for Museum Education at the site. It will take visiting school buses off busy Forbes Avenue -- reorienting them to a back entrance -- and reorganize the confusing collection of classrooms at the old building.

The center will allow the museums "to consolidate our educational facilities in one area. This is a huge complex. Most of our classrooms are underground here or way up on the third or fourth floor," Mr. Hillenbrand said yesterday. "When you have people in classroom situations they're dispersing through this labyrinthine building -- this allows us to put our primary learning facilities in one place."

Plans are for all four Carnegie Museums -- the two in Oakland, plus the Andy Warhol and the Carnegie Science Center -- to use the educational facilities and cooperate on programming, Mr. Hillenbrand said.

The capital campaign also will support the eco-friendly expansion of facilities at the Powdermill Nature Reserve in Westmoreland County; pay off the 2003 renovation of the Scaife Galleries at the Museum of Art; boost general endowment funds; and pay for behind-the-scenes infrastructure improvements at museum buildings.

The current capital campaign was launched in 2002, but was announced publicly last night. The last Carnegie Museums capital drive ended in 1995.

Other funding for the capital drive has come from state government, the Heinz Endowments, R.K. Mellon Foundation, Eden Hall Foundation, R.P. Simmons family, Buhl Foundation and the Carnegie Museum of Art Women's Committee.

EventHorizon

11-10-2006, 01:58 AM

Riverfront park plan clears hurdle

$100 million proposal gets preliminary OK

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06313/736876-85.stm

Thursday, November 09, 2006
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A proposal to create an elaborate park system running the length of four rivers in Allegheny County and costing almost $100 million has cleared its first hurdle.

A County Council special committee on riverfronts endorsed the concept during a meeting yesterday. The action paves the way for the full council to vote on the proposal at its meeting in two weeks.

The ordinance council will consider would authorize the county to map the boundaries and dimensions of the park and allow it to acquire land for the endeavor, if the purchases are approved by council and the chief executive.

As envisioned by the architects of the plan, county Councilmen Dave Fawcett and James Burn Jr., the park would run along one shore of the Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio and Youghiogheny rivers and stretch some 75 to 100 miles.

The idea is not only to connect existing trails but to provide other amenities such as playgrounds, tennis courts, cross-country skiing, mountain biking, picnic areas, and rowing facilities. Mr. Burn, a Democrat, and Mr. Fawcett, a Republican, are hoping the plan will help spur economic development in many of the old steel and industrial towns dotting the rivers.

"We're proposing it purely and simply as a matter of economic development," Mr. Fawcett said. "If it's done right, it pays off. It's a good investment."

Mr. Fawcett told the committee yesterday that getting the proposal approved has taken on more urgency now that he has learned of plans by a developer to build self-storage facilities on a key Allegheny River parcel near Verona.

He said the property owner is willing to discuss the sale of the land, but that the county now has no authority to acquire it. The ordinance would change that.

"It makes the whole thing very urgent," he said. "I think this is a key moment because it forces us as a county to make a decision on what we want our riverfronts to look like."

Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Burn are hoping to tap into three sources to fund the proposal -- the Allegheny Regional Asset District, which now provides money for city and county parks; the state; and foundations and philanthropic organizations.

Given that the city and county already are building trails along the riverfronts, the countywide park is an idea county Chief Executive Dan Onorato is willing to consider, spokesman Kevin Evanto said.

"Obviously they would complement one another so he's willing to consider the idea and take a look at it," he said.

But he added part of that involves finding out just how the plan would be funded.

If the ordinance is approved, Mr. Fawcett believes it will put the county in a position to attract funding and to talk to property owners along the river about acquiring real estate, particularly railroads, which have been reluctant to part with land in the past.

Evergrey

11-10-2006, 12:51 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06314/737184-147.stm

Little disruption promised during subway work
Officials say boring under river to North Shore won't impact Downtown streets as 1980s construction did
Friday, November 10, 2006

By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Building a $435 million light-rail extension from Downtown to the North Side will take four years but won't be as disruptive as subway construction of the early 1980s, Port Authority officials said yesterday.

"I've heard the horror stories of the past," said Henry Nutbrown, engineering-construction manager for the authority. "This project takes a different form, mostly out-of-sight, not top-down," explaining how tunnels will be mostly bored below ground rather than being excavated from street level, as they were during the notorious "Big Dig."

Also, the project footprint will impact only a relatively small section of the city compared to the original subway under Sixth and Liberty avenues, which cut a long, linear path through the heart of the Golden Triangle. That project meant wooden decking over streets and a dozen intersections along with temporary, clumsy and often makeshift sidewalks.

Mr. Nutbrown and other officials yesterday explained the details of the North Shore Connector to members of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership of business and civic interests during an informational session co-sponsored by Sustainable Pittsburgh.

No specific dates were given for street closings, since a multitude of permits are being finalized and details are being worked out with 13 public and private utilities whose facilities stand in the way of construction -- from steam heating pipes to fiber optic cables.

But initial work on Stanwix Street, between Liberty Avenue and Fort Duquesne Boulevard, will take place during overnight hours and on weekends to minimize inconvenience, possibly getting under way in three weeks.

"We're interested in impacts not only in daytime but at night because of the number of people who come to the Cultural District," said Michael Edwards, executive director of the Downtown Partnership. "We want to make sure we won't be negatively impacting all of the high-energy activities taking place Downtown."

The Port Authority has awarded only one of 18 contracts needed to extend the line north of Gateway Station to the North Shore, which will require boring twin tunnels under the Allegheny River and construction of three stations.

However, the $156.5 million contract represents about half of civil construction and 2,400 feet of the 1.2-mile line including the bored tunnels, "cut-and-cover" sections and the transition to ground level on the North Shore.

The next contracts in the sequence will involve building the shell of a relocated Gateway Center Station in a triangular-shaped, landscaped parcel of land between Liberty and Penn avenues, followed by the structures to elevate the line along Reedsdale Street from Heinz Field west to the Miller Printing Co. building, the terminus near the West End Bridge.

A "launch pit" will be built near PNC Park to accommodate the behemoth tunnel-boring machine that will cut a 22-foot-diameter hole under the river, ending up in a "receiving pit" on Stanwix Street, in front of the former Horne's Department Store building.

The receiving pit will be a big hole in the ground -- 55 feet deep, 60 feet long and curb-to-curb wide on Stanwix.

Mr. Nutbrown said the one-block stretch of Stanwix Street will be closed up to 150 days, making it the most disruptive piece of Downtown work. Traffic will be detoured around the block but pedestrian access will be maintained.

The authority's inability to provide specific dates and hours for work generated some criticism.

"Thirty days is not quite enough time to do any real planning," Mr. Edwards said.

Authority officials promised to provide timely information, including e-mail alerts, a construction telephone hotline, and meetings like the one held yesterday. People can sign up for the info at www.portauthority.org.

There were several questions raised frequently in light of controversy surrounding the project. Here are a few:

Q: Why was the alignment selected?

A: It's the shortest distance to the North Shore. It has the most potential for development and ridership, estimated at 14,300 on an average weekday. Pitt, Steelers and Pirates events are expected to account for 12 percent of annual ridership.

Q: Why tunnels?

A: While existing and new bridges were analyzed during the planning process, tunnels were shown to be cost-effective and cause minimal disruption to traffic, business and proposed development. Mr. Nutbrown also said boring tunnels has become "garden variety construction," with five companies manufacturing tunnel-boring machines and 750 of the machines in operation.

Q: What about all the dirt and rock?

A: It will be removed from the launch pit on the North Shore and hauled away by trucks. "We picked a point nearest the interstate (279) to be as sensitive as possible to businesses and sports venues," Mr. Nutbrown said.

Q: What about the 10th Street Bypass?

A: It will be closed 130 days (an extra 30 days in the eastbound direction) between the Fort Duquesne Bridge and David L. Lawrence Convention Center, starting early next year, so the retaining wall can be modified to accommodate tunnel construction. About 9,000 drivers a day who use the road have been detoured many times in recent years for Fort Pitt Bridge work, convention center construction and floods.

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

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

EventHorizon

11-11-2006, 07:56 AM

Another North Shore building possible

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06315/737575-53.stm

Saturday, November 11, 2006
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Another office building could be in the works on the North Shore between Heinz Field and PNC Park.

Continental Real Estate Cos., chosen by the Pirates and Steelers to develop land between the two stadiums, is talking to a large law firm and to an accounting firm about locating on the North Shore, Chairman Frank Kass said yesterday. He would not name either.

He also said there is a possibility that Equitable Resources, which already has its headquarters on the North Shore, could be adding more space if its purchase of Dominion Peoples wins regulatory approval.

"We're getting close," Mr. Kass said yesterday. "Hopefully by the first of the year we can land one of the three."

Equitable would need more space if its purchase is finalized, given its plans to add up to 200 jobs in the region, spokeswoman Pat Kornick said.

"At this point, we're looking at all options, including the North Shore," she said.

Any new construction would supplement the existing Equitable headquarters and the Del Monte Foods building, both of which have been erected since PNC Park and Heinz Field opened in 2001.

Mr. Kass said there are two likely sites for another office building. One would be next to the Equitable building. Another would be west of that, closer to Heinz Field.

A third possibility would be near a proposed residential site closer to PNC Park. But Mr. Kass said that site probably won't be available until tunneling for the light-rail extension from Downtown to the North Shore is done.

At this point, nearly all of the space in the Del Monte and Equitable buildings, 470,000 square feet in all, have been leased, Mr. Kass said. Only 15,000 square feet of office space and 12,000 square feet of ground floor restaurant and retail space remain available.

The Hyde Park steakhouse opened in the Equitable building last month, and Fox Sports Network Pittsburgh is expected to move into the Del Monte building in January.

"We're very happy with the activity," Mr. Kass said.

In addition, he is expecting the Steelers to soon finalize a deal with the Cordish Co. on development of an entertainment district next to Heinz Field, the centerpiece of which would be an open air concert venue with a glass top.

Other features would include restaurants, shops and clubs and an outdoor performance plaza. There's also a chance Cordish will put in one of its NASCAR Sports Grille restaurants.

Mr. Kass said construction of the entertainment district could begin before the end of 2007. Steelers President Art Rooney II declined comment.

yay! NASCAR....http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/images/smilies/puke/vomit-smiley-007.gif

Now all we need is a 'megachurch'!

AaronPGH

11-11-2006, 05:14 PM

Did you guys see the article in the PG from like, 2 days ago that mentioned that airport/local officials were close to snagging a non-stop flight to Amsterdam from Northwest Airlines?

Evergrey

11-12-2006, 03:20 AM

no... but Amsterdam would be my preferred location if we were to get a Euro flight

Grego43

11-12-2006, 03:56 AM

Did you guys see the article in the PG from like, 2 days ago that mentioned that airport/local officials were close to snagging a non-stop flight to Amsterdam from Northwest Airlines?

Quoting the Nov. 10, 2006 Post-Gazette article, I think you are getting a bit ahead of the story.
"Goals include securing a direct international flight and local officials are in talks with Northwest Airlines about a flight from Pittsburgh to Amsterdam, said Michael Langley, the conference's chief executive."

Like all PIT-Europe service, this one is still very much pie-in-the-sky. At this point, why would any carrier other than US or a Star Alliance partner come to PIT to serve transatlantic? The feed and/or O&D just aren't there.

bloburgher

11-12-2006, 09:23 AM

C mon, is there really a need for non-stop service to Europe from PIT anymore? Your airport is one of the best in North America - but I just don't see the need for PIT - Amsterdam - or Europe non-stop.

I know there is a strong international business presence in the burgh, just not enough to warrent non-stop Europe flights any more because of the easy connection options (after your U.S. Air hub Status was cut).

Pittsburgh is very lucky to have great Air Canada connections to so many international destionations through Toronto, and the easy U.S. carrier connections through the big U.S. hubs. Your airport was overbuilt, and should be focused on expansion of it's Jetblue and Southwest point-to-point routes.

AaronPGH

11-12-2006, 10:18 AM

I don't know? I would take advantage of non-stop euro service to amsterdam. I would think that having non-stop international for some airlines could be more cost effective than from other airports (like Detroit).

Grego43

11-12-2006, 08:42 PM

Cost effective? I doubt that very much. PIT has one of the higher cost per passenger ratios out there...that was supposedly one of the reasons USAirways pulled down their hub and beefed up CLT. The terminals that were custom built for, and deserted by, USAirways hub operations still represent a HUGE amount of debt for Allegheny County.

From where are the passengers coming??? Without the high O & D (origination & destination) traffic offered by a hub or a large city, or heavy civic/business subsidies (like Raleigh/Durham International), non-stop transatlantic service from PIT will be a reality never again.

PA Pride

11-13-2006, 02:07 AM

bloburgher: I don't think you know much about the Pittsburgh economy. I don't know about all the different European countries, but In the Pgh metro there are almost 200 German company headquarters/ business entities alone! That's for one country... Some are large like the north american headquarters of Bayer which employs several thousand local engineers, technicians etc which need to fly to Europe daily... Our second biggest European counterpart is Britain in which there are over 100 local businesses/branch offices....

The Pittsburgh metropolitan area has always been one of the absolute largest corporate headquarter cities in the country, and for decades it was the third largest HQ city after New York and Chicago.... It's not as prominent anymore but still extremely important. There was an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a month or so ago that stated as a fact that our international complement of either headquarters or major operations in Pittsburgh numbers about 850 international businesses.

Grego43: You asked about passengers for PIT airport? Well besides the large amount of connecting flights that Pgh has always accomodated (even now that USAir is MUCH less prominent than it used to be) Pittsburgh International is THE primary Intl/Major airport for 5 million+ people... That is all of Western PA, much of Central PA, Much of West Virginia and Parts of Ohio; Maryland & New York State.

Evergrey

11-13-2006, 06:10 AM

picked up a copy of the Pittsburgh Business Times when I was in town this weekend... not too much interesting... there's a new proposal for a condo project on Mt. Washington... developer Betters is seeking to exceed the neighborhood's height limit... I believe it's about 6 stories...

Cozza's two controversial Mt. Washington condo projects should begin construction by years end... Bella Vista and Vici... I think they're about 10 and 6 stories... the neighborhood association put up quite a stink about these exceeding the height limits... now I can usually see the NIMBYs' side of things... but Grandview Ave. is tailor-made for high-density residential and any opportunity to do so should be encouraged by the city... certainly would help with the city's struggling finances

Grego43

11-13-2006, 04:23 PM

PA Pride:

I understand the importance of PIT to the regional population, but as I understand it, population alone won't cut it. Residents have to have the desire travel abroad, and at this time, the urge doesn't appear to be there in any significant numbers. A recent study lists Pittsburgh at 48 out of the 50 markets studied in the number of residents who reported traveling outside of the U.S. (see page 23 of the linked report) http://www.ceosforcities.org/newsroom/news/files/CityVitals_%28visual%29_final.pdf

As for the overseas companies based in Pittsburgh, I agree that they represent a potential passenger pool, but not as large as one might think: According to Bayer, their employees take an annual total of 800 international trips from Pittsburgh. That comes only to 15 people/week. How many other companies in PGH come even close to that number? And remember, PIT is no longer a US hub, so the feed is gone.

I truly hope PIT is able to secure transatlantic service...it would be great for the economy as well as civic pride...I just don't see it happening anytime soon...(I hope I am wrong!) Don't you think that US would have added the service if they thought it could be done and turn a profit?

Evergrey

11-14-2006, 01:13 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06318/738145-57.stm

Airport development finally gets fast-tracked; start near on new tract
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It took local officials nearly 14 years to begin developing thousands of acres of land around Pittsburgh International Airport. Now there seems to be no stopping it.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority, which now oversees the land, hopes to start development of a 60-acre parcel adjacent to Cherrington office park before the end of the year.

It would be the second large tract under development in less than 12 months. In January, the authority began road, utility and other infrastructure work and grading for Clinton Commerce Park, a 240-acre site at Route 60 and Clinton Road.

Yesterday, the authority board awarded an $8.6 million contract to Oakdale Construction to begin similar work on the Cherrington Extension tract, with hopes of having it ready for development by next fall.

The project, totaling $10 million in all, involves grading and utility work and construction of a road from Cherrington office park to Ewing Road, unlocking the land for development. Also, another lane will be added to two-lane Ewing.

Even before the first shovel has hit the ground, the authority has secured a letter of intent with DiCicco Development to lease about half the parcel, with plans to develop it in phases with a mix of tech, flex and professional office space, said Randy Forister, authority economic development director.

DiCicco erected the headquarters building for Lanxess Corp. in RIDC Park West and also developed Westpointe Corporate Center Two in Moon for Nova Chemicals. The company is headed by Sam DiCicco.

"He does a really nice quality product so we're excited to have him on the team," Mr. Forister said.

DiCicco will have a 30-year lease with options to renew. Mr. Forister said under the terms of the lease, it will be responsible for developing another building every 18 months.

He would not disclose any other terms.

He said DiCicco will not begin any development until the site work has been completed next fall.

The Cherrington Extension project is being done in conjunction with the Moon Transportation Authority. Of the $10 million cost, $8 million is being covered through state grants. The airport authority and Moon Transportation Authority will pay the rest.

As the airport authority starts development of the Cherrington Extension project, it is finishing up grading and infrastructure work on Clinton Commerce Park. Mr. Forister said that work should be completed by early next month.

The Buncher Co. already has begun work on a 400,000-square-foot warehouse at the Clinton Commerce Park site under agreement with the authority. It will lease and manage the warehouse and pay a base rate of 8 cents a square foot to the authority, plus additional amounts based on the success of the venture.

Clinton Commerce Park initially will involve five sites over 100 acres, allowing for the development of 1.5 million square feet of building space. The county and airport authority believe the park will create 750 to 1,500 jobs.

The authority took over control of the land from the county after its creation in 1999, and has made a concerted effort to get development moving.

"I think we're making great progress," Mr. Forister said.

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

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

Evergrey

11-14-2006, 07:34 PM

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/37windhill.aspx

$2.4 million Windom Hill Place completes phase one
Windom Hill Place’s first four town homes, located above 10th Street on the Southside, are now complete. The project’s model unit was showcased during an opening celebration on November 9.

The three-story, 2,800 square-foot units feature three bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms and finished lower levels. Amenities include ten-foot ceilings, two-car garages and balconies overlooking downtown. The contemporary craftsman style town homes were designed by John Martine of Strada Architects and constructed by Sota Construction Services; developer is Windom Hill Place, LLP.

“We were careful to make decisions with a lot of thoughtfulness, so that when we were done, we would not need to change much,” says Ernie Sota, whose work on Windom Hill was recently profiled in The New York Times.

Sota, who expects phase two to begin soon, is particularly excited about the use of native plants, such as American cranberry and asters, which require lower maintenance and provide a habitat for birds and butterflies.

Designed to significantly reduce energy consumption, Windom Hill is Energy Star compliant, meeting strict guidelines set by the EPA and U.S. Department of Energy. The project utilizes renewable and recycled materials, including bamboo and cork flooring, exterior aluminum panels and cast stone.

“The high quality design, meticulous attention to detail and sustainable green features are what everybody should be conscious of in the way they live,” says Barbara Kurdys-Miller with Prudential Preferred Realty, who is marketing the four untis now for sale.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Sources: Ernie Sota; Barbara Kurdys-Miller

Image courtesy of Sota Construction Services, Inc.

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2037/windom_hill_300.jpg

http://www.sotaconstruction.com/WindomHill/images/rendering.jpg

Evergrey

11-15-2006, 04:09 AM

Pop City has a trio of articles on development in E. Liberty featuring all the new retail and residential construction and adaptive reuse going on there

it's a lot of text.. so i'll just post the links... tons of pictures and hyperlinks there too

Moving Guide
http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/37moveEL.aspx

Visitors Guide
http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/37ELguide.aspx

Business & Investment Guide
http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/37bizguideEL.aspx

Evergrey

11-16-2006, 06:15 AM

more on the casino fiasco... personally, I would prefer the casino to be placed out in the middle of nowhere... like Pine Township... instead of adversely affecting the urban fabric of the city

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06320/738858-336.stm

Task force praises 2 casinos' designs
But concerned about North Shore site's 'compatibility,' 'garage wall' in Hill
Thursday, November 16, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force has given good marks overall to the designs of proposed casinos on the North Shore and in the Hill District, both of which would be flagship properties for the operators.

In a report being released today, the task force praised the way the PITG Gaming LLC's Majestic Star casino blended its North Shore riverfront location with the water, and the "synergy" created by a side-by-side Isle of Capri casino and proposed new arena in the Hill.

