Category Archive: City Living
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Artists bring flourish to Penn Avenue
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteNine years ago, two nonprofits designated a 12-block stretch of Penn Avenue through Bloomfield, Garfield and Friendship as a destination for artists. Some local residents ridiculed the idea. The corridor was pestilent.
Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. and Friendship Development Associates teamed up to pitch empty storefronts to artists. They attached big colorful banners over doorways between Mathilda Street and Negley Avenue in a 16-building strategy. Vandals and several seasons of weather had their way with the banners for a few years.
Fast forward to the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater at 5941 Penn Ave., where at 6 p.m. tomorrow, the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative will throw a release party for its new 20-minute video that documents the turn of events since 2001. The event, celebrating “Electric Avenue,” is free and open to the public and will include live music, refreshments and art for sale.
Despite many ills remaining, the nonprofits feel vindicated. Nearly a dozen arts groups have clustered along the corridor in the past six years, many of whom perform and offer classes, including the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Dance Alloy and Attack Theatre. More than a dozen arts-related businesses and individual artists who live upstairs and work downstairs also have invested in the corridor, as did two architecture studios, Edge Architects in 2003 and Loysen + Kreuthmeier in 2005. Some of the artists and arts groups offer workshops and classes to all age groups.
Garfield Artworks was the lone gallery, and Dance Alloy had just moved into the neighborhood when artist Jeffrey Dorsey began volunteering with the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative. It started in 1998 as a joint project of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. and Friendship Development Associates. Both are nonprofits that provide neighborhood services and develop real estate. They compiled a database of more than 400 artists in three immediate ZIP codes.
Mr. Dorsey served on the steering committee to get the initiative on its feet, then was hired the next year to run it. He was instrumental in establishing the Unblurred event that draws the public to artist spaces the first Friday evening of every month and is now executive director of FDA.
“Artists were interested” in the corridor early on, he said, but it took a few years for momentum to build. “We would have an artist ready to buy, and then there would be trouble with financing, or a contractor and the artist at the last minute decided not to buy.” On two buildings in particular, “the banners were up way too long, but we got a lot of response.”
On the new video, the second the arts initiative has made to document its progress, Mr. Dorsey said artists were the target to jump-start revitalization “because artists are connectors.”
A revival of Penn Avenue is radiating to some of its troubled side streets. Recently, two new homeowners relocated here from other cities, one a young family, the other a young couple, and bought blighted, abandoned homes to renovate and live in north of Penn, said Becky Mingo, real estate specialist for Friendship Development.
Aggie Brose, deputy director of Bloomfield-Garfield, said BGC has sold 22 of 23 new single-family homes of a 50-house plan that will occupy a four-by-four block area. Eight more are being built now, and 19 will be started next summer, she said.
The BGC also owns seven homes being rehabbed this and next year on North Fairmount.
The arts initiative has had “minimal impact on the sale of new houses in Garfield,” she said, “but I’m hoping that unconsciously, all the excitement on Penn Avenue in general fed into buyers’ decisions.”
She said the BGC and FDA “labored for years” to fill small storefronts that continued to lie dormant until the groups met with Artists in Cities, an organization that was finishing construction of the Spinning Plate Artists Lofts and Galleries on Friendship Avenue in 1998.
“They had a waiting list,” said Ms. Brose. “So Rob Stephany, [commercial real estate specialist for East Liberty Development, who was then on the BGC staff] jumped in and said, ‘We have places on Penn Avenue. Let me take you on a tour.’ That’s how the Arts Initiative was born, and a movement started.”
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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URA marks milestone in facade program
Friday, June 08, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority celebrated a milestone in commercial facade renovation yesterday on Broad Street in East Liberty, one of 32 neighborhoods that has benefited from the authority’s Streetface loan-to-grant program.
Ed Lesoon’s three-story yellow-brick building at 6022-24 is the 1,200th facade to have been spruced up with help from the URA, according to records that date to 1983. But his own investment in the neighborhood goes back to the 1970s and has figured in the millions.
Broad Street, between Highland and Sheridan avenues, is heavily traveled, with diagonal head-in parking on one side and a cropped curb on the other. Its facades are largely stale, but that is changing.
Yesterday, a day after Washington, D.C. developer Nigel Parkinson announced plans for a $40 million renovation and a construction complex involving half of that block, the URA saluted the investment Mr. Lesoon has made on much of the other half.
