Category Archive: City Living
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Manchester Neighborhood Pittsburgh PSA
PSA for Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and WQED Pittsburgh.
Title: Manchester -
‘Market at Fifth’ center of multimillion-dollar makeover
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, January 31, 2007A trio of deteriorated but historically significant buildings once in the crosshairs of a city wrecking ball now are part of plans to revitalize Downtown.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation plans to join the vacant buildings on the edge of Market Square as “Market at Fifth,” a $2.5 million to $3 million complex that will include a ground-level restaurant or retail store, seven upper-floor apartments and a rooftop garden.
“This is purely a do-good project,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., foundation president.
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks is assuming a role as a city developer nearly three decades after transforming a group of historic Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Station buildings in the South Side into the Station Square complex that attracts about 3 million people annually.
“We’re engaged here in an act of significant preservation because of the nature and location of these buildings,” Ziegler said.
For years, the South Side-based foundation fought to save what it considered significant buildings in the city’s Fifth-Forbes retail corridor, particularly after former Mayor Tom Murphy proposed revitalization plans that included substantial demolition.
Among those targeted were:
• 439 Market St., the fire-damaged, four-story former home of the Alexander’s Graham Bell bar
• 441 Market St., four stories, which still bears its “Novelties” store sign
• 130 Fifth Ave., the two-story former Regal Shoe Co. with a noteworthy architectural bloodline
“All three are significant buildings,” Ziegler said, and all are within the Market Square historic district.
The 439 Market and 441 Market structures are examples of Victorian commercial buildings, constructed in Italianate style in the late 1880s, said Ziegler and Al Tannler, the foundation’s historian.
The Regal Shoes building, which opened in 1908, was designed by Alden & Harlow, then one of city’s prominent architectural firms, responsible for the Carnegie Institute and Library additions in Oakland and Carnegie branch libraries in various communities.
The building’s chief designer was one of the firm’s principals, Frank E. Alden, who in the late 1800s worked with architect H.H. Richardson, supervising construction of such noteworthy Downtown buildings as the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail, Tannler said.
After more than a decade of failed city redevelopment efforts, the foundation — in the final year of the three-term Murphy administration — secured an agreement from then-Deputy Mayor Tom Cox to accept its offer to pay $33,000 to physically stabilize the 1870s-vintage 439 Market building so it wouldn’t crumble to the ground.
The foundation stepped in after the cash-strapped city said it couldn’t afford to fix it, and wanted to tear it down for safety reasons.
“Still, nothing happened,” said Ziegler — until Mayor Bob O’Connor took office in 2006 and decided to allow multiple private developers to redevelop city-owned properties.
When O’Connor died last year, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl continued that strategy. Focused more heavily on residential development than on retail, the city’s Downtown development effort is led by Washington County’s Millcraft Industries Inc., PNC Financial Services Group and its representative, Oxford Development Co.
“Things are really moving forward now,” said Jerome Dettore, executive director of the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Dettore said the Murphy administration delayed doing something with the buildings because it believed the city needed to retain a number of buildings it could to turn over to one master developer.
“They didn’t want to do it piecemeal,” he said.
“I’m thrilled with the (foundation’s) plan,” said Mino Fazio, co-owner and executive chef of Ciao Baby in Market Square.
Fazio’s Italian restaurant at 435 Market is adjacent to the 439 Market building. From his building’s roof, one can look inside the neighboring structure, whose roof collapsed several years ago.
“For years the city did nothing, but it’s going to be great to see things finally getting fixed up Downtown,” he said.
In December, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks won the redevelopment authority’s approval to buy the three buildings for $257,000. It hopes to start work once it obtains other city approvals, possibly within two months, Ziegler said. The city Historic Review Commission will review the project Feb. 7.
Market at Fifth will be an example of how to renovate historic buildings according to environmentally-friendly “green building” standards, said Ellis Schmidlapp, architect for the project.
The work will include recyclable building materials and energy-efficient mechanical systems. The rooftop garden, accessible from two units, will absorb moisture and reduce water run-off.
“This will be important in showing in the Fifth-Forbes corridor how a restoration/adaptive use project can be part of a revitalization,” said Schmidlapp, principal in South Side-based Landmark Design Associates.