But it also had concerns about both. The task force wondered whether a casino was the "highest and best use" for the riverfront next to the Carnegie Science Center and whether it was compatible with nearby attractions like the science center, PNC Park, the aviary and the children's museum.

In the Hill, it had concerns about a "massive garage wall" on Fifth Avenue that would stretch 11 stories and 110 feet.

The task force is releasing the study after visiting Majestic Star and Isle of Capri casinos in Black Hawk, Colo., and Harrah's Entertainment and Isle of Capri casinos in Kansas City.

Members did not rate the proposed Forest City Enterprises casino at Station Square to be operated by Harrah's because of a disagreement between the task force and Forest City over which out-of-town casino to visit. Forest City wanted members to visit a Harrah's casino in St. Louis because it thought it was more in keeping with what is being planned in Pittsburgh.

Despite some misgivings, the task force had overall favorable impressions of the Isle of Capri and Majestic Star designs.

Task force co-chair Anne Swager said the group found the Majestic Star design, featuring lots of glass and metal and a 110-foot glass atrium housing an indoor waterfall, to be "quite stunning."

It also liked the way designers blended the casino and a proposed nine-level garage, and allowed access to casino restaurants and bars from the outside. It also said PITG Gaming officials have been responsive to issues members have raised.

Besides concerns about whether a casino is the best use for the site and whether it would mix with other activities, the task force said traffic improvements could require "significant public investment."

In response to the findings, PITG Gaming spokesman Bob Oltmanns said the casino is the highest and best use for the stretch of riverfront, noting it would generate an estimated $230 million a year in tax revenue for the state.

"Can you think of another way of generating $230 million a year out of that strip of riverfront property?" he asked.

He also said the casino fits in with the retail, office and commercial activity being developed between PNC Park and Heinz Field. He said designers have taken pains to try to keep the casino in line with the "family-friendly" atmosphere on the North Shore, noting the riverfront and a proposed promenade will be lined with restaurants and dining.

"You can be walking to Heinz Field or PNC Park or Carnegie Science Center and stop and eat and never set foot in the casino," he said.

Mr. Oltmanns also disagreed with the task force conclusion that the PITG Gaming site was "isolated" with less potential for business spin-off.

"Fifty or sixty years ago, Las Vegas was an island. If you put something there worth going to, the money will flow in," he said.

In the past, PITG Gaming officials have disputed the task force's concerns about traffic. They maintain they have the best location in that regard because of the proximity of major interstates and the West End Bridge. PITG Gaming plans to provide updated traffic information at its state licensing hearing next week.

In addition to liking the "synergy" at the Isle of Capri site between Fifth and Centre avenues, the task force said retail space on Fifth provided opportunities for businesses.

It also commended Isle of Capri for a "thorough design and urban planning effort" and a "comprehensive traffic plan." Its only real criticism involved the garage wall.

Isle of Capri spokesman Les McMackin said designers have pushed back the wall 30 feet and will put retail at ground level so that it looks like a building, "not a wall or a parking garage." It plans to continue to work with the task force and city to find a solution.

The task force generally was impressed with the casino operations of Majestic Star, Isle of Capri and Harrah's in Blackhawk and/or Kansas City, Ms. Swager said. In talking to officials in both cities, the task force found that the casinos try to be as accommodating as possible in addressing needs and concerns.

Ms. Swager said local officials should use that to their advantage.

"We are giving an operator a regional monopoly in gaming," she said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with going back and saying OK, let's make sure the deal is really good for us."

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

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

themaguffin

11-16-2006, 05:16 PM

this sounds familiar (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/travel/16024048.htm)

DBR96A

11-16-2006, 10:09 PM

this sounds familiar (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/travel/16024048.htm)
Dear Charlotte,

Have fun with U.S. Airways. Seriously.

Sincerely,
Pittsburgh

UrbaniDesDev

11-17-2006, 11:35 AM

I think a merger would be a disaster for Charlotte. With Delta's huge hub in Atlanta I dont think it will bode well for Charlotte so close. It will suffer the same way Pittsburgh did. It will not compete with Atlanta, it was an alternative to Atlanta's over crowded airport. The merger will end that. The way Pittsburgh can't compete with its proximity to DC, Philly, NYC and Chicago without a hub, a city the size of Charlotte will not compete with Atlanta.

Evergrey

11-17-2006, 01:06 PM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_480206.html

Point Park buys building

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, November 17, 2006

Point Park University has purchased the former Pittsburgh Stock Exchange building on Fourth Avenue as it continues to expand its Downtown campus.
In addition, it is looking at two Downtown buildings to accommodate growth. Last month, the university's board of trustees authorized taking on $15 million in debt to finance property purchases.

"We have outgrown our existing space," Paul Hennigan, the university's president, said in a statement Thursday.

Point Park has 3,500 students in four schools, he said. That's about 60 percent more students than a decade ago, said spokeswoman Angie Burrows.

Hennigan, who took over as president Sept. 1, has said the school could grow to 4,000 students in five years.

The university is leasing space in a number of Downtown buildings. It is building dance studios on the Boulevard of the Allies.

The purchase price for the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange Building was $645,000, said Tom Sullivan, of Colliers Penn, a Downtown commercial real estate firm.

Sullivan represented sellers Mark Lando and Bob Tortorete, who purchased the 8,500-square-foot building at 333 Fourth Ave. for $345,000 in 2003.

The building was built in the 1980s and initially was home of the Mechanic's National Bank. The Pittsburgh Stock Exchange occupied it from 1903 until 1972, although it merged in 1969 with stock exchanges in Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore.

Burrows did not identify the two other buildings it is looking to purchase, citing a confidentiality agreement.

The school's student newspaper, the Globe, has identified them as the West Penn building at Wood Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard and the 100 Wood Street Building at Wood and First Avenue.

The West Penn building houses the ICM School of Business and Medical Careers and a number of other tenants. The building is owned by Van DAB Associates, a group headed by Vincent A. Nese, of the Nese Construction Co. in Monroeville.

Gary Wilson with Langholz Wilson Ellis, Downtown, which represents the partnership, declined to comment.

James Lorenzi, general partner in a group that owns the nine-story 100 Wood Street Building, said the group has had discussions with the university but declined further comment.

The Royal Oak restaurant is located on the first floor, and there are eight floors of office space.

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

Evergrey

11-17-2006, 01:09 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06321/739129-53.stm

South Side: Kayak landing to be built
Friday, November 17, 2006

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh received a $50,000 grant yesterday from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for construction of a kayak landing on the South Side.

The city will work with the nonprofit group Friends of the Riverfront to build the launch at Fourth Street on the Monongahela River. Construction will begin in the spring; the launch is expected to open in May or June.

Friends of the Riverfront will match the funding with an equal value of money, goods and services.

Evergrey

11-17-2006, 11:06 PM

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/11/13/daily33.html?surround=lfn

Former Halo Cafe to reopen as piano bar
Pittsburgh Business Times - 3:34 PM EST Fridayby Tim Schooley
Two years after the Cleaves Temple was restored on East Carson Street, it has evolved from Halo Cafe into its third concept, a soon-to-open piano bar open called Charlie Murdoch's.

Following a brief stint as a club called Switch, Murdoch's will open next week.

The former owner of the property and the general manager of the new club said it has a different feel.

"If you walk through the Strip or the South Side, there are at least 12 nightclubs that are exactly the same," said Chad Hardy, who will be the GM of Charlie Murdoch's, a concept inspired by a former West Virginia moonshiner. "It's the same thing with most of the local bars."

Hardy got an equity stake in the business, joining a partnership that includes John Haas and Greg Novak, who are former managers of clubs such as Banana Joe's, The Boardwalk and Metropol.

Clint Pohl, a local restaurateur who also is an owner of the popular Andora in Sewickley, and another church-turned-club, Altar Bar in the Strip District, sold the building a few months ago. He believes the new club will succeed.

He said he faced a challenge with Halo Cafe, which closed after less than two years despite positive reviews.

" Since I opened that, the South Side has had about 10 places open after me," said Pohl.

Charlie Murdoch's will feature live performances by dueling pianists Joey Granati, Ron Soltis, Pete Moran, and Drew Tepe Wednesday through Saturday evening.

Hardy said other piano bars, such as Sing Sing at the Waterfront in Homestead, have had successful runs in the region.

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 481-6397 x244

the former Halo Cafe
http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/57348976.jpg

Evergrey

11-18-2006, 01:15 PM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_480388.html

Developer revising Fifth-Forbes plan

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Millcraft Industries Inc. hopes to have a financially feasible plan in place by mid-December to redevelop about 20 city-owned properties in the Fifth-Forbes corridor.
That includes the G.C. Murphy Building, where the Washington County developer has been adjusting plans to deal with higher-than-expected development costs.

"I am extremely positive for all of our development plans Downtown," Lucas Piatt, Millcraft's vice president-real estate, said Friday.

Millcraft also is developing the $65 million Piatt Place retail-residential-office complex at the former Lazarus-Macy's department store building Downtown. Piatt said he hopes to present a final plan for the rest of the Fifth-Forbes corridor at the next meeting of the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority on Dec. 14.

The company has had periodic meetings with the URA staff since the city authority voted in October to give the developer a two-month extension to complete its plans.

Millcraft originally said it would cost $21 million to develop the Murphy site into what it called "Marketplace," with 50 apartments and condominiums, 25,000 square feet of retail space and 50 parking spaces.

But Piatt later said costs could be as high as $40 million, mainly because of the challenge in developing a structure that is a combination of five buildings.

A final design must make optimum use of the available space to provide adequate rental revenue to cover development costs, he said yesterday.

"I think we are on the right path," said Piatt, who plans to update the URA on the company's progress as early as next week.

The developer has sought as much as $18 million from the state to assist in its plans. Gov. Ed Rendell recently said the state would pledge a total of $11 million. He said last month that the state has already committed about $7 million to Millcraft, but wants to see how successful Millcraft is with the first phase (the Murphy building) before making an additional commitment.

"The state, like we at the authority do, looks at the economics of a project and then tries to fill in the gaps," said Jerome Dettore, executive director of the URA. "We need to see their final numbers before we make those commitments."

Piatt has been working with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which hopes to assure that the development plan preserves the historic character of the building, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., the foundation's president.

"It's a challenging site, but I think they are making progress," Ziegler said.

Because the building is located within a city-designated historic district, the developer may explore the possibility of securing historic tax credits to finance some of the construction, Ziegler said.

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

Evergrey

11-18-2006, 01:19 PM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_480423.html

Greensburg-Pittsburgh rail lines inch closer to reality

By Rich Cholodofsky
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, November 18, 2006

Westmoreland County transit officials will move ahead with plans to build rail lines into Pittsburgh -- one from Greensburg that would travel through the central part of the county and a second from Arnold that would run along the Allegheny River.
Members of the county transit authority this week announced the agency has applied for $500,000 in state money to pay for the final feasibility study needed before a decision can be made on whether to build the rail lines.

The grant would come from the state Department of Community and Economic Development and could be approved before the end of the year, said state Rep. Tom Tangretti, D-Hempfield Township. Tangretti also serves as a member of the transit authority.

"These are good alternatives to what we have available to us now. It will enhance the credibility of the entire central Westmoreland County corridor and prove a consistent, frequent, convenient and cheap option for travel every day," Tangretti said.

Local transit officials characterized the feasibility study as the last hurdle before construction funding can be sought and the system can be built.

Cost estimates for the Greensburg-to-Pittsburgh rail project range from $190 million for a limited service system to a more ambitious $300 million line that would operate every 30 minutes during peak times.

Preliminary studies have indicated that the more expensive system could carry about 8,800 passengers every day for the 49-minute trip between Greensburg and downtown Pittsburgh.

Rail service would utilize existing tracks and train stations in Greensburg and Pittsburgh. Other stops have been proposed for Jeannette, Irwin, Trafford, Wilmerding, East Pittsburgh, Braddock, Swissvale and Wilkinsburg.

Planners have also suggested extending the line eight miles east to Latrobe.

The proposed rail system from Arnold to Pittsburgh's Strip District received the highest level of support in the regional study.

That rail line is projected to cost between $140 million for a system that originates in Arnold with stops in New Kensington, Oakmont, Verona and Lawrenceville. A $330 million option that would extend the line into downtown Pittsburgh and possibly Oakland also has been discussed.

Initial estimates have suggested that the proposed Allegheny rail line would cater to about 1,900 passengers to as many as 6,700 daily riders making the 34-minute commute.

The proposed rail lines were singled out earlier this year in a study conducted by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission as two of four preferred options to improve transportation in the region.

Officials with the transit authority, which now exclusively runs bus service throughout much of Westmoreland County and commuter service into Pittsburgh, said they are unsure whether their agency or some other entity would operate the rail lines.

Authority Executive Director Larry Morris said the final study is expected to answer that question, as well as outline possible funding options for the projects and better gauge better ridership projections.

The authority already has endorsed both rail systems.

"They are alternatives to provide additional transportation options. Anybody who has commuted to Pittsburgh understands how long and difficult that can be," Morris said.

Rich Cholodofsky can be reached at rcholodofsky@tribweb.com or (724) 830-6293.

AaronPGH

11-18-2006, 08:17 PM

Wow, maybe I'm an idiot, but I didn't realize these rail lines were so close to actually happening. This is great news! :cool:

EventHorizon

11-18-2006, 09:48 PM

Great news! My cousin lives in East Pittsburgh - he'll be able to ride that into town if it's built.

Wheelingman04

11-19-2006, 06:32 AM

Good news for people who love rail transit.:)

Paintballer1708

11-20-2006, 12:35 AM

I cant believe i forget all about the Pittsburgh thread in the city compilations. I will have to start posting in here more often, but this is great news. I hope Pittsburgh's rail can keep expanding. Hopefully this goes through.

Evergrey

11-20-2006, 06:20 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06324/739760-53.stm

Federal Hill may revitalize neighborhood
Today's groundbreaking a glimpse of hope after decades of decline
Monday, November 20, 2006

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Since its last days as a dense, full-service Victorian-era corridor in the 1970s, the central North Side segment of Federal Street has exemplified the social rebuke of cities in the decades before.

By 1990, the stretch was still dense with buildings, but most were lifeless. Progress came to resemble a swath of barren lots.

A groundbreaking today signifies the first explosive infusion of tax-base potential on Federal in decades. Federal Hill, a 60-house, 40-condo project of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, will occupy several blocks of Federal and adjoining portions of Alpine Avenue and Jacksonia Street. The 11 a.m. groundbreaking, at Federal and Hemlock Street, will begin construction of the first row of five homes, to be finished in the spring and financed for $1.8 million.

The development coincides with planning for a new Carnegie Library branch on the site of a former gas station at 1210 Federal.

By moving its Allegheny branch from an historic 115-year-old Richardsonian Romanesque landmark inside Allegheny Circle, the Carnegie system is acknowledging Federal's viability for investment.

"When the Allegheny branch sat in a traffic circle, we lost access to the pedestrian thoroughfare," said Barbara Mistick, director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

The building was hit by lightning last April and needs repairs worth millions. The Carnegie will make repairs but has rejected its space in the shared building as too big, its operations too costly.

"We looked all across the North Side and chose the core of the neighborhood," said Ms. Mistick.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority secured the Federal site for the library.

The library's design is in the community-input stage, but Ms. Mistick said she wants it to move forward quickly. "It would be our intent to get the project started next year. And I can't tell you how excited I am about this convergence."

Allegheny General Hospital gave the corridor its first big boost when it built an office building on Federal in 2003.

The Federal Hill project hit many bumps, said Rebecca Davidson-Wagner, the neighborhood council's development specialist. Some building owners resisted selling. Properties the council had first thought could be rehabilitated became too far gone. They joined a list of demolitions to wait their turn.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency rejected the first applications because land acquisition was not advanced enough. The neighborhood's project chairman moved away and had to be replaced.

The URA helped assemble land, but much of it was heavily liened. Some land slated for future phases of construction still is, said Ms. Davidson-Wagner, "and we're going to have to pay the liens or get the city to, but it's been a struggle to get them to replenish the city buy-back fund."

Finally, there's the overarching reason for all the effort in the first place: blight. Not an easy sell to investors.

"You have bankers who say, 'You want what?'" said Ms. Davidson-Wagner, "and private developers who say, 'You want to sell a house for what?'"

The three-story brick rowhouses will match the architectural character of the neighborhood, but the comparison ends there. In blighted areas, even the most basic new house often costs more than double or triple the market value of any existing home within blocks.

In one stretch of five houses on Alpine within two blocks of Federal, every house is assessed below $40,000. The new townhouses will be priced from $120,000 to $220,000, with second deferred mortgages for people who meet income requirements.

The URA will offer the second mortgages by floating bonds. Qualified buyers' incomes can't exceed 80 percent of the median, said Jerome Dettore, executive director of the URA.

The 40 condos scheduled for later phases will cost less, and there will be scattered moderate- to low-income rental units. But Federal Hill will not address the housing needs of the poor, as almost no one does these days.

"We're having an erosion in dollars for the lowest-income people," said Elizabeth G. Hersh, executive director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, "and it's because of federal policy and a steady stream of cutbacks. There's a myth that the private market will provide these units."

Some longtime central North Side residents have cried gentrification in recent years as housing prices in parts of the neighborhood have shot up. Some have even claimed the neighborhood council is conspiring to get rid of low-income homeowners and renters.

"It's frustrating to hear that when we worked so hard to make it as affordable as we could," said Ms. Davidson-Wagner.

This back-and-forth is echoed throughout the city where neighborhood nonprofits struggle to attract investment. The near desertion of the city by those who could afford to relocate to the suburbs in the 1950s and '60s set in motion a Catch-22 for low-income people left behind, who now plead for investment and attention from the city but who, when it comes, often feel alienated by the influx of new people.

A restoration of population is good as long as economic segregation doesn't result, said Ms. Hersh. "The only thing that works is balance."

Financing for Federal Hill includes soft loans through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency's Home Ownership Choice program, started in 2000 as a hand-up to distressed neighborhoods. One stipulation is that the developer work with a nonprofit group.

The agency makes a loan to the developer -- in this case, the neighborhood council and the builder -- and takes 10 percent off the top to buy securities to pay itself back so the developer doesn't have to. The money comes on the condition that the municipality match the loan.

"It's a tool to drive the cost of housing down," said Brian Hudson, CEO of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. "And it offers incentive" for nonprofit neighborhood groups.

The prices of the townhouses could not be as low as they are without incentives, said Andy Haines, a vice-president at S&A Homes, the builder.

With minimum quality standards, "you can't build a house for less than $100,000," he said. The range of cost now is $80 to $120 per square foot. These [townhouses] range from 1,400 to 2,000. Do the math."

The math puts a 1,400-square-foot house, at $120 per, at $168,000 in costs.

"Building new housing in the city is difficult," he said. "You have old water and sewer lines" that have to be separated. "Just to get water and sewer taps takes a long time. Old basements from previous houses have to be dug out. That's why a lot of developers like us -- suburban home builders -- tend not to do much work in cities. It costs more."

"Without a neighborhood group that has a commitment to economic diversity, you don't have levels of affordable [housing]," said Joan Kimmel, the Federal Hill project chairman, "It is our commitment to do that. How to build for the poor belongs to a larger national dialogue."

Mr. Hudson of the PHFA said affordability "has always been an issue."

Some counties have housing trust funds that use money from title insurance, realty transfer taxes, appropriations and unclaimed property, he said. "We're going to push for a statewide housing trust fund, and we're going to be lobbying hard" for the federal government to restore housing subsidies.

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

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

...

and in other news... according to the BizJournal... the South Side's Shootz pool hall is going to be transformed into Pittsburgh's first rodizio -- a Brazilian-style restaurant featuring churrasco-style meats.... by the owner of nearby Mallorca and Ibiza.

Evergrey

11-20-2006, 07:38 PM

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/38941penn.aspx

November 22, 2006
$8 million condo coming to downtown
A new condo planned for the Cultural District will soon join downtown’s growing number of residential opportunities. By 2007, construction will start at 941 Penn Avenue, next to the Courtyard Marriott.

The $8 million condo will feature seventeen for-sale units ranging in size from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. Four stories will be added to the stone, brick and glass structure’s existing five floors. Vacant for ten years, the building was once an electrical supply company’s warehouse. Construction is expected to be completed during the fall of 2007.

“The location is amazing because it's truly an existing downtown neighborhood,” says Kathy Wallace with Benyon & Co., who is marketing the condos. “It’s a somewhat rare opportunity--the first condo in that Penn corridor.”

