PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by bossride

There used to be a PAT train that ran from Versailles to Pittsburgh through Port Vue, McKeesport and Braddock. There was a tiny bar near the Versailles stop with 4 stools and a couple of tables that was a great place to stop on the way home.

You know I'm actually old enough to remember that? I remember going across the Panhandle Bridge on one of the PCC trolleys (when PAT used to run those on the 47 Overbrook line, used to pick it up at the bottom of Englert St. at Rt. 51 with my grandparents. Anyway, I remember looking down at the Port Authority rail depot and seeing the old train cars sitting there by the platforms. I want to say they discontinued the service in the very early 1990s due to low ridership.

BrianTH posted a map of the recommendations from the Eastern Corridor Trans. Study. There is one big challenge I see with the Mon Valley Corridor for a possible LRT extension: getting around the Edgar Thomson plant. I suppose they could just end it at Rankin. Extending it would mean doing something prohibitively expensive whether it be securing new right of way either right through the property or around it, or building a bridge across the Mon (or using the understructure of the Rankin Bridge), have it run along Rt 837 past Kennywood, and then back over the river into McKeesport. Whatever the option, $$$.

[BrianTH]

As I recall, the rail proposed in the ECTS would have used existing freight lines, and the rail companies said no way, we need them for freight exclusively.

[SWPA]

I worked at Port Authority during the PATrain era. PAT contracted with the B&O and later, the Chessie system to operate the trains. B&O was planning to discontinue commuter rail service and PAT took it over in the early 70s. Ridership was decent at first and I think it peaked at about 1,100 riders a day, but plummeted in the 80s with the local economy. Ironically, it provided service to an area that was hardest hit by unemployment (managers and office workers of industrial companies often worked downtown, and they were laid off with the steelworkers, too). PAT had to heavily subsidize each ride, and by the end, it was only carrying a couple hundred riders a day on a few trips morning and evening. The service ended in 1989.

[Captain Crash]

Originally Posted by Jonboy1983

BrianTH posted a map of the recommendations from the Eastern Corridor Trans. Study. There is one big challenge I see with the Mon Valley Corridor for a possible LRT extension: getting around the Edgar Thomson plant. I suppose they could just end it at Rankin. Extending it would mean doing something prohibitively expensive whether it be securing new right of way either right through the property or around it, or building a bridge across the Mon (or using the understructure of the Rankin Bridge), have it run along Rt 837 past Kennywood, and then back over the river into McKeesport. Whatever the option, $$$.

I think that even if they were to just dead-end the route at Rankin, it could still be fairly serviceable for a lot of the communities further down the valley. That route would pass directly through the hypothetical Carrie Furnace development, which has plenty of open space. A parking garage at a station here could offer a pretty effective park-and-ride option for commuters that would otherwise use the already clogged Parkway East or Carson Street. It could also spur significant TOD on riverfront land that hasn't seen much progress despite being ready for it. Lastly, this would also be a big benefit for the Carrie Furnace restoration efforts, as it would provide a direct transportation route from downtown to the historic site. I'm pretty confident that this could become a go-to attraction for tourists to the area.

[RespectCondor]

Has anybody seen this proposal (it might be more of a study or a concept) for a Westend pedestrian bridge?

Is this connected to the proposals going on in Manchester? If its at all realistic and is built, I think it would be a great way to link the river trails and provide the best view of downtown from a bridge to pedestrians and cyclists. Not to mention increase the ability of non vehicular movement for the Westend and Manchester.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by RespectCondor

Has anybody seen this proposal (it might be more of a study or a concept) for a Westend pedestrian bridge?

Is this connected to the proposals going on in Manchester? If its at all realistic and is built, I think it would be a great way to link the river trails and provide the best view of downtown from a bridge to pedestrians and cyclists. Not to mention increase the ability of non vehicular movement for the Westend and Manchester.

It looks nice, but I'm not sure who it's for exactly. The riverfront trial dies out by the Duquense Incline, so people can't walk up from the river there. And in order to make a convenient path to the West End proper, the bridge shoud really stay elevated over W Carson and the tangled mess of ramps by Saw Mill Run Boulevard, only coming down on Lincoln Highway close to the business district.

And even with that, only around 300 or so people live in the West End last I checked.

[eschaton]

The URA is meeting tomorrow. The big news is they appear to have picked a developer for Lexington Technology Park - the 16-acres site in Point Breeze. About four acres of the site will be given over to residential uses. This will include 25 for-sale townhouses, and 125 apartment units - half of which will be affordable. The remaining 12 or so acres will be used for commercial, with the plan to not demolish the two existing buildings, but to spend $22.6 million in order to refurbish them. The rendering shown on the PBT website seems to show two new buildings in the rear of the development (one may be a parking garage), along with an extension of Thomas Boulevard breaking up the superblock. It took some digging, but I found a presentation here. It seems to be an earlier version with more housing than in the final bid, but I can't find the final version that is supposed to be on the URA website.