The property that drew about 50 people yesterday — including Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park — once was a furniture store. It was caving in and needed a new parapet wall when Mr. Lesoon bought it in 2000. Besides having sustained fire damage, the building was bricked up except for two little windows in front.
After a complete gutting, it is massive and airy. Each 5,000-square-foot floor has a large bank of windows and elevator access. The interior reconstruction created tie-ins to both upstairs floors of the building beside it, which fronts on Sheridan Avenue and houses a Family Dollar store.
Mr. Lesoon said he wants to rent the first floor of the old furniture store as restaurant or retail space and the upstairs as offices.
Working with architect Cherie Moshier, he and his crews have converted four of seven properties on the block.
They gutted the former Veterans of Foreign Wars club at 6020 Broad and added a partial second-floor overlook that suggests a bistro or club.
Next door is the former Walsh’s Lounge & Bar, which Mr. Lesoon bought last year.
“We removed 500 gallons of grease and dirt out of there,” he said yesterday, adding that he plans to remove the glass-block front and open up the facade.
All told, Mr. Lesoon has restored and renovated 20 of 23 buildings in East Liberty with $208,825 in Streetface grants, said URA spokesman Julie Deseyn.
The facade money, even when it’s a relatively small portion of some of his facade costs, “is such a good incentive that I have been doing this for 20 years,” Mr. Lesoon said. “But I get hooked on buildings. I think of them as my Eliza Doolittles.”
Building owners in qualifying commercial corridors can get 40 percent of the project cost, up to $30,000, said Anita Stec, business development specialist at the URA. The money starts as a loan, but for each of five years that the property is maintained as approved, the URA converts 20 percent of the loan to a grant, she said.
In 25 years, the URA’s $13 million investment in facades has leveraged an additional $50 million in investments by private interests, said Jerome Dettore, executive director of the URA.
Mr. Lesoon said he and his father were inspired by Ward Olander and his company, Real Estate Enterprises, which has been investing in East Liberty properties since 1970. Today, Mr. Lesoon and his son develop properties as the Wedgwood Group.
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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East Liberty’s Broad Street getting face-lift
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, June 8, 2007East Liberty’s Broad Street once was little more than a drug-trafficking depot sandwiched between two nuisance bars and a few tumble-down buildings, city officials said Thursday.
But that’s changing with new attention from police, Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and developers such as Edward Lesoon of The Wedgwood Group, which is renovating five Broad Street buildings in hopes of attracting retailers and restaurateurs.“What we have done is taken the seed, or the core of East Liberty, and we’re going to make it blossom,” said Lesoon, as he stood yesterday in the partially renovated, three-story Hart Building.
He hopes the building will attract a company that wants to put in office space or a store once he completes more than $250,000 in improvements to the facade and interior, including a new elevator.
The key is to beautify Broad Street with building renovations and more than $300,000 in public and private money for street resurfacing and sidewalk amenities such as decorative lamp posts, lights and trees, city officials said.
“It’s so someone doing a curb check won’t be scared away,” said Robert Rubenstein, URA economic development director. “There’s a lot of (potential) business owners who don’t know about this yet.”
Lesoon hopes a second building he’s renovating — which once held Walsh’s Bar, a nuisance bar with an art-deco theme — will turn into a family restaurant.
Pittsburgh real estate marketer CB Richard Ellis is looking for businesses to move into buildings in a three-block section of Broad Street renovated by Wedgwood and other companies.
State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Lawrenceville, was on hand yesterday with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to dedicate the URA’s facade-improvement program. He applauded the street’s building owners for agreeing to contribute money to fixing the crumbling street and sidewalks.
Finding people to patronize a new restaurant or clothing store in East Liberty’s core likely won’t be difficult, said Rob Stephany, East Liberty Development Inc.’s director of commercial development.
Stephany said there will be many new residents living nearby soon in two large mixed-income housing developments planned for either side of the improved section of Broad Street, which is between North Sheridan Avenue and North Beatty Street.
Developer McCormick Barrons is working on leasing 120 homes in what will be a 200-home residential development; and ELDI will begin construction next year on Mellon’s Orchard South, an 80-home mixed-income development.
“Broad Street is going to be more defined by the people who can walk it,” Stephany said.
People will want to shop there now that crime is under control and new development is coming, he said.
“It was for a long time completely miserable,” Stephany said. “It’s a totally different place.”
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
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Mon Valley needs newcomers to revitalize, officials say
Thursday, June 07, 2007
By Karamagi Rujumba,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe consensus among Allegheny County and state officials and economic-development types is that if many of the old steel mill towns of the Mon Valley are to make a comeback, the valley not only needs key revitalization dollars, but people like John Potter.
