Category Archive: City Living
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Ohio developer builds on Pittsburgh success
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, June 2, 2007Buoyed by success developing historic properties in Pittsburgh and other cities, developer John Ferchill is taking on what he terms his biggest challenge yet — a $180 million building revitalization project in Detroit.
Ferchill is deeply involved in an effort to turn the abandoned 33-story Book-Cadillac hotel in the “Motor City” into a luxury hotel and condominium project. He hopes to use some lessons learned here to aid in that effort, he said in an interview Friday.
“Pittsburgh has been just terrific for us,” said Ferchill, whose Cleveland-based company, the Ferchill Group, found success here in 2002 when he built Bridgeside Point, a five-story, 153,000-square-foot office building at the Pittsburgh Technology Center industrial park in South Oakland. In 2005, he added to his local resume with historic conversion of former H.J. Heinz Co. buildings on the North Shore into the Heinz Lofts, a 267-unit luxury apartment complex that is 95 percent leased.
And by the end of June, a development team that includes Ferchill will be reopening the Bedford Springs Resort, in Bedford County, a historic restoration project in the range of $100 million.
“We are going to use some things we learned in Pittsburgh and apply them in Detroit,” he said. “We used a couple of things with historic development that we had never used before that brought significant money for our projects.”
Tools used in Pittsburgh include historic tax credits and easements, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. The South Side foundation worked with Ferchill to secure the historic financing help he needed for the Heinz Lofts and Bedford Springs projects.
“John is one of the most experienced and focused developers, whether it involves new construction or restoration,” Ziegler said. “He knows how to harness together a wide variety of funding sources that make projects that seem to be impossible, possible.”
That includes the Detroit project, according to Ziegler, who became familiar with the Book-Cadillac building about a year ago while conducting a study of the site on the city’s West Side.
“It is a wonderful, historic building that will be very difficult financially to restore to make usable again,” Ziegler said. Nonetheless, he expressed confidence that Ferchill is the man to take on such a task.
“I think he can operate it very well,” Ziegler said.
“I’ve got a lot on the line here,” said Ferchill in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. His company has assumed more than $80 million in loans and other debt associated with the project, he said.
Plans are to open the building in the fall of 2008 as a 455-room Westin hotel. The top eight floors will house 67 upscale condo units, most of which already have been sold. Penthouses commanded as much as $1 million.
“I’m counting on the city of Detroit reviving itself in a manner that nobody expected to happen,” he said. Ferchill said he thinks the start of a turnaround is under way, as the city’s new ballparks, casinos and housing developments are luring more tourists and investors.
Despite his involvement in the Detroit project, Ferchill’s plans for Pittsburgh projects won’t be affected, he said.
“We have completely different teams of people working in Detroit and in Pittsburgh,” he said.
In late 2005, Ferchill sold the Bridgeside Point building at the Pittsburgh Technology Center for $31.5 million, with plans to use some of the proceeds to build a second building at the industrial park.
Plans are to break ground for that $30 million, 150,000-square-foot project within the next 30 days.
“We’re targeting technology companies, some that will have laboratory space,” he said.
Recently, local economic development officials have expressed the need for such facilities for fledgling technology firms in the region.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Row house shows off South Side’s potential
By Pamela Starr
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, June 2, 2007When Ashley Snider bought her South Side row house four years ago, nothing had been done to it since the 1970s.
So, the 31-year-old interior designer ripped up the shag carpeting and had the original soft-pine floors refinished. She took the wallpaper off the kitchen walls and painted them an eggplant color on the bottom and a lemon yellow color on top. Snider painted the metal cabinets with black chalkboard paint so she can write on them.“Paint is cheaper than anything else,” says Snider, who works at Perlora in the Strip District. “I also redid the kitchen floor with black-and-white checkered tiles.”
Snider’s row house is one of 12 homes that will be featured on the 16th annual Historic South Side Home Tour, which will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. today. Jennifer Strang, marketing and communications director for the South Side Local Development Company, which benefits from tour proceeds, says the group chose the house to illustrate how Snider was able to do a lot of work herself and stay on a budget.
