Category Archive: Downtown Development
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Cork Factory apartments get bubbly reviews
By Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter
For the Tribune-Review
Saturday, May 5, 2007Debbie Dougherty gushes superlatives when she describes the two-bedroom loft apartment that she and her husband, Bill, share at the new Cork Factory apartments in the Strip District.
“It’s just so wonderful. We’re enjoying every minute of it,” said Dougherty, whose seventh-floor corner unit offers views of both the Allegheny River and Downtown. “We have brick walls and 17-foot ceilings, and it’s incredible,” she said.
Because her husband is retired and their four children have grown and moved, Dougherty said the couple decided to downsize from their large family home in Murrysville. They moved in March to the 297-unit luxury Cork Factory complex, which celebrated its grand opening Friday.
With 135 apartments — about 45 percent of the units — already scooped up by renters, the $70 million project is well ahead of its leasing goals, said Daniel McCaffery, of Daniel McCaffery Interests of Chicago.
“We’re very pleased,” said McCaffery, who developed the site in partnership with Charles Hammell III and Robert Beynon, the local businessmen who own the property on Railroad Street between 23rd and 24th Streets.
“The important thing is we are making our rental rate and renting at a pace that’s faster than we predicted,” McCaffery said.The developers expect the percentage figure will be close to 70 percent as early as the fall.
In addition to the apartments, interest also is high in the 48,000-square-feet of retail space available, he said. Leasing deals may be pending with two upscale restaurants and a local grocery store, he said.
The three-building complex originally was built as the home of the Armstrong Cork Co. in 1901. The estimated development is privately financed although federal tax credits for historic sites cover some of the costs.
So far, tenants are a mixture of young single professionals, many newcomers to the Pittsburgh, a smattering of suburbanites and elderly residents, said Debbie Roberts, Cork Factory general manager.
“We’ve met so many nice people,” Debbie Dougherty said. “We’ve even formed a dinner-out once-a-month group with people here, and it’s all ages — the young, the baby boomers and so forth.”
Now that leasing of apartments is well under way, the development team can move ahead on their plans to develop a private marina on the Allegheny River for the exclusive use of Cork Factory residents.
Also ahead is a river walk that will allow tenants to walk the grounds of the complex.
Other features include the historic, fully restored smokestack and engine room.
Under its current configuration, the complex offers 206 one-bedroom units; 73 two-bedroom, two-bath units; and 18 three-bedroom, two-bath units.
Studio apartments rent from $1,200; other one-bedroom units from $1,009 to $2,480; two-bedrooms from $1,499 to $2,850; and three-bedrooms from $3,430 to $3,800.
The complex offers a game room, 24/7 concierge service, complimentary wireless Internet in select common areas, and out-of-town services such as mail, newspaper and package pickup.
Other features, either already available or scheduled to be opened in the future, include patio/lounge area with fire pit, riverview barbecuing, swimming pool with landscaped deck, hot tub/spa, a courtyard garden, a fitness center, business center, dry cleaners and a 450-car parking garage located across Allegheny Valley Railroad Street.
As the Cork Factory nears completion, Hammel and Beynon can look back on nearly 11 years of frustration since they bought the property in a bankruptcy court sale in 1996.
Several times other investors had come board to help with the project, only to drop out before it could move forward.
“Today is culmination of a lot of hard work,” said Hammell, owner of the Pitt-Ohio Express trucking company in the Strip District. Beynon is owner of Beynon & Co., a Pittsburgh-based real estate and insurance company.
“I think it’s awesome what they’ve done with that building,” said Larry Lagattuta, owner of The Enrico Biscotti Co., an Italian bakery and cafe at 2202 Penn Ave. in the Strip.
“I think this can only help the Strip when you have more people living here,” said Lagattuta, whose has operated his business within two blocks of the Cork Factory for 15 years.
Lagattuta said his only concern is that the Cork Factory and other new developments in the Strip could attract national chains and franchise retailers, coffee shops, and the like that could possibly hurt locally owned businesses.
“We have to be careful about how those things happen,” he said. “But otherwise, lets get the people moving in and start shopping in the Strip,” he said.
“The Cork Factory is an excellent addition to the downtown housing mix,” said Patty Burk, vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
“It adds to the diversity of units and income ranges that we are trying to achieve Downtown. It also represents the ‘New Downtown,’ which is becoming a mixed-use environment.”
“Even when were living in Murrysville, we would come into the city at the minimum, three days a week, for cultural events and ball games,” Dougherty said. “We loved the city so much, so we visited a few other loft apartments, but when we walked into the Cork Factory, we stopped. We said this was it.”