The Valley, they say, needs longtime residents or even newcomers who are willing to buy new and refurbished homes in downtrodden neighborhoods of communities like North Braddock and Braddock.
On a balmy afternoon last Thursday, Mr. Potter, 74, a longtime North Braddock resident, stood under a shade tree as state and county officials lauded him for buying a new house in the municipality.
Mr. Potter, a retired Ford Corp., supervisor, is the first buyer of one of six single-family detached homes being built along North Braddock’s Baldridge Avenue, and financed by a collaboration of state, county, and regional nonprofit agencies.
The six new houses comprise the new development known as the Braddock Field Housing Development in North Braddock.
“Isn’t it great talking over construction noise? I love it. It’s much better than talking over silence,” Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato told a group of residents and officials who gathered at the construction site during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“This is what it means to build new. We want to have an impact. We’re not talking about building just one house. We want to build entire blocks of new housing,” Mr. Onorato told the group of about 30 residents and officials.
The new housing project in North Braddock together with the East Braddock Housing Development in Braddock is the latest revitalization initiative by a consortium of public and nonprofit agencies.
The project, officials said, represents an investment of more than $10 million in high-quality affordable housing for more than 50 families in the area.
The consortium consists of a number of Allegheny County and Pennsylvania state departments, the Mon Valley Initiative, and the Braddock Economic Development Corp.
“Braddock’s Field will spur the revitalization of the neighborhood surrounding Library Street and Jones Avenue. Our goal is to help revive these once prosperous communities through affordable home ownership, elimination of blight, and an increased tax base,” said Laura Zinski, executive director of the Mon Valley Initiative.
The houses in North Braddock are being sold for $70,000, of which $15,000 will be a “soft,” or subsidized, second mortgage, held by Allegheny County, explained Doug Van Haitsma, real estate development director of the Mon Valley Initiative.
In Braddock, the group of officials, which included Brian Hudson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, and Pennsylvania Treasurer, Robin Wiessmann, launched the renovation of two historic buildings on Corey Avenue, which will make available 17 new apartments.
The Corey Avenue project will also see the demolition of four dilapidated buildings that will make room for the construction of two duplexes and a single family home.
The houses in Braddock will be sold for $52,000, with the same financing scheme as those in North Braddock, Mr. Van Haitsma said.
“Dan Onorato has not forgotten the Mon Valley and we are so appreciative of that,” said Jesse Brown, president of the Braddock’s council.
“We were waiting for many years to see some things happen here and now we see [the houses] coming,” Mr. Brown said.
(Karamagi Rujumba can be reached at krujumba@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1719 . )
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City approves tax break for new housing in 29 areas
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteCity Council approved tax breaks yesterday designed to spur new housing Downtown even as it expressed misgivings about excluding some neighborhoods from the program.
The measure, approved 8-0, will waive the first $2,700 in city property taxes for 10 years on new housing units built Downtown and in 28 other city neighborhoods.
“It’s symbolic of our effort to prioritize and give incentives for people to move back Downtown and to create incentives for people to move back into neighborhoods that haven’t seen investment for some time,” Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said.
Approval came even though several council members complained about neighborhoods being excluded from the program, which based eligibility in part on a “vitality index” that factored in population losses, education levels, single-parent families, poverty, low home ownership, high vacancy, tax delinquency, violent crime and other factors.
In fact, several Fairywood residents made a last-ditch appeal to council to be added among the eligible neighborhoods, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
“We never get anything in our neighborhood. We’re always left out, except for things that don’t work,” Donna Washington, a member of the Fairywood Citizens Council, said afterwards.
Councilman William Peduto, who had proposed a competing tax break that would have applied to Downtown and adjacent neighborhoods, said the residents had a point.
“When you choose 29 neighborhoods to be the winner, you’re also choosing 60 neighborhoods to be the loser,” he said.
Several other council members, including Daniel Deasy, who represents Fairywood, also expressed disappointment about neighborhoods being left out but at the same time expressed hope that the program could be expanded in the future.
The Ravenstahl administration has said that going citywide would have cost the city $75 million over the life of the program. As structured, the abatement is designed to replace the new property tax revenue the city is giving up with gains in wage and other taxes.
Mr. Peduto said one possible avenue to explore in years ahead would be income-based property tax breaks as well as incentives built around green buildings, historic preservation and public art.
