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  #19881  
Old Posted Oct 19, 2017, 5:07 PM
TBone7281 TBone7281 is offline
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So you're saying there's a chance...
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  #19882  
Old Posted Oct 19, 2017, 8:26 PM
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East Edge East Edge is offline
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Well done!!

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Originally Posted by tbone7281 View Post
city promo vid for amazon bid.

Video Link
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  #19883  
Old Posted Oct 19, 2017, 9:33 PM
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Forbes just listed 5 cities most likely to get the new Amazon HQ and Pittsburgh is on it, as well as Toronto, Atlanta, Boston and Austin; so thats encouraging news.

Quote:
While smaller population-wise than Atlanta, Toronto or Boston, Pittsburgh is an up-and-coming destination for tech companies, thanks in part to its steady stream of graduates from top colleges like Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has a lower cost of living than other larger cities, plenty of developable sites and an excellent quality of life. Amazon also already has a presence here.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marciat.../#48cf45b61681
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  #19884  
Old Posted Oct 19, 2017, 11:52 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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It all depends on what Amazon truly prioritizes. If they want to be in the Northeast but also want relatively low costs, we should have a very good shot. If they want to be in some other region or are OK with higher cost scenarios, we've probably got no chance.

I have no idea how to put a probability on that. But I'd think we probably are one of only 5-10 places with a real shot, because for most places, there is another place with the same virtues but even more so. Pittsburgh in contrast is one of those few places that could be the top of its category--it is more a question of whether that is the right category for Amazon.

Edit: By the way, this all strikes me as a bit of a marketing scam for Amazon. But I think it has worked out to Pittsburgh's benefit too in the sense we are in fact making a lot of these short lists. Amazon or no, that could be beneficial down the road.
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  #19885  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 12:15 AM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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Having reviewed the HRC presentation, I am completely cool now with how they propose to preserve the facades as part of the project.

I also think the four-bay version looks way better than the three-bay version.
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  #19886  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 12:28 AM
contellus contellus is offline
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A bit curious as to why Pittsburgh has elected not to publicize the details of its bid, and the nature of the non-disclosure agreement it claims to have with Amazon. They've hinted at it being a combination of Hazelwood Green with a tower at the Civic Arena site, but I'm itching to know what they have proposed. The video is very, very well-done.

As an aside related to publicizing details of these proposals...Philadelphia, for example, has many of the details (minus any financial incentives) of its bid on a website. (https://public.philadelphiadelivers.com/) I wasn't aware of the Schuylkill Yards development before this, but it's a gorgeous looking plan; at least 2M+ square feet of office space a stone's throw away from 30th Street Station right in the middle of University City. The more I think about it, I think Philadelphia is very, very well-positioned for this - which, of course, would present numerous secondary benefits for Pittsburgh and for Pennsylvania.

http://www.schuylkillyards.com/

Last edited by contellus; Oct 20, 2017 at 12:44 AM.
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  #19887  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 12:50 AM
highlander206 highlander206 is offline
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Originally Posted by contellus View Post
A bit curious as to why Pittsburgh has elected not to publicize the details of its bid, and the nature of the non-disclosure agreement it claims to have with Amazon. They've hinted at it being a combination of Hazelwood Green with a tower at the Civic Arena site, but I'm itching to know what they have proposed. The video is very, very well-done.

As an aside related to publicizing details of these proposals...Philadelphia, for example, has many of the details (minus any financial incentives) of its bid on a website. (https://public.philadelphiadelivers.com/) I wasn't aware of the Schuylkill Yards development before this, but it's a gorgeous looking plan; at least 2M+ square feet of office space a stone's throw away from 30th Street Station right in the middle of University City. The more I think about it, I think Philadelphia is very, very well-positioned for this - which, of course, would present numerous secondary benefits for Pittsburgh and for Pennsylvania.

http://www.schuylkillyards.com/
I heard something about a non disclosure agreement on the news when they were mentioning it this evening, but that doesn't seem to make sense if other cities are publicizing a lot of the details.
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  #19888  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 12:54 AM
highlander206 highlander206 is offline
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I give Pittsburgh a 3 percent chance of getting it. I think they'll look at the city and see the infrastructure and public transport options are severely lacking. However, it's still cheap to live here and there's loads of land near downtown ready for development, so that's a plus.
I mean, yeah it is compared to a lot of larger cities but the amount of people who use it to commute to work here is quite high and it doesn't give me the impression it's really that bad compared to other mid sized cities. While I do take the bus regularly to work, it still has a ways to go before I'd give much thought to using it on the weekends. Also, easy access to opposite sides of the city without stopping in Downtown are too low.
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  #19889  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 1:56 AM
eschaton eschaton is offline
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New planning commission presentation. Five items:

1. Historic nomination of the "tufa bridges" in Schenley Park. As always with these nominations, there's far more detail here than you could possibly believe (137 pages worth). One interesting fact is since tufa is a calcareous rock formed through groundwater flow, and the bridges have stood for a century, some of the tufa cladding has effectively "melted" along drip lines, with stalagmites beginning to form.

2. AAA seeks to replace the windows on the Centre Avenue side of its building at 5900 Baum Boulevard in East Liberty. Apparently a very minor, like-for-like replacement - the back set of windows on that facade was already replaced in 2015 and you can barely tell.