“It will preserve three historic buildings, and put them back into productive use.”
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Property sales hailed as Downtown’s rebirth – Developers say they are ready to begin long-awaited revitalization
By Rich Lord,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, December 15, 2006With agreements to sell two swaths of Downtown to developers yesterday, the city started the ball rolling on stores, 50 moderately priced apartments and a series of groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings in the center of the downtrodden shopping district.
The sales are the first to result from the latest effort, begun by the late Mayor Bob O’Connor, to revamp the dowdy corridor.
“There have been so many plans through the years about what could happen here, what should happen here,” noted Urban Redevelopment Authority board Chairman Yarone Zober, who is chief of staff to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. Now, thanks to several developers, he said, “Downtown is really on the move.”
An affiliate of Washington County-based Millcraft Industries will buy the former G.C. Murphy building and adjacent structures for $2.5 million. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will buy three side-by-side buildings on Market Street and Fifth Avenue for $257,000.
Illustrating the challenges of building Downtown, Millcraft gave up its exclusive right to develop three properties at 430 to 438 Wood Street, and announced it was looking around for new partners to help it build a 200-apartment building next to Market Square and south of Forbes Avenue.
Millcraft Chief Financial Officer Brian Walker said the firm has a full plate, and would welcome any URA effort to find another developer who could move quickly on the Wood Street properties, which would have been a small part of the company’s overall plans.
He said getting redevelopment of all of Downtown’s under-utilized properties under way at the same time would benefit everybody.
“Like any development project, and any revitalization effort, it’s going to take time, and it’s going to take a lot of unique ideas and thoughts,” said Mr. Ravenstahl.
On Monday, Millcraft will start constructing the store and office spaces in its Piatt Place, in the former Lazarus store on Sixth Avenue. Millcraft has lined up tenants for the 50,000 square feet of stores, and the first to open will be Capital Grill in July. The sale of condominiums in the building is going well, Mr. Walker said.
Millcraft wants the Trisanti European Market grocery store to open by the end of next year, but it has not decided whether it will be in Piatt Place or the former Murphy’s building.
The Murphy’s building “has been targeted for well over a decade now to be revitalized,” the mayor noted.
Now dubbed Market Square Place and the Market Square Lofts, the groundbreaking, such as it is, may come as soon as April. No ground will actually break, because Millcraft plans to keep the exteriors and the floors of the seven contiguous buildings intact, even while working in 65,000 square feet of stores, 42 apartments and 42 basement parking spaces.
Construction will take a year, and it won’t be easy, because the floors of the buildings don’t line up. The firm is arranging the apartments so renters will not have to climb stairs to get around their units. But the uneven floors contribute to the anticipated $32 million cost, and the need for around $6 million in state redevelopment funding, plus a yet-undetermined value of tax credits.
The state financing should help Millcraft keep the rents relatively low, by Downtown standards. The apartments, ranging in size from 700 to 2,000 square feet, will have rents ranging from $750 to $1,400, said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate.
To cut costs, the firm had to abandon its intention to add environmentally friendly aspects to the design, he said. It wants to use “green building” standards on planned new construction Downtown.
That would include its South of Forbes apartment building, which the firm hopes to start building in late 2008.
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks plans to start cleaning out its new Market Street properties in January, take 12 months to renovate them, and get tenants into eight apartments in mid-2008. It will spend around $2.5 million, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., the foundation’s president.
“We are striving to make it a green building, a restored building,” he said.
As for the Wood Street property Millcraft can’t handle now, and the few other unclaimed Downtown spaces, they should go quickly, Mr. Piatt said.
“It’s really a snowball, and it’s going to keep going.”
(Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542. )
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Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. Keynote Address at the 2006 National Preservation Conference
PHLF News
October 31, 2006“Preservation In Pittsburgh” Keynote address of Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. at the 2006 National Preservation Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2006
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Pittsburgh as a Community Promotional Video
Promotional video created for the 2006 National Preservation Conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
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Pittsburgh WOW!