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PHLF Begins Work on Three Downtown Properties
After eight years of controversy and misguided policies, redevelopment of the Fifth/Forbes corridor downtown is moving ahead, and several key projects are incorporating preservation and “green”-building principles.
“Green” buildings are purposely designed to preserve the natural environment as much as possible and to provide healthy, productive places for people. Because of the quality building materials used in historic structures and large windows and well-proportioned spaces, the “greenest” developments are often those that reuse historic structures.
After co-sponsoring the “Greening of Historic Properties National Summit” on October 30, 2006, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is putting many of the recommendations discussed that day into practice as it transforms three endangered historic buildings at Market Street and Fifth Avenue, downtown, into residential and commercial space.
“This is a major restoration project that Landmarks is undertaking to help spark the revitalization of architecturally significant historic buildings in the Fifth/Forbes corridor,” said Landmarks president Arthur Ziegler. “We are raising money to help fund the ‘green’ aspects of the restoration and to subsidize the apartments so they can be more affordable.”
On January 9, Landmarks purchased 439 and 441 Market Street and 130 Fifth Avenue from the Urban Redevelopment Authority for $257,000. “Unfortunately, these buildings were permitted to deteriorate severely under the former Mayor Tom Murphy’s administration,” said Arthur. One, the former home of Alexander Graham Bell Café, suffered a fire; then the administration did not repair the roof and it eventually fell into the basement, taking three floors with it.
Market at Fifth is seeking a “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) rating based on more than 26 green features. Sterling Contracting LLC is serving as general contractor; Landmarks Design Associates is project architect; and evolve is the green-building consultant. The space within the three historic buildings is being reconfigured to function together and will contain seven upper-floor apartments and a commercial first-floor tenant, most likely a restaurant. The residential units have spacious layouts and exceptional designs. “Our two top units will feature a dual-floor layout with private decks overlooking a ‘green’ rooftop garden,” said Michael Sriprasert, Landmarks’ assistant for real estate programs.
The purpose of the green roof is to absorb moisture and reduce water run-off. Rents will range from about $1,100 for a one-bedroom/one-bath unit to about $1,900 for a two-bedroom/two-bath unit. “Having a development project in the center of an emerging housing market is very exciting,” said Michael, “and it’s our goal to have these units leased soon after they’re completed this fall, if not before.”
Plans are still in the works for the commercial space, but the concept is for a restaurant that will provide a comfortable space for both the business executive and the casual diner. Market at Fifth is located within the Market Square Historic District and will face a new park being developed by PNC across the street on Fifth Avenue.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh was instrumental in facilitating Landmarks’ acquisition of these buildings. According to Eugene Matta, director of real estate and special development programs at Landmarks, “The URA was exceptional in working with us to acquire these buildings, and their hard work has helped us get the project moving quickly.”
In contrast to the Murphy administration’s approach of trying to attract one master developer from out-of-town to revitalize the Fifth/Forbes corridor, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is following the approach set by the late Mayor Bob O’Connor in allowing local private developers to tackle the redevelopment of many City-owned buildings. According to Michael, who led a team of Heinz School students to study the housing market in downtown Pittsburgh in 2005, “This approach leads to more creative and sustainable solutions because those developers who are locally based have a better grasp of the local market, are used to dealing with the intricacies of the local political system, and are invested in the Pittsburgh region.” Millcraft Industries, Inc. of Washington County and PNC Financial Services Group––both headquartered in the Pittsburgh region––are making significant investments in the Fifth/Forbes corridor, thus proving the logic of a local development strategy.
—Market at Fifth, LP, is a downtown revitalization project of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation using “green”-building principles. Seven rental apartments and one commercial unit in three historic buildings at Market Street and Fifth Avenue are expected to be ready for occupancy this fall.
Interested?
Call: 412-471-5808, ext. 511; michael@phlf.org
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Monessen targeting ‘blueprint’ program for business district
By Stacy Wolford
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, March 21, 2007MONESSEN – City council will apply for a grant as part of an effort to participate in a downtown revitalization program.
Councilwoman Mary Jo Smith prepared a grant request for $22,500 for the “Blueprint for Pennsylvania Downtowns.” The program is provided through the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities and HyettPalma, which will conduct the study.
Smith presented the proposal to council during a Monday night work session.
The “Blueprint” program is designed to provide hands-on help to city officials and community leaders interested in energizing their downtowns.
HyettPalma will start by creating a working partnership with the city by forming a process committee. The end result will be a “downtown blueprint” that provides a comprehensive strategy to reinvent the downtown economy.