“Ashley represents the next generation of South Sider, very in touch with her own sense of style but respectful of her home’s history,” says Strang. “Tourgoers will find a well-balanced mix of classic and modern design throughout and come away in awe that Ashley was able to do much of the work unassisted.”
Snider paid just $90,000 for the 1,500-square-foot row house on Jane Street, which was built in 1866 and has had 12 owners. A German immigrant, Jacob Dietz, purchased the lot for $300 in 1865 and had the house built the following year. The home was turned into two apartments at the turn of the 20th century.This is the first home she has bought herself.
“I knew I wanted to live in the South Side,” says Snider, who owns a friendly pit-bull mix named Totsi. “It was the second house I looked at. I think I got lucky.”
There was an unlucky incident shortly after she moved in. Plumbing problems when the sewage backed up in the basement cost her $9,000 to fix. New pipes had to be installed. She also paid $4,000 to have the hardwood floors refinished.
Snider painted the walls in the dining room a nice, taupe shade and used the same paint in the master bedroom. She painted a wide, taupe strip in the middle of the walls of the master bedroom and painted the rest of the walls eggshell. Violet sheers on the windows add a splash of color.
“I kept the light fixture because I liked it, but it’s not original to the house,” she points out.
The bathroom on the second floor sports pink wall tiles that came with the house. The black-and-white checkered tile floor matches the kitchen floor. Snider created the medicine cabinet herself with a beautiful mosaic pattern. She painted the rest of the walls a charcoal color, but wanted black.
“That’s the way it came out,” she says with a laugh.
The second bedroom was painted with the taupe color; and Snider painted the ceramic Elvis bookends herself. She also made the platters in the kitchen.
“I used to work at Color Me Mine in Squirrel Hill,” she explains. “I have a lot of experience working with paints and stuff.”
The woodwork throughout the row house is all original, as are the fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom. She painted one wall in the living room a rich terra-cotta shade and the other walls eggshell. Snider just started to strip the original marble fireplace in her bedroom but it’s taking a lot of time.
“I work on stuff when I have the time,” she says. “I don’t plan to do anything next. I don’t have the money for a new kitchen or bath. I just paint things all the time. I do things in cheap ways.”
Strang says that the home tour will show very diverse houses.
“From painstakingly remodeled 19th century homes to beautifully repurposed churches and industrial space, there is something for everyone,” she says. “All represent the South Side’s commitment to historic preservation.”
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Hazelwood welcomes new houses
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteCity officials and neighborhood leaders broke ground yesterday on the future site of two new townhouses, among six three-bedroom residences to be built in Hazelwood. They will be the first new homes in the neighborhood in about 15 years, said Jim Richter, executive director of the Hazelwood Initiative.
The $1.5 million project featuring four townhouses and two single-family homes is being developed under the auspices of the Urban Redevelopment Authority. It has been planned for six or seven years, said Jerome Dettore, executive director of the URA.
Four townhouses will be built on Sylvan Avenue, across from the long-vacant Gladstone School. Monongahela Street and Homewood Avenue will each get a new single-family detached home. The townhouses are expected to sell for $129,500, the houses for $135,500. Two homes will be subsidized for home owners who make less than 80 percent of the area’s median income, according to the mayor’s office.
Vanessa Anderson has lived between the two townhouse lots for nine years. They have been vacant for much longer, said Arlene Dobbs, a 45-year resident of the street.
“I’ll be glad to see the weeds go,” said Ms. Dobbs. “Glad to see the land put to good use.”
“It’ll be a brighter place,” said Ms. Anderson, who considered the prospect of four new households on each side of her, saying, “I hope they’re good neighbors.”
She said she has walked to the curb regularly to confront people hanging out in cars whom she presumed were there to sell drugs, she said.
The Rev. Tim Smith, board chair of the Hazelwood Initiative, also has confronted visitors with questionable intentions.
“It has been quiet for the past year, and I think that’s why,” she said, adding that otherwise, the street is peaceful, with lots of homeowners.
As District 5 Councilman Doug Shields described Hazelwood, “You’re six minutes from Oakland and connected to everywhere.”
To give the Hazelwood housing development a boost, the city committed community development block grant money to cover an almost $300,000 gap in financing, Mr. Richter said.
“It’s a sunny day in Hazelwood,” Mr. Richter said yesterday. “Maybe it’s a sign of a sunny future.”