Two- and three-bedroom units will feature 16-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, terraces and wine lockers. Developed by Jack Benhoff of Solara Group, Inc., the project is being designed by Rob Indovina.

“This building is ripe for development," says Wallace. “It’s really coming along down here, with individual developers bringing a richness to downtown.” Calling the condo an “elegant, boutique type project” with “highly customizable units,” Wallace says a Steeler is considering the location. “We have people interested without any marketing.”

Starting at $225 per square foot, Wallace feels the condos are more reasonable than the downtown competition. “We’re more Tribeca and everyone else is Park Avenue.” She adds that Benhoff is looking to develop a second project in the city.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Kathy Wallace

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2038/941_penn_300.jpg

Wheelingman04

11-21-2006, 06:49 AM

^ The Cultural District is getting stronger every day.

Evergrey

11-22-2006, 06:19 AM

more print on the Penn Ave. condo project

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06326/740401-53.stm

More condos planned for Downtown
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A long-vacant former dry goods store is set to become the latest entrant in Downtown Pittsburgh's housing boom, developers told the city planning commission yesterday.

Philadelphia-based Solara Ventures intends to turn 941 Penn Ave. into 17 condominiums with a ground-floor store, said Jack Benoff, president of the firm.

Condominiums in front of the building would be 2,400 square feet, while those in the back would be 1,800 square feet. Each unit would have a 5-foot-deep balcony.

The design by architect Robert Indovina involves building four new floors atop the existing structure, replacing those destroyed by a fire in the 1940s. The cost of the project is expected to be $5 million to $6 million.

Mr. Benoff said he may pursue a small public facade renovation loan, but intended to rely primarily on private funding.

"We'd like to have people moving in by this time next year," said Mr. Benoff. Sales prices would range from $335,000 to around $700,000 for the penthouse unit.

The commission must approve the plan because the project is Downtown and involves more than $50,000 in facade renovations. It may vote in two weeks.

There are 246 condominiums under construction or in final development stages Downtown, and another 1,300 planned.

In another matter, the commission delayed a vote on placing a blight designation on a one-block area of Larimer, bounded by Penn Avenue, East Liberty Boulevard, Fifth Avenue and the East Busway. One of the property owners on the block, George F. Eichleay of Eichleay Engineers Inc., wanted more information on the effects of the designation.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority has requested the designation so it can pursue a $13 million to $14 million package of aid for the Bakery Square project, which would turn the former Nabisco bakery complex into offices, shops, a hotel and homes. Some of the package, to be raised through tax-increment financing, would go toward improvements in nearby Penn Circle.

Bakery Square is expected to be a $105 million to $125 million investment, led by Walnut Capital Partners.

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

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

Evergrey

11-25-2006, 12:22 AM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_481088.html

UPMC eyes U.S. Steel Tower

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, November 23, 2006

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center appears to be closer to signing a lease to occupy a major portion of office space at U.S. Steel Tower, Downtown.
UPMC, which may be looking for at least 200,000 square feet of office space, or about five floors, confirmed Wednesday it is in "discussions" involving the 64-story office building at 600 Grant St., the city's largest office tower.

"But we have not signed a lease yet," said Frank Raczkiewicz, a spokesman for the medical center, in a statement yesterday.

Further indication of UPMC's intentions came from Aaron Stauber, president of Rugby Realty, of New Rochelle, N.Y., which owns 12 Pittsburgh buildings, including the Gulf Tower and Frick Building, also on Grant Street.

Stauber said he received inquiries from tenants from the 2.3 million-square-foot U.S. Steel Tower about openings in the Gulf and Frick buildings because space there is being made available for UPMC.

"I don't have insider information, but I can tell you the word on the street is that's a done deal," Stauber said. He did not identify the tenants.

Stauber and others in the real estate community have heard UPMC may eventually double its space to nearly 400,000 square feet.

That would be good news for the Downtown real estate market, where the office vacancy rate is about 20 percent, said Jon Harrigan, CEO of Colliers Penn, a commercial real estate firm Downtown.

"It would fill up a lot of vacant space over there (at U.S. Steel Tower)," Harrigan said. "That would be a tremendous boost for Downtown."

Management at U.S. Steel Tower could not be reached for comment.

UPMC previously has confirmed it has been exploring options to bring together its corporate services into a single headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh, with U.S. Steel Tower among the options.

Another building it has been considering is the 32-story Dominion Tower on Liberty Avenue, which has substantial vacancy.

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

Evergrey

11-27-2006, 09:24 PM

The Heinz Lofts continues to do well... hopefully the adjacent areas of the North Side can start to turn around... the area just to the west near the riverfront trail is pretty ragged

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/39hnzlfts.aspx

November 29, 2006
$70.2 million Heinz Lofts reaches 78% occupany mark
Heinz Lofts, located on the North Shore’s Progress Street, has just reached 78% occupancy. “It hasn’t stopped—we’ll continue to rise,” says leasing manager Jeanne Schreckengost. “The majority of our residents are young professionals coming from out of state,” says Schreckengost. “What’s compelling is that we’re close to but not right in the heart of the city; we’re away from heavy traffic yet so close to downtown and the Strip District.”

Located in five restored buildings constructed between 1912 and 1931 as
H.J. Heinz Company’s headquarters, the development features 267 units with sixty-seven floor plans named after Heinz products.

Schreckengost, who is organizing the lofts' new series of bi-monthly open house receptions for local businesses starting in December, says the property just introduced new grocery delivery servies. The lofts are within walking distance to riverside trails and public transportation; Schreckengost has noticed that on-site bike racks are always full. “Friends of the Riverfront provides bikes to residents who don’t have them.”

The $70.2 million project includes one-, two- and three-bedroom rental units that range from 573 to 2,020 square feet. Designed by Cleveland-based Stanvick, one- and two-story apartments feature arched windows, high ceilings and ceramic tile floors; select units have rooftop decks, city and river views and fireplaces. The property features an on-site café, fitness center and indoor parking.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Jeanne Schreckengost, Heinz Lofts

http://www.pbase.com/deadwing/image/56560073.jpg

Evergrey

11-27-2006, 09:25 PM

Nice to see some plans for the long-suffering Federal/North intersection in the North Side

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/39franco.aspx

November 29, 2006
Franco Harris developing new Northside restaurant
Former Steeler Franco Harris is developing a new restaurant at the corner of North Avenue and Federal Street on the Northside. Harris is currently working to purchase the property, formerly the Park View Tavern, from the URA.

According to his presentation last month to the Central Northside Neighborhood Council (CNNC), Harris plans to renovate the 1,000 square-foot space and open a cafe-style restaurant featuring healthy fare and possibly live entertainment. “The neighborhood supports his plans to move forward—to be that first investor who will start bringing in other folks,” says Rebecca Davidson Wagner with the CNNC.

Harris, who has owned a Northside home since the 1970s and has been known to play catch with neighborhood children, is also renovating a new residential property on North Avenue. Wagner feels Harris’ restaurant will be “an anchor on that corner.”

“His idea is to create an inviting gathering place,” says real estate consultant Lynn Bingham, who is working with Harris. “The mere fact of Franco pioneering this one development has already trickled down to other developers coming into the area.”

The Northside restaurant will not be Harris’ first entrepreneurial effort. In 1990, Harris founded Super Bakery, a Wexford-based company that develops healthy bread products for schools and hotels.

“He’s going to be a pioneer in that corridor,” adds Bingham, who says Harris hopes to develop several Northside projects. “With interest from Franco and the library, interesting things are moving around the Garden Square North block,” says Wagner.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Sources: Lynn Bingham; Rebecca Davidson-Wagner

Grego43

11-28-2006, 03:19 AM

Has the operator of the hotel in Three PNC Plaza been announced?

Evergrey

11-28-2006, 06:32 AM

i haven't heard anything, grego... supposed to be "higher-end' than the Renaissance...

big news for Allegheny County's "Second City"... McKeesport

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06332/741707-55.stm

State gives McKeesport $4.4 million package
Tuesday, November 28, 2006

By Karamagi Rujumba, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday presented McKeesport officials with $4.4 million in loans and grants, which he said will help the city revitalize its central business district.

Standing under a white tent pitched in the middle of Fifth Avenue in downtown McKeesport, Mr. Rendell told a crowd of more than 100 people that the state's $4,447,345 will support a series of projects in the city, including renovations to downtown buildings, infrastructure updates, improvements to community parks and services and street repair.

The funds will be applied to seven city projects including the redevelopment of Midtown Plaza and the new city hall project ($1.2 million); sewer line reconstruction and other projects in the city's Christy Park neighborhood ($1.9 million); street work on Fifth Avenue ($929,000); McKeesport Hospital Foundation to help the hospital continue community services to residents (75,000); and tax credits for a new Sky Bank branch building ($98,570).

Sky Bank's old building at 500 Fifth Avenue has become the new city hall. Including the state tax credits announced yesterday, the bank is getting tax breaks worth $500,000 for the donation of the city hall building. Sky Bank constructed a smaller bank building several blocks away.

"You will see that we have tried to address some key issues," Mr. Rendell said. "This is a building block to ensure that this community is on its way back to re-development."

Noting that the state's unemployment rate was recently recorded at 4.3 percent -- the lowest it has been in six years -- Gov. Rendell promised that the state will do its part to invest in communities that need an economic boost.

"We've only just begun here in McKeesport," he declared to wild applause. "As long as you keep coming up with good projects, this won't be our last announcement here."

The funding package was coordinated through the Community Action Team and it included funds from the Pennsylvania Departments of Community and Economic Development, Transportation, Conservation and Natural Resources, as well as PennVest.

The governor said 49 other communities have been identified for similar funding packages throughout the commonwealth and are in various stages of planning and development. But the governor also cautioned that communities should not consistently look to the state for their economic salvation.

"[Communities] should look to us to help, but nobody should expect us to fund all their needs. There has to be serious private-sector involvement and a real spirit among community leaders towards rebuilding their areas," he said.

On an unusually warm November afternoon, an exhilarated McKeesport Mayor James Brewster said the city, which has suffered from many years of economic downturn, is on its way back to economic viability.

"Three years ago they told us McKeesport was dead and buried. But now the governor has given us hope. We are tough and hard-working people," Mr. Brewster said. "We are not going to let this city die."

For Alexander Holovich, 63, a longtime McKeesport resident, the governor's announcement couldn't have come at better time.

"This is just what we need in this town," he said. "A shot in the arm."

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

(Karamagi Rujumba can be reached at kirujumba@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1719. )

Phillydude

11-28-2006, 04:09 PM

As some of you may know I'm originally from McKeesport (been in Philly since 1980). All the money in the world won't help that place -- they need a tax base. They need industry -- blue collar, white collar, doesn't matter. Midtown needs to be TORN DOWN -- it was a huge waste of money building it to begin with. I think it was in operation a grand total of 15 years (except for the residential mid-rise). Seriously, the Midtown had a two or three level parking garage over Fifth Avenue and they knocked it down and left the ragged edges of concrete hanging that are attached to the Midtown.

McKeesport needs a whole lot more than 4.4 million. They can make it look pretty all they want -- it'll look the same way again in 10 years.

EventHorizon

11-28-2006, 07:27 PM

It's sad. We still have some decent neighborhoods
but the downtown is dead. Our industry is gone and so is most of our population.

they knocked it down and left the ragged edges of concrete hanging that are attached to the Midtown

lol... you mean these?
http://mckeesport.dementia.org/photos/images/061120_2.jpg
(2006 santa parade)

Not sure why they kept them. They do look stupid.

I wish we had our old downtown back!
http://www.familyoldphotos.com/pa/images2/feb/fifthave-lookingwestmckeesport.jpg

Maybe merging with Pittsburgh would help us.? :)

Wheelingman04

11-29-2006, 04:23 PM

Evergrey

11-30-2006, 06:24 AM

this article is about anti-crime measures in the Strip District... but contains some info on development projects there:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06334/742407-53.stm

Anti-crime group plots strategy for Strip District
Thursday, November 30, 2006

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An anti-crime task force yesterday outlined strategies for keeping the Strip District's entertainment area safe as it takes another growth spurt of tourist and residential development.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. led a forum of about 35 people, some of them business owners and residents, yesterday at Gilda's Place on Smallman Street.

After two non-fatal shootings attributed to night clubbing on Smallman last summer, a task force of businesses, service agencies, elected and law enforcement officials convened with Neighbors in the Strip, an advocacy group, to begin plotting against recurrences.

"We have been increasing our presence at night," said Assistant Police Chief Paul Donaldson, adding that violent crimes and car thefts were down 12 percent in the first 10 months of this year and down 14 percent overall, as compared with a 2 percent drop in all crime citywide.

Becky Rodgers, executive director of Neighbors in the Strip, allowed that "the Strip is one of the safest neighborhoods," but that these measures are necessary to keep it that way.

Yellow Cab President James Campolongo said his hope is for three new, well-lit taxi stands. The city Department of Public Works still has to approve the sites, he said.

Since the end of summer, his company has increased its cab presence in the Strip by 35 percent and demand has jumped 12 percent, which is "unheard of in our industry," he said.

Mr. Zappala said that in August, "the suggestion was made that Duquesne Light had to be part of" the anti-crime team. The utility responded by tripling what it refers to as "pavement foot-candle value" -- 26 additional 400-watt street lights on Smallman.

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership joined the team, and yesterday PDP executive director Mike Edwards said Downtown's health depends on the health of adjacent neighborhoods. He showed images of the investments throughout the Golden Triangle, including 500 new housing units this year and 1,000 next year.

"We're tracking investment, and a lot of it is near the Strip," he said.

A Hampton Inn Express is being built across from the Heinz History Center on Smallman. Plans are moving ahead to redevelop the terminal produce building on Smallman into the Strip Market Hall, a 45,000-square-foot attraction Neighbors in the Strip estimates will increase local tourism by 35 percent.

In mid-November, the Cork Factory Lofts opened its first 100 of 297 units, and property owners are increasingly interested in turning upper floors into residential rent opportunities, said Ms. Rodgers.

She said Neighbors in the Strip is raising matching funds of $70,000 for a $345,000 grant from U.S. Rep,. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, to upgrade the portal to the Strip District from Downtown -- 11th Street at Penn and Liberty avenues and Smallman Street.

Mr. Edwards cited the current look of the portal, notably the underpass on Penn Avenue, as a hindrance to anyone wanting to make a smooth connection between the Strip and Downtown.

"From an urban planning perspective, it's a very hard edge," he said, noting that the entrance to the Strip is a pretty grim area.

"The smell of urine does nothing to improve the experience of being Downtown or in the Strip," he said.

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

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

Evergrey

11-30-2006, 06:27 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06334/742404-53.stm

Apartments, not condos, for G.C. Murphy site
Struggling with economics of project, developer chooses rental units in plans to renovate old Market Square store
Thursday, November 30, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Apartments are in, condos are out in a Washington County developer's latest plans for the reuse of the old G.C. Murphy store on Fifth Avenue, Downtown.

Millcraft Industries now is looking to put upwards of 50 apartments in the old store with rents priced to attract Downtown workers earning $40,000 to $50,000 a year, Lucas Piatt, vice president of real estate, said yesterday.

"They will be some of the less expensive in town," he said.

The developer originally had planned a mix of condos and apartments at the site, but decided to go with all apartments to get federal historic tax credits to help lower the cost of the project. The tax credits can cover up to 20 percent of all renovation costs, but are not available for condominiums.

Millcraft has been struggling for months to find a way to renovate the Murphy store -- actually five separate buildings with varying floor plans -- at a reasonable cost. At one time, it faced a $12 million gap between its financing and the cost of the renovation.

Jerome Dettore, executive director of the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, said yesterday that Millcraft and partner Ira Morgan have made progress in closing the gap.

"They've brought the gap down, but there's still work to be done," he said.

Mr. Piatt said he believes Millcraft has found the right balance in terms of cost and the mix of amenities, which would include street-level retail. The total cost of the renovation is now estimated at $30 million to $40 million, up from $21 million.

"It's still not beautiful as far as the economics go. We're not making a lot of money. We're doing something good for the city," he said.

The apartments would target people with incomes of $40,000 to $50,000 a year, including Downtown workers and recent college graduates.

The average apartment would feature about 1,100 square feet, with rents running "much less" than $1.50 a square foot, Mr. Piatt said. Most apartments would be 11/2-- to two-bedroom units, although studios and three bedrooms also would be available.

"We feel the day we start moving forward, these units are going to be in high demand," Mr. Piatt said.

He said there is a chance the apartments at some point could be converted to condos. To get the historic tax credits, they must remain rentals for at least five years.

Millcraft and Mr. Morgan are expected to present their proposal to the URA board Dec. 14. They are seeking to develop 19 URA-owned properties in the Fifth and Forbes corridor, including the Murphy buildings.

Mr. Dettore said he likes the idea of doing all apartments in the Murphy's conversion.

"Frankly, I think it's better to have rental apartments," he said. "Our goal is to have them moderately priced. I think the market is stronger for rentals. I think it's better that they are rentals."

Gov. Ed Rendell has pledged $11 million in state funds for the renovation and a separate $50 million Forbes Village project, an 18-story high-rise on Forbes Avenue near Market Square featuring 150 to 200 apartments and condos and retail space.

Millcraft has asked for $18 million from the state for the projects, and Mr. Piatt said the parties are continuing discussions. Mr. Rendell has said in the past more money may be available as the projects advance.

However, Mr. Piatt said the developer's primary focus at this point is the Murphy's project, which he sees as the linchpin of the corridor. If the URA accepts the plan next month, Mr. Piatt hopes to begin work in six to eight months.

He said late Mayor Bob O'Connor's vision for the corridor included a "sustainable G.C. Murphy building. To take this and make it happen, I'm sure he would be honored.

"I guess it's really a trademark of Fifth and Forbes. So many people have looked at it and it has sat there so long, it's time to get it done," he said.

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

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

AaronPGH

11-30-2006, 07:07 AM

I think this is a positive thing. Rentals = younger people for the most part.

Evergrey

12-01-2006, 07:55 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06335/742700-55.stm

Officials hoping to spur growth near Waterfront
45 sites would be converted into housing, retail
Friday, December 01, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Local development officials are hoping the success of The Waterfront will spill over into the streets of Homestead.

The Allegheny County Redevelopment Authority is looking for developers willing to take a chance on converting about 45 publicly owned properties perched at the doorstep of the popular shopping and entertainment strip into housing and retail.

While The Waterfront is booming with shopping and nightlife, the complex itself ended up being "walled off from Homestead," said Dennis Davin, county economic development director.

The county is hoping to rectify that through the proposed redevelopment. Over the past four years, it has acquired the 45 properties with an eye toward potential rehabilitation or reuse.

Most of the properties are on East Sixth Avenue or East Seventh Avenue within a couple of blocks of The Waterfront's Amity Street entrance. Another group of properties are on Eighth Avenue, the main thoroughfare through Homestead. It intersects with Amity.

Mr. Davin said the county and the borough are looking for street-level retail reuses on Eighth Avenue with upper-floor residential. Closer to The Waterfront, they generally see residential development, though they are not wed to any one plan.

"We'll listen to anything right now," he said.

As part of the effort, the county intends to reuse any historic buildings it owns, though non-historic structures could be demolished in favor of new construction. To help stir interest, money already has gone to improve sidewalks, lighting and facades in the area.

The request for proposals is based on the Steel Valley Redevelopment Plan created by officials in Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall. Local officials will review the proposals in conjunction with the county.

The goal of the development, according to the RFP, is to create a "vibrant destination to supplement existing arts, cultural, and restaurant amenities" and to complement The Waterfront.

"There's a lot of synergy. The other thing is there's a lot of traffic that comes in from Eighth Avenue. The idea is there's so much traffic, let's get a piece of that and it helps Homestead," Mr. Davin said.

Proposals are due Jan. 5. The Redevelopment Authority sent proposals to developers Nov. 20. Based on the number of inquiries so far, interest appears to be good, Mr. Davin said. "We feel pretty comfortable that we're going to get something," he said.

One person the county has talked to about the redevelopment is Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, who has spent a lot of time and money helping his hometown. Mr. Davin said Mr. Batch also owns a piece of property in the proposed redevelopment area.

"We sent a proposal to him. He's done some terrific work in Homestead with residential homes he has rehabilitated. He's really made a commitment to Homestead," he said.

Mr. Davin said he isn't sure at this point whether the county will offer subsidies to help spur development.

"If developers come back and say they need no assistance, that's great. If they do need assistance, we'll look at it on a case-by-case basis," he said.