3. Allegheny General Hospital is submitting an institutional master plan. It's involves a pretty minor 10-year construction plan. The biggest element is a new cancer center in a gap in its current front facade. In the longer term, they plan on redeveloping their garage on Sandusky Street.

4. The formal plan for Phase II at 350 Oliver has arrived. Nine floors of condo space, plus a terrace floor. 86 units in all. We've seen a lot of this before, so I won't comment on it in detail, except to say I'm glad it looks like it's getting built, although with condo buildings, it seems there is often a delay until a certain number are sold.

5. The "Phase II" for Fort Willow Development in Lawrenceville has landed, and as was rumored, the sister project to Foundry @ 41st is an office building. The first phase involves the construction of a new, four-story office building. The second phase will restore a small machine shop which was retained when the rest of the old mill building was demolished. This was done my by wife's firm (albeit not by her...I think) so I'm probably not entirely impartial, but it looks a cut above the average office block we've been seeing in the area.

Last edited by eschaton; Oct 20, 2017 at 12:42 PM.
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  #19890  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 3:15 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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Some sort of potential deal is in the works for the Lower Hill site:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201710200150

Quote:
In a statement, Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto and URA board chairman, said the extension involves the forfeiture of one parcel and the submission of secondary appraisals for the land the Penguins hope to use to start a 1,100-unit housing development. The Penguins, working with developer McCormack Baron Salazar, have been planning to start the first phase of that development this fall.

"We are requesting this extension as we are close to an agreement that would simplify future take-downs as well as eliminate a significant portion of the $15 million [in] credits" the URA and SEA are obligated to provide to the Penguins under the deal to build PPG Paints Arena. "If the Penguins, SEA and URA are able to come to an agreement, we would present the terms of the proposed amendments to the URA and SEA" boards, Mr. Acklin said. "We are hopeful this can occur early next week."
This is public land, and I'd like to believe our public officials will drive a hard bargain, including freeing up a lot of the land for open bidding.

Yeah, right.
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  #19891  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 3:43 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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So generally I quite like the final design for 350 Oliver. Keeping the upper part to a relatively narrow tower provides nice space around the Park Building while getting a good amount of height for the square footage. That corner detailing also looks nice, particularly in the night rendering:





By the way, I've been watching them put up the screening elements on the garage, and so far they look pretty nice from what I can see.

Last edited by BrianTH; Oct 20, 2017 at 4:32 PM.
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  #19892  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 3:51 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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So generally speaking I like the design of the Fort Willow office building (that's not my favorite color scheme, but I understand it is a nod to the history of the location):



I particularly like their re-use plans for the old machine shop:



However, I don't love the plan for such a large surface parking lot along 40th. Is there any thought to filling that in during a future phase?
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  #19893  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 3:55 PM
eschaton eschaton is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
However, I don't love the plan for such a large surface parking lot along 40th. Is there any thought to filling that in during a future phase?
It seems to me the lack of much structured parking is the entire reason why this developer has been able to do this work on the cheap (not just the new building, but Foundry @ 41st, which was way cheaper per square foot than the average new apartment building going up in Pittsburgh).

While I don't know if it's intended, I tend to believe that within a 10-20 year horizon self-driving cars are going to make the city reduce or eliminate parking minimums, and open up a lot of land to development. For that reason I actually prefer designs like this with surface lots to podium parking structures which will be very hard to repurpose.

Last edited by eschaton; Oct 20, 2017 at 5:39 PM.
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  #19894  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 5:26 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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Yeah, given the location I don't mind if they are thinking infill within 20 years, say. I would just like developers to be keeping that in mind in situations like this (which maybe they have).
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  #19895  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 5:36 PM
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Austinlee Austinlee is offline
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According to mayor Peduto, Pittsburgh is a front runner for Amazon. One thing mentioned in the article addressing the issue of where would 50,000 people live is the statistic of 17,000 vacant or blighted houses in the city of Pittsburgh. Big infill oppurtunity.
You can view the article in an incognito window if you don't have a subscription.

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsbur...red-to-be.html
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  #19896  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 6:16 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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Yeah, even if Amazon came here, good housing in central locations should be available for not much more than cost of new construction for quite a while yet, thanks to vacant houses and vacant lots (of course the City's inventory is just a start--there is much more in other older, inner suburbs).
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  #19897  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2017, 11:57 PM
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Evergrey Evergrey is offline
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I have a feel8ng that Pittsburgh is gonna land Amazon.
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  #19898  
Old Posted Oct 21, 2017, 11:18 AM
daviderik daviderik is offline
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I remember reading a statement from one of the executives in charge of selecting a city. Speaking on the topic of weather, he understood not everyone wants to move to Seattle and live in this climate.
Although our two climates are not similar. I would tend to think they are looking for a city with milder winters. On the topic of Amazon actually making the move, from their perspective it would be easier to recruit young talent to SanDiego than a rustbelt city.
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  #19899  
Old Posted Oct 21, 2017, 4:47 PM
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Sustainable outerwear retailer Patagonia has a store under construction on Walnut St.
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  #19900  
Old Posted Oct 22, 2017, 4:08 PM
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Anthony Bourdain came here and Parts Unknown on CNN is showing the episode tonight, will be good having that go on CNN right after the city placed the Amazon bid. Unfortunately, I can't watch it because I don't have cable.
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