PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Well, that's a pretty big deal. The only of those three projects that doesn't look pretty good to me is Hillman--why the big lawn along Baum, and why a relative low-rise?

My thoughts too. The Hillman rendering looks to be straight out of the 1960s, and not in a good way. It's not zoning-driven, is it? And what does it mean to be "the Amazon of health care"? Omnipresent? Organs delivered via drone with free next day shipping?

[eschaton]

At first I thought the new Hillman Cancer Hospital was the research center which was discussed earlier in the thread at the corner of Baum and Morewood. It's in fact not - the new hospital is going in at the corner of Baum and Cypress. So we're talking about a pretty big investment in the area.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by eschaton

At first I thought the new Hillman Cancer Hospital was the research center which was discussed earlier in the thread at the corner of Baum and Morewood. It's in fact not - the new hospital is going in at the corner of Baum and Cypress. So we're talking about a pretty big investment in the area.

...and simultaneously a pretty big loss of tender juicy Boston Market chicken for the area...

[Brentsters]

Originally Posted by eschaton

At first I thought the new Hillman Cancer Hospital was the research center which was discussed earlier in the thread at the corner of Baum and Morewood. It's in fact not - the new hospital is going in at the corner of Baum and Cypress. So we're talking about a pretty big investment in the area.

From Building Pittsburgh:

What wasn’t announced was a renovation of the Ford Motor Building in Shadyside, which the Post-Gazette and Business Times reported as part of UPMC’s plan earlier this week. That building is not part of UPMC’s plan but is being studied by the University of Pittsburgh for possible use.

[Wave]

This is a rather massive announcement.....combined with UPMC's other ongoing projects, this represents about $3 Billion in development which easily dwarfs anything else in the metro (the Shell cracker plant being the one glaring exception, though the airport terminal project is pretty hefty too at $1.1BB).

Also notable that UPMC is stating that they will "double" in size over the next five years. That is saying a lot considering that the PG mentions that its already the largest employer in the state.

Allegheny Health Systems also recently announced almost $1B in investment as well so there will be a colossal amount of medical/hospital/research investment happening in Southwestern PA.

Boston Market definitely had been living on borrowed time....

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Looks like Boston Market's days are numbered...

http://triblive.com/news/healthnow/1...-in-pittsburgh

[BrianTH]

Not that it is inherently a bad thing for them to be investing here, but it is a little scary how important UPMC, and hospitals in general, have become already to the local economy, and this will likely increase that effect. Fortunately, though, we do have other professional sectors (including non-medical R&D and such) growing as well, so I don't think this is anywhere close to the steel industry dependence.

On the plus side, a while back people had been arguing we were approaching some sort of peak or plateau in terms of what "meds" could possibly contribute to the local economy. Obviously that was incorrect, and I think we do benefit from being what you might call a Tier One hospital city, meaning we are the location for nationally-recognized, cutting-edge programs, which should continue to benefit us even if the overall health system goes through some growing pains.

[BrianTH]

It sounds like Whole Foods might well become the retail tenant in the Penn Plaza development:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201711030128

Also noted in the article is that the planned office space is 400,000 sqft, and they even speculate this could be a starter location for Amazon. But I am not sure how much Amazon could grow from there in that location.

[BrianTH]

Oh great--the P-G actually did a followup article on the great TGIF/PIT controversy, quoting comments from the first article:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201711030213

This is only going to encourage the anti-change trolls from swarming every such article, although I suppose they really didn't need encouragement anyway.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://triblive.com/news/healthnow/1...-in-pittsburgh

UPMC unveils sweeping $2 billion plan to build 3 hospitals in Pittsburgh

Health giant UPMC announced Friday it will invest $2 billion as part of a monumental expansion that includes building three specialty hospitals in Pittsburgh focused on cancer, organ transplants, and heart and vision care.

UPMC President and CEO Jeffrey Romoff said the hospitals will be built on the campuses of UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland, UPMC Mercy in Uptown, and UPMC Shadyside.

"UPMC desires to be the Amazon of health care," Romoff said during a press conference to unveil the project.

Officials said the project, which will be developed over the next four years, will provide patients access to cutting edge care with state of the art medical technology.

Thanks for posting the photos Evergrey. I think the Oakland and Uptown renderings look great but that the Shadyside one looks very lowrise and mid-century as Deja Vu said. What is with that useless little pathway that leads from the sidewalk to the sidewalk?
Specifically the Oakland rendering looks phenomenal. The building in Uptown looks pretty great; Hopefully those surrounding lots can then be developed into something a little more meaningful.

[BrianTH]

After studying it in a little more detail I realized the placement of the Hillman building is being dictated by those air bridges. But it still sucks from an aesthetic and urban planning perspective. Hopefully that can be addressed during the approvals process.