PSA from the Pittsburgh Visitors and Convention Bureau
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Group to showcase 3 Downtown structures
Landmarks officials upbeat on restoring 5th-Forbes buildings
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, August 11, 2006The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation views a $2 million-plus project to revitalize three old buildings in the heart of the Fifth and Forbes corridor Downtown as a symbol of a new attitude toward preservation.
Foundation officials hope to showcase the project, which involves reuse of three buildings at Fifth Avenue and Market Street, when preservationists nationwide gather in Pittsburgh this fall for the National Preservation Conference.
Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler said it wasn’t that long ago that preservationists were battling former Mayor Tom Murphy over his first plan to improve the Fifth and Forbes corridor, one that would have endangered a number of older buildings Downtown.
At one point, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the Downtown retail district as one of the most 11 endangered historic areas in America.
Mr. Ziegler said conditions have changed under Mayor Bob O’Connor, as evidenced by city Urban Redevelopment Authority board approval yesterday to sell the three Market and Fifth buildings to the foundation for $257,000.
“I think we have a national story to tell on cooperation, reuse … and I think we have just the right audience for it, because the last they heard was downbeat under Mayor Murphy. Now they’re going to hear upbeat with this new administration,” he said.
As part of yesterday’s action, the URA board approved the purchase of a deteriorating building at 439 Market from the city for $40,000 plus costs, and then turned around and sold that structure and two adjacent ones owned by the authority to a foundation subsidiary for $300,000.
The final sales price ended up at $257,000 as a result of a $43,000 credit given to the foundation because of the need for demolition work at 439 Market, a building in such disrepair that it is viewed by adjacent property owners as a safety hazard in danger of collapse.
The three buildings have an assessed value of $639,000, according to the Allegheny County real estate Web site.
Mr. Ziegler said Landmarks intends to preserve the facades of all three structures, including the old Regal Shoe Co. That building was designed by Alden & Harlow, a prominent city architectural firm in the early 20th century.
The foundation is looking to convert the first floor of the three combined buildings into retail space, with apartments likely on the upper floors. There also is a chance that the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership may use upper floor space for offices. In all, 12,000 square feet is involved.
Mr. Ziegler said Landmarks hopes to get started by Halloween, in time for the conference. It expects the renovation to take about a year.
“We’re very, very anxious to get started,” he said.
State Sen. Jim Ferlo, a URA board member, said he hopes the project can be a “rallying cry of sorts” to show that the O’Connor administration takes preservation seriously.
The rehabilitation will complement larger projects planned for the corridor. PNC Financial Services Group has begun demolition to make way for Three PNC Plaza, a 23-story office, hotel, and residential complex on Fifth Avenue.
Millcraft Industries is working on a residential and retail development that would involve reuse of the old G.C. Murphy building and nearly 20 other URA-owned properties in the corridor. Some would be demolished to make way for a residential complex.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )
Copyright © PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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History & Landmarks Foundation eyes 3 buildings
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, August 9, 2006The Urban Redevelopment Authority plans to sell three historic buildings on the edge of Market Square to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which wants to renovate them into retail and residential space.
URA Executive Director Jerry Dettore expects board approval Thursday to sell the buildings for $257,000.
“The buildings in Market Square are considered historic, so the preservation of them and the restoration of them is something that everyone would like to see,” Dettore said Tuesday.
Officials with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership have expressed interest in moving into one of the renovated buildings.
Before the sale is complete, the URA must purchase one city-owned building, next to the restaurant Ciao Baby, for $40,000. Once that’s done, the three buildings near the corner of Fifth Avenue and Graeme Street can be sold to History & Landmarks.
Foundation Director Arthur Ziegler could not be reached for comment.
Dettore said renovations could begin quickly.
“Just to begin to see some construction activity in the Fifth & Forbes corridor is going to show people that the revitalization (Downtown) is real,” he said, noting that renovations to the former Lazarus-Macy’s Building are under way. Millcraft Industries, of Washington County, is developing retail and grocery space on the first floor and housing on upper floors.
Dettore said the board also will consider giving a $200,000 state Department of Community and Economic Development loan and $5,000 technology grant to Strip District-based lamp shade manufacturer J. Harris & Sons. The money would allow the company to buy manufacturing equipment and expand with 50 more employees.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review