Category Archive: Downtown Development
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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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YMCA moving to Market Square – New facility in former G.C. Murphy is cornerstone of renewal
Friday, June 01, 2007
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMillcraft Industries wanted foot traffic to help support its revitalization of the old G.C. Murphy’s store. The YMCA wanted a more central location Downtown.
It proved to be the perfect marriage.
The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh announced yesterday that it will open a new Downtown facility in the Murphy’s building as part of Millcraft’s $32 million Market Square Place project.
With the decision, the YMCA plans to sell its current Downtown building on the Boulevard of the Allies, but won’t be moving out until its new facility is completed. There will be no interruption in services or programs, said John Cardone, vice president of the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh.
“This is a seamless transition. There won’t be any break in services at all,” he said.
The new facility will be 38,000 square feet. The Downtown YMCA will occupy about 30,000 square feet of the old Murphy’s building and become the lead tenant of the Market Square Place project, which also will feature shops and apartments. It also will use about 8,000 square feet of an adjacent property that’s part of the Millcraft project.
At the new location there will be a 25-meter, five-lane swimming pool, men’s and women’s locker rooms, wellness facilities with cardiovascular and strength equipment and exercise rooms, and a multitude of services and programs, including nutrition, smoke cessation, weight management, physical therapy and cardiac rehabilitation.
Programs and services will be spread over three floors, from the basement to the second floor, rather than seven as at the current location. The new facility also will house Activate Pittsburgh’s staff and wellness programs.
Mr. Cardone said the YMCA had been looking for a more central location Downtown and has been seeking to consolidate space and programs. He said it has found that people generally won’t walk more than three blocks to an exercise program. Navigating seven floors in the current building also has proved to be inconvenient for members.
“Quite frankly, it’s really just too much space. The way it’s designed, it’s really broken up,” he said.
Moving to the Murphy’s building more in the heart of the Downtown business district should make it more convenient for existing members, some 2,000 to 2,500 strong, and help recruit new ones.
Mr. Cardone said the YMCA also is excited about being part of the resurgence in the Downtown business corridor, with the Murphy’s project, the construction of the Three PNC Plaza skyscraper and the conversion of the Lazarus-Macy’s store to office space and housing.
For Millcraft, the move will provide a steady diet of foot traffic, about 1,000 people a day, and a great amenity for residents of the 50 loft apartments it is planning as part of the Murphy’s conversion, said Lucas Piatt, vice president of real estate.
“It’s really going to activate Market Square and the whole Fifth and Market district,” he said.
Even with the YMCA, Millcraft will have 27,000 to 30,000 square feet of ground-level space to offer retailers and others. It sees that as potential homes for restaurants, spas, salons, and lounges. It also has plans for a market catering to the needs of residents and office workers.
The YMCA hopes to open the new facility in late 2008 or early 2009. Millcraft plans to begin taking reservations for apartments by mid-2008. A non-profit, the YMCA pays property taxes on a small portion of its current building. The Murphy’s building will become taxable once Millcraft completes its purchase. The move of the YMCA won’t affect that.
The Downtown YMCA expects to add about 50 to its 150-member staff with the move.With the sale of the Boulevard of the Allies building, about 30 administrative staff members for the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh will move to another location.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )
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YMCA to anchor Market Square Place
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, June 1, 2007The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh will cut the size of its Downtown facility by more than half when it moves to the vacant G.C. Murphy store complex on Fifth Avenue on the edge of Market Square, officials said Thursday.
The nonprofit organization will lease space at the Murphy structure and the neighboring former D&K retail store building, with the move expected by late next year.The two buildings are being developed by Washington County-based Millcraft Industries Inc. as part of its Market Square Place project, a $32 million complex that will include retail stores, restaurants and apartments.
In November, the YMCA disclosed to its nearly 2,500 full-time and 500 seasonal members that it planned to sell its seven-story headquarters building on the Boulevard of the Allies and seek another Downtown site.
“The YMCA has made a major commitment to the revitalization of the Fifth and Market District and to making Downtown a much better place to live and work,” said Lucas Piatt, vice president of Millcraft Industries.
“As the lead tenant in the Market Square Place project, the YMCA will provide a sought-after amenity to the residential aspect of the project and provide essential foot traffic to help support the additional … retail use within the development.”The move will bring 200 staffers, including 50 new hires, and the 500 to 1,000 people who use the Downtown Y’s facilities each day into the heart of the city’s deteriorated retail corridor along Fifth and Forbes avenues.
In addition to its members, the YMCA serves hundreds of others through its wellness programs.
“In our new Downtown location, we will provide wellness and other services that match the needs of our Downtown members at a convenient central location,” said Dan Lebish, board chairman of the Downtown YMCA branch.
The facility at Market Square Place will include a 25-meter, five-lane pool, men’s and women’s locker rooms, wellness facilities with cardiovascular and strength equipment and exercise rooms.
However, it will not have the basketball court, running track and other court game facilities offered at the current site.
The YMCA signed a long-term lease at the Murphy site, but terms of the deal were not disclosed. Because it is a leased facility, the new YMCA will be fully taxable property, said Piatt and John Cardone, the Downtown Y’s executive director.
Over the years, the Downtown Y attempted to secure tax-free status for its land and building at 330 Blvd. of the Allies, which drew objections from private health clubs in the city.
The organization will not move from its current location until the new complex is ready, said Cardone. He said efforts continue to sell the building, which has been home to the YMCA for 20 years.
“Our new YMCA will not only help us serve our Downtown members better, it will also enable us to invest more in YMCA programming throughout the greater Pittsburgh community,” said Cardone.