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

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

Evergrey

12-02-2006, 06:11 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06336/742995-28.stm

Who will be next to build region?
Eddie Lewis' death creates a big void
Saturday, December 02, 2006

By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Developer Eddie Lewis gave Joe DeMartino his first job out of college, and the O'Hara commercial real estate investor now models himself after the legendary builder of One Oxford Centre and Monroeville Mall.

"He was a gunslinger," said Mr. DeMartino, 40. "There are not a lot of people like that left."

Mr. DeMartino was among hundreds yesterday who attended the Shadyside funeral of the former Oxford Development Co. chairman, one of the last of Pittsburgh's old-school real estate risk-takers.

Other development giants gone in recent years include Jack Buncher, Joseph Soffer and Leonard Rudolph, all, like Mr. Lewis, from the generation of real estate executives who preferred a handshake to a signed contract and were willing to risk it all on a single new shopping center or skyscraper, thereby shaping the physical landscape of southwestern Pennsylvania.

Mr. Lewis, who died Thursday at the age of 69, was best known for building the 45-story One Oxford without any signed tenants, hoping to fill the $100 million building as it went up -- the sort of risk few, if any, people take anymore.

"These guys were much more on the hook personally," said Bill Rudolph, the son of Squirrel Hill developer Leonard Rudolph, who died in late 2003. "They had much more skin in the game.

"My father loved the thrill of the gamble and so did Eddie. That was the mind-set for those type of guys, which is a lot different than today,'' Mr. Rudolph added. "They didn't have foreign cars. They didn't have jets. They didn't really care about that so much. They loved to build."

Perhaps the last giant of Mr. Lewis' generation still left is 79-year-old Stanley Gumberg, chairman of Braddock Hills-based J.J. Gumberg Co. Mr. Gumberg's father started the company in 1929, and he helped build many of the region's first shopping villages in Cranberry, Leetsdale and Pittsburgh's South Side.

Today, the privately-held J.J. Gumberg controls 15 million to 18 million square feet of shopping centers around the United States, along with the former Lord & Taylor building, Downtown. Three of Stanley Gumberg's sons also are in the business, including J.J. Gumberg Chief Executive Officer Ira Gumberg.

Like Mr. Lewis, Stanley Gumberg remembers the time, several decades ago, when a handshake was enough to clinch a deal.

"The industry has changed," he said.

What stayed the same, though, was the danger.

"You take your risks every day," he added. "It is not a business for people who have weak hearts."

So who are the new risk-takers? And can they duplicate the accomplishments of Mr. Lewis, who inherited a small real estate firm from his father and grew it into a 1,600-person operation that controls more than 10 million square feet?

Several descendants of the old generation are doing what they can to carry the tradition forward, the younger Gumbergs being one example.

Another is Damian Soffer, the son of the late Joseph Soffer, who now oversees a local empire that includes Penn Center East, Penn Center West and the SouthSide Works, a 34-acre mix of retail, office and residential space on the site of a former LTV Steel plant.

The elder Soffer -- a war veteran who got his start purchasing single-family homes and small apartment buildings among the steel mills of the Monongahela Valley -- began preparing his son to take over The Soffer Organization in the 1980s, but remained as chairman until his death earlier this year. The younger Mr. Soffer, now in his late 50s, is largely responsible for luring the Cheesecake Factory, Urban Outfitters and the headquarters of American Eagle to the South Side.

Yet another example is the duo of 55-year-old Bill Rudolph and 56-year-old James Rudolph, sons of the late developer Leonard Rudolph. They, along with members of the Perlow family, became owners in 1999 of the former Gimbels department store Downtown, paying $15.5 million for a building with virtually no tenants beyond a few retailers. They spent $50 million on renovations and in 2000 lured H.J. Heinz as a major tenant.

Not all young real estate risk-takers have the benefit of family development connections.

Developer Frank Kass, from Columbus, Ohio, did what no one else wanted to do when he turned the site of the former USX Homestead Works into The Waterfront, a local retail-and-restaurant sensation built with the backing of a Columbus insurance company and government assistance.

Developer Steve Mosites turned an old East Liberty warehouse into a Whole Foods grocery store, jump-starting a new spate of development in that long-neglected neighborhood.

Mr. DeMartino, managing partner of O'Hara-based Star Realty, bought and sold several significant buildings in Pittsburgh's Cultural District, including the property that became a Renaissance Hotel.

And Gregg Perelman and Todd Reidbord at Walnut Capital Partners in Shadyside spent millions acquiring key buildings along the Walnut Street shopping strip while taking on a slew of other ambitious projects in the Strip District and the East End, using the sale of Mr. Perelman's mail-order pharmacy as seed capital.

But the big deals in local real estate no longer belong solely to families and strong-willed individuals. Institutional players -- pensions funds, insurance companies, publicly traded real estate investment trusts, Fortune 500 companies, private equity funds -- now do most of the large buying and selling in the aftermath of an industrywide crash in the early 1990s.

In recent years, Gateway Center, One Mellon Center, the Dominion Tower and National City Center were all sold to big, out-of-state buyers. Mr. DeMartino said if he had the money to buy Dominion, he would have done it. But New York-based private equity fund Blackstone Group, which controls more than $22 billion of real estate worldwide, paid $45 million at a sheriff's sale, elbowing out any local buyers.

"It's so hard for somebody like me to compete," Mr. DeMartino said.

So his philosophy instead is to emulate the aggressiveness of Mr. Lewis, the late Oxford chairman, on a "smaller scale."

Even Oxford, under Mr. Lewis, adapted to the new rules of the game as it stayed private, adding an array of real estate services to balance out the more unpredictable aspects of its business. And it remains an active development player, leading the construction of PNC Financial Services Group's $179 million Three PNC Place on Fifth Avenue.

David Matter, Oxford's longtime president, runs the company day to day, as he did while Mr. Lewis was around, but it is also clear that family members will still have a role. The ownership of the firm remains in the hands of Mr. Lewis' wife, four children, his sister and a brother-in-law.

And Mr. Matter already has his eye on the next generation. Son Ben Lewis, still in high school, was recently accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, his father's alma mater. Just as Mr. Lewis followed his father into the real estate business, "I expect his young sons to do the same," said Mr. Matter.

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

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

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 04:24 AM

I'm definately happy to see something happening with this huge brownfield... I wonder if it will usual sprawl residential or "neo-traditional"?

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developm...40pennhls.aspx

Redevelopment of 206-acre Penn Hills brownfield to start this month
Plans to prepare one of the region’s largest brownfields for development could start as early as this week. Located on Universal Road in Penn Hills, the 206-acre site will feature 250-300 single family homes and a 20-acre industrial park.

Formerly used by Universal Atlas Cement, the site is being developed by Salt Lake City-based Erekson Corporation, which purchased the property from MM&G Associates of Tennessee in November.

"Due to its location and large useable acreage, this former industrial site represents an economic development opportunity; it has very good access and tremendous potential,” says Dennis Davin, Director of Allegheny County's Department of Economic Development. “It will be great to have a private developer put this property back into productive use and back on the tax rolls.”

Estimated to cost $4 million, site preparation entails filling coal mine pits, crushing and removing 300,000 tons of concrete, building demolition and asbestos remediation. “The developer is considering local firms to perform environmental assessments of the site,” says Davin. An economic analysis of the site, conducted several years ago, recommended clearing up the site’s lingering tax issues, initiating an environmental site assessment and developing a reuse plan that includes infrastructure improvements. “It appears the new owner intends to do all of that.”

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Dennis Davin

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 04:25 AM

an interesting expansion for Phipps Conservatory:

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developm.../40phipps.aspx

Phipps to become first conservatory of its kind with new $10 million green facility
On Dec. 9, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens opens its new 12,000-square-foot Tropical Forest Conservatory. Designed by IKM, Inc. and built by Turner Construction Company, the $10 million facility is an international model for green conservatory construction and operation. Featuring cascading waterfalls and an overhead catwalk, the 60-foot high space debuts with a "forests of Thailand" theme.

The facility incorporates two major eco-technologies. It is the first conservatory in the world to use a solid oxide fuel cell--an energy-efficient, highly-reliable fuel source that produces no harmful waste. Buried 15 feet below Phipps’ greenhouses, 1,800 square feet of earth tubes--manufactured by Pittsburgh-based Siemens Power Generation--create a sustainable, non-electric passive ventilation and cooling system. Unlike traditional conservatories, the facility employs an open roof design that allows hot air to exit naturally.

In 2005, Phipps’ visitor center received the country’s first LEED certification rating for a fine arts building. “We thought, why should we stop there? This is important for our entire operations,” says Phipps’ executive director Richard Piacentini.

After completing phase two of its capital campaign, Phipps now employs comprehensive energy efficiency, waste reduction and recycling strategies. “We looked at other conservatories and realized not a lot has changed in 160 years,” says Piacentini. “We wanted to do better and adopted a total green approach.”

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Richard Piacentini

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 04:26 AM

while the photo is not flattering... it's good to see new solid housing in Oakland...

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/40oakhomes.aspx

Oakland planning and development corporation completing six new houses
The Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC) is completing work on six new houses in South Oakland. Located at Dawson, Frazier and Ward Streets, the homes are being designed by TAI + LEE Architects; contractor is Infiniti Homes and Construction of Penn Hills.

“In 2002, the Oakland Task Force developed the Future of Oakland Plan, a master plan for the community” says David Blenk, executive director of OPDC. “We're trying to fulfill that role—it’s an overall vision for the neighborhood.”

Five homes are being built in a modular style manufactured by SMI Homes of Strattanville, PA. A sixth, located at 3510 Frazier, is a traditional duplex. Constructed on formerly vacant lots, the 1,500 square-foot, three-bedroom homes feature two-and-a-half bathrooms, basements and porches. Homes will sell at a mix of market and affordable housing rates.

“It’s a new way of doing things,” says Blenk of the modular construction.
“In the right application, we would definitely continue it.”

Two of the homes will be occupied by February. Financing is provided by the URA, Citizens Bank and the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: David Blenk

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2040/oakland_house_300.jpg

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 04:26 AM

I was just in the new E. Liberty Borders this weekend... I was impressed with the size of the store and the selection.

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/40borders.aspx

Borders celebrates grand opening during Eastside open house
From Dec. 8 through Dec. 10, Borders celebrates the grand opening of its new Pittsburgh location. Designed by San Francisco-based URS, the two-story 24,000 square-foot bookstore is located at 5896 Penn Circle South in the new Eastside development. Developed by The Mosites Company, Eastside is hosting an open house on Dec. 8.

“We’re serving a very diverse audience—the store will evolve as we see what events the community thinks are important.” says Borders’ spokesperson Rae Whitfield. The LEED-certified (Silver rating) store, shares its new Eastside digs with a LEED-certified Starbucks and PNC complex, Walgreens and Pennsylvania Wine & Spirits.

Opening events include family scavenger hunts, Pittsburgh trivia contests and live music. Featured entertainment includes musician Joe Grushecky, cartoonist Joe Wos and author Dave Crawley. Customers will have opportunities to win $250 Borders gift cards and Sony MP3 players, and learn about year-round community benefit days and educational discounts.

“I’ve never seen so much excitement as I have about East Liberty,” says Whitfield, who feels the additional businesses in Eastside are complementary. “The stores match us very well—we’re all already working well together.”

With five superstores in the region, the Michigan-based Borders operates more than 1,300 stores and employees more than 34,000 people worldwide. Borders Eastside will employ 50 people.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Rae Whitfield

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2040/borders_300.jpg

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 04:27 AM

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2040/borders_300.jpg

$89 million Gates Center for Computer Science underway at CMU
Following the demolition of three buildings, the construction of Carnegie Mellon University’s new School of Computer Science is underway. Located on a 5.6-acre west campus site, the 210,000 square-foot complex will be adjacent to CMU’s new Collaborative Innovation Center, which houses Google. Expected to open in 2009, the $89 million contemporary complex will house the Gates Center, Planetary Robotics Center and a 150-space underground garage.

“The most significant part is that it was designed from the inside out to support the research of the school,” says Guy Blelloch, CMU’s associate dean for strategic planning. Supported by a $20 million lead gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the complex will feature new classrooms, offices and labs, a 250-capacity auditorium and 8,000 square-feet of open project space. “The design features will support collaboration and innovation,” says Blelloch. “The new West Quad will bring a lot of people together who have been scattered.”

The Gates Center is being constructed on the site’s southern end; a smaller trapezoid-shaped building will serve as a welcoming facility facing Forbes. Organized around an outdoor winter garden, the buildings will be connected by a four-story lobby containing pedestrian walkways.

Designed by Atlanta-based Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, the complex will seek a LEED-certification Silver rating. Significantly expanding the area’s greenspace and walkability, the complex will feature five green roofs and landscaping designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Guy Blelloch

Image courtesy of CMU School of Computer Science

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2040/gates_center_300.jpg

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 06:43 AM

back to my favorite topic... yeah right

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_482859.html

Isle of Capri favored to win

By Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

The fix isn't in?
It's been just over a year since Mayor Tom Murphy said Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises had the inside track to win Pittsburgh's lone slots license -- "The fix is in," he declared during a press luncheon -- before backpedaling from the explosive claim.

On Tuesday, Murphy's successor reiterated his support for St. Louis-based Isle of Capri Casinos because it would pay $290 million for a new Uptown hockey arena. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said he sees no reason to believe anyone has an unfair advantage in the battle for the license.

"I'm not sure where Mayor Murphy came up with that," he said.

A spokesman for the third applicant, Detroit-based Majestic Star Casino, said yesterday that he has faith in the state Gaming Control Board's selection process. The board plans to vote Dec. 20 to award the license.

Some industry analysts say Isle of Capri has the best chance to win.

"Obviously, I'm not the board," said Robert Shore, a Philadelphia-based analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group. "The seven members will decide who gets the license. But I think with their plan and the arena issue, Isle of Capri is a favorite to win the license."

Conversely, traffic concerns could hurt Forest City's bid for a Harrah's Station Square Casino, Shore said.

Forest City plans to talk about traffic when it returns to the control board today, said Abe Naparstek, the company's development director. Forest City submitted a revised traffic study after a board analyst raised concerns about its previous plan.

The potential sale of Las Vegas-based Harrah's Entertainment, which would operate the Forest City casino, could hurt the proposal, said Todd Eilers, an industry analyst with Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach, Calif.

Roth issued a report Monday, saying Isle of Capri "is the front-runner" for the Pittsburgh license. Isle of Capri spokesman Les McMackin declined to comment.

"Their bid is the only one that ensures full funding of an arena," Eilers said. "It seems like they've got a lot of public support and endorsements, which I think go a long way."

Susquehanna Financial called Isle of Capri the "front-runner" in its latest industry report, dated Nov. 21. It called Majestic Star a "longshot," saying it lacks a large rewards program for gamblers or an offer to pay fully for an arena.

Majestic Star and Forest City have agreed to pay $7.5 million a year for 30 years toward an arena.

"I'm sure (the industry analysts) are very smart folks and understand the gaming industry in great detail, but with all due respect, they don't have the information before them that the Gaming Control Board does," said Majestic Star's spokesman Bob Oltmanns.

Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 06:45 AM

Bakery Square gets a TIF... and 941 Penn will have 17 condos + retail

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06340/743833-53.stm

Blight designation prepares Larimer block for developer
Wednesday, December 06, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A proposed redevelopment of the old Nabisco plant cleared a key hurdle yesterday when the city planning commission approved a blight designation for a one-block area in Larimer that includes the site.

The move will enable the Urban Redevelopment Authority to pursue $13 million to $14 million in aid for the Bakery Square project, which would include offices, shops, a hotel and homes.

Commissioners acted after one of the property owners in the block, George F. Eichleay of Eichleay Engineers, wrote a letter to them saying he supported the project. At the commission's last meeting, Mr. Eichleay had asked for more information on the effects of the designation.

The aid for the project would come in the form of tax increment financing. In a TIF, the URA borrows money to help a development and then uses new tax revenue generated by it to pay off the borrowing.

Part of the aid for the $105 million to $125 million Bakery Square project would go toward improvements for nearby Penn Circle. The designation will affect a one-block area of Larimer, bounded by Penn Avenue, East Liberty Boulevard, Fifth Avenue and the East Busway.

In a separate action, the commission approved the conversion of a vacant one-time dry goods store at 941 Penn Ave., Downtown, into 17 loft-style condos with street-level retail.

The developer, Solara Ventures, hopes to begin construction in February and have the units ready by the end of 2007 or early 2008. The units will range from $350,000 to $600,000.

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

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

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 06:47 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06340/743805-53.stm

Councils oppose buying land for Mon-Fayette Expressway too soon
Wednesday, December 06, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Don't take the land until you can build the road.

So said Pittsburgh City Council yesterday in a resolution urging the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission not to buy land sought for the Mon-Fayette Expressway until it has the funding needed to build the toll road. Then Allegheny County Council took a similar stance last night.

The nonbinding resolution "is in no way against the Mon-Fayette," said city Councilman Jeff Koch, its main sponsor.

"Basically, it's against the commission continuing to acquire property before funding is identified to build the road," said Mr. Koch.

So far, he said later, the commission hasn't bought anything in the city. But he feared the commission would vote to start buying land at its next meeting.

"They could acquire all these properties, which would take taxable property off the tax rolls for who knows how long," he said.

County Council is considering a similar resolution, sponsored by President Rich Fitzgerald, for the same reasons. At its meeting last night, many people spoke in support of a moratorium on land acquisition for the project.

But, "we're not trying to kill the Mon-Fayette," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "I know some people came to speak about that. This body is on record as supporting the Mon-Fayette and we continue to be."

The Y-shaped, 24-mile northern piece of the road would include a six-mile run through the city neighborhoods of Swisshelm Park, southern Squirrel Hill, Glen Hazel, Hazelwood and South Oakland, ending at Bates Street. It would displace around 190 city residences, businesses and facilities.

The commission is $2.4 billion short of the funding it needs to complete the northern section, said spokesman Tom Fox.

The agenda for the commission's Dec. 19 meeting isn't final, he said, and there has been no decision to start buying land or even hire a consultant to do so. There are, however, reasons to start purchasing property.

"You have to give some consideration to the property owners, some of whom have been involved in the process for 12 or 13 years," said Mr. Fox. Many owners "want us to take their property so they can move on with their lives."

If it waits, the commission runs the risk of seeing some property values rise, he added.

City Council members voted 7-0 for the resolution, with Jim Motznik abstaining and Dan Deasy absent at the time of the roll call. City Council has no power to prevent any land purchases.

Mr. Koch said the group Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, which has opposed the expressway project, told him that the commission is planning to start buying land.

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

(Anita Srikameswaran contributed to this report. Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.)

AaronPGH

12-06-2006, 06:54 AM

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06340/743843-28.stm

Western Pa. lands Westinghouse engineering unit
Monroeville and Cranberry vie for new facility and up to 2,000 high-paying jobs

Wednesday, December 06, 2006
By Dan Fitzpatrick and Steve Massey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Western Pennsylvania will get a Westinghouse Electric Corp. expansion that will bring 1,000 to 2,000 new high-paying jobs to the region, the only question being whether the new facility will be built in Monroeville or Cranberry.

Sources familiar with the situation said the nuclear energy company's board met Monday night and selected its home region over Charlotte, N.C., which also had been vying for a new engineering campus Westinghouse says it needs to accommodate expected growth in the nuclear plant business.

Monroeville-based Westinghouse, which already employs about 3,000 in the region and 9,000 worldwide, has been in an expansion mode in recent years amid a revival of nuclear power's prospects and resignations of older staffers. It hired 800 people last year, will hire 900 more this year and expects to hire a minimum of 500 new workers in succeeding years.

The former conglomerate, whose technology is used in half of the world's operating nuclear power plants, is a finalist to build four nuclear power plants in China and potentially dozens more there in coming years. Its latest nuclear plant design also has been selected by several U.S. power companies planning new nuclear reactors. If regulatory clearances are received, they would be the first domestic nuclear plant orders since 1978.

The decision to build in the region comes weeks after Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill providing a 15-year abatement on sales taxes, corporate net income taxes and corporate stock and franchise taxes to large companies that stay in Pennsylvania.

State and area lawmakers, as well as Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, pushed hard for the bill's passage, saying it was key to keeping Westinghouse in its home region.

Westinghouse spokesman Vaughn Gilbert would not comment on whether a decision has been made on where to build the new campus, which would be home to technical, administrative and engineering personnel earning up to $100,000 or so a year.

But he said people involved with the site selection process have asked for more information and that a decision is expected soon. "We've had significant support from the governor of Pennsylvania, local elected officials and the Allegheny Conference,'' Mr. Gilbert said.