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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Rebuilding Wilkinsburg
By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 24, 2007Deanna Steele looks at Jeanette Street’s boarded-up rowhouses — their lawns choked by shoulder-high weeds — and remembers children playing on the brick-lined Wilkinsburg street when she lived there 20 years ago, long before she settled in Murrysville.
Mary Cathcart wanders through an abandoned, five-bedroom house around the corner and sees, instead, the foundation of a future community — a neighborhood built on the potential of four soon to be refurbished historic homes.“I love old houses, and it overjoys me that, instead of knocking something down, they’re rebuilding it,” said Cathcart, 49, of Wilkinsburg, as she descended a dusty staircase in a home under renovation Wednesday evening.
“They’re beautiful. And they have such good bones. They don’t build things like this anymore.”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is working to ensure they’re not demolished, either. So, it secured two $500,000 grants from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development to acquire and restore the four roughly century-old structures.
Once the work is done in June or July, each will be sold for $75,000 to $95,000.
Yesterday, most neighbors who flocked to a block party to walk through the homes were less excited about mortgage discounts for prospective buyers than what the investment means to the revitalization of their community.
Sherman Moye lives around the corner from the cluster of homes developers call Hamnett Place. He sees that investment every day when he drives to work.
“I’m glad somebody’s fixing it,” said Moye, 54, of Wilkinsburg. “I know it’s going to be nice.”
Michelle Malito, a Shadyside resident thinking about buying one of the four homes, was impressed by the architectural details the developer is preserving.
Jack Schmitt, who owns a massage therapy business in Squirrel Hill, liked the idea of linking the preserved homes together as part of a sustainable neighborhood.
“I have a business in Pittsburgh, but I want to have a community,” said Schmitt, 38. “I see the vision for the future. I see an eco-village (and) a group of like-minded people.”
Others see the project as a way to improve a residential neighborhood while triggering revitalization elsewhere.
“You work incrementally, and you work your way in,” said Michael Gleba, executive vice president of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, which has funded historic redevelopment in the South Side and in the Mexican War Streets on the North Side. “You have an opportunity.”
Some see Wilkinsburg’s past in the historic homes, while others see its future. Michael Sriprasert, of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, simply sees the houses themselves.
“I see the houses as they fit into the context of what’s here,” said Sriprasert, as he strolled down the stone alleyway that runs next to one of the restored homes.
“There’s a perception of what Wilkinsburg is. People don’t realize it’s something more,” he said. “That’s what is going on here. … That’s why we’re saving these buildings.”
Justin Vellucci can be reached at jvellucci@tribweb.com or 412-320-7847.
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North Side homes delayed-Sewer regulations force developer to seek aid
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteA slope of grass on Federal Street, freshly mown days ago, was to have had six townhouses by now. But no deadline ever takes complications into consideration.
After a November ground-breaking for the Federal Hill townhouse project on the Central North Side, the developer’s engineering firm was planning to handle the water and sewer connections.
But when the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority received plans from the engineers, after requesting several revisions to each of the first two, it informed the co-developer, the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, that sanitary and storm sewers had to be separated and the main line replaced.
Jerome Dettore, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said that as more planning became necessary, “it became clear that public funds were needed.”
The URA recently requested $400,000 from the water and sewer authority board for the project, which calls for 60 homes, 40 condos and a smattering of apartments, most on Federal Street, some on connecting side streets.
The soonest the authority would act on the request would be at its June board meeting.
“Our hope now is to get a tap-in plan approved for the entire development,” said Rebecca Davidson-Wagner, executive director of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council. “Even if we can get [approval] for the first six houses, we may be under construction by August or September.”
Mr. Dettore said developers often pick up the tab for small infrastructure upgrades, but for a project this large, and one that involves the city, the water and sewer authority typically allocates the money for water and sewer reconstruction. The URA will pay for street and sidewalk upgrades, including an island planter that will separate northbound from southbound traffic on Federal.
The first phase of six homes is being financed by a variety of sources for $1.8 million.
Water and sewer authority spokeswoman Holly Wojcik said the agency originally requested corrections and changes on preliminary designs from Trant Engineering. Early this month, however, she said the URA hired Michael Baker Corp. to design the improvements.
