PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[highlander206]

Originally Posted by Wave

It's on Alaska Airlines but won't start until September 2018. So a very long lead time between this announcement and service commencement.

Alaska has been expanding to the east coast quite a bit and has their main hub at Sea-Tac.

Great news, and certainly does not hurt the city's prospects for landing Amazon....


http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201711150185

The amount of time between the announcement and flights beginning is unusual, but it's about time we had nonstop to Seattle again. It's completely ridiculous we didn't have this service to the 15th largest metro in the country. I'm happy to see it's Alaska Airlines as well, they are usually ranked at the top of American commercial carriers.

[BrianTH]

Box checked.

[BrianTH]

I'm with the naysayers: I'd rather just enforce the current deal. But thanks to the Mayor's people, the new deal is moving forward on a 3-2 vote.

http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/201711150238

[atlantaguy]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Apparently Alaska Airlines has made Seattle into its hub now.

It always has been, it's also their HQ's. They just gained 2 new hubs in San Francisco and L.A. with their takeover of Virgin America.

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/route-map

[BrianTH]

The City and Pitt are working on a comprehensive redo of Bigelow between Fifth and Forbes:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/ci...s/201711150239

Given the location, pedestrian traffic, and what they are planning to do, it is almost more like a plaza project than a road project (although it will remain open to cars).

[eschaton]

New planning commission presentation up for the 21st. Let's see what's on the agenda:

1. A new project redeveloping an entire block along Baum Boulevard in East Liberty, which we discussed earlier because the developer has already applied for the zoning variances. Looking at the renderings, they're planning on a complete reskin of the first building, and a partial reskin of the second and third. This gray building will be demolished, making way for an enlarged 38-space parking lot, with a separate new construction two-story building at the corner of Baum and...hey, that spur at the end of S Euclid doesn't have a name. It's a big step up from current conditions, but my preference would be if they changed the orientation of the new construction (and maybe demoed part of the other one-story building) to have the parking lot visible only from the alley.

2. Oxford proposing a spot rezone of the former Packaging Corporation of America site from GI (General Industrial) to UI (Urban Industrial). GI is a very restricted type of zoning in Pittsburgh, with things like apartment buildings, hotels, and ground-floor retail not permitted, so this seems a no-brainer. Most of the Strip District is already zoned UI except for a portion of this parcel and the nearby DPW plot, so this should sail through. It does reiterate Pittsburgh needs to revamp its zoning code to come up with a dedicated mixed use zone however, and not use kludges like UI to give developers more of a free hand. As of yet, Oxford has proposed no plans for what it wants done with this parcel.

3. The planned Uptown parking/retail/residential project at 1400 Cowell Street has arrived as a more concrete proposal. It is named City's Edge, and is a nine-story project by Strada including a 439-space garage, 106 residential units, and 15,000 square feet of retail. It will take up almost the entire block, minus a small segment near Pride Street given over to a plaza. The design is...weird. The garage section is clad in brick and somewhat neotraditional, while the residential component is clad in white, gray, and yellow metal panels and very contemporary. Even though I knew the dimensions of the building prior to seeing these renderings, it is much denser and more urban looking than I had expected. Considering the new steam plant is going on the block immediately between this and PPG Paints Arena, that area will look very different soon. I hope that the blocks along Fifth Avenue in that area begin filling in as well soon - we could have a nice extension of Downtown.

[AaronPGH]

I'm really glad Alaska beat Spirit to the incentives. I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the long lead time announcement. Tech companies wouldn't be flying their employees on Spirit, so it was imperative that whatever flight appeared would have been either Delta or Alaska. Both have hubs there. Spirit also wouldn't have offered any onward connections to the Pacific NW or California from Seattle. This flight should be a slam dunk.

Hopefully we'll see SAN, LAX, and SFO from Alaska as well. There is a case to be made for them to build an eastern focus city at some point, and PIT could be the right spot if they are well received here.

[DKNewYork]

Found this on the Philly page---a report on the top American cities for innovation. Pittsburgh is ranked and mentioned. You can download the full report at the bottom of the page.

https://www.1776.vc/reports/innovati...-matters-2017/

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by eschaton

It is named City's Edge, and is a nine-story project by Strada including a 439-space garage, 106 residential units, and 15,000 square feet of retail. It will take up almost the entire block, minus a small segment near Pride Street given over to a plaza. The design is...weird. The garage section is clad in brick and somewhat neotraditional, while the residential component is clad in white, gray, and yellow metal panels and very contemporary. Even though I knew the dimensions of the building prior to seeing these renderings, it is much denser and more urban looking than I had expected. Considering the new steam plant is going on the block immediately between this and PPG Paints Arena, that area will look very different soon. I hope that the blocks along Fifth Avenue in that area begin filling in as well soon - we could have a nice extension of Downtown.

Odd, yes, but definitely has some redeeming qualities. Seems to interact well at street level. This type of development seems appropriate at this location at this time.

[highlander206]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Odd, yes, but definitely has some redeeming qualities. Seems to interact well at street level. This type of development seems appropriate at this location at this time.

