PITTSBURGH | One on Centre | FT ? | 17 FLOORS

[Evergrey]

http://www.popcitymedia.com/developm...otino1114.aspx

$60M Chelsea moves forward on Centre, to bring Oakland's first rental units in 30 years

The Chelsea, a $60 million mixed-use project planned for the corner of Center Ave. and Craig St. in Oakland, is moving forward. Located on a 1.4-acre site that currently houses a Pittsburgh Parking Authority lot, the 17-story project will feature 300 rental units, commercial space and parking for 450 cars.

Project developer Guy Totino of Polaris Real Estate Equities is in the process of resolving zoning issues and variances with the city. “The city is very supportive. We’ve met with both neighborhood groups in Oakland and they’re both very supportive. It’s a question of how it’s going to get done, not whether it’s going to get done,” says Totino.

Units will include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as loft-style studios. “The last new rental project built in Oakland was probably thirty-plus years ago. It’s an excellent site for mixed-use. The city has targeted it for residential. Oakland is vibrant, very dense and growing. The use complements the area,” adds Totino. “We've designed it to be very respectful of the streetscape, to make the retail fit the area. We’d love to attract some grocery use and a coffee shop—it’s a destination neighborhood.”

The project, which will have a Centre Ave. entrance, will continue onto N. Dithridge and Craig Sts. “It’s a corridor experiencing tremendous commercial growth, with everything that UPMC and CMU are doing. It’s taken us three years; we've had a lot of stamina. It fills a tremendous need,” adds Totino, who says that The Chelsea will be designed by MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni Architects. Contractor is Massaro Corporation. The 24-month project is expected to break ground during the summer of 2008.

Writer: Jennifer Baron
Source: Guy Totino, Polaris Real Estate Equities



Photo courtesy of Polaris Real Estate Equities

[pj3000]

Looks good! I'm glad that corner is going to be put to appropriate use for the area.

[Wheelingman04]

Great news.

[Austinlee]

We just need a decent rendering now.

[Evergrey]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_556731.html

Oakland apartment complex a $60M vision

By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 12, 2008


An Ohio developer is poised to demolish five decaying homes to build a 16-story apartment complex in the heart of Oakland at a cost of more than $60 million.
Guy Totino, president of Polaris Real Estate of Highland Heights, Ohio, said the neighborhood -- known for growing universities and technology companies -- needs an infusion of apartment space to fill demand.

"We think Oakland is the third-largest 'city' in Pennsylvania, behind Philly and Pittsburgh. There's a tremendous amount of growth in that corridor," he said, adding that significant rental space hasn't been added to the neighborhood in 35 years.

The 334-apartment development will be called The Chelsea and will feature studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

About 25,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor of the building at North Craig Street and Centre Avenue likely will contain a specialty grocery store, Totino said.
An operator is being sought, he said.

Totino, a native of Brookline, plans to ask the city Planning Commission on April 25 to recommend necessary zoning changes to the area to allow the mix of commercial and residential space.

Pittsburgh City Council must vote to accept or reject the zoning changes after a public hearing is held.

The developer must replace 26 metered, public parking spaces where the complex is to be built, said David G. Onorato, executive director of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority.

Totino said those spaces will be replaced, and 418 spaces of indoor parking will be available for residents on several lower floors above the building's first level.



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

[tjh1]

This is great news!

[Evergrey]

Plans for The Chelsea, a 336-unit apartment building on Centre Avenue in Oakland, won the commission's final approval. The 16-story, $60 million complex will have 24,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor, which developer Guy J. Totino, president of Polaris Real Estate Equities, said he hopes to fill with a small grocery store, coffee shop and a bank. Construction is set to start in June and take two years to complete, he said.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_589795.html

[Evergrey]

small update on The Chelsea in this article about another PGH project by the developer... I was afraid the project might be dead due to the global financial meltdown

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pi...09/story1.html


Cleveland-based Polaris Real Estate Equities has sale agreement to buy Downtown Pittsburgh Salvation Army building

Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley

Guy Totino’s new financial interest in redeveloping the Salvation Army’s Western Pennsylvania Divisional headquarters building Downtown comes with plenty of old memories.