The building will be substantially more cost-effective to operate, and Cardone said savings will be returned to the community in the form of scholarships and enhanced services.
The majority of the YMCA’s new facilities and offices will be on the second floor of the former G.C. Murphy complex, about 30,000 square feet of its 38,000-square-foot space, Piatt said.
However, its main entrance will be on the ground-level floor of the seven-story D&K building, across from PNC Financial Services Group’s Three PNC Plaza project under construction. The connection between the D&K and Murphy complex will be on the second level of the two structures.
The five floors above the Y’s facilities in the D&K structure will be developed as rental apartments. Other apartment units will be located on the upper levels of the former G.C. Murphy complex, which is a combination of several adjoining buildings.
The Piatt project is being built with the aid of about $6 million in state funds. Additional help is being sought in historic tax credits.
Possibilities for ground-level retail space include a high-end spa and salon, restaurants, clothing shops and a bank, Piatt said.
News of the YMCA’s decision was welcomed by Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which has been concerned about preservation of historic and architecturally significant structures Downtown.
“We’ve worked closely with the Piatts and their architect to ensure that the entire complex of buildings could be saved and made workable,” Ziegler said. “We’ve been pleased with the uses they are creating.”
YMCA on the move
New site
Location: Former G.C. Murphy complex and D&K Store building
Size: 38,000 square feet
Pool: 25-meter, five lanes
Facilities: Men’s and women’s locker rooms; wellness facilities, with cardiovascular and strength equipment and exercise rooms; whirlpool, sauna and steam room
Current site
Location: 330 Blvd. of the Allies
Size: 97,000 square feet on seven stories
Pool: 25-meter, six lanes
Not moving from old site: Gymnasium, racquetball courts, walking/running track
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New YMCA planned for Murphy building
Thursday, May 31, 2007By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh will move to the old G.C. Murphy’s building Downtown as part of efforts to revitalize the Fifth and Forbes corridor.It is teaming up with Washington County developer Millcraft Industries to open a 38,000-square-foot facility in the old building. The new facility at Market Square Place will include a 25-meter five-lane pool, men’s and women’s locker rooms, wellness facilities with cardiovascular and strength equipment, and exercise rooms.
As part of the move, the organization plans to sell its current building on the Boulevard of the Allies, where it has been for more than 20 years. The YMCA plans to make the official announcement at a banquet this evening.
The YMCA’s administrative offices, which are at its current site, also will be moved to a yet-to-be-determined location.
“The YMCA has made a major commitment to the revitalization of the Fifth and Market District and to making Downtown a much better place to live and work,” said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate.
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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.
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Heinz grant to revitalize Hill District theater
Thursday, May 10, 2007
By Ervin Dyer,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe fading New Granada Theatre in the Hill District moved a step closer to new life yesterday, thanks to a $200,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments that will begin the process of stabilizing the storied theater.
The New Granada, one of the last remaining works of early 20th-century African-American architecture in Western Pennsylvania, is weathered from 40 years of neglect and non-use.
“We are so excited,” said Marimba Milliones, a member of a Hill committee leading the way to polish up the former movie house and ballroom. “The Granada is just the heart and soul of the Hill. Its rehab will re-awaken the hope and belief that the Hill is going to be a great community again.”
The Hill District grant will go to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, working with the Hill Community Development Corp. to begin stabilizing the structure of the New Granada.
The building will require as much as $2 million to complete stabilization. The Heinz funding will be matched with a grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development. The funding also will support a team of local and national consultants studying possible uses for the theater.
The theater funding was among 221 grants totaling $36.9 million that The Heinz Endowments approved during a two-day meeting of the foundation board that ended yesterday.
The largest grant, $5 million, went to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh to create the Pediatric Environmental Medicine Center.
The program will be housed at the $575 million, green-certified hospital under construction in Lawrenceville,
The center will focus first on developing new approaches for the prevention and treatment of asthma due to its prevalence in minority and medically under-served communities, but also in response to recent reports identifying Pittsburgh as second from the bottom in air quality among American cities.
But the Environmental Medicine Center also will have the broader goal of making consideration of environmental links to health problems standard in any medical setting.
The grants reflect The Heinz Endowments’ new plan to shift at least 30 percent of its philanthropy over the next five years to special areas of concentration. These include supporting the reform of the Pittsburgh Public Schools; assistance with wiser economic development that is technologically and environmentally sound; and influencing the direction of Downtown development.
One grant that does the last is $200,000 for construction opportunities that will go to the Community Loan Fund of Southwestern Pennsylvania in partnership with the Minority and Women Educational Labor Agency. It is designed to help minority- and women-owned businesses to increase capacity so that they can successfully participate in larger construction jobs, especially those stemming from the boom in Downtown development.
The program will provide financial backing for certification requirements that will allow these firms to bid on progressively larger projects.
Other grants approved yesterday include:
$3 million to the Carnegie Museum of Art to cover costs of repairs made to skylights and ceilings in its galleries.
$2 million to the Pittsburgh Public Schools to continue the foundation’s support for Superintendent Mark Roosevelt’s Excellence for All Initiative.
$2 million to the Carnegie Library to provide renovation, remodeling and educational resources for branches in the Hill District, North Side and East Liberty.
$2 million to the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to assist in establishing a $10 million endowment, and to support a new business plan designed to improve program quality and operating performance.
$747,000 to Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future for continued operating support of the environmental nonprofit.
A total of $700,000 to several grantees to support continued growth of charter and faith-based schools.
(Ervin Dyer can be reached at edyer@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1410. )