PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[eschaton]

New paywalled article covering a talk the CEO of Oxford gave recently. Most interesting element:

Guy reported to the Bisnow crowd that Oxford has executed “a few commitments” from companies to be tenants in the first two buildings at the second phase of 3 Crossings, roughly projected to be built and completed by late 2019. He offered no more specifics on the next stages of the plan.

That's a bit quicker than I expected. Basically another two buildings - that nothing has even been publicly released on - completely finished within a year and a half.

Then again, Oxford has proved itself to be the zippiest developer in town for the time being. They must have amazing financing.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I imagine many people on this forum are unaware of this little area... it's kind of tucked away, but holds a ton of potential if Wilkinsburg's fortunes ever change.

Definitely. The aforementioned TOD plan around the Busway might do it, but it is early days yet for that sort of thing.

[BrianTH]

The former SCI Pittsburgh may be going out to bid at some point, but it seems pretty up in the air:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/ci...s/201805040146

I'm just going to note again this is basically a cool old castle with a riverfront location. Surely we can do something neat with it.

[Captain Crash]

Originally Posted by Captain Crash

Something of interest on Mt. Washington caught my eye while walking the dog this weekend. The two remaining houses at the corner of Wyoming and Sycamore have notices posted for planned demolition. The owner on the notices is One Grandview LLC. These houses were occupied until recently and I don't think were included with the original footprint of the previous proposals for One Grandview. Perhaps a possible sign of progress with an enlarged scope?

The houses in question are these two: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4304...2!8i6656?hl=en

Update: They're gone.

[dfiler]

The forbes ave project is underway. Or at least trenching was scheduled to start yesterday.
https://mailchi.mp/ac5ad61231c2/traf...hedule-1263229

Also, the updated project PDF is finally available (March 1st 2018):
SR 2108 - A12 – Forbes Avenue Betterment
http://forbes.otmapgh.org/downloads/...T-3-1-2018.pdf

Edit: Correction, looks like trenching started a couple months ago.
The Oakland Transportation Management Association's RSS feed appears to be a good source for ongoing work scheduling/updates:
https://us13.campaign-archive.com/fe...&id=cdec1cb00a

[BrianTH]

I'm a little behind, but the presentation for PAT's revised BRT plan is available:

http://portauthority.org/paac/portals/0/brt/webppt.pdf

This was 2017:



And now:



Basically they figured out it made more sense to use the 61ABC as BRT routes that continued to Downtown rather than the 61D, because people living along the outer parts of the 61D had much better Downtown alternatives.

On a personal note, they rejected an intermediary proposal that would have made my bus, the P71, a full day express bus, but I'll be interested to see if the upgraded 61A and 61B are competitive options to my area (Regent Square)--and probably better service to and through Oakland is more important to my area than additional express service to Downtown anyway.

There are also detailed PDFs of the lane designs available at the updated project website:

http://www.portauthority.org/paac/Co...jects/BRT.aspx

Here is Downtown, which would use a dedicated lane inbound along Fifth, then up Liberty to Sixth, then all the way around the bend on Sixth to Forbes outbound:

http://portauthority.org/paac/portal...wntownplot.pdf

Uptown--note the spaced out stations and bikelanes:

http://portauthority.org/paac/portal...uptownplot.pdf

And finally Oakland:

http://portauthority.org/paac/portal...aklandplot.pdf

It took me some zooming in to figure out the eastern end, but all that is pretty critical as it is where the 61s and 71B split off. Note that even though the dedicated lane ends on Forbes, you can still see upgraded stations at Forbes and Craig. That's consistent with the overall system map above, which shows the zone of "infrastructue improvements" extending all the way to Forbes and Murray and then down Murray to Loretta, and similarly all the way along the 71B route to Bunkerhill.

Which leads me to a final comment: there are still lots of people who will argue LRT is always better than BRT, or generally that train systems are always better than bus systems, and therefore that BRT is always just a cheap and inferior alternative.

But while that can be true in some cases, I don't think it is true in all cases. As I have pointed out before, the one very important thing you can do with BRT is you can have these local-to-express bus routes which share the dedicated lanes but then fan out to different areas, and all without needing transfers. Which is very important because transfers are ridership killers.

And that is exactly what played out with all this. People in the relevant neighborhoods complained about the need to transfer, and PAT was able to just lightly tweak their plan to address those complaints. That was only possible because this was a BRT project--if, say, this had been an LRT line from Downtown through Oakland, everyone riding a bus into Oakland from outlying areas would have to transfer to use it, and that would be that.

ETA: Apparently they also met with the FTA about the modifications and got positive feedback:

http://wesa.fm/post/fitzgerald-pat-c...-plan#stream/0

The federal budget recently passed has funding for these sorts of projects, so knock-on-wood it could get funded in the next round.

[eschaton]

The monthly URA schedule is up for tomorrow. There's a lot in here, but relatively little is truly new businesses - mostly projects from previous months moving through. Truly new items.

1. Regarding the East Liberty/Larimer housing development, it appears that land acquisition for a "phase 3" has begun at the corner of Meadow St and Larimer Avenue.

2. A $1 million grant to improve the former Larimer school

3. A $1 million grant to purchase and stabilize Homewood Coliseum

4. The URA is considering selling two parcel to TWG Development in South Side Works. The location is here - at the corner of Sarah Street and Sidney Street. It includes not only the grassy area, but the surface parking lot behind the existing building. Pittsburgh Business Times is reporting (behind paywall) that this will be a five-story 300-unit apartment building. 10% of units are slated to be affordable. It seems smart to put more residential in SSW, because development the last few parcels as office space has languished, and local demand for the retail space in SSW has flatlined.