“When we were in grade school, we used to play basketball there in Saturday leagues,” said Totino of himself and his partner, Rob Vadas, Pittsburgh natives who now are principals of Polaris Real Estate Equities, based in suburban Cleveland. “We went from playing there as kids to having it under contract.”

Last week, Polaris reached an agreement of sale with the Salvation Army, which awaits approval from its national parent to finalize the deal. Expecting to pursue a lengthy 260-day due diligence before closing on the sale, Polaris sees strong potential to redevelop the nine-story, 93,000-square-foot building for new uses.

The project is the second Polaris is pursuing in the Pittsburgh area. A company that specializes in real estate development and housing that serves educational markets, Polaris expects to break ground on a 17-story apartment building called The Chelsea at the corner of Craig Street and Centre Avenue in Oakland in May. The apartments are expected to target professionals and academics who work nearby in the area’s universities and hospitals.

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

[Evergrey]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_627869.html

Polaris Real Estate pays $4 million for ex-Salvation Army headquarters

By Rick Stouffer, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Salvation Army said it sold its former headquarters, Downtown, for more than $4 million to Polaris Real Estate Equities Ltd., a Cleveland-based developer known for student housing projects.

Last December, the Salvation Army relocated its divisional operations out of the nine-story, 93,000-square-foot building on the Boulevard of the Allies and into a two-story, 36,500-square-foot building in the Carnegie Office Park in Carnegie that was renovated for its use.

Polaris partners Guy Totino and Rob Vadas, both former Pittsburgh-area residents, have hired Massaro Corp. of O'Hara to market the building, which includes a swimming pool, sanctuary and classrooms on its first three floors. Totino and Vadas could not be reached to comment.

In February, Polaris said it had an initial sales agreement to buy the building and that it had to wait for deal approval from The Salvation Army's Eastern Territorial Headquarters, in West Nyack, N.Y.

"We have a sales contract signed by our territorial headquarters, and it's now in the attorney's hands to settle things like a closing," Maj. Robert Reel, divisional commander, said Tuesday.

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh previously had expressed interest in the building for student housing, but spokesperson Devra Pransky couldn't be reached for comment. Point Park University spokesperson Mary Ellen Solomon said her institution has had no contact with Polaris.

Reel said the organization hopes to settle soon on the purchase of a five-acre site in Mt. Lebanon, where a 20,000- 25,000-square-foot building will be constructed to hold its Pittsburgh Temple Corps worship and services center.

Polaris is moving ahead with the Chelsea, a 16-story, mixed-use building located at the southwest corner of North Craig Street and Centre Avenue in Oakland, according to its Web site. When completed, the building will include 334 apartments with 703 bedrooms, 414 parking spaces and about 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.



....


Chelsea information from Polaris web site

http://www.polaris-realestate.com/



The Chelsea is a proposed class A, 16 story urban mixed use project to be built on approximately 1.4 acres of land located at the southwest corner of North Crag Street and Centre Avenue in the North Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. When completed, The Chelsea Apartments will include 334 apartments (703 bedrooms), 414 structured parking spaces and approximately 25,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. Amenities will include high end apartment finishes, sophisticated building security including security cameras covering all common areas and electronic controlled building access, swimming pool, gym and community rooms. The building will be conveniently located next to University of Pittsburgh shuttle bus line and will have excellent access to downtown Pittsburgh via nearby Bigelow Boulevard.


...

17 pages of plans:
http://www.polaris-realestate.com/im...%20Oakland.pdf

[Gilamonster]

I hope this building is pink in the rendering only, not the actual construction.

[AstrosFreak]

and that the garage doesn't look as hideous as it does in that last render...

[Austinlee]

Larger drawings from the developers website:
Looks to be about 200-210 ft at its tallest point based on 12ft per floor x17 floors.







Some sick aerials showing the site:




Looking north:




Looking East:

[Austinlee]

Actually, The Chelsea looks like a larger version of the Morrowfield Building (which is only 8 stories) in Squirrel Hill (located directly overtop of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel):


Photo Credit: Evergrey

[Gilamonster]

Last month I exchanged a couple of e-mails with Polaris Real Estate Equities as to the time of the groundbreaking. They were kind enough to respond, but only allowed that they "hope to start this fall." I'll go along with the theory that no news is good news and assume this is true since I haven't heard anything in the mainstream media about it getting delayed. Still, I am a little cautious about this going forward with the credit markets as they are.