Ms. Davidson-Wagner said the company was chosen for its experience with city infrastructure.
About 80 percent of sanitary and storm sewer lines in the city are combined, said Ms. Wojcik. “When we have significant rainfall, they overflow,” delivering sewage into groundwater. “Ultimately, you want them to be separated.”
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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Millcraft gives update on its projects for revitalizing downtown Pittsburgh, Washington
By Michael Bradwell
Business Editor
Washington Observer-Reporter
May 21, 2007PITTSBURGH – When Millcraft Industries made a deal in late 2005 with the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority to build an upscale condominium, retail and office development on the site of the former Lazarus-Macy’s store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, Lucas Piatt said the company felt like it was a pioneer.
A year later, Piatt, who is vice president of real estate for Millcraft, is seeing a lot of company as the downtown area surges with projects both big and small.
“It’s good to know we’re not the only pioneers here,” Piatt said last week as he addressed about 150 engineers and contractors at the Pittsburgh Westin Convention Center. “When we started on the Piatt Place project we didn’t know about PNC’s plans,” he said referring to the bank’s plans to build PNC Plaza just across the street from Millcraft’s project, with plans to include a Fairmont luxury hotel on the top floors of the building.
“It’s going to be great having the Fairmont as a neighbor,” he said.
His remarks were made during a panel discussion entitled, “The Road to 2010: Construction in the Tri-State Area,” sponsored by Navigant Consulting and the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania. Navigant, which provides a number of risk management and claims processing services to contractors, project owners and public agencies around the world, held the symposium to raise awareness of upcoming construction projects in Western Pennsylvania.
Piatt and his father, Jack Piatt Sr., chairman of Millcraft Industries, are at the forefront of Pittsburgh’s biggest effort to remake itself. On Tuesday, Lucas Piatt briefly described several projects totaling about $350 million that will help to drive residential and retail development in the city for years to come.
Earlier during the symposium, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato told the group that in terms of construction activity, the next decade promises to be one of the busiest throughout the region.
“The next decade might be one of the best decades we’ll have in the amount of construction we’re going to have in Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania,” Onorato said.
According to Piatt, the $65 million Piatt Place project has already sold 30 percent of the condominiums. It has also signed a Capital Grille steak house and a McCormick & Schmick’s seafood restaurant for the street-level retail. TD Ameritrade has also signed a lease to take a portion of the 180,000 square feet of office space available in the development.
In the Market Square area of downtown, Piatt said Millcraft is getting ready to embark on “Market Square Place,” which will include about 50 rental apartments priced at $1.25 per square foot per month to attract lower-income workers.
“It’s going to get working-class people living and working in the city,” Piatt said. He said Millcraft will visit the annual International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas next week and expects to receive commitments from retailers for the Market Square development.
Moving uptown, on Forbes Avenue, Millcraft plans to develop “The Gardens,” which will include 200 apartments and condominiums. He said the $200 million project will be put out for bids in about six months.
A future project for Millcraft will include the “Wood Street Lofts,” across from Piatt Place, a $40 million project that will include 104 units at market rates and 30,000-square-feet of retail space. Piatt said Millcraft is still acquiring property for the project.
One of the biggest challenges to developing the downtown, Piatt said, “is that you have to have critical mass,” getting enough people to move downtown to create more demand for downtown living.
He said earlier attempts to revitalize the city, which focused on retail, failed because they didn’t take into account that the city needed residents and that it relied on outside developers who weren’t familiar with Pittsburgh’s challenges.
“We’re here to stay, we’re local and when things get tough, we’re not going to leave,” he said.
In addition to the multiple Pittsburgh projects, Millcraft also is forging ahead with its $100 million “Crossroads” project for redeveloping downtown Washington.
Piatt said the LandAmerica Building at Franklin and Beau streets, originally named Nationwide Centre, opened this spring, and is about 80 percent leased. The primary tenant is Nationwide Appraisal Service Co. with other companies coming that include First Federal Savings Bank, Crazy Mocha Coffee and the Social Security Administration. An outdoor park and amphitheater which can accommodate up to 500 people is under construction behind the building.