Insiders say Cranberry Woods, which is along Route 228, is one of the two finalists. Its advantages include plenty of space for buildings and parking, and because of the new law, Westinghouse would not have to pay local taxes if local officials agree.

The other site is Westinghouse's existing twin-office campus in Monroeville. It fully occupies one building there and the second building is almost full, meaning Westinghouse would have to build another structure there.

Westinghouse would continue to pay its current level of taxes that support the Gateway School District, though it would not have to pay additional taxes on the new space in Monroeville.

A third site, the Tech 21 industrial park in Marshall, no longer is under consideration.

AaronPGH

12-06-2006, 06:56 AM

Thank you WESTINGHOUSE! Pittsburgh really needed this news right now. 8)

Evergrey

12-06-2006, 06:55 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06340/743976-100.stm

Downtown condo developer finds strong demand
Wednesday, December 06, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The developer of Downtown's newest condominium tower is more than half way home in his effort to fill the building.

Ralph Falbo, head of Ralph A. Falbo Inc., said this morning that he has sold 47 of the 80 condo units in the 18-story 151 First Side building on Fort Pitt Boulevard near Stanwix Street. Prices for the condos range from $180,000 to a $1.8 million penthouse facing the Monongahela River.

Mr. Falbo said he has begun offering six units on each of the 15th and 16th floors for sale, with prices ranging from $310,000 for a one-bedroom condo to $700,000 for a three-bedroom with a river view. Most of the condos sold so far have been on the lower floors. One exception is a top-floor penthouse facing Downtown.

During a press conference with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Mr. Falbo said he hopes to have the building ready for occupancy by mid-summer. This morning's press conference was held to coincide with a "topping off" ceremony later today to mark the completion of the building's framing.

Even though the 151 First Side project is just one of several luxury condo developments under construction Downtown, Mr. Ravenstahl said he does not believe too many units are being built Downtown. He said the fact that developers are taking the risk indicates that the demand exists.

"I think people are excited about investing in Pittsburgh and living in the Downtown area," he said.

Mr. Ravenstahl acknowledged that there is a need for more affordable housing Downtown and was supportive of Millcraft Industries, the developer of the old G.C. Murphy store on Fifth Avenue, for deciding to build apartments aimed at renters with incomes of $40,000 to $50,000 a year.

Evergrey

12-07-2006, 11:15 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06341/744388-100.stm

City buying back old tax liens
Thursday, December 07, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The City of Pittsburgh plans to reverse a decade-old sale of old tax debt, potentially freeing thousands of vacant lots and abandoned houses for development.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the city, the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority will pay a combined $6.5 million for the old debts, called liens, which were sold to a private company for $64 million throughout the late 1990s.

At the time, selling hard-to-collect debt for quick cash seemed like a good idea. But the company that bought the debts, Capital Asset Research Corp., demanded payment of the debts before properties could be redeveloped, which often scotched efforts to build new homes on old lots.

"This has been the hurdle that we faced over and over and over again," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "We now, as a city, will buy those [debts] back, have them under our control" and forgive all or part of the debt when doing so would help facilitate development.

"This is a big obstacle now out of the way from progress and development," said Aggie Brose, deputy director of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., a neighborhood development group that has had to wrestle with old tax debt when trying to revitalize places like Dearborn Street in Garfield. "You could be paying $50,000 [in old tax debt] on a lot on Dearborn."

She said community groups will be able to pursue buying tax-delinquent lots -- a cumbersome process -- without having to worry about a Capital Asset lien ruining the effort.

Capital Asset's parent company, MBIA Inc. of Armonk, N.Y., "had interest in removing themselves from the lien process," said the mayor. He and his staff, including Chief of Staff Yarone Zober, were able to complete a negotiation on the price that was started under the late Mayor Bob O'Connor.

...

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/12/04/daily26.html?surround=lfn

Pittsburgh to buy back tax liens for $6.5M
Pittsburgh Business Times - 3:13 PM EST Thursday
The City of Pittsburgh is buying back tax liens on 11,000 parcels of property for $6.5 million in what Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said was part of his plan to encourage economic development.

From 1996 to 1999, the city sold tax liens on approximately 14,000 parcels to New York-based Capital Asset Research Corp. for $64 million.

"We are taking the initiative and buying back these 'lienfields,"' Ravenstahl said in a statement. "Now, properties in our city's neighborhoods, previously unavailable for redevelopment because of their high tax liens, can finally be developed."

The city will finance the deal through money from its general fund, as well as contributions from the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

It was unclear if the city planned to buy back some of the other 3,000 parcels it previously sold.

Evergrey

12-08-2006, 06:17 AM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_483025.html

Condo sales beat expectations

By Sam Spatter
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, December 7, 2006

The developers of One Fifty One First Side were beaming Wednesday.
"We have 47 of 80 units sold, which is ahead of our projection, and expect the first buyers to move in by late spring or early summer," said Ralph Falbo of Ralph A. Falbo Inc.

Falbo -- along with his partners, Gene Zambrano of Zambrano Corp., and Brett Malky of EQA Landmark Communities -- showed off the construction progress of the $25 million, 18-story Downtown building.

Originally, 82 units were planned, but two buyers bought two units and combined them into single units, Falbo said.

"We will now release the 15th and 16th floors, which we have withheld from the market," he said. The 5th and 8th floor units are all sold, as are all units but one each on the 6th, 7th, 9th and 11th floors.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl got caught up when he expressed his excitement over the housing project, one of several residential projects already opened or coming into the Downtown area.

"The building has attracted buyers from San Francisco to Manhattan, and this is the residential component needed to help make Downtown a 24/7 city," he said.

Ravenstahl, however, noted the condominiums' price range -- from $270,000 to $1.8 million.

"My administration is looking into how to bring more affordable housing Downtown, for lower- to median-income families," he said.

After the morning presentation, a topping-off ceremony was held to mark the completion of framing the building.

Zambrano's Rob Sklarsky gave an update on construction.

"In all, we have used nearly 3,000 tons of steel supplied by Sippel Steel of Ambridge, and metal components from Sentry Mechanical of Braddock," he said.

Malky said the buyers cover a wide range of professions and ages, including doctors, attorneys, college officials and young professionals. He said 77 percent of the buyers live in the Pittsburgh region, many from suburbs such as Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon and Cranberry.

"Our early sales demonstrated a strong interest from out-of-town buyers, many of whom are 'boomerang Pittsburghers' -- people who are originally from the area and look to retire back in the city or are relocating for job and family reasons," he said.

Sam Spatter can be reached at sspatter@tribweb

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2006-12-06/1207bCONDO-a.jpg
The steel structure of One Fifty One First Side awaits the final steel beam to be put in place Wednesday in Pittsburgh. One Fifty One First Side is downtown's first new condominium building.
Joe Appel/Tribune-Review

Evergrey

12-08-2006, 07:15 AM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_483206.html

$6.5M city lien deal strikes blow against blight

By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, December 8, 2006

Pittsburgh will retake control of tax liens on thousands of properties for one-tenth of what a private company originally paid to buy them -- clearing the way for new development.
"We talk about bringing our neighborhoods back, we talk about reinvesting in our neighborhoods. This has been the hurdle that we faced over and over and over again," Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said Thursday, flanked by dozens of neighborhood development officials. "This is unprecedented; it's something that will give us control."

Ravenstahl said the city, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and Pittsburgh Public Schools will team to pay $6.5 million next year to regain control of liens on about 11,000 properties. Most are vacant lots. The city's share of the bill will be roughly $3 million, Ravenstahl said, and will come from the city's anticipated $57 million rainy-day fund in 2007.

The school board and the water and sewer authority will be responsible for the remaining $3.5 million, though the exact amount each will pay has not been determined.

The deal could be completed by March.

From 1996-99, Capital Asset Research, a company now owned by bond insurer MBIA of New York, bought about 14,000 tax liens from Pittsburgh for $64 million under a deal with then-Mayor Tom Murphy, who needed the money to help balance budgets, according to city officials. A lien is a claim against a property for unpaid taxes.

MBIA shed its interest in about 3,000 of the properties. Its remaining holdings here, about 8 percent of the land in Pittsburgh, are worth an estimated $40 million.

MBIA's main business is selling insurance to municipal borrowers. The company, the biggest in the industry, has insured more than 90,000 bonds against default since it went public in 1986. It covers $900 billion in principal and interest on more than 30,000 fixed-income assets.

City officials have negotiated for months to buy back the liens cheaply, with the hope of forgiving the debts and then enticing development on the vacant lots, using them as side yards or fixing up aging homes.

The result would be more tax-generating properties in Pittsburgh, the mayor said.

Most of the parcels are in the city's poorer neighborhoods such as Homewood, East Liberty and Larimer. Huge sums of interest have accrued on the liens since 1996, meaning the total interest due has grown to be many times the properties' values.

Ed Jacob, of the city Finance Department's real estate division, said his office has fielded thousands of requests over the past three to four years from would-be buyers who reconsider once they learn of the pricey liens.

The decision to sell back the liens at a bargain price came in part because of recent court cases that made it harder for Capital Asset to collect back taxes.

In July 1999, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion in a lawsuit brought by Pittsburgh homeowners that said Capital Asset was charging about twice the state-mandated cap of 10 percent interest on back taxes.

Five days later MBIA said it would shut Capital Asset, calling the investment "an expensive lesson in how not to expand our business" and taking a $102 million charge.

MBIA's ability to collect in Pittsburgh was reduced again in 2003 when the same court ordered the company to lower its rates and fees and refund money to some property owners, said Aggie Brose, deputy director of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., a builder of affordable housing in the city.

Rick Belloli, executive director of the South Side Local Development Co., said MBIA's need to cut its losses and make money helped the deal happen.

"Their charter by Wall Street is to make money, not to do community development; the city's charter is a different focus," Belloli said. "So it's important to keep the folks in who are looking at (development) long-term, not at the quarterly results."

Judith Ginyard, executive director of Lincoln-Larimer Community Development Corp., said most of the properties with tax liens are in the city's East End. She said removal of those liens will spur development.

"We have plans for 55 units of housing -- every one of them has a tax lien on it," Ginyard said. "To acquire them, we would have to satisfy maybe millions in liens. Now we have a chance."

Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.

...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06342/744573-53.stm

Buyback of tax liens promotes renewal
Friday, December 08, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The vacant, weedy lot on East Liberty's Hays Street was only worth $9,500 -- small change in the context of the $3 million development planned there.

But when East Liberty Development Inc. sought to buy the lot as part of the site for 16 new apartments, it found $45,000 in old tax debts owned by a private company, Capital Asset Research Corp. That cost was a potential deal breaker.

That's the kind of problem community groups and private developers have faced since the late 1990s, when the city of Pittsburgh sold thousands of old tax debts -- called liens -- to Capital Asset. It's a problem Mayor Luke Ravenstahl may have eliminated yesterday, when he announced a deal to buy the debts back, potentially freeing 11,000 parcels for eventual development.

The debts have "been the hurdle that we faced over and over and over again," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "We now, as a city, will buy those [debts] back, have them under our control" and forgive all or part of the debt when doing so would help facilitate development.

"This is a big obstacle now out of the way from progress and development," said Aggie Brose, deputy director of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., a neighborhood development group that has had to wrestle with old tax debt when trying to revitalize streets.

The city, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority will pay $6.5 million to get the debts back. They sold them for $64 million in several transactions in the late 1990s.

The deep discount is thanks to a decision by financial giant MBIA Inc. of Armonk, N.Y., which is the parent company of Capital Asset, to get out of the tax debt business, which has not been profitable.

For city neighborhoods, too, the old debts have proved burdensome.

On Hays Street, East Liberty Development spent a year negotiating with Capital Asset over the old tax debt, said Ernie Hogan, the organization's director of residential development.

At the end of that time, Capital Asset reduced the debt to $9,500, allowing the organization to proceed with the project. But the delay not only slowed a needed improvement, but added to costs, he said.

Development groups presume the city will be able to make such decisions without delay, and with greater sympathy for the value of community revitalization.

"This is a big factor in streamlining what we do in community development," said Rick Belloli, executive director of the South Side Local Development Corp. His group is in the process of trying to buy 20 tax delinquent properties, and old debts held by Capital Asset had loomed as potential land mines.

When the city completes the buyback, likely by March, he said, "It should lead to a better, quicker, and -- I can't swear to this -- cheaper process."

The buyback won't mean instant development, or even the prompt sale, of the 11,000 debt-ridden properties. The process of notifying the owner and bringing a property to tax auction will continue to take around 18 months, thanks to state laws governing the disposition of property that is deep in tax debt.

It will significantly reduce the uncertainty would-be buyers now face when they consider purchasing tax-delinquent property.

The city's real estate office has on file some 500 written requests to buy tax-delinquent parcels, and another 500 verbal requests. Now it can more aggressively process those requests, without worrying about extended negotiations with Capital Asset.

"There are people that are interested in these properties, but as the mayor alluded to, [the properties] were deep in liens," said Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle, who represents neighborhoods like Homewood, in which a huge portion of properties face old tax debts.

The city will pay nearly half of the buyback cost, said Mr. Ravenstahl; the city school district and the water and sewer authority will pay the rest. Mr. Ravenstahl said he'll draw from the city's savings account, expected to reach $57 million by the end of this year.

The plan will likely require some amendment to the city's 2007 budget, which council is now considering, he said, as a council majority stood approvingly behind him.

Negotiations with MBIA began under the late Mayor Bob O'Connor, Mr. Ravenstahl said. Chief of Staff Yarone Zober and finance officials played a key role, their efforts greased by the fact that MBIA "had interest in removing themselves from the lien process," as the mayor put it.

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

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

PittPenn 03

12-08-2006, 05:30 PM

Watch for the latest Pittsburgh Business Times, which should be up on the web on Sunday evening. An agreement of sale to buy the Otto Milk building in the Strip District has taken place with the plan to convert it to as many as 70 condos. It is not for certain, but finally the coolest building in the Strip District might be put back in use.

Evergrey

12-08-2006, 11:15 PM

Evergrey

12-10-2006, 03:44 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06344/744761-109.stm

Sunday Forum: And the award goes to ...
After months of study, the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force leans toward the Isle of Capri as the best casino bet for the community, according to co-chairs ANNE SWAGER and RONALD D. PORTER
Sunday, December 10, 2006

The noise generated by Pittsburgh's soon-to-be slots casino has increased in volume to an almost deafening level with the approach of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's Dec. 20 meeting at which a license will be awarded. The sounds are not the bells and whistles of winning machines, but the cacophony of PowerPoint presentations, promises and protests about the three applicants for the Pittsburgh prize.

Over the past 18 months, the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force -- composed entirely of volunteer professionals and community representatives -- has invested countless hours researching, studying, interviewing, visiting and listening for the purpose of providing an objective, independent perspective on which casino deal would be best for Pittsburgh.

Simply put, the best casino for Pittsburgh would provide the best economic development opportunity for the city while improving our quality of life. This doesn't mean it would necessarily offer the highest revenue projection, the largest employee base, the most community giveback, the most complete acceptance by the surrounding community or even the best traffic plan. Rather, it would provide the best combination of these and other considerations and result in a successful casino operated by a company that is Pittsburgh's true economic development partner.

The importance of this casino succeeding cannot be overstated or undervalued. Casinos can fail. Poor location, overinvestment, the wrong management team, acts of God or superior competition can interfere. Pittsburgh's own John Connelly had a much-heralded riverboat gaming business that no longer exists.

The Pittsburgh casino license will give one casino operator a regional monopoly, and it should go to the applicant with the most viable model for its business and for the economic vitality of the entire city.

As established by Act 71, the state's gaming legislation, the primary benefit of slots casinos for Pennsylvanians is property tax relief. Lower taxes certainly will contribute to the economic stability of the region. But there is a greater opportunity involved, and Pittsburghers -- with the leverage of only one license approval process -- have the right to demand more.

A successful casino in Pittsburgh will provide well-paying jobs in a new and growing industry. It will strengthen Pittsburgh as a regional tourism destination. Community and nonprofit organizations will realize increased support through contributions from the casinos. A successful gaming operation will generate economic spin-offs, such as new restaurants, shops and businesses that provide casino support services. And, because of its urban location, a successful Pittsburgh casino will become part of the iconic image of the Golden Triangle and the Three Rivers.

Synergy is important. The most successful casinos are part of larger entertainment complexes that include performance spaces or arenas, shopping and family activities. This allows casino visitors to enjoy a rich, multi-faceted experience,

Traffic is important. Pittsburgh's casino needs to be convenient for 6 million annual visitors to get to without causing congestion that hurts nearby communities. Traffic and roadway improvements needed to accommodate this additional volume should not come at public expense.

Design is important. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city with many distinguished attractions. Pittsburgh's casino must fit into and enhance the urban environment. Buildings at their best contribute positively to the experience, whether a visitor actually goes to the casino or just passes by. Pittsburgh has many successful developments, including our emerging riverfronts, the Crawford Square neighborhood and the cluster of family entertainment venues on the North Shore located near the three proposed casinos. Done well, Pittsburgh's casino would bolster such excellent efforts.

Community-wide citizenship is important. The Pittsburgh casino must benefit the entire city as well as the community immediately adjacent to it. Social impact and education efforts should be directed at mitigating concerns, particularly for close-by neighbors. A large part of the workforce should come from the adjacent community.

Employment opportunities are important. Every effort must be taken to assure that jobs at all levels within the casino industry are fully accessible to all qualified candidates and, where necessary, training and other mechanisms are available to provide support to candidates who otherwise might be excluded.

Social service support is important. Pittsburgh's casino operator must complement internal problem-gaming mitigation programs with broader community partnerships. Social problems can arise from casinos, and the gaming operator should engage these partners from the start.

Involvement is important. The gaming operator has to be a partner with Pittsburgh to fully realize the potential it can contribute to the city, whether with a new arena, a revitalization of the lower Hill District or donations to community-based organizations.

Commitment is important. Pittsburgh's casino partner must be dedicated to its success in Pittsburgh. This must be demonstrated with more than promises or assurances; the gaming operator should have binding and enforceable agreements about its investment in the local casino and its community pledges.

Over the next 10 days the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force will continue its analysis of the three proposals for a Pittsburgh casino, and we will submit a final letter detailing our comments, suggestions and concerns to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

In the real world nothing is perfect, including the three casino plans. Serious issues remain about giant parking garages on the riverfront, development promises that are not nailed down, traffic congestion issues that would require investments borne by the public and concerns about temporary operations. Yet, based on available information and considered against the above measurements, the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force believes Isle of Capri is the strongest plan and provides the best opportunity for Pittsburgh.

When the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hears final presentations from the Category 2 Pittsburgh license applicants on Dec. 19 and when they deliberate on Dec. 20, the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force encourages them to make the decision based on which proposal provides the most comprehensive benefit to the entire region. Anything less would marginalize this economic development opportunity for Pittsburgh.

Anne Swager and Ronald D. Porter are co-chairs of the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force (www.pittsburghgamingtaskforce.org).

http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20061210casinos_forumEY_278.jpg

Evergrey

12-11-2006, 06:21 PM

Since themaguffin hasn't posted it here yet...

More housing slated for Strip
Pittsburgh Business Times - December 8, 2006
by Tim Schooley

A long-vacant 19th-century Strip District warehouse with a distinctive brick tower could be converted into a new, mixed-use development that would include as many as 70 condominiums.
Suburban Philadelphia-based Solara Ventures LLC has an agreement of sale to buy the Otto Milk building from Ironrite Corp., a defunct commercial laundry business.
Solara president Jack Benoff emphasized this week that he has yet to decide on a final plan for the property but said he has been studying the condo project for months and believes it will dovetail with other development nearby.
"The only thing I knew nine months ago was I loved the look of the building," said Benoff, who was recently granted approval for a 17-unit condo project at 941 Penn Ave. in the Cultural District. "I think the location is just great, and I think the timing is perfect."
Located between Smallman Street and Penn Avenue at 25th Street, the property includes a complex of several smaller buildings that total 82,000 square feet and span much of two city blocks.
Rich Beynon, president of Downtown-based Beynon & Co., said the sale price will be close to the $1.2 million Ironrite was seeking. Solara should close on the sale in the spring, Beynon said.
He compared the potential of the Otto Milk building with the nearby Armstrong Cork development, a former cork factory that Chicago-based McCaffrey Interests Inc. is renovating into 297 apartments.
"It's one of the most unique properties in the Strip," Beynon said of the Otto Milk building. "We needed a buyer who could see through its current condition."
That wasn't easy, Benoff said.
He was only able last week to remove years of debris to see what the floors look like, and it took nearly six months to get accurate measurements of the neglected property.
Benoff said many have called him crazy for acquiring the property. But he said it has great history and architectural detail.
He believes it originally was built for the Phoenix Brewery, one of the city's first, before becoming headquarters for the Otto Milk Co. Otto Milk equipment still inside the building suggests to Benoff that much of the property hasn't been used since the 1940s or 1950s.
Working with Shadyside-based Indovina Associates Architects, Benoff said he has interest from a professional services firm for a 7,000-square-foot office there.
Solara might build onto the property or tear down some of its smaller structures toward the rear.
With the Cork Factory offering rental units, Benoff sees great potential in marketing condos of between 800 and 2,000 square feet for $200,000 to $250,000.
"My ultimate goal is to sell somebody a unit for about what they could rent on a monthly basis," Benoff said.
After pursuing a variety of smaller commercial and residential projects in Philadelphia, he said the Otto Milk building renovation will be his largest project.
Jerry Dettore, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said his organization is working to help Solara become eligible for some state funding.
Aaron Stauber, president of New Rochelle, N.Y.-based Rugby Realty Co., sees the development as another positive sign for the Strip District, which has seen an influx of development projects in recent years. Rugby has plans for a new condo development nearby on Smallman.
"I think without any question anyone who looks at anything going on in the Strip District would say it's trending hugely upwards," Stauber said.