Smith said the city will apply for the $22,500 grant through the state Department of Community and Economic Development. If it receives the grant, the money will be used to offset the $45,000 cost to participate in the “blueprint” program.
Smith said the program will benefit everyone in the city, not just the downtown area.
“We need a starting point and we have to have a goal to get to,” Smith said. “All of us are working and we can’t put an eight-hour day into this.
“But this is their line of expertise and they can bring a fresh new outlook into town,” she added with reference to HyettPalma.
Smith said Uniontown, Franklin Township and St. Mary’s have all participated in the “downtown blueprint” program.
Mayor Anthony Petaccia approved the grant request and said he felt the program would be beneficial for the city.
Council will meet tonight at 7 for its public meeting.
Stacy Wolford can be reached at swolford@tribweb.com or (724) 684-2640.
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Saving Brownsville: Is its history key to future?
By Robin Acton
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 18, 2007Hamburgers and hot dogs sizzle on the grill at Fiddle’s Confectionery, where 15 counter stools fill as the lunch crowd arrives on a brisk afternoon.
Waitresses serve steaming cups of coffee with the $3.79 pizza burger special. Dozens of customers, including Warren Galiffa, of Bethel Park, and his 100-year-old aunt, Rose Hughes, dine in booths where generations of Brownsville’s sweethearts carved their initials on the tabletops.“It’s a throwback in time,” Galiffa said. “It reminds you of the way things used to be.”
The “way things used to be” is a frequent topic in this bleak Monongahela River valley town that has bled population and businesses for decades.
Tara Hospital, the former Brownsville General Hospital, closed last year. Police and borough workers were laid off in December. In January, when a longtime lender, National City Bank, denied a $75,000 tax anticipation loan, council members begged the electric company not to shut off the town’s street lights.
“There ain’t nothing here,” said Levi Gnus, a lifelong resident. “We don’t even have a grocery store downtown.”
What’s happening in this Fayette County community is not unique. Experts say it is an example of a downward spiral common to small municipalities.
“It’s an unhappy situation, but it’s replicated all over the valley,” said Robert Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy in the Heinz School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Like many southwestern Pennsylvania communities, Brownsville already was in decline when it suffered crippling job losses from the demise of the region’s steel mills and coal mines in the 1970s and 1980s. Families moved, college students never returned and failing businesses closed until the main thoroughfare, Market Street, became a desolate stretch of shuttered storefronts and empty lots.
In 1960, Brownsville had 6,055 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2005, death and migration cut the population to 2,690.
Between 1960 and 2005, the same thing happened all over the region. Pittsburgh’s population went from 604,332 to 316,718, while McKeesport’s dropped from 45,489 to 22,701 and New Castle’s fell from 44,790 to 25,030.
“We train people very well and then they leave,” said Albert Luloff, a professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology at Penn State University. “You can’t stop that unless we create jobs.”
Luloff and Strauss also blame Pennsylvania’s “fractured government system” for creating hundreds of municipalities with dwindling tax bases, no industry and limited means to provide services.
“It makes any effort by any community almost impossible as they’re trying to attract industries while competing with each other,” Luloff said. “They’re working at each other’s throats.”
Civil war
Brownsville’s leaders agree that something must be done, but they are at odds over a solution.
Mayor Lewis Hosler said there is a power struggle between preservationists who want to bank on Brownsville’s rich history and people who favor projects such as a proposed velodrome for Olympic-style bicycle races.
“There’s people who don’t want to see change,” Hosler said. “They want to preserve the old buildings, and a lot of them aren’t even historical.”
Leading the preservationists is former mayor Norma Ryan, a volunteer with the nonprofit Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp., who believes the town’s history is critical to its future.
Located off Route 40, the National Road, Brownsville was the first meeting site for the Whiskey Rebellion, boasts the nation’s first cast-iron bridge and is where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had a boat built for their westward exploration.
“I think people have faith that the town will come back,” Ryan said.
Records show the organization received several million dollars in state, federal and foundation grants and matching funds since 1989 that were spent on property acquisition and renovation, cultural ventures and educational purposes.
Restoration of Market Street’s Flatiron building, Frank L. Melega Art Museum and Flatiron Heritage Center is perhaps its main achievement. A store that sells clothing for historical re-enactments and a flower shop opened in its renovated buildings.
“We are slowly acquiring and renovating buildings to get the town back on track,” Executive Director Alison McConnell said. “If you have the ability to see beyond the blight, you can see the potential.”
Councilman John Hosler, the mayor’s brother, disagrees.