[Gilamonster]

I drove by the site yesterday and still nothing. Perhaps a victim of the credit crunch.......

[Evergrey]

New developer has taken-over this long-delayed project. Same height and similar scale. Renderings to be completed in the future.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...for-house.html

Why investment group paid $1.2M for a 6-decade-old house in North Oakland: Location

Jul 17, 2015, 4:18pm EDT Updated Jul 17, 2015, 4:22pm EDT



New York-based Park7 Group is close to completing the property on Centre Avenue between North Craig Street and North Dithridge on which it plans to build a new 326-apartment building.

According to real estate records, an affiliate of Park7 recently paid $1.2 million for a single family home at 4504 Centre Ave., a relatively large but aging house built before 1950.

The corner property, the priciest the firm has bought, joins four other houses for which the company paid a total of $2.87 million, along with a Pittsburgh Parking Authority lot at North Craig and Centre, as the combined site on which Park7 proposes to built a larger project.

Paul Levine, executive vice president of Park7, acknowledged the price was high on the most recent house but described the buy in the context of a larger plan.

“Did we over pay for it? Yeah,” he said. "When you have to look at the bigger picture and try to put something together, that can happen.”

Levine said the firm expects to close in the next week on a neighboring house that extends onto North Dithridge and already has an agreement in place with the Pittsburgh Parking Authority on its lot, giving Park7 site control for a project with an L-shaped design.

"We’ll either own houses in Pittsburgh and rent them out or we’ll build an apartment building,” he quipped.

Park7 is retracing most of the steps of a previous developer, Cleveland-based Polaris Equities, which sought to develop a 17-story, mixed use project called “The Chelsea” on a site expected to include the homes along with the parking lot and some adjoining properties. Last March, Park7 first acknowledged it was considering a project at the site, taking over for Polaris, which worked to built the Chelsea before the recession without getting it out of the ground.

...

Levine said to expect a project pretty similar in scale to the Chelsea, with the parking spaces from the public lot maintained along with spaces to serve about 10,000 square feet of retail as well as the building's residents.

He said the bulk of the units in the project are expected to be one- and two-bedrooms, with some threes in a development targeted to a mix of residents such as medical workers at nearby hospitals as well as students attending universities in Oakland.

...

[Austinlee]

330+ unit coming to this site. If you count the two large highrises going up on Forbes a few blocks away, that is about 800 units right there between 3 buildings.

[Urbannizer]

Now known as Park 7.

Here's the updated rendering:


http://hpaurban.com/portfolio-item/centre-ave/

[Evergrey]

more details on the Oakland mid-rise now known as EMPIRE

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201511200211

Apartment, retail project proposed in Oakland for students

November 20, 2015 12:00 AM





By Mark Belko / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A New York development company is proposing an $85 million residential and retail project in Oakland designed to appeal mainly to students.

Dubbed the Empire, the 17-story development would be built on Centre Avenue between North Dithridge and North Craig streets. It would feature 326 apartment units, more than 400 parking spaces, and street level retail.

Park7 Group, a real estate development, construction and management company, is scheduled to brief the city planning commission on the proposal next week. If all goes according to plan, Park7 hopes to start the project next June and have it completed in two years.

Park7 has been assembling property at the location, which includes a parking lot and a handful of aging houses, for some time.

City Councilman Dan Gilman, who represents the area, said the housing will be primarily geared toward students but will be open to others as well. He said he has been working with Park7 on the development for two years and is very supportive of the proposal.

Mr. Gilman said he has been trying to redevelop the corner for the past decade. He called the area a “critical gateway” in Oakland, adding that it has been under utilized as a parking lot.

The current housing, he said, is old and poorly maintained. Park7 plans to demolish all of it to make way for the new development.

...

[Austinlee]

The Empire is strikingly similar to the original "Chelsea" design in size and shape.