Evergrey

12-12-2006, 05:10 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06346/745379-298.stm

CMU plans upgrades for Herron, Brighton corridors
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Brighton Road and Herron Avenue got bright outlooks yesterday when Carnegie Mellon University architecture students unveiled dream schemes for enlivening the corridors to public officials and neighborhood advocates Downtown.

The designs -- which double as class work under the school's "urban lab" program -- resulted from months of brainstorming meetings with residents in both neighborhoods. To find solutions for a plague of vacant land, the Urban Redevelopment Authority initiated the project, with support from the Urban Land Institute.

The plans include an indoor bazaar off Brighton that would draw regional visitors to the North Side, a cultural center blending Hill history and jazz across from the Martin Luther King Reading Room on Herron and stores, restaurants, houses, urban farms and other green community spaces along both corridors.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl pledged "to help make these drawings come to fruition," and although full fruition would be many years away, some ideas can be implemented as quickly as "within maybe six months," said city Planning Director Patrick Ford.

Mr. Ford seized on public art as most immediately possible. "We're beginning a public-art agenda" in 2007 "and I have funding for a public art manager," he said. "We have the opportunity now to look at some of these critical areas" -- places where public art could help spur development.

The Public Art Office is a new piece of the planning department, with $132,000 in funding over three years from the Heinz Endowments. The contribution was born of "the idea that public art will translate so clearly into public amenity improvements and economic development that the city will see a value in continuing the position itself" after three years, said Doug Root, spokesman for the Heinz Endowments.

One thing the city is not hurting for is public art. "We have it stockpiled in garages and public works warehouses," said Mr. Ford. He vowed, to an audience of community advocates earlier in the day, "to work with every one of you to establish a public art plan."

After public art, urban farms and other green spaces are likely the next least complicated endeavors.

One heavily vacant swath off Brighton Road in California-Kirkbride could become an urban farm with greenhouses and housing for farmers who could sell produce to the grocery the students invented.

Rebecca Davidson-Wagner, executive director of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, said she could see such a symbiotic and sustainable plan working in the neighborhood. "But it will take a strong push" by an entity capable of making that happen, she said.

The city's recent decision to buy back the liens it sold to the debt recovery firm Capital Assets will make some privately held properties easier to get, said Ms. Davidson-Wagner.

The URA owns large tracts of land along Herron, but most of the land on Brighton is privately held.

The Hill scenario included designs for signage at Herron and Bigelow, advertising in vertical artsy letters a neighborhood that is not announced now, with a driving range and batting cage area nearby.

"Boundaries are very undefined now," said Luis Rico, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon. "We heard residents say that their neighborhood is not called the Hill anymore," but designations such as Crawford-Roberts and Terrace Village. "So maybe we can tell people, 'here it is, a place full of history.' "

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

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

Evergrey

12-12-2006, 07:31 PM

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/41solara.aspx

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2041/otto_milk_300.jpg

December 13, 2006

Up to 70 new condos planned for the Strip District
Jack Benoff, president of Solara Ventures, plans to bring up to 70 new condos ranging in size from 800 to 2,000 square feet, to the Strip District. The Philadelphia-based developer is purchasing seven buildings along Smallman and 25th Streets from the Ironite Corporation for approximately $1.2 million.

“During my first trip to Pittsburgh, I drove past and saw the original tower,” says Benoff in discovering the site’s 19th-century Otto Milk Building, which once housed Phoenix Brewery. “I like the location with the restaurants and bars.” Benoff also cites the Strip's new residential projects as a draw. “There will be 300 rental units across the street and Rugby Realty has a project there.”

Benoff, who is also developing condos downtown at 941 Penn, is working with Indovina Associates to create preliminary designs and determine remediation costs. The 86,000 square-foot project may incorporate existing architectural and industrial elements, including the brick tower, stainless steel tanks and 1940s-era milk cartons. “We’ll do condos in a couple of phases—lofts with mezzanines and some penthouses with roof decks.”

Part the property’s 12,000 square-foot first floor may be leased to a professional services firm. The project will involve a combination of rehabilitation and new construction and will expand an existing 9,000 square-foot parking facility.

“We’re very interested in making this affordable,” adds Benoff, who says some condos will start at $200,000. “We’re working with the URA for remediation and façade loans.” Benoff expects to break ground during the second quarter of 2007. “I’m exited about being part of the vibrancy of the community--to really create a neighborhood there."

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Jack Benoff

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

Evergrey

12-12-2006, 07:42 PM

what a fresh concept!

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/41mooi.aspx

December 13, 2006

Mooi brings organic children's couture to Eastside
On Dec. 14, Mooi will celebrate its grand opening in the new Eastside development at 5932 Penn Circle South. The 1,500 square-foot shop is Pittsburgh’s first children’s organic boutique.

Located on Eastside’s upper deck, Mooi--named for the Dutch word for beautiful—carries clothing, crib mattresses and baby products, from dresses made from recycled pillowcases to bedding by Egypt’s Under the Nile. Prices range from $5 for toys to $200 for suede coats.

Owners and Fox Chapel residents Jill Uhryniak and Emma Gosden, both Medrad employees, hope to attract Whole Foods patrons wanting to transition from organic foods to organic clothing. After shopping for organic children’s products in Europe, Uhryniak wanted to bring the concept to Pittsburgh. “The more I talked to people, the more I realized there was a market here.”

The Eastside construction caught Uhryniak’s eye awhile back; she loved the location and developer Steve Mosites was excited about her concept. “They’ve been incredibly supportive--their flexibility has been amazing for getting things done.” The shop received working capital from the URA and plans to apply for LEED certification as a business.

Uhryniak worked with Kolano Design on the shop’s interior, which features eco-friendly bamboo floors, natural wood cases and colorful photographs of children modeling Mooi products.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Jill Uhryniak

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2041/mooi_300.jpg

Evergrey

12-12-2006, 07:43 PM

The urban cupcake phenomenon is hitting Pittsburgh hard this month with the opening of Dozen Cupcakes in Squirrel Hill... and this place...

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developmentnews/41cocos.aspx

December 13, 2006

New Shadyside cafe blends art of cupcakes with pittsburgh pride
During business trips, designer Shea Mullen saw the cupcake craze sweep the nation at NYC's Magnolia and L.A.'s Sprinkles. Enamored, Mullen was determined to created a design-savvy, homespun version of the concept.

This week, Mullen opens CoCo’s Cupcake Café at 5811 Ellsworth Avenue, along with partner Dennis Steigerwalt, a Mt. Washington resident and president of Steigerwalt Capital, LLC.

Susie Treon, formerly of the Cafe at the Frick and named Best Pastry Chef by Pittsburgh Magazine, Nick Torina, a recent Pennsylvania Culinary Institute graduate and Krissie Frank, fresh from a stint at a French organic farm, teamed up to create CoCo’s menu. In addition to what Mullen dubs the “four basic, nostalgic types,” CoCo’s will carry specials such as eggnog, gingerbread and vegan cupcakes.

The 2,000 square-foot café features a patio, concrete floor, white oak interiors created by Kevin Kauffunger and a steel railing designed by metalsmith Chad Fedchick. Its walls will feature cupcake-themed works by local artists.

“We’ll be open late as an alternative to the bar scene,” says Mullen, a Regent Square resident whose company Good Chemistry has designed products for American Eagle and Barney's. “Ellsworth is going to rock at night--I think it’s what Walnut used to be.”

CoCo’s plans to host art events, launch a “cupcake couture” line and may turn its basement into a dessert bar.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Shea Mullen

Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene

http://www.popcitymedia.com/galleries/Default/Dev%20News/Issue%2041/cocos_cupcake_300.jpg

ColDayMan

12-13-2006, 01:28 AM

Lord...

Paintballer1708

12-13-2006, 01:37 AM

I just saw on Channel 11 today about the Otto Milk possible condo units. More great options for converted condos.

Evergrey

12-13-2006, 05:27 AM

... yet another high-rise low-income housing project bites the dust... soon the 3rd of 3 high-rises in E. Liberty will be destroyed as well...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_483931.html

High-rise to go up in dust

By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Herman Ward is relieved that they're finally putting "the death trap" known as the East Hills high-rise out of its misery.
A demolition crew is scheduled to implode the 14-story, 157-unit relic of high-density public housing at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Ward, 78, smiles at that.

He and his wife, Diane, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, once lived near the top of the 34-year-old behemoth, which will become the second Pittsburgh Housing Authority high-rise to fall in the past 15 months.

"They should have knocked it down a long time ago," said Ward, who was plagued for 12 years by broken elevators, crime and a leaky roof.

The cloud of dust that's sure to leap from the vacant brick building's shell should be visible for miles to residents of neighboring Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg.

The Housing Authority moved Ward and other senior citizen residents in October 2003 to the Silver Lake Commons -- operated by Presbyterian SeniorCare -- on Frankstown Avenue.

"When the kids would turn on a hydrant outside in the summer, I wouldn't have any water to flush the toilet or run the faucet for two days," Ward said.

He knew living there was getting bad when the building's manager began seeking volunteers to take over for unreliable night watchmen in the supposedly secure building.

"The only thing that was of benefit to someone was the view," Ward said. "We could see the fireworks on the North Side from up there."

David Hurt, 86, an East Hills high-rise resident of 10 years, likes his new home at the Commons because there are only two floors. The cane-carrying Hurt says he'll never be forced to walk down 14 flights of steps again.

His neighbor, Charles Evins, 67, agrees. "This place has all the efficiencies in here. It's everything that you need," he said.

The Housing Authority paid Titan Wrecking & Environmental Corp. $1.3 million to do the implosion, which will mirror the September 2005 destruction of the 14-story Garfield Heights high-rise.

Housing officials said it would have cost more than $13 million to try to renovate the East Hills building.

In keeping with the national trend of demolishing outmoded high-rise public housing, the Housing Authority's next implosion likely will be the vacant Kelly Street high-rise in East Hills early next year, said Chuck Rohrer, an authority spokesman.

When the East Hills high-rise is gone, the 75 residents at Silver Lake Commons across the street from the Shiloh Community Baptist Church won't miss it, Ward said.

In case they do, the Commons' manager, Denise Thompson, plans to put up a photo in her office of the building's final destruction.

"It seems only fitting," she said.

Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.

If you go
What: Implosion of the East Hills high-rise.

When: 1:30 p.m. Saturday; implosion will be at 2 p.m., after a ceremony.

Where: The Housing Authority will have a viewing station at the parking lot of Petra Ministries, 235 Eastgate Drive in East Hills.

Evergrey

12-13-2006, 05:45 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06347/745671-53.stm

URA is ready to sell; Millcraft is ready to start
Price tag is $2.5 million for G.C. Murphy's parcel where apartments slated
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority is poised to sell old G.C. Murphy's store buildings and other properties to a Washington County developer for $2.5 million -- another key step in the redevelopment of the downtrodden Fifth and Forbes corridor, Downtown.

Millcraft Industries Inc., doing business as Downtown Streets Pittsburgh LP, intends to convert the former store and the adjacent properties into shops and apartments targeting middle-income wage earners and renting from $750 to $1,500 a month.

"We're finally getting it off the ground, so we're excited," said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate. "We're ready to start digging."

URA board members are expected to vote tomorrow on a proposal to sell six Fifth Avenue parcels, including three that make up the Murphy's store, to Downtown Streets Pittsburgh.

Downtown Streets is a subsidiary of Millcraft. Mr. Piatt said Ira Morgan, a friend of late Mayor Bob O'Connor, no longer is part of the development team.

The purchase price represents a bargain of sorts for Millcraft -- the URA paid $3.83 million for the buildings, all of which were purchased over the last four years. Mr. Piatt said the $2.5 million is in line with the values provided by an appraiser hired by the URA and Millcraft.

Millcraft originally had looked at converting the Murphy's store to condominiums and apartments, but switched to all apartments in order to take advantage of federal tax credits available to developers of historic structures, thus lowering redevelopment costs.

The apartments would target $40,000 to $50,000 wage earners and offer a more affordable alternative to the luxury condos under construction in the Golden Triangle, including those at Piatt Place in the former Lazarus-Macy's building, Millcraft's other Downtown project.

Millcraft now estimates that the cost of converting the Murphy's store will run $30 million to $40 million, up from the initial $21 million estimate.

The URA board also is expected to act tomorrow on a proposed agreement with Millcraft on 10 other authority-owned parcels on Forbes Avenue and Wood Street in the Fifth-Forbes corridor.

They are to be developed in phases by Millcraft, and would include a $50 million, 18-story Forbes Village high-rise on Forbes near Market Square that is to offer a mix of condos, apartments and shops.

As part of the action, Millcraft would have exclusive control over the properties for an unspecified period, with redevelopment proposals to be made at a later date.

URA Executive Director Jerome Dettore could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Once the Murphy's project gets rolling, there will be two major redevelopments occurring simultaneously on Fifth Avenue in the heart of the Downtown retail corridor.

The other, across the street from the Murphy's construction, is the $170 million Three PNC Center skyscraper that will house offices, a hotel and luxury condos. It is expected to open in 2008. Construction has started.

Also tomorrow, the URA is expected to sell three parcels, one on Fifth Avenue and two on Market Street, to a subsidiary of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for $257,000.

The foundation intends to convert the vacant structures into upper-floor apartments, with street-level retail.

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

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

Evergrey

12-13-2006, 06:03 AM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06347/745659-53.stm

Ravenstahl envisions a city that's affordable, fun, smart
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl would love to be the guy who reverses the city's six-decade population plunge. His formula for doing that includes affordable living and merrymaking Downtown, more fun development like the SouthSide Works, and engagement between the city and its school district.

Those were the broad visions the mayor laid out yesterday to Post-Gazette editors and a reporter. His 100th day in office passed Sunday, and he asserted that he has gone beyond being a steward for the late Bob O'Connor, and offers a distinct vision for the city's future.

In the near term, it may include tax breaks for housing, free parking some days, and a joint effort with the Pittsburgh Public Schools to improve education that is to be unveiled today.

After Mr. O'Connor's Sept. 1 death and Mr. Ravenstahl's ascent from City Council president, the latter focused mainly on finishing things started by the former. The 311 service line, creation of a second redd-up crew, a deal to collect trash for Wilkinsburg and the buyback of old tax debts from a private company were efforts started under Mr. O'Connor, or even earlier.

Now, with a mayoral election looming next year, some of what Mr. O'Connor started is getting a Ravenstahl twist. Take the Downtown housing surge.

The mayor and his wife, Erin, toyed with moving Downtown, but determined that on his $96,511 salary and her earnings as a beautician, they'd be hard-pressed to afford it. The lower-end condominiums are coming on the market at around $200,000.

The mayor wants people earning even $50,000 to be able to consider the center city.

"It's definitely a challenge, and one I'm well aware of, and one my administration is looking at in terms of making that more affordable," he said. "Philadelphia has been very successful with a 10-year tax abatement for Downtown, something we're looking at internally."

Philadelphia's 10-year tax abatement on residential construction citywide, launched in 1997, spurred $375 million worth of new housing that wouldn't have otherwise happened, said Joe Grace, spokesman for Mayor John Street. It has been used mostly by Center City developers, pushing the downtown population to 88,000 now, and a projected 100,000 in a year, he said.

"By any standard, the tax abatement in Philadelphia has been a success," Mr. Grace said.

A property tax abatement for new Downtown housing here would be helpful, said Lucas Piatt, vice president of real estate for Millcraft Industries, which hopes to spearhead a Downtown redevelopment. He said the firm hasn't studied its likely effect on price but is striving to keep all costs down.

He said he's responding to the mayor's call for less expensive Downtown digs and will present a plan to the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority tomorrow that "will show that work force housing is possible Downtown." The plan deals with the former G.C. Murphy building, which would become Market Square Place and the Market Square Lofts.

Mr. Ravenstahl said he's looking for creative ways to keep Downtown parking costs from scaring away visitors. Lot operators have said they won't reduce rates next year, even though the city's parking tax is set to dip from 50 percent to 45 percent.

The mayor said he met last week with Pittsburgh Parking Authority officials and urged them to consider giving something back, maybe in the form of a dozen or half-dozen days of free Downtown parking next year. Festive days like the Fourth of July and Light Up Night would be candidates.

Free parking would create "opportunities for people to come Downtown on days when they might otherwise not be able to afford it," he said. That could boost retail activity.

And what if those visitors want to buy books? Barnes & Noble announced in October that it will close its Downtown store next year.

"Symbolically, it is not a good thing for the Downtown," the mayor said of the loss of the only large bookstore there. Millcraft's effort, though, brings new hope. "I am confident that a bookstore will be in that mix in some way, shape or form."

Mr. Ravenstahl said he recently visited Baltimore's Inner Harbor and came across an accounting firm that moved there from the suburbs, in spite of higher rents and taxes. Why? "That's where their young [employees] wanted to be."

SouthSide Works has the same effect on young talent, he said of the development that lured American Eagle Outfitters from a perch in Marshall. He wants to replicate that development's style elsewhere, and intends to tap Gov. Ed Rendell for dollars to get that done.

The works has "the cool factor" because it combines homes, stores, jobs, places to party and outdoor amenities like trails, said Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project Executive Director Erin Molchany. "What makes it cool is all of those amenities. [Living or working there] is a lifestyle change."

Surveys of PUMP's youngish membership indicate that they want good education -- and not just grad schools. "Good public schools are definitely something that's of interest to our members," said Ms. Molchany.

Schools don't just educate kids but also affect the stability of neighborhoods and the value of property, she noted.

Mr. O'Connor increased the level of cooperation between the city and the Pittsburgh Public Schools, working with Superintendent Mark Roosevelt to create safe zones around schools. Mr. Ravenstahl said he'll expand on that collaboration.

He and Mr. Roosevelt are scheduled to announce a multiyear, multimillion-dollar joint initiative today, about which neither the city nor the district would provide details yesterday.

"I'm a firm believer that if you feel safe in your community, and if you feel confident that your children are getting a good education, you're not going anywhere," Mr. Ravenstahl said.

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

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

Evergrey

12-13-2006, 06:30 PM

this is an ambitious plan... a strong school system is one of the keys to creating a strong and diverse population in the city... attracting empty-nest condo dwellers and young single artists is one nice... but the city continues to bleed families... mainly due to superior school districts in the suburbs...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06347/745778-100.stm

City schools to promise college funds for good students
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Public Schools is issuing what it calls "The Pittsburgh Promise," pledging that starting in 2008, all graduates who meet certain standards will have the means of getting secondary education.

Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said today that details are still being hammered out by several committees, but the district and the city hope to raise $5 million to $7 million a year to make college or other secondary education affordable. To access the money, students will have to attend a city public school, do their work, stay out of trouble, and graduate.

"We are absolutely 100 percent committed to making this happen, and we will make it happen," Mr. Roosevelt said.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who appeared with Mr. Roosevelt to announce the initiative in the Mayor's Office, will be involved in fund raising. The two said foundations and corporations are logical sources for the money.

"It's going to take big ideas and big thoughts to turn this city around," the mayor said. "That's what this is."

"This represents an unparalled level of cooperation between the school district and the city, to shape this city's future," Mr. Roosevelt said.

The district's High School Task Force is already working on details of the program, and committees on fund raising and planning will joint the effort, he said.