“Nobody’s coming here. Why should they? You can’t go downtown to buy a dress or a pair of shoes or food. You need a hub store, not a store that sells flowers or relics,” he said.
Critics contend the organization has little to show for its efforts and claim it undermines viable projects while advancing its agenda of property acquisition.
“BARC doesn’t belong in the real estate business,” said Ray Koffler, owner of Tru-Copy Printing Service.
Luloff doubts that selling history will revitalize Brownsville. He said dozens of small museums and groups are trying to do the same thing.
“These places barely survive,” he said.
Property disputes
Plans for the community have been a point of controversy for decades. Central to the dispute are Monroeville developers Ernest and Marilyn Liggett, owners of Manor Investments.
Since 1992, they’ve pumped millions into some 100 blighted properties purchased on the assumption that “mass creates opportunity,” Ernest Liggett said. Although Brownsville’s access to highways, the railroad and the river made it ideal for development, problems obtaining permits and opposition from some circles blocked their plans for riverboat gambling, an Indian casino or a retail strip mall.
Some blame the Liggetts — who fell behind on taxes and have been fined for code violations as their properties further deteriorated — for all that is wrong with Brownsville. Others say it was in trouble long before they arrived.
“It’s not these people,” said hardware store owner Pat Ballon. “All they bought was the empty buildings.”
Future plans
Ballon, Koffler, the Liggetts and others support the velodrome proposed by CB Richard Ellis, a real estate brokerage and management firm in Pittsburgh.
“I’d like to see Brownsville become to Olympic cycling what Williamsport is to Little League Baseball,” said Liggett, who envisions his properties filled with retail, hotel and office space.
Supporters are shocked that others in town question its chances for success.
“It doesn’t make sense to me why they’re not beating the cymbals, saying it’s Mardi Gras time,” Ballon said.
Frank Ricco, president of the Greater Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, said the Brownsville Free Public Library, the post office and American Legion Post 295 could be relocated from the Snowden Square area to a new civic complex to accommodate the velodrome, which would be owned by a public authority.
“There’s no question in my mind this could be the thing to save Brownsville,” he said.
Lead architect Jeff Slusarick, a principal of the Astorino firm in Pittsburgh, said CB Richard Ellis and Astorino consultants are developing plans for a project feasibility study.
Slusarick, whose firm designed Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, called the velodrome “a unique opportunity.” The 1980 Brownsville Area High School graduate has wanted to do something to help his hometown for years.
That’s the way it should be, according to Luloff at Penn State.
“When people care about each other and the place that they live, the community is alive and well. When they stop, it falls apart,” Luloff said. “If they really are interested in the best thing for the community, they’ll realize a community isn’t buildings and a community isn’t history. A community is people.”
Robin Acton can be reached at racton@tribweb.com or 724-830-6295.
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3 buildings near Market Street to be refurbished
By Ann Belser,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, February 21, 2007Three abandoned buildings that run between Market and Graeme streets are about to see new life.
Right now it’s hard to see the beauty in them. The windows of 439 Market are made of just screening, and some of that is gone. A portion of the roof has collapsed into the basement.
On the Fifth Avenue side of the buildings a mural has been painted to dress up, and board up, the first floor of 130 Fifth Ave.
By next year, though, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will join the three buildings into one to create seven apartments over one large retail area.
The plans call for spending more than $2.5 million to restore the buildings, said Arthur Ziegler Jr., president of the foundation, who will have a better estimate of the cost in a couple of weeks.
The buildings were all constructed in the early 1900s . The building at 139 Fifth Ave. opened in 1908 as the Regal Shoe Co. showroom.
Thomas Stevenson Jr., the architect for Landmarks Design Associates, said the building is architecturally interesting, in part, because the upper story was built to hang over the sidewalk and held there with steel beams and chains. He said inside the building the chains still are visible.
“The intent is to really have this be a historic reconstruction of the facades,” Jeremy Smith, assistant director of the city planning department, told members of the planning commission yesterday during the board’s meeting.
The board unanimously approved the application to partially demolish the exterior of 439 Market on the Graeme Street side and to renovate the three buildings.
The buildings had been scheduled for demolition until the foundation stepped in and purchased them from the city Urban Redevelopment Authority. Renovations can start as early as next week and be done in 11 months.
The plan calls for six one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment. Two of those apartments at 441 Market will open to gardens on the roof of 130 Fifth Ave.
“We decided, after looking at offices and apartments, that it would be good to have apartments on Market Square,” Mr. Ziegler said. He said they will all be rental apartments, not condominiums. “We felt there was a need in town for apartments as opposed to condos.”
(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699.)
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‘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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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. )