While the program isn’t perfect, it does lend assistance to efforts to bring more housing Downtown, he said.
Lucas Piatt, vice president of real estate for Millcraft Industries, the Washington County developer bringing condominiums to the former Lazarus-Macy’s building and apartments to the old G.C. Murphy’s store Downtown, described the abatements as a “good start.”
“I think it’s definitely going to help us,” he said.
He said he was also hoping that Allegheny County and the city school district would adopt similar measures. He said abatements in Philadelphia have helped to revitalize that city.
Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato expects to have an announcement soon relating to a possible county tax abatement program, spokesman Kevin Evanto said. For the initiative to be successful, Mr. Onorato believes the city, county and school district all must participate, he said.
While Fairywood residents complained about being left out, representatives from several other neighborhood groups spoke in favor of the program before the vote.
Cindy Cassell, who heads up economic development and project management for Neighbors in the Strip, said the program could help to stimulate the redevelopment of about 100 vacant properties in the Strip District.
“It makes urban living in Pittsburgh more affordable for more people,” she said.
The city is still writing regulations for the program, a process that could take at least a month. Abatement applications will be accepted for five years.
(Rich Lord contributed to this story. Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )
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Jazzing Up Housing for Seniors – Officials are increasingly inviting architectural innovation in housing projects for the elderly
June 5, 2006
by Violet Law
Businessweek.comFor far too long, most publicly funded housing for seniors and the disabled has bordered on being dull, if not downright dismal and “institutional.” But thanks to architects who are lavishing the kind of thoughtful design attention hitherto rarely seen in such developments, and clients who are increasingly willing to take a chance on them, even some publicly funded projects are breaking the mold.
Victor Regnier, FAIA, a University of Southern California professor who specializes in seniors housing design, is currently writing a book on the subject—timely, given the growing demand for these buildings as baby boomers age. Regnier sees a dawning willingness on the part of housing officials to invite innovative design. More important, there’s a new political will to demand it.
One project resulting from this push is Near North Apartments, a single-room occupancy building designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects. Mercy Housing Lakefront commissioned the new $14-million, 96-unit facility to provide permanent residences for low-income or formerly homeless people, some of whom are elderly and disabled. Completed this spring, it stands on the site of Cabrini-Green, an infamous Chicago housing project now mostly demolished. The five-story building is clad in rippled, satin-finish stainless-steel siding. This unpolished facade is tempered by round edges near the rooftop and large, punched windows whose e-coated glazing reflects a faint blue tint. Its elegant, Minimalist design stands out, especially in its infill setting—which is exactly what Cindy Holler, the nonprofit’s president, wanted. “It’s stigma-smashing,” she says. “It’s okay not to be blend in and to be provocative.”
Other new developments are aiming for a more subtle approach, evocative rather than provocative. A 108-unit public housing development for the elderly in Pittsburgh by McCormack Baron Salazar incorporates the history of an African-American neighborhood into its facade design. Architect Dan Rothschild, AIA, of Pittsburgh-based Rothschild Doyno Architects, says he was inspired by the storied Hill District, a popular stop for jazz musicians during the 1920s to 1940s. He incorporated the spirit of jazz into the building’s plan by dividing the front elevation into segments whose widths vary to the relative length of musical notes—a quarter note, half note, or whole note—adding visual rhythm to the streetscape. Construction of the $13 million complex finishes next month.
Regnier observes that more and more projects like this one are employing better design to serve the population they house. “There has been a stronger focus on developing contextually-based designs that gear toward the community and reflect what the city is about,” he explains.
Consideration of context can be achieved not only with exterior details, but also through the architectural program. Regnier cites the Burbank Senior Artists Colony, a complex of 141 senior apartments located near major movie studios in Burbank, California, developed by Meta Housing with some government support. Scheurer Architects designed two recording studios as well as a small theater so that the facility’s residents can flex their creative muscles by producing plays and films.
Provided by Architectural Record—The Resource for Architecture and Architects
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City Council approves tax abatements
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 5, 2007Tax breaks designed to attract home builders to Downtown and 28 neighborhoods won City Council’s OK today but excluded some low-income neighborhoods, residents complained.
“It seems to me that the city is trying to upscale the city, and there’s no room for lower income people,” said Donna Washington, 51, a Fairywood resident who told council that her neighborhood should be eligible for the tax breaks.
“We are always left out,” said Washington, a member of the Fairywood Citizens Council. “There are a lot of people who would like to do work on their homes … and they can’t afford (the higher taxes).”