A similar program exists in Kalamazoo, Mich., and has boosted school enrollment and home sales, the mayor said. They emphasized that the effort here would be tailored to Pittsburgh.

AaronPGH

12-13-2006, 11:15 PM

Incredible idea. Hopefully this idea comes to fruition.

themaguffin

12-14-2006, 05:46 PM

I don't know if you any of you caught this the other day, but I revisited this article today as it intrigued me... the Majestic proposal has been under the radar (if that's possible) in this sleazy process for a casino - I think they have been the most upfront (honest enough to say no temp casino, and still committ to the arena and the Hill. Perhaps it's toopractical - harrah's the pull, IOC has the sexy proposal.... but digging deeper and this one does hold up well.

ESP points toward the North Shore casino
Economic, Social and Physical analysis suggests the Majestic Star proposal is the best of the bunch
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

By Daniel Rothschild and Kenneth Doyno

Choosing among the three casino proposals for Pittsburgh initially focused on which one would produce the greatest revenue. After Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officials settled on final revenue estimates, however, little difference remains between the three proposals. If tax revenue is no longer among the main issues in deciding on a site, then what are?

Daniel Rothschild (danr@rdarch.com) and Kenneth Doyno (kend@rdarch.com) are architects and urban designers with Rothschild Doyno Architects and teachers of urban design at Carnegie Mellon's Urban Lab.

In their recent article ("And the Award Goes To ...", Dec. 10 Forum) the co-chairs of the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force identified the key issues, from traffic and design, to employment and social services support. They stated that the decision should be based on which proposal combines these factors to provide "the most comprehensive benefit to the entire region." What needs to be added to their analysis is a framework for organizing the issues and understanding their interrelationship.

We have developed a framework called "ESP" to evaluate the effects of development on existing communities. ESP stands for the Economic, Social and Physical traits of a project that must complement one another if it is to provide added value to the community.

"Economic" addresses the financial impact of a project and spin-off revenues generated by surrounding developments. "Social" refers to the effect of a project on the users and on people in surrounding neighborhoods and the region. "Physical" encompasses a project's connections to transportation networks, its environmental impact and its relationship to the surrounding area.

An ESP analysis for a casino must first focus on its social aspect, since a casino has proven negative social effects, including gambling addiction and crime. The great risk of a negative social impact is why the level of emotion is running so high in relation to the Hill District site. The Isle of Capri proposal for the Hill is the only one that would put a casino in a residential neighborhood's street grid, which means that its negative social effects would reverberate more strongly and more viscerally there than at the two other sites. This is why numerous Hill District groups oppose locating the casino in their neighborhood.

The only reason to choose the Hill District proposal would be if its promised economic and physical traits outweighed its negative social impact by producing greater spin-off development than the other sites. Continuing the ESP analysis shows that this is not the case, and that the Majestic Star/North Shore site has remarkable advantages when it comes to influencing additional development.

A well-designed casino on the North Shore would have a positive impact on our regional image and tie in with the visionary plan of the Riverlife Task Force to create a riverfront park spanning both sides of the three rivers that meet Downtown, from the Hot Metal Bridge to the West End Bridge to the 31st Street Bridge. Once completed, people will be able to walk, jog or ride their bikes in a park that connects 11 city neighborhoods.

A large-scale development like the North Shore casino, anchoring the Ohio River basin adjacent to the West End Bridge, would energize this end of the park with activity, while being separated from the adjacent residential neighborhood of Manchester by the raised roadway of Route 65 and the adjacent industrial zone. Pedestrian connections across the West End Bridge would be strengthened as a result of Riverlife's recent international design competition for a walkway that touches down at the North Shore casino site. As for traffic, the North Shore site has regional roadway connections in every direction, and the surrounding area was designed to handle large volumes of traffic.

The North Shore developers have stated that various activities, including dining, will be able to be accessed directly from the riverfront park, increasing the number of pedestrians. With the casino expected to attract 6 million annual visitors, there would be a steady flow of visitors up and down the riverbank, increasing the likelihood for additional development on the North Shore, including restaurants, hotels, retail and water shuttle service. Although the Forest City/Harrah's casino at Station Square also would be on Three Rivers Park, the access to the riverbank is cut off by railroad tracks and the site is isolated by the river and Mount Washington, preventing it from stimulating more nearby development.

Selecting the North Shore site has the added benefit of encouraging spin-off development in two neighborhoods. Thanks to the initiative of city and county officials, funding for a new arena in the Hill District is also included in the North Shore economic proposal (as it is in all three proposals). The developer also has released plans for additional development around the new arena on the Hill. Filling in the lower Hill with a new arena and related development, without a casino, would be an excellent starting point to revitalize the Hill District.

The North Shore site offers all of the positive advantages of the Hill District site, without the negative social impact of being located in a residential neighborhood. Choosing the North Shore site would provide economic spin-offs at two locations. With Station Square remaining as a great entertainment activity center, with the Point State Park renovation under way and with the continued development of Three Rivers Park, the North Shore site advances the grandest vision for our region's future.

Evergrey

12-14-2006, 09:24 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06348/746197-100.stm

URA sells G.C. Murphy's to Millcraft
Thursday, December 14, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Downtown's former G.C. Murphy's building, the old CandyRama, and a cluster of other properties near Market Square will soon become the property of a developer who will turn them into stores and apartments.

Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority approved the $2.5 million sale of the properties today, completing a key transaction in the impending redevelopment of Downtown's retail core. The buyer, an affiliate of Washington County developer Millcraft Industries, plans to start leasing space in what will be called Market Square Place and the Market Square Lofts early next year, with historically sensitive renovations to start around mid-year.

"There have been so many plans through the years about what could happen here, what should happen here," noted URA board Chairman Yarone Zober, who is chief of staff to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "Downtown is really on the move, and a lot of that is due to what [Millcraft is] doing."

Millcraft also gave up an exclusive option it had to buy and develop three properties along Wood Street, between Fifth and Forbes. Millcraft Chief Financial Officer Brian Walker said the firm has a full plate, and would welcome any effort to find another developer who could move forward with the properties more quickly.

"There's a lot of developers looking at Downtown right now," said Mr. Piatt. "It's gaining national interest."

Millcraft expects to spend $32 million turning the complex of seven buildings into 65,000 square feet of stores, 42 relatively affordable apartments, and a 42-car garage in the basement. The firm expects the state will provide $6 million in redevelopment funding, plus an as-yet-undetermined value of tax credits.

Mr. Piatt said the challenge was designing the apartments around the uneven floor plates of the contiguous buildings, but the firm found a way to arrange them so renters will not have to climb stairs within their units. In order to cut costs, the firm had to abandon its intention to add environmentally friendly aspects to the design.

Rents will run from $750 to $1,400 a month, averaging around $1,000.

Evergrey

12-15-2006, 02:29 PM

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_484301.html

G.C. Murphy sale feeds renaissance

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2006-12-14/1215pcon-a.jpg
Construction in front of the former G.C. Murphy store on Fifth Avenue is "another piece of the puzzle as we continue to develop Downtown," says Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
Philip G. Pavely/Tribune-Review

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/photos/2006-12-14/1215pill-a.jpg
This artist's rendering shows the revamped Fifth Avenue.
Strada and Anderson Illustration

Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority on Thursday sold the former G.C. Murphy store and six nearby buildings to a Washington County developer to fuel Downtown's residential renaissance with new apartments, stores and restaurants.
The deal is the latest and one of the largest boosts this year to Pittsburgh's derelict Fifth-Forbes corridor, which in the past 11 months has attracted a $40 million renovation of the former Lazarus Building into apartments, offices, retail space and a market, and construction of a $190 million, 23-story PNC Bank tower.

"It's an exciting day," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "It really signifies to me another piece of the puzzle as we continue to develop Downtown."

The URA bought the G.C. Murphy complex in 2002 for about $4 million and sold it to Millcraft Industries, of Cecil, for $2.5 million, based on an independent appraisal. The purchase includes the nearby D&K and McMaster buildings.

The URA also sold three historic, yet rundown, buildings to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for $257,000. They will be combined into a retail and eight-apartment development named for its location, "Market at Fifth," said Arthur Ziegler, the foundation's director.

Ziegler said the apartments would be marketed to "working-class and young people." Two of the buildings once housed the Regal Shoes Co. and the Alexander's Graham Bell bar. Renovations could begin in March and be completed by spring 2008.

Millcraft has proposed investing $150 million Downtown. That would not have happened, Millcraft officials said yesterday, if former Mayor Bob O'Connor didn't seek investment from small and mid-sized local developers.

Lucas Piatt, Millcraft's vice president of real estate, said preserving the historic floors, columns and facade of the G.C. Murphy buildings has increased Millcraft's construction costs to $32 million, up from the developer's original estimate of $21 million.

The project will rely on a pledge of $6 million from the state, but no city tax dollars.

Millcraft Chief Financial Officer Brian Walker said rents for 42 apartments would range from $750 to $1,500 a month. Parking for tenants will be in the building's basement.

"It's not just G.C. Murphy's that's being developed right now Downtown," Walker said. "It's the whole few blocks of the corridor that's going to be changed. ... That's why we're here."

Renovations could begin on the buildings as early as April.

Millcraft officials said the company has given up exclusive development rights to several URA-owned properties along Forbes Avenue, dubbed "South of Forbes," where Millcraft's designers envision a luxury condominium highrise.

Piatt said he spoke with developers in New York, Boston and Chicago interested in a joint Downtown development venture with Millcraft.

"It's gaining national interest from a developer's standpoint. It's becoming a safer investment market, also," Piatt said.

Ravenstahl said the change isn't a step back. Instead, it could raise interest in Downtown among other developers and more quickly complete a version of Millcraft's third phase of retail and residential development.

Piatt predicted his development would inject some pizzazz into Downtown's lackluster Market Square and transform it into a safe, bustling "destination neighborhood."

"If you look at Central Park in New York City, the only thing that made Central Park more safe was more people, more joggers, so really what we need is to get people walking the streets, and then we'll have the perception of safety," Piatt said.

Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.

Evergrey

12-15-2006, 02:31 PM

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06349/746313-53.stm

Property sales hailed as Downtown's rebirth
Developers say they are ready to begin long-awaited revitalization
Friday, December 15, 2006

By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With agreements to sell two swaths of Downtown to developers yesterday, the city started the ball rolling on stores, 50 moderately priced apartments and a series of groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings in the center of the downtrodden shopping district.

The sales are the first to result from the latest effort, begun by the late Mayor Bob O'Connor, to revamp the dowdy corridor.

"There have been so many plans through the years about what could happen here, what should happen here," noted Urban Redevelopment Authority board Chairman Yarone Zober, who is chief of staff to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. Now, thanks to several developers, he said, "Downtown is really on the move."

An affiliate of Washington County-based Millcraft Industries will buy the former G.C. Murphy building and adjacent structures for $2.5 million. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will buy three side-by-side buildings on Market Street and Fifth Avenue for $257,000.

Illustrating the challenges of building Downtown, Millcraft gave up its exclusive right to develop three properties at 430 to 438 Wood Street, and announced it was looking around for new partners to help it build a 200-apartment building next to Market Square and south of Forbes Avenue.

Millcraft Chief Financial Officer Brian Walker said the firm has a full plate, and would welcome any URA effort to find another developer who could move quickly on the Wood Street properties, which would have been a small part of the company's overall plans.

He said getting redevelopment of all of Downtown's under-utilized properties under way at the same time would benefit everybody.

"Like any development project, and any revitalization effort, it's going to take time, and it's going to take a lot of unique ideas and thoughts," said Mr. Ravenstahl.

On Monday, Millcraft will start constructing the store and office spaces in its Piatt Place, in the former Lazarus store on Sixth Avenue. Millcraft has lined up tenants for the 50,000 square feet of stores, and the first to open will be Capital Grill in July. The sale of condominiums in the building is going well, Mr. Walker said.

Millcraft wants the Trisanti European Market grocery store to open by the end of next year, but it has not decided whether it will be in Piatt Place or the former Murphy's building.

The Murphy's building "has been targeted for well over a decade now to be revitalized," the mayor noted.

Now dubbed Market Square Place and the Market Square Lofts, the groundbreaking, such as it is, may come as soon as April. No ground will actually break, because Millcraft plans to keep the exteriors and the floors of the seven contiguous buildings intact, even while working in 65,000 square feet of stores, 42 apartments and 42 basement parking spaces.

Construction will take a year, and it won't be easy, because the floors of the buildings don't line up. The firm is arranging the apartments so renters will not have to climb stairs to get around their units. But the uneven floors contribute to the anticipated $32 million cost, and the need for around $6 million in state redevelopment funding, plus a yet-undetermined value of tax credits.

The state financing should help Millcraft keep the rents relatively low, by Downtown standards. The apartments, ranging in size from 700 to 2,000 square feet, will have rents ranging from $750 to $1,400, said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate.

To cut costs, the firm had to abandon its intention to add environmentally friendly aspects to the design, he said. It wants to use "green building" standards on planned new construction Downtown.

That would include its South of Forbes apartment building, which the firm hopes to start building in late 2008.

Pittsburgh History & Landmarks plans to start cleaning out its new Market Street properties in January, take 12 months to renovate them, and get tenants into eight apartments in mid-2008. It will spend around $2.5 million, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., the foundation's president.

"We are striving to make it a green building, a restored building," he said.

As for the Wood Street property Millcraft can't handle now, and the few other unclaimed Downtown spaces, they should go quickly, Mr. Piatt said.

"It's really a snowball, and it's going to keep going."

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

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

Evergrey

12-15-2006, 02:35 PM

Pittsburgh school district enrollment has declined by over 10,000 since 1998! This is obviously a big reason why our city continues to bleed population despite all of our new luxury condos and artist live/work spaces. Of course, the state doesn't do much to ensure high educational standards in urban areas... but Pittsburgh somehow needs to tackle this problem with their limited resources if the city is truly going to rebound.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06349/746369-298.stm

Friday, December 15, 2006

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt advanced a series of academic improvement plans in the past year, he's also redoubled marketing efforts to boost the district's image and help it compete against charter and suburban schools.

The Pittsburgh Promise -- the city-school district venture announced Wednesday to provide college scholarships to graduates of city high schools -- is the most stunning example.

More than a way to reward students for hard work, school and city officials view the program as a marketing tool that could lure families to the troubled district and persuade those already here to stay.

Under Mr. Roosevelt, the district also has expanded its marketing and communications staff, convened focus groups to see what the community wants from its high schools and proposed hiring an expert in corporate call centers to develop a process for fielding the public's phone calls.

He and his chief of staff, Lisa Fischetti, have rolled out branding efforts more commonly seen in competitive corporate and college environments. The focus groups, and related telephone surveys of parents and students, may guide Mr. Roosevelt's task force on "high school reform."

"We encourage people to be aware and informed consumers who make good choices for their kids. And we want to be the choice they make for all the right reasons," said Ms. Fischetti, who formerly operated her own communications firm and worked at Ketchum and Burson-Marsteller.

If school districts traditionally haven't thought of parents and students as "consumers," they must start, Ms. Fischetti said, noting that a growing number of school districts are losing enrollment to charter schools.

The Pittsburgh district's enrollment has dropped from 39,603 in 1998 to 29,445 this year, in part because families have fled academically troubled schools. Because of the losses, the district closed 22 schools in June and eliminated 560 positions over two years.

Ms. Fischetti said the decline will continue unless the district improves academics and gives parents other incentives -- a scholarship program is one example, a reputation for professionalism another -- to choose city schools.

"What I'm trying to say is, competition does interesting things to organizations ... We have competition," she said.

Calling a comprehensive marketing program overdue, school board member Randall Taylor said the district should use billboards and commercials to promote its schools. Despite lagging test scores, he said, Pittsburgh's employees and programs rival most districts.

Pittsburgh Promise, modeled after a program in Kalamazoo, Mich., would offer post-secondary aid to city high-school students who obey rules, have regular attendance and graduate.

Early data from Kalamazoo indicate the scholarship program may have caused an enrollment bump and a jump in real estate prices. Details of the Pittsburgh Promise, including funding sources, have yet to be worked out.

"I think what he's doing is kind of classic brand marketing," Larry Werner, a communications consultant and retired Ketchum executive, said of Mr. Roosevelt. "He's establishing Pittsburgh as a leader."

Doing so isn't cheap.

Mr. Roosevelt proposed a 63 percent increase in Ms. Fischetti's budget, from $730,000 this year to $1.2 million next year, despite the district's grave financial condition. The increase will help pay for some of Ms. Fischetti's marketing initiatives, such as her proposal for a consultant to help the district standardize use of its polka-dot logo.

Some board members seemed taken aback at the idea, but it made sense to Mr. Werner, who said standardization can lead to brand recognition and loyalty. Ms. Fischetti said employees now use, or alter, the logo as they see fit.

"I'd like to go so far as to have common business-card paper and letterhead paper," Ms. Fischetti said.

At Wednesday's agenda-review meeting, Ms. Fischetti also proposed hiring a consultant to develop a uniform process for responding to the public's phone calls and logging concerns to help officials set policy. That could be the first step in improving the district's reputation for professionalism and making every employee what Ms. Fischetti called a "brand-keeper."

"It's about how we answer our phones. It's about how you first feel when you walk into one of our schools," she said.

Mr. Werner said it will take time for Pittsburgh's name to connote the academic quality of Mt. Lebanon School District or the tried-and-true reliability of the Heinz label. "But you have to start somewhere."

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

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

themaguffin

12-18-2006, 02:45 PM

Some Bis Times... North Shore and a lot on Butler County...

New construction on North Shore could see major progress in 2007
Hotel, office building, entertainment district all in the works
Pittsburgh Business Times - December 15, 2006by Ben Semmes

Soon after the Steelers season winds to a close and the calendar turns to 2007, development on the North Shore near Heinz Field appears likely to kick into high gear.

Developers working on the North Shore expect next year will see movement on a variety of projects -- including a hotel, a third office building and potentially a live entertainment area.

Columbus, Ohio-based Continental Real Estate Cos. has developed two new office buildings -- anchored by Equitable Resources Inc. and Del Monte Foods -- totaling 400,000 square feet. Much of the long-standing plans to develop the parking lots between Heinz Field and PNC Park remain a work in progress.

The new office building would be the project's third and probably final one.

"This is a market-driven project," said Barry Ford, head of Continental's Pittsburgh operations. "We are not going to build empty buildings. We are responding to the market."

Continental also has said it is planning to break ground next year on an extended-stay hotel that would carry the flag of either Hyatt Corp. or Embassy Suites.

In addition, Continental chairman Frank Kass said he hopes to bring a "great new restaurant concept" to the North Shore.

Mary Conturo, executive director of the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority, said the authority's agreement with Continental requires at least one more parcel to be completed by next year. Conturo said she expects to hear from Continental by this coming spring with a plan for what the firm plans to break ground on in 2007.

Long-term plans also call for residential development as part of the North Shore, but Kass has said that part of the project may be delayed while the Port Authority of Allegheny County builds the light-rail tunnel under the Allegheny River.

The Steelers have plans to build an amphitheater next to Heinz Field. In 2004, Gov. Ed Rendell pledged $4 million in state money to the plan but quickly withdrew the funding. Heading into 2007, the project still seems to be in its early stages.

Baltimore-based The Cordish Co., which develops entertainment-nightlife districts around the country, has been brought on board as developer of that portion. Kass said he hopes Cordish finalizes a deal with the Steelers by the end of 2006.

'Active negotiations'
In the past year, Cordish's projects elsewhere have pushed forward, most notably with St. Louis awarding the company $83 million in public financing to build residential and office space along with a live entertainment district. The company broke ground in July on its Kansas City, Mo., project as well.

The Pittsburgh project is planned to include a 1,500-seat live performance amphitheater, 37,000 square feet of entertainment space, 19,000 square feet for restaurants and 34,000 square feet for nightclubs and pubs.

Cordish vice president Reed Cordish declined to be interviewed for this story, but he said in an e-mail that the company only recently decided to pursue the project.

"We are now in active negotiations with the Steelers organization and the public side to lease land in order to create a Live! entertainment district," the e-mail said.

But the Urban Redevelopment Authority and a spokesman for the governor said they have had no contact with Cordish.

Urban Redevelopment Authority executive director Jerome Dettore said he would be surprised if Cordish received more than a fraction of the public financing the company received for its projects elsewhere.

"I can't imagine that ever happening in Pittsburgh," he said.

Dettore estimated $4 million to $10 million in public subsidy might be available for Cordish's Pittsburgh project.