Only issue I have with that design is the random yellow . Get rid of that and I think it would be a great asset as well.

[TBone7281]

Pittsburgh Audi


11/9/2017 - looking up Liberty. It's a pretty good sized area considering the location.




11/13/2017 - looking towards Liberty from near the intersection of Smallman/21st. Once the building is complete, I think it's going to look pretty cool from this angle.





As someone mentioned a couple pages ago, old Spaghetti Warehouse building is being worked on. (11/9/2017)

[TBone7281]

Riverfront Landing (11/16/2017) - maybe I just forgot what the renders looked like, but I was surprised to see them putting up brickwork this week. Hard to tell from these, but it isn't bad, IMO.

[TBone7281]

Riverfront West (11/9/2017) - foundation block in place





Hearing notice for variance on the lot at 2121 Smallman (previous location of Tom Ayoob). Looking for exception on height and use.





AC Hotel (11/16/2017)





1627 On the Strip, still moving along. (11/16/2017)





I wish cranes were a more common sight.





And finally, nothing too exciting, but Coop De Ville is moving along. (Taking over the space previously occupied by Marty's Market.)

[BrianTH]

I don't love the yellow & white combination either, but otherwise I quite like that design for 1400 Colwell. I think that somewhat odd brick section makes it look like they took an existing factory building and then renovated it and incorporated it into a bigger project.

By the way, as I noted in a P-G article on the project, this is basically proof that the new Penguins deal is a terrible idea. This land was put out to bid and they got back a much more ambitious proposal from the winning bidder than they were expecting. That tends to happen in good locations, because the most ambitious bidder will tend to be willing to pay the most for the development rights.

So under the current deal, we have an opportunity to gradually bid out all that land to the most ambitious developers, which would also very, very likely generate a lot more revenue than the $14M we would have to pay the Penguins (and not until the end of the current deal, so even less in present value). Instead under the new deal, we are basically once again giving all those rights to the Penguins on a no-bid contract.

So to be blunt, despite his rhetoric, Peduto basically sold out the public with this deal.

[eschaton]

The Uptown project is exciting to me because with a few more projects of this scale we might see Uptown become dense enough again to create localized commercial demand, which of course would make further projects more plausible. Note that the spot in question is only a block up the hill from the 1430 Fifth Avenue project which is adding another 35 units. Not to mention Flats on Fifth being only two blocks up.

I do have to say I don't understand the retail component however, because it's off the main drag and a ways up the hill from Fifth Avenue. It's not really in a convenient spot to get people going to a Penguins game either. I suppose people who live in City View and parts of Crawford Square could walk down the hill, but that's about it.

As a random aside, even though Pittsburgh is rapidly getting "hoteled out" I think a third hotel near PPG Paints Arena would work pretty well, and there's certainly room for one fronting right on Fifth Avenue where there are loads of parking lots right now.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

Odd, yes, but definitely has some redeeming qualities. Seems to interact well at street level. This type of development seems appropriate at this location at this time.

I love the scale of this building. I think this is what we need to see more of - High density developments in Uptown, Oakland and the Hill. The more density, the more it will make sense to have BRT along this corridor to service a increasingly vibrant area.
I don't love the presumable cheap cladding (the white part of the rendering) but I like that it has a splash of color (the yellow) on the edges.
Overall it's a nice project.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by TBone7281

Riverfront Landing (11/16/2017) - maybe I just forgot what the renders looked like, but I was surprised to see them putting up brickwork this week. Hard to tell from these, but it isn't bad, IMO.

Thanks for the construction updates TBone. You're an excellent contributor.

I love that crane shot you got and it's nice to see the progress of the AC Hotel under construction. It looks great from the Veteran's Bridge, driving in the direction towards the Liberty Bridge. I wanted to take a pic of it the other day but I didn't want to get run over. That would be a killer angle though.

Here's the renderings of Riverfront Landing:



5 stories is a respectable size. If we had more developments of that scale the city would have a much higher PPM count.



And the top down drawing; I like how the parking is hidden in the middle and the building is up against the street on one side and the 3 Rivers Trail and the river on the other.

[Evergrey]

I too like the splash of yellow... very fitting for Pittsburgh given our many yellow bridges.

[eschaton]

The sheer horizontal scale of Riverfront Landing is pretty incredible. I've never seen a residential building before where there is cladding and windows up on one side while the other is still being assembled. It makes me wonder if they're going to start leasing the left half of the building before the right is completed.

[eschaton]

Another zoning agenda has been posted online, for the 12/7 meeting. oddly the 11/30 meeting hasn't been posted. Anyway, minor stuff, but I'll recap.

1. Infill house in Upper Lawrenceville (which will go right here).

2. Infill house in Shadyside (which will go here - right by the back side of Bakery Square).

3. Infill house in East Liberty (here)

Plus some even more boring things, like expansion of existing houses, a parking lot modification in Shadyside, and an odd proposal to clear-cut 25 acres of property in Ridgemont for timber.