The team behind the project have been active on some smaller projects in Pittsburgh, including Cube Creative Space, the Bloomfield Lofts condo project, and the Bovie House apartments in Shadyside.

Anyway, tomorrow's URA agenda is here:. Looks like the URA is also going to review Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for 11 potential projects. Some other interesting stuff as well, but unlike the city agendas, basically no information is given about the details of the projects, so it's not really worth summarizing.

[mikebarbaro]

Post Gazette featured an article providing further confirmed details about The Icon on Smithfield...

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...box=1539132566

[Steel City Scotty]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Post Gazette featured an article providing further confirmed details about The Icon on Smithfield...

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...box=1539132566

If I recall correctly, someone posted on here a few pages ago saying they were excited about getting a Punch Bowl Social, but it sounds like those plans have been dropped, along with Honeygrow.

Of course, several people in the "Comments" section of that article aren't thrilled about yet another downtown steakhouse.

[BrianTH]

I'll admit I don't get the steakhouse thing. But if the market is there, then fine.

Building Pittsburgh has an interesting rundown on some big projects going out to bid, and also the increasing demand which is likely to keep new projects coming:

https://buildingpittsburgh.com/2018/...riving-demand/

[BrianTH]

And another good Building Pittsburgh post with updates about many major projects, including Esplanade going out to bid to construction managers (this is actually happening?!), the second phase of Arsenal going out to bid, and some more details on Lexington Commons:

https://buildingpittsburgh.com/2018/...forging-ahead/

[Wave]

"Facebook confirmed that it was leasing most or all of District 15, a 105,000 square foot building being developed by RDC on Smallman Street. According to a recent story by Tim Schooley in the Business Times Facebook’s lease is the tip of the iceberg. Schooley quotes JLL’s Dan Adamski estimating that there are 900,000 square feet of user requirements being shopped in the Strip now"

That is an astounding amount of demand in the strip district in the pipeline. And that is all from 2018. These are tenants who we don't even know about yet and are unannounced (and unsigned, though not all will take space). I am assuming that these are majority tech and specifically robotics & autonomous vehicle related firms.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'll admit I don't get the steakhouse thing. But if the market is there, then fine.

Building Pittsburgh has an interesting rundown on some big projects going out to bid, and also the increasing demand which is likely to keep new projects coming:

https://buildingpittsburgh.com/2018/...riving-demand/

[BrianTH]

Yeah, we are basically looking at a slow-rolling Amazon HQ2-type effect already.

[BenM]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Yeah, we are basically looking at a slow-rolling Amazon HQ2-type effect already.

And the city/county/state didn't have to offer hundreds of millions of public money dollars in subsidies for it to happen.

[mikebarbaro]

On McKnight realty’s Instagram they announced their planned redevelopment of the bank tower downtown. No details yet. At least none that I saw.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

On McKnight realty’s Instagram they announced their planned redevelopment of the bank tower downtown. No details yet. At least none that I saw.

PBT has some details behind its paywall. Currently the building is only about 60% occupied. It looks like they're going invest $7 million to spruce it up a bit, but continue to have it leased out as office space to smaller businesses.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by eschaton

PBT has some details behind its paywall. Currently the building is only about 60% occupied. It looks like they're going invest $7 million to spruce it up a bit, but continue to have it leased out as office space to smaller businesses.

I went into the Back Tower last week during Doors Open, very cool building. Did anyone here ever go to the disco and movie theater that were in the building during the 70s/80s?

[dfiler]

Is anyone else disturbed by our government's revolving door for lobbyists ?

Kevin Acklin, has been the Urban Redevelopment Authority board chairman for five years. Now he's resigning and becoming the the Penguin's senior vice president. He was instrumental in getting the Penguins a sweetheart development deal despite them not meeting deadlines. In exchange, he's now going to be paid millions by the Penguins.

It's bad enough that the URA are unelected king makers for local developers. Now it appears that standard practice is for developers to simply bribe what they want from the URA board.

I don't understand how this isn't the second biggest story in Pittsburgh right now (behind chatholic child rape). Am I missing something? Where's the outrage over this obvious corruption?

WESA article:
http://www.wesa.fm/post/ura-board-ch...pment#stream/0

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by dfiler

Is anyone else disturbed by our government's revolving door for lobbyists ?

I definitely find it disturbing. But I suspect the timeline is too spread out for many people to conclude it was really bribery.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by GeneW

I went into the Back Tower last week during Doors Open, very cool building. Did anyone here ever go to the disco and movie theater that were in the building during the 70s/80s?

I am too young to remember the movie theater but I do remember the conversion to a upscale boutique mall. That was short lived.