Suburban areas grow with new residents while older locales wait for revitalization
Pittsburgh Business Times - December 15, 2006by Ben Semmes

Joe Wojcik
The Butler County Courthouse sits in the middle of the city of Butler’s quiet downtown.
View Larger Not much more than a decade ago, Butler County was still a fairly rural area. In recent years, however, that's been changing.

Taking advantage of its proximity to Pittsburgh and lower taxes than Allegheny County, southern Butler County is experiencing a building boom.

Butler County has had the strongest population growth of any part of the Pittsburgh area over the past 15 years. It is one of the few counties in the region to have a rising population, from 152,000 in 1990 to 182,000 in 2005.

Business parks, retail and housing developments started popping up in Cranberry Township in the late 1990s. Shopping centers now seem to stretch infinitely to the east along Route 228.

That highway is scheduled to become four lanes from Cranberry through its intersection with Route 8, and municipalities even farther east -- Middlesex, Penn and Clinton -- are busy building sewer lines to pave the way for development in their communities.

The city of Butler and its downtown shopping district have suffered from the rise of the shopping mall, lifestyle center and other suburban shopping areas. City officials and local merchants are currently mounting a revitalization effort and are applying for state assistance to hire a manager to coordinate downtown development there.

As Cranberry has grown, the township has battled developers over its insistence on green space. Township manager Jerry Andree said he's proud to have successfully fought off proposals to make every square inch into a retail development.

"In Western Pennsylvania, we tend to give our firstborn son for a Wal-Mart job," Andree said. "We took high-intensity retail, made it an office park, and that made people angry."

Route 228 sees growth explosion through southern Butler County
More land expected to face development of new retail, offices
Pittsburgh Business Times - December 15, 2006by Ben Semmes

Joe Wojcik
Don Rodgers of Creative Real Estate developed many sites along Route 228 in Cranberry, including Cranberry Commons, shown here.
View Larger When Jerry Andree took over as manager of Cranberry Township 15 years ago, the municipality -- and especially the now-bustling Route 228 corridor -- was a much quieter place.

"It was a lot different then than it is now," Andree said.

For starters, the township's population has doubled in that time, from 14,000 to about 27,000 today.

The area's growth first started taking off in the mid- to late-1990s. And nowhere, he said, is the region's rapid development more evident than along Route 228, stretching east from Cranberry through Seven Fields, Adams and Mars.

Andree is proud of the township's work to insist on landscaping and green space within the various developments.

"What (landowners) have seen is really an increase in property values," Andree said. "It is vibrant; it is sustainable."

The 327-acre Cranberry Woods office park stands just east of Interstate 79 near the western edge of the bustling Route 228 corridor.

Under development by O'Hara Township-based Mine Safety Appliances and Trammell Crow Co., the park also is home to a 295-room Marriott hotel.

In addition to the three office buildings at the park, Trammell Crow is currently at work on its fourth building, a 110,000-square-foot structure expected to be complete next year.

Cranberry Woods is only the beginning of development -- retail, commercial, housing -- that stretches east for miles.

Just east of the business park is Cranberry Commons, a 562,000-square-foot shopping center developed by Cranberry-based Creative Real Estate Development Co. in the late 1990s. At the time of the center's construction, Creative teamed up with Mine Safety Appliances and Cranberry Township to foot the $5.5 million bill to widen one mile of Route 228.

"(The road improvements) opened up a lot of development in Adams Township and further east," said Don Rodgers, president of Creative. "Directly across the street from Cranberry Commons, we developed 20 acres, which consists of a lot of restaurants, and includes Chick-fil-A, Red Robin, Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill, On the Border, Olive Garden, some additional retail and a bank."

Creative is currently waiting to see what happens with Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group's planned 885,000-square-foot lifestyle retail-residential development, called Cranberry Town Center, to be built behind Cranberry Commons. Petrarca Cos. of Youngstown, Ohio, announced plans this summer to develop a 24-acre site directly adjacent to Simon's project as a 250,000-square-foot power retail center.

Rodgers said his company is sitting on 100 acres surrounding the proposed mall and has 60 acres of it approved for about 400,000 square feet of flex space, called the North Chase Corporate Center.

Across Route 228, at its intersection with Franklin Road, his company also has 40 acres behind the restaurant development that is currently zoned for a business park, but he believes its best use would be retail.

The list of additional shopping options is staggering traveling east along Route 228. Creative has a 130,000-square-foot retail project called the Shops at Heritage Creek currently under construction two miles east of Cranberry Commons with completion expected in the spring.

Farther east, in Adams Township, Paradise Development of Tampa, Fla., is pursuing a $14 million retail project called the Shops at Adams Ridge, with a 44,000-square-foot retail building and four outparcels currently under construction.

Dale Greco, vice president of development with Paradise, said the center will be anchored by Brentwood-based McGinnis Sisters Special Food Stores, a regional specialty grocer.

As to the current building frenzy there, Greco said: "It really is a strong, high-end demographic corridor. It's electric up there."

Evergrey

12-18-2006, 03:00 PM

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A20372

DECEMBER 14, 2006
A new apartment building on Penn Avenue knits together the community in more ways than one.

BY CHARLES ROSENBLUM

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/binary/2737681d/50_0011_architecture.jpg

New neighbors: Fairmont Apartments, designed by Rothschild Doyno Architects. Photo by Ed Massery

Last year, just before contractors demolished the public-housing high-rise straddling Penn Avenue in East Liberty, crowds gathered to celebrate, cheering and lobbing paint-filled balloons at the doomed modernistic slab. Notable for slicing East Liberty in two, as well as for providing unpleasant and inadequate housing conditions, this building apparently generated a happy consensus only at the party for its destruction. It was a divider, not a uniter.

In the Urban Renewal '60s and '70s, boards and commissions constructed acres of demoralizing housing units as if by fiat. But now, Pittsburgh enjoys an era in which neighborhood nonprofits can work with architects and developers on buildings in which bringing people together is important in both process and end result. The recently completed Fairmont Apartments, by Rothschild Doyno Architects, is one such project.

On the site where the building now stands, on Penn Avenue near the corner of Negley, a chain restaurant had closed its doors, creating yet another challenge to neighborhood revitalization. The Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. and Friendship Development Associates both wanted to redevelop, but Bloomfield-Garfield wanted senior housing to replace units lost nearby (when yet another lousy high-rise came down), while Friendship Development wanted loft-style housing, offices and ground-level retail. "We were hired to bring these two groups together," states principal architect Dan Rothschild.

His firm's working method is especially user-friendly. Numerous inclusive community meetings insure that as many voices as possible contribute to an understanding of what the building could and should be. Also, Rothschild and Doyno use highly descriptive and accessible sketchbook drawings (see their Web site at www.rdarch.com) to explain what influences the neighborhood architecture and their thinking about it.

The site is important because it's in a transitional area, dividing the contrasting characters of Garfield and Friendship while forming a corridor leading to East Liberty's business district. A gap here would have been harmful to all those neighborhoods. "That's why this kind of density was sorely needed," says Rothschild.

Master-planning sessions determined that the interests of both organizations could fit into a single building complex, while the architects' analysis of the architectural qualities of nearby spaces and structures began to suggest the building's character -- storefronts along Penn Avenue, with some street-level access for residents as well. A Boston company, Affirmative Investments, became the developer for the building, which became an $8 million structure with 60 units of housing and 7,500 square feet of retail along the street.

Significantly, for a company that had built mostly traditional-looking buildings, Rothschild Doyno designed a contemporary structure. It has corrugated metal panels, rhythmic sections of brick, and an especially syncopated wall of irregularly checkered panels above the driveway opening.

Yet these elements distinguish themselves from the modernist experimentation of earlier eras. They all earned community approval in numerous meetings, mostly because they derive from precise understanding of the neighborhood's formal rhythms, materials and dimensions of the neighborhood. That corrugated metal matches sections found at the nearby Pittsburgh Glass Center. The building height, at 52 feet, mirrors two historic apartment buildings across the street, to make the streetscape read more like a composed space. Brick façade widths pick up the rhythm of nearby houses. Especially importantly, the building has a front porch, albeit a slightly modern one.

The irregular checkerboard bridge doesn't really derive from anything old. Rather, it symbolizes the new: not two elements made into one, but a collection of contrasting elements, squares, coexisting harmoniously.

This project is not completely inhabited and rented yet, so some of its potential success remains to be seen. Significantly, it recently won American Institute of Architects awards for both urban design and architectural design. The final test will be when the storefronts are rented and residents in adjacent units spend time relaxing on the front porch. Those activities will revitalize the street much more than a drive-in restaurant ever could. Says Rothschild, they "will go a long way to bringing these communities together."

Evergrey

12-18-2006, 03:03 PM

this article is from November... but it's the first time I've seen a rendering of Quantum IV

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A19725

NOVEMBER 2, 2006
A building design for the South Side takes some chances.

BY CHARLES ROSENBLUM

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/binary/6910aad5/44_0001_walls.jpg

A speculative design: the Quantum IV building. Image courtesy of The Design Alliance

If you really want to appreciate the mixed-use retail-and-residential development at the SouthSide Works, go first to, say, the Waterworks, at the edge of Fox Chapel. Like its many brethren, this place is nearly the worst thing possible, designed, if at all, for vast acreage of asphalt parking spaces, with more regard for automobiles than for the people who will get out of them.

Go to the SouthSide Works, though, and you will see an emphasis on urban density and pedestrian-oriented planning that takes very beneficial inspiration from the adjoining historic district of Carson Street. Also positively, there is an emerging opportunity for exciting architecture to be an intrinsic part of the package, as a new proposed office-building design by The Design Alliance Architects shows. Not that the SouthSide Works has terribly forward-thinking designs just yet. Although developers the Soffer Organization commissioned a well-considered, 36-page set of design guidelines in 2000 to more thoughtfully regulate ongoing construction of streets, buildings, parking and public spaces, these principles have not guaranteed complete success. New buildings along Carson Street have a cartoonish sense of the past, as if they feared the future. Also, apparently not even the best design guidelines could have prevented a Cheesecake Factory building that is as hypercaloric yet insubstantial as a huge slice of high-fructose corn syrup. Clearly, the design guidelines don't guarantee success; they only prevent some varieties of disaster. The success that The Design Alliance is aiming for almost didn't happen. The firm was producing office-building designs for a corporate client and proposed a scheme that principal David Ross describes as "fairly contemporary and aggressive." Unfortunately, he explains, "everyone was excited, except the executives." So an ambitious design almost died. But developer Soffer liked the contemporary scheme and asked for a reconfigured version on a different site. The result is the Quantum IV proposal, a speculative design still in search of tenants. The structure is a gleeful yet pragmatic exercise in folding aluminum skin and flowing glass walls with a pleasantly anti-gravitational sense of building mass floating one floor off the ground, though it is really supported by a conventional steel frame. Fans of contemporary architecture will be happy to mention projects such as Diller, Scofidio and Renfro's Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology in the same sentence, and to make knowing references to architect Greg Lynn's influential theoretical writings -- "the Folded, the Pliant and the Supple." A Pittsburgh building can and should have a dialogue with the avant garde, not simply the retrograde. Yet this building is very much appropriate to its place. The transparent ground floor comes directly from design-guideline stipulations that encourage pedestrian activity -- there will be restaurants here. Similarly, sculpted balconies are aimed at favored view corridors. Also, the irregularly perforated walls that seem arbitrary are actually a fairly frank expression of how the service functions on the east side of the structure intersect with the office block.

So it all makes good sense. "If you look at the design guidelines, for sites closer to the river, they encourage designs that are glass and open," says project architect Joseph German. They also encourage adventurousness. "Along the river," says the document, "more informal building massing and articulation is encouraged." It's just a matter of finding tenants for the space who share the willingness to be contemporary. The Design Alliance has a long list of corporate clients who have been satisfied with responsive and professional designs that don't always make bold, progressive statements. Don't forget, though, that this is the firm that brought us the Alcoa headquarters on the North Side. With former CEO Paul O'Neill as a driving force, that building set a very high standard for Pittsburgh architecture and brought for the city the sort of international praise that hokey nostalgia never seems to muster. A speculative office building is by necessity less expensive than a corporate headquarters. Nevertheless, the Quantum IV building provides the Design Alliance with the chance to bring renewed positive attention to riverfront architecture in Pittsburgh. Could this give other firms the opportunity to follow suit? "Hope so," says German

Evergrey

12-18-2006, 03:43 PM

Here's a somewhat sobering article on downtown retail, office and residential vacancy... including lots of numbers. In my opinion, the article starts off a bit too negative before finding balance. But I suppose the melodrama sells papers. Despite recent negative trends in retail and office vacancy numbers, I believe Downtown is on an upward trajectory. There is a pulse and energy downtown that didn't exist a few years ago. There is over $3.3 billion in projects underway in downtown and adjacent neighborhoods. Downtown is finally establishing a significant residential population. The closures of Lord and Taylor and Lazarus were unfortunate, but that was an artificially created, government-subsidized market that was doomed to failure due to a lack of residential population. This new residential market will spur a new retail market. Barnes & Noble's recently-announced closure is a blow, but it will be short-lived as a new full-scale bookstore is destined to open downtown, perhaps as part of Millcraft's massive development. Options now non-existent in the Triangle are opening soon, such as a grocery store. As for the office vacancy rate, there has been much talk about several major companies looking at major expansions Downtown, such as UPMC's interest in the US Steel Tower. Several outmoded office towers are being converted into residential as well. This is not the time to project doom and gloom about Downtown. It's becoming a destination beyond office work, thanks in large part to the Cultural Trust's ambitious projects. It is slowly becoming a true 24-hour part of the city, as opposed to a 9-5 office park.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_484601.html

Downtown efforts leave empty feeling

By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 17, 2006

Is Downtown disappearing?
"There are certainly too many vacant storefronts and too many deteriorated buildings, but we're slowly coming back," insists President Michael Edwards of the Downtown Partnership, which markets Western Pennsylvania's hub of economic and cultural activities.

The partnership boasts of $3.3 billion worth of pending projects for the Downtown area. The projects range from construction of a transit tunnel under the Allegheny River to take sports fans to North Shore ball parks to pricey condominiums in converted office buildings.

But statistics and patches of boarded-up storefronts paint another picture.

• Twenty percent of Downtown office space is empty. That vacancy rate is up 6 percentage points from 2001, according to a survey by Grubb & Ellis Co., a Downtown-based commercial real estate company.

• Twenty percent of Downtown retail space is vacant, too. As recently as 2003, the vacancy rate was 4.8 percent, according to a survey.

A sign of the times greets customers at Barnes & Noble in the Heinz 57 Center on Smithfield Street. The sign says the bookstore will close Dec. 30.

"I really feel bad about it, because now I have to go to the Waterworks (Mall) or find another bookstore," said Debbie Willis, of the Hill District. "There's nothing down here anymore."

More dramatic closings in recent years have included the government-subsidized Lazarus-Macy's store at Fifth Avenue and Wood Street and the Lord & Taylor's store on Smithfield Street.

The glut of office space includes the 32-story Dominion Tower on Liberty Avenue, the Warner Center along Fifth and Forbes avenues, and the venerable Union Trust Building on Grant Street.

"The closing of Barnes & Noble is a sign we're still in a battle, and we don't know at this time if we will win or lose," said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, a leading preservation group. "But we have substantial local developers committed to Downtown, and we're certainly ahead of where we have been over the last decade."

Retail

A mid-year survey of Downtown retail space by Grubb & Ellis shows a 10 percent vacancy rate, which ordinarily would be considered a healthy number. But that rate doesn't show the entire picture.

That's because Grubb & Ellis removed the vacant Lazarus-Macy's building from the list. Add the 250,000 square feet of Lazarus-Macy's to the pool, and the vacancy rate jumps to about 21 percent, said Pam Lowery, client services manager for Grubb & Ellis.

What's more, the rate may be higher. Grubb & Ellis does not track occupancy in buildings smaller than 10,000 square feet.

Failed efforts to redevelop Downtown that spanned more than a decade helped prompt store closings, particularly in the retail corridor along Fifth and Forbes avenues, experts said.

"Some closed by design, others by default," said Michael Hendrickson, president of the Hendrickson Retail Group in Collier. "Some stores Downtown just couldn't hang on because things just didn't happen. But now I see more momentum than I've seen for quite awhile."

Retail specialist Craig Polard of CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, a Downtown-based commercial real estate firm, also sees the retail picture brightening.

"We are getting a lot of interest in Downtown from retailers, both from stores not yet in the region and from retailers already in the region who want a Downtown location," he said, declining to identify the companies.

Smaller property owners and retailers, such as Candy-Rama on Fifth Avenue, remain concerned.

"We're taking it day by day," said Sherri Schrader, who manages the Downtown fixture of 53 years.

The building housing Candy-Rama was among 19 properties in the Fifth and Forbes corridor purchased by the city under former Mayor Tom Muphy's administration to attract a master developer. The city spent $13.6 million, but failed to attract a master developer.

"I would say business started going bad the last couple of years," said Schrader.

Neighboring retailers such as G.C. Murphy, a D&K Store and Payless Shoe Store and Penn Wig & Fashion have closed, she said.

"They used to help bring us business," she said.

Taxes are a problem, said Gerald Schiller, part-owner of several family-owned properties along Forbes Avenue and a frequent critic of government-driven rehabilitation efforts. "Retailers are deserting Downtown, because they are being phased out of business by the city's tax policy."

Schiller is particularly disturbed by a Business Improvement District tax increase on retailers. The 3.92-mill assessment, which provides money for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, will increase by 5 percent annually for the next five years. The tax is levied against property owners in a 90-block area.

Barbara McNees, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, supports the tax increase.

"We must keep Downtown safe and clean, not only for its current retailers and residents, but for visitors, new residents and others in the Downtown area," she said.

Office

Empty offices mean fewer customers for Downtown retailers. Owners of some office complexes, such as Gateway Center, advertise on radio and offer incentives to attract tenants.

The vacancy rate remains in the 15 to 20 percent range. (The results from three market surveys vary.)

Over the past quarter-century, Pittsburgh has lost more than 10 Fortune 500 companies to mergers, acquisition or other locales.

Potential tenants such as Equitable Resources Inc., the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and smaller organizations are now looking Downtown, said Aaron Stauber, president of Rugby Realty Co.

The company owns about 1.7 million square feet of commercial space in a dozen Golden Triangle buildings.

Some tenants are moving from one Downtown building to another, but many are expanding, Stauber said. Some landlords recently stopped offering rent concessions to potential customers, he said.

Rental rates for some premier existing buildings have been averaging about $26 per square foot and costs for new buildings are nearing $30 per square foot, he said, a rate he hasn't seen for 20 years.

But others caution that rental rates vary. The Grubb & Ellis survey shows the average Class A building rental rate at $21.50 per square foot in the third quarter, up only 41 cents from a year ago.

"In some cases the rents are higher, but if you have a building with a high vacancy rate, you don't have a chance for a deal unless you offer lower rents," said Randy McCombs, executive vice president of the CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh commercial real estate firm.

Hope

The only positive Downtown number is residential space. According to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, the Golden Triangle has a 94 percent occupancy rate for about 3,000 apartment and condominium units. And rents are rising, even as new spaces are being added, according to developers and landlords.

Efforts to attract new residents Downtown include Millcraft Industries Inc.'s $65 million conversion of the former Lazarus-Macy's into the Piatt Place office, retail and residential complex. The company also plans to convert city-owned buildings in the Fifth and Forbes corridor to residential and commercial use.

Millcraft plans to convert the former G.C. Murphy store and a half-dozen other buildings near Market Square into a mix of apartments, stores and restaurants.

Demolition has been completed to make way for the $179 million Three PNC Plaza on Fifth Avenue. PNC Financial Services Group is building the hotel, office and condominium complex

Stauber and others applaud the surge in residential construction.

Since December 2003, about 1,830 housing units have been completed, are under construction or are planned in Downtown and adjacent areas such as the Strip District, North Side and Uptown. Another 860 units are in the concept stage.

Lincoln Property Co.'s recently opened 151-unit The Encore on 7th apartment complex on Seventh Avenue, where units rent for $1,000 a month and up, reports 87 percent occupancy.

Developer Ralph Falbo, a partner in the 151 Firstside condominium project on First Avenue, says he has sold more than half (47) of those units. The units sell for $270,000 to $1.8 million.

"I think we are building momentum Downtown, and all the new developments will do that," said Ziegler of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks. "I have long advocated that attracting more residents is a key to Downtown. Once we do that, we will see retail and office improvements fall into place."

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

...

this PDF file shows $3.3 billion in projects in Downtown and vicinity
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/images/video/2006_pdfs/GX-dTown-JL-12-17.pdf