[Steel City Scotty]

Details of developer's plans for remaking the Pittsburgh Athletic Association's Oakland clubhouse released

[BrianTH]

The former Larimer school is a cool building. Hopefully it gets redone well.

Generally Larimer seems to be coming along well--it is going to be an impressive complex behind the Target.

More residential at SSW seems like exactly what it needs. Their original mix was really off and it continues to show.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Steel City Scotty

Details of developer's plans for remaking the Pittsburgh Athletic Association's Oakland clubhouse released

Looks pretty nice, although I continue to wonder exactly what sorts of restaurants they have in mind.

[BenM]

Originally Posted by Steel City Scotty

Details of developer's plans for remaking the Pittsburgh Athletic Association's Oakland clubhouse released

Win, win. The building gets the renovation it needed and the Association still maintains private space in the building.

Although,

The club's attorneys don't think the sale will be taxable, but if they are wrong, it could be disastrous for the club.
Under terms of the plan, if taxes eat up Walnut's portion of the reserve fund, that would trigger a corresponding reduction in the PAA's amenity package.
If the entire fund were spent on taxes, it would release Walnut from providing the club with any space, "thereby making it highly unlikely that PAA will reopen" in the building, plan documents say.

Isn't there a way their lawyers could have determined for sure the tax status of the sale?

[Jonboy1983]

Saw this article on the Post-Gazette website. Luckily I only had to login via FB to access it:

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/tra...s/201805090104

So they want to beautify Panther Hollow, rectify the runoff situation, and plan a low-speed low-density shuttle system linking Hazelwood with Oakland.

Someone pitched the idea of an aerial gondola system. As you'd expect from the high IQ posters to these articles, someone bashed that idea while suggesting nothing of their own. Frankly, I like the idea of the gondola system. It does make perfect sense for the hilly terrain.

[Steel City Scotty]

Originally Posted by Jonboy1983

Someone pitched the idea of an aerial gondola system. As you'd expect from the high IQ posters to these articles, someone bashed that idea while suggesting nothing of their own. Frankly, I like the idea of the gondola system. It does make perfect sense for the hilly terrain.

Was really expecting to click the link, scroll to the comments section and learn that BrianTH was the "someone" that you were referring to...

[eschaton]

New Planning Commission presentation up for 5/15. Three relatively small items.

1. Historic nomination for the late Carol Peterson's home.

2. Sign permit for the new AC Hotel going in at 1126 Smallman Street (right by the Convention Center). It's pretty small and tasteful signage, IMHO.

3. A minor expansion of the Waldorf School in Friendship. An ajdacent parcel owned by the school currently has an old wood-frame home. They seek to demolish the home and build a new single-story outbuilding to house the 8th grade classroom. The building is single story, detailed in a modern-fashion, and relatively understated.

[daviderik]

Originally Posted by Steel City Scotty

Was really expecting to click the link, scroll to the comments section and learn that BrianTH was the "someone" that you were referring to...

HAHA! I was just thinking that. How does the gondola system work anyways? In my mind I'm thinking of it stopping every 20 seconds so it can let people on and off at the entry and exit points. How would that work? Btw. Is it getting harder for any of you to look at PG articles even in incognito mode? At least on my browser it is.

[pj3000]

Would love to see this redevelopment of the Frank & Seder building get going.

Another steakhouse? Some more apartments? That's the new plan for Smithfield Street building

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201805110075

A Cleveland developer is reshaping its plans for a seven-story building on Smithfield Street, adding two floors of residential to supplement office and retail in a bid to make it more of a catalyst for redevelopment in the corridor.

Stark Enterprises intends to construct about 40 apartments on the top two floors of the former Frank & Seder department store as part of a project it has dubbed the Icon on Smithfield.

It also has landed Davio’s, a Boston-based northern Italian steakhouse, to anchor a 9,730-square-foot space on Fifth Avenue. If that restaurant comes, it will be the latest in a long string of steakhouses landing Downtown.

But Stark is also negotiating with other restaurants, including Honeygrow and Punch Bowl Social, an entertainment and dining venue that serves up karaoke, bowling, shuffleboard, pingpong, virtual reality and other gaming options in addition to food and drink.

[photoLith]

Apparently Amazon visited Pittsburgh last month and looked at Hazelwood and the Hill Penguins site.

[bmust71]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Would love to see this redevelopment of the Frank & Seder building get going.

Another steakhouse? Some more apartments? That's the new plan for Smithfield Street building

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201805110075

This area of downtown is going to look very different a year from now with Kaufman's Grand on Fifth, the Lumire, the Point Park Playhouse and this project all under construction across the street from one another

[eschaton]

There's some more about the new TWG apartment project at Pittsburgh Business Times behind the paywall. Relevant quotes...

If the URA can reach a final agreement with the company, TWG roughly projects to begin construction on its proposal in spring 2019 and take two years to build the development.

Structured to be built on a podium above a surface lot of 185 parking spaces, the five-story project is expected to include a mix of 45 studios, 159 one-bedrooms and 96 two-bedrooms, with amenities to include pool, a fitness room, a BBQ area and bicycle storage.

With a background that includes senior and affordable housing, TWG proposes that 10 percent of the apartments will be affordable to households with incomes at 80 percent of the area median income.

[BrianTH]

Seems reasonable for SSW.