Beginning July 1, those who build new housing — or significantly improve existing residential property in the designated neighborhoods — would be exempt from the city’s 10.8-mill property tax for 10 years.
The tax break applies to the increase in value of new developments capped at $250,000. For example, the owner of a new apartment building worth $250,000 would not have to pay $2,700 a year in property taxes, creating $27,000 in savings over the decade.
The City Planning Department created a “vitality index” to determine which neighborhoods would be eligible for the program. The department assigned scores to neighborhoods based on data such as housing vacancy, violent crime, income, education levels and population decreases.
The bill, proposed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, passed 8-0 today. Councilman Len Bodack was absent.
Nancy Noszka, director of real estate with the Northside Leadership Conference, likes the tax break program and said if it entices home builders to come to the city “the program will help stabilize our communities.”
Cindy Cassell, project manager for the Neighbors in the Strip community group, said the tax breaks could persuade developers to improve some of the estimated 100 vacant properties in the Strip District.
“The 10-year tax abatement will make the cost of rehabbing these old buildings more affordable,” she said.
Councilman Bill Peduto said the mayor’s office should have focused the tax breaks on Downtown because it has the greatest potential for new development that would eventually feed the tax base after the 10-year abatement.
He said the bill has “flaws” because the Planning Department’s vitality index should have been based solely on income, akin to federal Community Development Block Grant programs.
“This is not perfect legislation; it definitely has its flaws. But we definitely have an opportunity to move forward and see some development Downtown,” said Peduto. He said he voted for the legislation because he believes Pittsburgh lags behind other major U.S. cities in offering such tax breaks.
In addition to Downtown, eligible neighborhoods for the tax break are: Allentown, Arlington, Beltzhoover, California-Kirkbride, East Allegheny, Elliott, Esplen, Fineview, Hays, Hazelwood, Homewood North, Homewood South, Homewood West, Knoxville, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington/Belmar, Lower Lawrenceville, Manchester, Marshall-Shadeland, Mt. Oliver, Perry South/Perry Hilltop, Sheraden, Spring Garden, the Strip District, the Upper Hill District, Upper Lawrenceville, Uptown and the West End.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
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Meeting airs arena concerns
By Kevin Crowe
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 5, 2007The displacement of families and businesses caused by the construction of the Civic Arena in the late-1950s was on the minds of some residents who attended a meeting Monday about the design and construction of the Penguins’ new arena.
Lois Cain, 69, grew up in the Hill District and lived there during the construction of what now is the Mellon Arena. She watched some of her neighbors and friends get forced out of the Hill. There were public input meetings at that time, she said, but the recommendations made by the community quickly were forgotten.“I lived through this equation,” Cain told about 300 people who attended the meeting at the arena. “The Penguins have never been a friend of the Hill District.”
Cain’s comments underscored the feeling of distrust in many of the comments and questions fielded by the meeting’s hosts, representatives from the Penguins, the city Planning Department, the Sports & Exhibition Authority and Urban Design Associates, the development firm hired by the Penguins to help run the meetings, and members of organizations based in the Hill District.
The meeting was held to organize focus groups with the goal of getting input from the public about the construction and design of a $290 million arena Uptown, said host Don Carter, of Urban Design Associates.
It was the first step in a public participation process the arena project must follow to gain approval from the City Planning Commission.In response to the comments questioning the process by which public input would be handled, City Councilwoman Tonya Payne said she wanted city planners to forward minutes from the focus group meetings to her office.
“If that information can get presented to my office, I’ll make sure it gets to the community,” she said, drawing applause.
Carter said that while he was happy so many people attended last night’s meeting, the time to discuss specifics of the new arena will be during the focus group meetings. They will be held as soon as a traffic study of the area surrounding the proposed arena is completed, and the times, dates and locations will be available on the city’s Web site, he said.
Carl Redwood, a spokesman for the One Hill Community Benefit Agreement, said the meetings should be about “more than just bricks and mortar.”
Redwood led about 50 people from Freedom Corner at Crawford Street and Centre Avenue to the arena for the meeting. They carried signs that read “One Hill,” and chanted “One Hill, One Voice.”
“We want to ensure that the community surrounding this development will see tangible benefits,” he said.
People who did not attend the kick-off meeting can sign up for the focus groups by contacting the Department of City Planning, the Hill District Consensus Group or the Hill Community Development Corp.
The six focus groups are: residents; churches and social organizations; community organizations; city and public agencies; business and land owners and developers; and historic preservation groups.