Piatt, who said the company has spent more than $35 million so far, said the next step will be a refacing of Millcraft Center, a $500,000 project to upgrade the exterior of the structure, which was built in the 1970s.
A second phase of the Crossroads project will involve adding street-level retail with condos and apartments on upper stories to the downtown area and the construction of a boutique-style, 84-room hotel, which Piatt said probably will have a Hilton badge.
In Phase III, Millcraft plans to add additional housing, he said, adding that the entire project will take about 10 years to complete
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Urban planning expert urges leaders to make local neighborhoods walkable
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 19, 2007An urban planning expert urged local leaders Friday to adopt “smart growth” principles as they map out a strategy for the region’s future.
“There are a lot regions in this country and around the world where people have started to realize that things such as transportation and housing need to be planned in a very deliberate way,” said David Chen, founder and executive director of Smart Growth America, based in Washington.Chen was the keynote speaker at the seventh annual Southwestern Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown. About 250 business and community leaders attended.
Smart growth involves comprehensive regional planning that, among other things, takes into account environmental issues, global competitiveness, transportation, housing, changing demographics and social equity.
Given the Pittsburgh region’s aging population, Chen said community planners should make neighborhoods more walkable and less reliant on cars by improving the quality and availability of public transportation.
He suggested using smart growth principles when redeveloping older towns and neighborhoods, and when planning new communities.
“While there is still a demand for conventional developments, the market is shifting and we are beginning to see a greater desire for urban living,” Chen said.
With so many townships and boroughs, the region’s fractionalized bureaucracy creates a “significant challenge” when trying to plan on a regional scale, but it has been done in other parts of the country without annexation, Chen said.
“New Jersey has successfully linked different transit systems to create a more integrated system,” said Chen, who noted that some communities in upstate New York have begun to share municipal services.
During a question-and-answer session, David Ross, the planning director for Castle Shannon, drew attention to a lack of governmental cooperation by asking for a show of hands from representatives of local government.
Only four people responded.
“We live in a very parochial area,” he said. “Many of the issues we are discussing today have to be dealt with from the bottom up rather than the top down. That means getting local officials on board with the idea of working together. That will take time.”
Chen announced yesterday that Smart Growth America decided to hold its first national Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference Downtown in September.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7987.
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New homes in Hill open doors to first-time buyers
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, May 11, 2007Goldie Harris likes the look of the tidy, new, two-story houses next to her home in the heart of the Hill District, but she’s not sure who can afford to live in them.
“The most important thing is to make them affordable,” said Harris, 76, who has lived on Roberts Street for 11 years.Her new neighbors are the first eight of 29 planned houses — called Bedford Hill Homes — by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh. The homes are the newest part of an existing 400-unit, affordable housing development.
Harris said the Bedford Hill Homes’ $150,000 price tags could be steep for some first-time home buyers.
Tom Cummings, housing director for the Urban Redevelopment Authority, disagrees.
He said zero-percent federal and URA deferred loans are available to cut drastically the cost of new mortgages — as long as the new owners are first-time home buyers and meet income requirements.The brick-faced homes have individual entrances and small front yards — a type of design that’s slowly replacing the Housing Authority’s much-maligned public housing high-rises, authority officials have said.
The homes were developed by Hanson Design Group, Steve Catranel Construction Co. and others.
“We believe these are more than just buildings behind us. This is an investment in the community,” said A. Fulton Meachem Jr., the housing authority’s executive director. “We are making home ownership available to all residents in the city of Pittsburgh.”
Buyers have applied to purchase five of the eight first-phase homes, Cummings said.
They’re expected to close those sales by the end of the month, when the second round of eight homes will begin going up, he said.
None of the potential buyers attended a dedication ceremony Thursday in the Hill. Attending the event were Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Council President Doug Shields.
Howard Cooper, 72, another Roberts Street resident, said a rowdy dive bar — and others like it — used to occupy the land where the model Bedford Hill home sat open yesterday for tours.
“There’s been a whole lot of changes here,” said Cooper, who stopped by the ceremony to snap photos with his camera. “There used to be a lot of bars around here, and they caused a lot of problems” with drugs and crime.
“I’m hoping some kids will move in now,” Cooper said. “It’s a lot better here.”
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.