Originally Posted by Austinlee

The building in Uptown looks pretty great; Hopefully those surrounding lots can then be developed into something a little more meaningful.

Same. And I would actually positively predict that Uptown is going to end up pretty amazing in future years. Between this, the BRT, possible the Lower Hill site finally starting development, and the already-existing momentum, I think it is going to finally become the bridge between Downtown and Oakland it was destined to be.

[GeneW]

From what I remember of the presentation, they said that the Presby building hasn't actually been designed yet and that model is just a mock-up. They're going to hold a design competition to get the final design of the transplant hospital on Forbes.

[Austinlee]

And announced 2 weeks prior for comparison sake is Allegheny Health Network's $700 million in "new facility construction and existing facility expansion and renovation over the next four to five years" including this new 160 bed facility in Pine Twp next to their newish $100 million Health & Wellness Pavilion.


http://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories...ents/626452109

https://www.ahn.org/news/10-18-2017/...improve-health

It def seems that AHN caught wind of UPMC's huge investment plans and released their plans a couple weeks ahead of time to be first, knowing of course that their plans are of a lower scale.
Either way, this is good news for the region to have continued investment.

(I will say this though - Can we agree that these hospital systems don't go to where the "need is"? They go to where the money is. When they close community hospitals in places like Aliquippa and Braddock and open new ones in rich suburbs like Pine Twp and Monroeville, they are chasing the money not sick patients in these run down mill towns)

[Minivan Werner]

The setback along Baum is weird, but it could be easily fixed by making the building more L or U shaped. Hopefully it's just a mock-up too, it appears to look the same as the others.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by GeneW

From what I remember of the presentation, they said that the Presby building hasn't actually been designed yet and that model is just a mock-up. They're going to hold a design competition to get the final design of the transplant hospital on Forbes.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Baum Boulevard one is just a preliminary mockup as well, since like the Presby building it's not slated to open until 2022. The one in Uptown could be a bit more finalized, since it's due to land in 2020.

[BenM]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Not that it is inherently a bad thing for them to be investing here, but it is a little scary how important UPMC, and hospitals in general, have become already to the local economy, and this will likely increase that effect. Fortunately, though, we do have other professional sectors (including non-medical R&D and such) growing as well, so I don't think this is anywhere close to the steel industry dependence.

Does anyone know the number of eds and meds employees in the area?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by BenM

Does anyone know the number of eds and meds employees in the area?

This is a great resource for tracking that sort of thing at a high level:

https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.pa_pittsburgh_msa.htm

The monthly reports here go into more detail:

http://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/Medi...s/default.aspx

In September, total non-farm employment was 1,185,300, of which 246,000 (20.8%) was Education and Health Services (note: this is not seasonally adjusted). For comparison, nationally the percentage was 15.7%.

If you look just at health care, nationally it was 10.8%, locally 13.3%.

Finally, for hospitals, nationally it is 3.49%, locally 4.60%.

[BenM]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

This is a great resource for tracking that sort of thing at a high level:

https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.pa_pittsburgh_msa.htm

The monthly reports here go into more detail:

http://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/Medi...s/default.aspx

In September, total non-farm employment was 1,185,300, of which 246,000 (20.8%) was Education and Health Services (note: this is not seasonally adjusted). For comparison, nationally the percentage was 15.7%.

If you look just at health care, nationally it was 10.8%, locally 13.3%.

Finally, for hospitals, nationally it is 3.49%, locally 4.60%.

Thank you!

[BrianTH]

The ambitious Bates Street corridor plan is being revised due to local criticisms--but I don't know how because it is behind a paywall:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsbur...d-in-face.html

Here are some of the criticisms--sounds like City officials didn't like it much either:

https://pittnews.com/article/124450/...s-development/

http://publicsource.org/after-oaklan...oversial-plan/

The second article implies they are going to downscale the project and might not have firm plans yet for the re-design.

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The ambitious Bates Street corridor plan is being revised due to local criticisms--but I don't know how because it is behind a paywall:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsbur...d-in-face.html

Try this:
https://outline.com/JhmaM7

The bottom line seems to be that the administration sides with the local residents for various reasons and there is enough opposition that they'll be revisiting the plan, without going in to any detail as to what that might mean.

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Oh great--the P-G actually did a followup article on the great TGIF/PIT controversy, quoting comments from the first article:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201711030213

This is only going to encourage the anti-change trolls from swarming every such article, although I suppose they really didn't need encouragement anyway.

The replacement for the TGIF has been announced as a new Local, this one called Local Craft. (To go along with Local Bar + Kitchen (South Side) and Local Brewhouse (North Shore)).

They also opened up a Steel Cactus on 11/2 in the center food court.

(Both are owned by AMPD Group, who also is responsible for Ten Penny, Social, and Diesel.)